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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):
============

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 Oct 21, 2013, 3:20 am
  #2071  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Asia
Programs: KF Gold | IHG Amb | SPG LTG | HH Gold
Posts: 548
The operator on the other end is confident that Citi PM Visa is still on offer, I told him to check and he promised to call me by EOD today...

Obviously it's past 5pm I'm not expecting a call.
LuisHK is offline  
Old Oct 21, 2013, 4:21 am
  #2072  
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: SIN
Programs: TK-G | Accor P | SQ-G | Marriott T
Posts: 3,828
Originally Posted by hclee01
Hmm.. what happened 6 years ago?
Well I submitted the application on the 1st day after the launch the card (or may be the 2nd) and it took them 3 weeks to process it.

1-2 weeks later they announce they can do instance issuance of the card. And the worst part, I cannot ask for instance issuance and have to wait!!!!
lingua101 is offline  
Old Oct 21, 2013, 4:25 am
  #2073  
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: SIN
Programs: TK-G | Accor P | SQ-G | Marriott T
Posts: 3,828
Originally Posted by vsepr
Citi PremierMiles VISA I use at AXS machines for insurance premiums payment
No more NTUC Income in the list of Citibank pay list
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Old Oct 21, 2013, 8:13 am
  #2074  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Asia
Programs: KF Gold | IHG Amb | SPG LTG | HH Gold
Posts: 548
Originally Posted by vsepr
Personally, I think Asia Miles is still available, BUT, Cit PM VISA is not. Because the links in the Citibank website only shows Citi PM AMEX.
Credit cards => miles => Citi PM AMEX
Looks like it's back up now
http://www.citibank.com.sg/gcb/credi...Code=SGCPMLNAV
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Old Oct 21, 2013, 7:34 pm
  #2075  
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Sunny Singapore
Programs: TG*G, SQ, QF
Posts: 911
Kudos to Citibank for increasing the number of airlines they offer mileage redemption on.

As the redemption cost is the same for all of the 9, out of curiosity I carried out my own quick and very unscientific survey of which airline is best for redemptions. I only looked at one cabin (Business) and one route (SIN-LHR roundtrip)

1. Garuda 90,000 (?) (Based on JKT-AMS as LGW route not yet running)
2. Asia Miles 120,000 (Direct flight on BA)
3. Skymiles 120,000 (140,000 for travel after 1st June 2014)
4. ROP 130,000
5. Krisflyer: 136,000 (after 15% online discount)
6. BA 140,000
7. EVA 150,000
8. Etihad 182,586

Malaysia airlines dont have an online award chart and even after joining Enrich just to try and find the info their website hung so i gave up with them...

Of course different programs will have different sweetspots. It was the previous poster revealing how good EVA are for intra Asia redemptions that prompted me to have a look, but it appears both EVA and Edihad are lousy for Asia - Europe redemptions..
cmdsea is offline  
Old Oct 21, 2013, 10:02 pm
  #2076  
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: HAK / HFE / NYC / SIN / SZX
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, Honors Diamond, IHG Diamond Amb, Marriott Platinum,SQ, DL, AA, Hyatt
Posts: 688
The new Citi PM Amex is not attractive at all!

- No fee waiver and must pay SGD250+GST immediately
- CitiMiles earned is separate from PM Visa
- No sign-up offer/gift
chrisksc is offline  
Old Oct 21, 2013, 10:21 pm
  #2077  
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Singapore
Programs: QF LTG, SQ EGTP, Bonvoy LTG
Posts: 4,847
Originally Posted by cmdsea
KuMalaysia airlines dont have an online award chart and even after joining Enrich just to try and find the info their website hung so i gave up with them...
93,500 via KUL on MH or 132,000 non-stop on BA.
lokijuh is offline  
Old Oct 21, 2013, 10:23 pm
  #2078  
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: NYC/SIN
Programs: CX DM, SQ KF
Posts: 2,170
Originally Posted by cmdsea

2. Asia Miles 120,000 (Direct flight on BA)
and 145,000 if its on CX (via HKG). However, a companion award will cost only 75,000/95,000 miles depending on the routing.

Last edited by jagmeets; Oct 21, 2013 at 10:48 pm
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Old Oct 21, 2013, 11:33 pm
  #2079  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 819
Originally Posted by jagmeets
and 145,000 if its on CX (via HKG). However, a companion award will cost only 75,000/95,000 miles depending on the routing.
135,000 miles if its on 3 oneworld airlines (oneworld Multi-Carrier Awards) like CX, QF and JL. SIN-HKG-DXB-LHR-NRT-SIN. But limit to 2 transits, 5 stopovers and 2 open-jaws.

http://www.asiamiles.com/am/en/redeem/charts
vsepr is offline  
Old Oct 22, 2013, 12:12 am
  #2080  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: SIN
Programs: JL GC | Marriott LT Silver | Global Entry | SQ Silver
Posts: 6,819
Originally Posted by chrisksc
The new Citi PM Amex is not attractive at all!

- No fee waiver and must pay SGD250+GST immediately
- CitiMiles earned is separate from PM Visa
- No sign-up offer/gift
I thought they're giving 1st year waiver? Says so on their website.

Basic Card annual fee. S$267.50 (inclusive of GST) - First year Free!

Tried to apply for exchanging miles for annual fee but they rejected cause I didn't hit S$80k requirement.
lcpteck is offline  
Old Oct 22, 2013, 2:54 am
  #2081  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 819
Originally Posted by lcpteck
I thought they're giving 1st year waiver? Says so on their website.

Basic Card annual fee. S$267.50 (inclusive of GST) - First year Free!

Tried to apply for exchanging miles for annual fee but they rejected cause I didn't hit S$80k requirement.
Get the Citi PM AMEX form via email from staff by filling up the online form to express interest. For current Citibank cardholders, no need to attach income documents. Try and see how.

Call Kavi, Acquisition Sales, at 6328-1147. Fax: 6837 1427. Email: [email protected]
vsepr is offline  
Old Oct 22, 2013, 5:37 am
  #2082  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: SIN
Programs: JL GC | Marriott LT Silver | Global Entry | SQ Silver
Posts: 6,819
Originally Posted by vsepr
Get the Citi PM AMEX form via email from staff by filling up the online form to express interest. For current Citibank cardholders, no need to attach income documents. Try and see how.

Call Kavi, Acquisition Sales, at 6328-1147. Fax: 6837 1427. Email: [email protected]
Yeah, I tried to apply via online form and was told not eligible due to income requirements. Could be from their outsourced agency? Will call in and check with Kavi, thanks.
lcpteck is offline  
Old Oct 23, 2013, 6:49 pm
  #2083  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 92
singtel stops accepting amex card payment from 31st march 2014.

visa/mastercard are still accepted though.
qwerty23 is offline  
Old Oct 23, 2013, 8:45 pm
  #2084  
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Programs: LX, BA, SQ, MH
Posts: 333
Can I also redeem my miles on MH, BR etc. using my VISA PM card? On the VISA PM website it only shows the existing carriers... Or are the new additions only for miles accrued on the AMEX PM?
LAX888 is offline  
Old Oct 24, 2013, 12:26 am
  #2085  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: SIN
Programs: JL GC | Marriott LT Silver | Global Entry | SQ Silver
Posts: 6,819
Originally Posted by LAX888
Can I also redeem my miles on MH, BR etc. using my VISA PM card? On the VISA PM website it only shows the existing carriers... Or are the new additions only for miles accrued on the AMEX PM?
Right now nothing is confirmed. We'll have to wait for the rewards table to be updated. Right now it's still showing the old FFP rewards.
lcpteck is offline  


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