Originally Posted by
MilesAndMore
As far as FFP goes, I stress you will be at a loss if you decide on any plan other than SQ Krisflyer. SQ has the best airline departure lounge in SIN, and even if you are Star Alliance gold, you get to use just the SATS lounges - a far cry from the SQ lounge. In addition, SQ uses T3 and T2, much better than T1 to depart and Arrive.
Note that you can only use the Silver Kris Lounges if you're PPS, merely SQ*G will not cut it. If the OP is not going to qualify for PPS, the KrisFlyer program may not be a good call at all.
I went through this when I moved to Singapore in 2007. In the end I went with:
- Citibank for banking. I did look very closely at DBS, but Citibank were faster to establish the accounts and offer me a decent credit limit on the PremierMiles card. Citibank also do not charge for foreign ATM withdrawals which was a
huge benefit for me. There are Citi ATMs in nearly every MRT station, and the atm5 network (HSBC, ANZ, Maybank, Standard Chartered, SBI, and Citi) is widely enough spread that I never found it an issue finding an ATM nearby. The very rare occasion NETS was taken but credit card wasn't, I was either okay with cash or EZ-Link (which was linked to my credit card...). NETS would have been handy but the other Citi benefits outweighed the lack of NETS.
- AmEx Platinum Reserve credit card for my other credit card, this was mostly because I retained my Australian AmEx and they offered me a Singaporean card with a hefty credit limit which was very useful with the amount of travel I did.
- I opened a KrisFlyer account but only posted MI flights to it, and used it for the credit card miles I accrued.
- I kept my UA and NZ accounts and credited flights to them based on what earned the most for me.
For the most part, if you are not going to be able to qualify as SQ PPS (i.e. a lot of business/first class travel) I think I wouldn't bother with KrisFlyer, unless you are likely to do a lot of flying on MI. I'd look at UA, AC, OZ, TG or A3 for a Star FFP depending on what you want out of it and which airlines you're likely to fly long haul out of SIN. Some of the TG deals for business class can be quite attractive to Europe.
Singapore is a great place to live. I miss it!