I have that also and used it for 6 months (mostly to get 40,000 TK miles) otherwise all its benefits are more or less the same as the Marriott Bonvoy card except that it's not accepted everywhere so it's quite annoying to keep asking "Do you accept American Express?". Once I got my 700 AED credit last month for the annual fee, I cancelled it - still waiting for my 21,000 AED.

What do you mean you can use it as a debit card? Sure you can always increase/reduce the limit (90% of your cash margin) but it's got a 3% or 100 AED (whichever is more) fee for cash withdrawals...

Since there is no constant need for cash in UAE, I keep like 1,000 AED in my checking account, the rest all in savings (1-2%/yr interest rate, paid monthly).