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The 'Best credit cards for KF miles accrual' master thread

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Old Oct 31, 2014, 6:05 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: lifeonthego_k
I'm going to update this first post as more info flows in to create a 'master list' of all credit cards that offer a decent way of accruing miles - so please help out!

If you know of and/or use any other cards (or the ones already mentioned), please share your thoughts.

***ALL VALUES BELOW IN SINGAPORE DOLLARS (SGD)***
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In no particular order (apart from personal preference in terms of good-mileage opportunities):
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1. UOB PRVI Miles VISA, MasterCard, AMEX

VISA:
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards...iles_visa.html
MasterCard:
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards...astercard.html
Amex:
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards...amex_card.html
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards...ard/microsite/



Mileage accrual:
The earn rate will be 1.4 miles for every $1 spent in multiples of S$10 (every multiple of S$5 gives 6 to 7 miles due to 3.5 UNI$ rounding off, every S$10 gives 14 miles), and 2.4 miles for every $1 spent OVERSEAS (every $5 gives 12 miles).

Requirements: min. income $80,000 (not strict).
Cost: First year free, then S$256.80 for main, first two supplementary always free. Annual fee waiver for Amex card if you charge $50,000 or more in a year.
Miles conversion fee: $25 per conversion. UNI$ are combined in 1 cardholder's name/FIN Number/NRIC together for all UOB cards which earn UNI$.

Pros: Best mileage accrual rates for overseas spend only. 20,000 bonus miles and annual fee waiver with spend of $50,000 per year (both only for Amex card). $45 1-way airport transfer voucher for $1,000 overseas spend in a given quarter (Amex only).
Cons: AMEX not always accepted by merchants. Points allocated on every $5 spent, rounded down to next $5. Transfer in blocks of 5000 UNI$ points = 10,000 miles. Points are valid for 2 years (transfer before expiry and they will subsequently be valid for a further 3 years from the date of transfer to KrisFlyer).

2. UOB Preferred Platinum Visa


http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards..._platinum.html
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards...visa_card.html


Mileage accrual: Earn 4 miles for every $1 spent using ONLY MOBILE CONTACTLESS every $5 gives 10 UNI$ which equal 20 miles). Same incredible mileage-earning ratio for internet shopping with certain restrictions (travel-related, utilities, etc.). Earn 0.4 mile for every $1 for regular, signature-based payments AND ORPHAN SPEND DUE TO $5 ROUNDING OR EXCEEDING THE BONUS U$2000 SPEND (every $5 gives 1 UNI$ which equal 2 miles).

Earning 4 miles/$ is limited to the first S$1110 spent during the per calendar month (via Mobile Contactless). 2,000UNI$ refers to the extra 9UNI$ and does not include the normal 1UNI$.(Stop when you notice you earn 3UNI$ (1 + bonus 2) for the last S$5 transaction. ($1110/5)x9=1998UNI$, hence the last S$5 transaction will earn 2 bonus UNI$. The total bonus UNI$ awarded to you from qualifying spend on Selected Online Transactions and Mobile Contactless Transactions is capped at UNI$2,000 for each calendar month. THE CAP IS ON THE 9 UNI$ BONUS NOT 10UNI$ TOTAL YOU GET WITH BASE OF U$1 PER $ SPEND

Keep in mind that some merchants offer different, non-mileage accruing awards with UOB cards which are called SMART$. Some popular merchants include Cold Storage, Guardian and Giant Supermarket, ToastBox and Starbucks. A full list of merchants where Mobile contactless transactions will NOT earn miles can be found here:
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards...smartclub.html

Requirements: min. income $30,000 ($60,000 for foreigners).
Cost: First year free, then $192.60 for main and $96.30 for supplementary. Annual fee waived off easily.
Miles conversion fee: $25 per conversion, in blocks of 5000 UNI$=10,000 miles. UNI$ are combined in 1 cardholder's name for all UOB cards.

Pros: Incredible mileage accrual rates for Paywave transactions (not all merchants - some give SMART$ instead which are different rewards!) as well as internet transactions (some restrictions apply).
Cons: Points allocated on every $5 spent, rounded down to next $5. Transfer in blocks of 5000 UNI$ points = 10,000 miles. Points are valid for 2 years (transfer before expiry and they will subsequently be valid for a further 3 years from the date of transfer to KrisFlyer).

3. Citi PremierMiles MasterCard

https://www.citibank.com.sg/credit-cards/travel/premiermiles-card/?ecid=PSGONSGCCAENPM

Mileage accrual: Earn 1.2 miles for every $1 spent. Earn 2 miles for every $1 spent OVERSEAS. 10,000 bonus miles for each annual membership renewal.

Requirements: min. income $50,000 for VISA. Principal cardholder must be at least 21 years of age.
Cost: First year free, then $192.60 for VISA main, supplementary always free. Annual fee waiver available in exchange for forfeiting the 10,000renewal bonus.
Miles conversion fee: $25 per conversion.

Pros: Decent all-rounder, good for overseas spend. Points never expire. Bonus miles for annual card renewal. 11 frequent flyer programs & 3 hotel programs to choose from, including EVA Air - only 25,000 miles for 1 way Business Class within Asia!!
Cons: No miles awarded for EZ-Link & Transitlink transactions. Miles awarded per S$1. Cents not included. 1.2 miles/S$1. Transfer in blocks of 10,000 miles.

4. DBS Altitude VISA/AMEX

http://www.dbs.com/sg/personal/cards...e/default.aspx
http://www.dbs.com/sg/personal/cards...e/default.aspx



Mileage accrual: Earn 1.2 miles for every $1 spent (every $5 gives 3 DBS points which equal 6 miles). Earn 2 miles for every $1 spent OVERSEAS.

Requirements: min. income $80,000.
Cost: First year free, then $180 for main and $90 for supplementary. Annual fee waiver if you charge $25,000 or more in a year.
Miles conversion fee: S$26.75 per transfer, redeem 1700 DBS points to waive off.

Pros: Points never expire. No rounding down transaction amount to nearest $5 (calculation is done as follows: DBS points = 'transaction amount' divided by 5, multiply by 3, after that round down to nearest whole number. Minimum spend is S$1.67. Each DBS point = 2 miles). Earn 3 miles per S$1 spent on all online Flight and Hotel transactions (capped at S$5,000 per month). 10,000 miles renewal bonus if you have to pay card renewal fees.
Cons: All local spend now down to 1.2 miles/$ (since Dec 1, 2013). AMEX not always accepted by merchants. Transfer in blocks of 5000 DBS points = 10,000 miles (on the plus side points don't expire). Per transfer of S$26.75, redeem 1700 DBS points to waive off.

5. Maybank Horizon Platinum Visa

http://info.maybank2u.com.sg/persona...visa-card.aspx



Earn 3.2 air miles (8X TREATS Points) with every dollar spent on dining, petrol, taxi fares and hotel bookings at Agoda.com/horizon
Earn 2 air miles (5X TREATS Points) with every dollar spent on air tickets, travel packages and foreign currency transactions, with a minimal S$300 in a calendar month

Earn 0.4 mile for every $1 spent elsewhere (1 mile for every $2.50 spent).

Requirements: min. income $30,000 ($80,000 for foreigners).
Cost: $150 for main, supplementary always free. Unsure of any annual fee waiver conditions.
Miles conversion fee: In blocks of 5,000 points to 2000 Asia Miles or KrisFlyer. S$26.75 fee applies.

Pros: Great for ticket purchases and overseas spend. Complimentary access to selected VIP airport lounges when you charge a minimum of S$400 in a single transaction on air tickets or travel packages to your Card 3 months prior to the date of travel.
Cons: Great ONLY for ticket purchases and overseas spend. Points are valid for 1 year only, expire either on 30 June or 31 December of the same year if not Rewards Infinite member.

6. Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Ascend AMEX

https://www.americanexpress.com/sg/s...nd-credit-card



Mileage accrual: Earn 1.2 KrisFlyer miles for every S$1 spent on all your eligible purchases with your Card

Earn 2 KrisFlyer miles for every S$1 equivalent in foreign currency spent overseas on eligible purchases during June and December

Requirements: min. income $50,000 ($60,000 for foreigners). Principal cardholder must be over 21 years of age.
Cost: First year free, otherwise $256.80 for main, 2 supplementary cards always free (more available at $80.25 each). Annual fee cannot be waived unless you spend alot.
Miles conversion fee: None - your KrisFlyer miles are transferred to your account directly with no conversion fees or charges.

Pros: None, except for welcome offers (4 complimentary airport lounge access vouchers, one complimentary night with Millennium Hotels and Resorts).

Cons: Simply nothing special - there are better cards available for all types of purchases, including flight tickets, even with all of the bonuses above applied. AMEX not always accepted by merchants.

7. Citibank Rewards Card

http://www.citibank.com.sg/gcb/credi...CACRENCCHOCALM



Earn 10X Rewards (10 Rewards Points or 4 Miles for every S$1 spent) when you shop for clothes, bags and shoes or at departmental stores or online shopping websites, including SingTel & M1 online bill payment!

Pros: Transfer to 11 FFPs & 3 Hotel programs in blocks of 25,000 points=10,000 miles; S$25 fee.

Cons: Points awarded per S$1 spend. Cents not included. Cannot combined Thank You Points across cards.

8. DBS Woman's World MasterCard® Card

http://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/cards...astercard-card



10X Rewards for Online Retail Purchases
T&C Here: https://www.dbs.com.sg/iwov-resource...s_card_tnc.pdf

Pros: Men also can get this card!! DBS points are combined in 1 cardholder's name. No rounding down transaction amount to nearest $5 (calculation is done as follows: DBS points = 'transaction amount' divided by 5, multiply by 10, after that round down to nearest whole number. Minimum spend is S$1. Each DBS point = 2 miles).

Cons: DBS points are valid for 1 year based on card anniversary date. The additional 9X DBS Points for online retail spend in a calendar month will be awarded on the 16th of the next calendar month. If the above days are not working days, the Points will be awarded on the next working day. The additional 9X DBS Points are only applicable to the first S$2,000 online retail spend every calendar month.

9. OCBC Titanium Rewards Card

https://www.ocbc.com/personal-bankin...astercard.html

10x OCBC$ on your shopping Local & Overseas Shopping Transactions, Local & Overseas Department Store Transactions and Local & Overseas Online Transactions.
The remaining 9 OCBC$ will be posted to the Card Account by the end of the next calendar month

https://www.ocbc.com/assets/pdf/card...ons.pdf?rand=1
10,000 KrisFlyer miles requires OCBC$ 25000, For each conversion of OCBC$ to KrisFlyer miles a fee of S$25 will be charged

10. UOB Lady's Card
https://www.uob.com.sg/personal/card...ard/index.page

============

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The 'Best credit cards for KF miles accrual' master thread

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Old Aug 3, 2015, 8:03 pm
  #4516  
 
Join Date: May 2012
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Originally Posted by Phaze
Looks like 45,000 to me, unless your DBS card is different to mine (Altitude Visa).
Yeah it's 45,000 miles, I think shuigao's calculator broke.
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Old Aug 3, 2015, 8:10 pm
  #4517  
 
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Originally Posted by appledabble
I just come across this article.

http://upgrd.com/pursuedadventures/h...-not-dead.html

Wonder if there have been discussions on how we can reverse engineer certain scenario using SQ as the base.
Essentially, many strategies you read about in US blogs and articles are either not applicable to Singapore, or applicable in a greatly reduced effectiveness.

Specific to SQ, mileage runs are as rare as hitting 4D. SQ's really cheap fares are practically always 10% mileage accrual rate.

Specific to credit card sign-ups, we don't get those crazy spend $3k, get 50,000 miles bonuses that US cards get.

Originally Posted by lcpteck
The question is whether Citibank PremierMiles Amex and Visa CitiMiles can be combined (which previously stated was they couldn't). Citi$ can be combined from different Cards (though not sure whether it's still valid).
I can now confirm that they are in a separate pool. Got conned by phone lady liao (sadface). Miles swiped on PM Amex vs on PM Visa accrue to their own separate pools. I will assume that redemption also needs to be separate (with its' own $25 fee).
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Old Aug 3, 2015, 8:15 pm
  #4518  
 
Join Date: May 2012
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Posts: 6,819
Originally Posted by shuigao
I can now confirm that they are in a separate pool. Got conned by phone lady liao (sadface). Miles swiped on PM Amex vs on PM Visa accrue to their own separate pools. I will assume that redemption also needs to be separate (with its' own $25 fee).
That is correct, points earned for Citibank Cards are always in separate pools (regardless if they're in the same currency type; CitiMiles or Citi$). The question you have to ask them is whether can you combine the 2 pools (Visa CitiMiles and Amex CitiMiles) together into one and whether there are any charges for doing so. Citi$ was possible before not sure about now (it was stated in the T&Cs somewhere). CitiMiles wasn't but not sure about now as well. Maybe you can call Citibank and let us know?

Better yet is someone go read through the T&Cs.

Last edited by lcpteck; Aug 5, 2015 at 2:02 am Reason: spelling error
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Old Aug 4, 2015, 4:44 am
  #4519  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
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Originally Posted by shuigao
Essentially, many strategies you read about in US blogs and articles are either not applicable to Singapore, or applicable in a greatly reduced effectiveness.

Specific to SQ, mileage runs are as rare as hitting 4D. SQ's really cheap fares are practically always 10% mileage accrual rate.

Specific to credit card sign-ups, we don't get those crazy spend $3k, get 50,000 miles bonuses that US cards get.
Thanks for enlightening that it's a different mechanism that can't be replicated in a similar fashion. I shall focus more on the essential steps for now have a good day.
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Old Aug 5, 2015, 5:35 am
  #4520  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 162
Ez-link

I was following on the ez-link top up option via credit card to earn miles. But I'm kind of lost at this stage because the many options I thought would work, have now been reported by members that the options have been removed by the respective bank. Can some kind soul guide me the current method u all are using please ? Thanks a lot !
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Old Aug 5, 2015, 5:45 am
  #4521  
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Originally Posted by lcpteck
That is correct, points earned for Citibank Cards are always in separate pools (regardless if they're in the same currency type; CitiMiles or Citi$). The question you have to ask them is whether can you combine the 2 pools (Visa CitiMiles and Amex CitiMiles) together into one and whether there are any charges for doing so. Citi$ was possible before not sure about now (it was stated in the T&Cs somewhere). CitiMiles wasn't but not sure about now as well. Maybe you can call Citibank and let us know?

Better yet is someone go read through the T&Cs.
as of July 2015 - I was still able to t/f my Rewards citi$ to prestige.. but they seemed reluctant to do it and they kept reminding me that this is a special arrangement by virtue of my Citi Prestige card. Took more than 1 week before the transfer was executed.

as for citimiles, I have not tried it yet.
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Old Aug 5, 2015, 9:11 pm
  #4522  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
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Posts: 19
DBS Altitude Visa/Amex now says you earn 3 miles per $1 on all ONLINE flight and hotel bookings.
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Old Aug 5, 2015, 10:19 pm
  #4523  
 
Join Date: May 2004
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Posts: 7,739
Originally Posted by BTLim
DBS Altitude Visa/Amex now says you earn 3 miles per $1 on all ONLINE flight and hotel bookings.
Nice, but do keep in mind that not every booking or reservation made online via an app or website gets processed as an online transaction by the merchant / vendor / provider ... For example, a hotel booking via Starwood.com or other chains will likely be processed offline even for an advance purchase rate where you get charged immediately.

DBS has this passage in the T&Cs in accordance with that:

Online Transactions shall mean retail transactions made via the internet and processed by the respective merchants/ acquirers as an online transaction type through the networks. DBS Bank Ltd (the “DBS”) determines an online transaction based on system indicators. These indicators are decided by the merchant and their bank, and passed to DBS when the transaction is posted to the card.

So be careful what you book where. YMMV.
demue is offline  
Old Aug 6, 2015, 10:21 pm
  #4524  
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
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Posts: 1,942
Originally Posted by BTLim
DBS Altitude Visa/Amex now says you earn 3 miles per $1 on all ONLINE flight and hotel bookings.
UOB PRVI Miles American Express Card is currently giving 3 miles per S$ for ALL SQ, Silkair and SQ KrisShop purchases.
SingaporeDon is offline  
Old Aug 7, 2015, 5:51 am
  #4525  
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 58
Originally Posted by Wadexis
Hi,

No you will not earn miles on award flights.
Cheers
SQ award flight can't. But other ffp bug tix can
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Old Aug 7, 2015, 9:09 am
  #4526  
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: SIN
Posts: 61
Originally Posted by skysun
SQ award flight can't. But other ffp bug tix can
I did change ffp number on an award flight once but did not get anything. Any reported airlines where this works?
Wadexis is offline  
Old Aug 7, 2015, 11:12 pm
  #4527  
Moderator, El Al and Marriott Bonvoy, FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: SIN
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Posts: 12,018
Originally Posted by appledabble
I was following on the ez-link top up option via credit card to earn miles. But I'm kind of lost at this stage because the many options I thought would work, have now been reported by members that the options have been removed by the respective bank. Can some kind soul guide me the current method u all are using please ? Thanks a lot !
Me too!
yosithezet is offline  
Old Aug 10, 2015, 10:23 am
  #4528  
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Anywhere
Posts: 6,576
I noticed this on the wiki at the top of this thread for the UOB PRVI Miles VISA / MC / AMEX:
"From 15 May 2015, the earn rate will be 1.4 miles for every $1 spent in multiples of S$10 (every multiple of S$5 gives 6 to 7 miles due to 3.5 UNI$ rounding off...)"

Don't quite understand this statement... can whoever updated the wiki (or anyone who understood) please explain?
carrotjuice is online now  
Old Aug 11, 2015, 8:28 pm
  #4529  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 819
$10 get 14 miles.

$5 get 6 miles, due to 3.5 UNI$ round down to 3 UNI$.

$95 get 66.5 ~ 66 UNI$ = 132 miles or every $5 get 6.947 miles and so on.......
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Old Aug 11, 2015, 9:37 pm
  #4530  
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Anywhere
Posts: 6,576
Originally Posted by vsepr
$10 get 14 miles.

$5 get 6 miles, due to 3.5 UNI$ round down to 3 UNI$.

$95 get 66.5 ~ 66 UNI$ = 132 miles or every $5 get 6.947 miles and so on.......
UOB is darn sneaky!
carrotjuice is online now  


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