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

[Wd40]

Just applied for the UOB One Credit Card. This card gives 3.33% cash back subject to min spend of $300 a month for 3 months.

Also they are running a promotion of $80 cash back for those who apply now and spend $500 in the 1st month.

http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards/cr ... _card.html

Not an Airline miles card :p

The yield is probably better than air miles. 3.33% cash rebate on any kind of spends. Use the cash and buy a ticket, loh! Credit card miles are worth only for Business class tickets on long haul flights.

Getting back to airline cards, I saw on SCB website this Tiger Airways card, but the deal is crap. They give you 2 one way tickets for the initial sign up but you got to spend $5000 in the next 12 months. Those tickets are only for nearby locations, so they are worth about $100. Whom are they trying to fool. SCB has recently rolled back most of their CC goodies. I guess, they are making big losses.

http://www.standardchartered.com.sg/cre ... -card.html

[zzm9980]

Just applied for the UOB One Credit Card. This card gives 3.33% cash back subject to min spend of $300 a month for 3 months.

Also they are running a promotion of $80 cash back for those who apply now and spend $500 in the 1st month.

http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards/cr ... _card.html

Not an Airline miles card :p

The yield is probably better than air miles. 3.33% cash rebate on any kind of spends. Use the cash and buy a ticket, loh! Credit card miles are worth only for Business class tickets on long haul flights.

Getting back to airline cards, I saw on SCB website this Tiger Airways card, but the deal is crap. They give you 2 one way tickets for the initial sign up but you got to spend $5000 in the next 12 months. Those tickets are only for nearby locations, so they are worth about $100. Whom are they trying to fool. SCB has recently rolled back most of their CC goodies. I guess, they are making big losses.

http://www.standardchartered.com.sg/cre ... -card.html

I wouldn't fly Tiger anymore if you paid me, and that extends to free tickets from some crappy SCB promotion


That UOB card is a maximum rebate of S$600 a year, which at 3.33% (domestic spend) means it's only good for the first S$20,000 in a year. 5.33% on overseas spend, so an even lower amount of your spending for people like me who want to use the card for business travel that gets reimbursed. I've spent $50k overseas so far this year (and will probably hit at least 65k by the end), so that card would suck for me. I'd much rather have the unlimited airline miles conversion.

edit: and I just noticed the overseas spend 5.33% refund is capped at $5000 per year.

[stiwi]

I ended up getting DBS Altitude last year and has been paying off my bills at AXS stations with it, which amounts to ~$5k a year.

Been extremely happy with their customer service too! I NEVER have to wait when I call and they are always able to answer my questions!

This is obviously not the case anymore. DBS has ceased earning points for IRAS tax and bill payments at AXS.

The OCBC Titanium Master Card has a slightly better return than the Citibank Premiermiles if you spend at least $1500 a month (and if you're not, the miles you're earning are pretty much inconsequential anyway):
http://www.ocbc.com/personal-banking/Ca ... rcard.html

I've stuck with the Citibank card though as I still find the local discounts and rebates to be better than the other banks. (10% rebate at Starbucks, etc)
Plus, the Plaza Airline Lounge membership is nice for the occasional crap flight I need to take where I can't fly Cathay or on a business+ ticket.

OCBC Titanium is marginally better than Citi PM. OCBC will earn you 25% more miles but they also charge 10% more for FX conversions (2.8%) vs 2.5% (Citi).

Beside, Citi cards are second to none when it comes to flexibility of redemptions, as you are not stuck with KF. You can transfer miles to British Airways Executive Club, Asia Miles, Delta Skymiles, Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus.

[Wd40]

I ended up getting DBS Altitude last year and has been paying off my bills at AXS stations with it, which amounts to ~$5k a year.

Been extremely happy with their customer service too! I NEVER have to wait when I call and they are always able to answer my questions!

This is obviously not the case anymore. DBS has ceased earning points for IRAS tax and bill payments at AXS.

Damn! You are right! From Oct 1st this has ceased. Well, perfect timing for my UOB One card application and bye-bye DBS Altitude.

[zzm9980]

The OCBC Titanium Master Card has a slightly better return than the Citibank Premiermiles if you spend at least $1500 a month (and if you're not, the miles you're earning are pretty much inconsequential anyway):
http://www.ocbc.com/personal-banking/Ca ... rcard.html

I've stuck with the Citibank card though as I still find the local discounts and rebates to be better than the other banks. (10% rebate at Starbucks, etc)
Plus, the Plaza Airline Lounge membership is nice for the occasional crap flight I need to take where I can't fly Cathay or on a business+ ticket.

OCBC Titanium is marginally better than Citi PM. OCBC will earn you 25% more miles but they also charge 10% more for FX conversions (2.8%) vs 2.5% (Citi).

Beside, Citi cards are second to none when it comes to flexibility of redemptions, as you are not stuck with KF. You can transfer miles to British Airways Executive Club, Asia Miles, Delta Skymiles, Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus.

Well, I can expense to my company the FX spread so that doesn't bother me. It's still worth it for me to keep Citi though for my personal spend as the discounts are places that I visit often. Also, Citibank has branches in almost every major city in Asia I visit. It's nice to be able to hit an ATM with very minimal FX fees.

[the lynx]

We should really start a master thread for "Best Credit Cards for Cashbacks", or will this thread be sufficient?

[amarettoSour]

I ended up getting DBS Altitude last year and has been paying off my bills at AXS stations with it, which amounts to ~$5k a year.

Been extremely happy with their customer service too! I NEVER have to wait when I call and they are always able to answer my questions!

This is obviously not the case anymore. DBS has ceased earning points for IRAS tax and bill payments at AXS.

Yeah that sucked. And i only found out about it a few weeks ago. However you can still make payments at their branch, one is pretty centrally located at 111 somerset. More hassle, but it's worthwhile for me as it amounts to about 6000 more miles per year, and it's not like you don't have to do this with other cards if you want to get points with SP Services payments.

Also since i last posted, i have acquired Citi premiermiles amex which gives more miles at $1 to 1.4 conversion. I still keep the DBS Altitude visa for overseas purposes though since the overseas miles conversion is the same for both cards at $1 to 2 and visa (i *think) has less foreign transaction fee than amex? But locally i use the amex whenever i can and the visa as a backup when amex is not accepted, which sadly happens more often than i'd like.

[Wd40]

My current favorite is the UOB One card. It gives 3.33% cash back. The only drawback is you need to match the fixed amount spend for 3 months. It kind of forces you to spend certain amount. I spent $800 monthly for 3 months and I get back $80 in cash. So far I have been achieving it by prepaying my Starhub bills and SP Services bills and yes, I go to 111 somerset to pay it off.Also our trip to Sydney last month month help me achieve that spend. But going forward, I am not going to aim for the $800 monthly spend. I would be happy to restrict it to $300 monthly spend and get $30 cash back.

[aster]

In terms of cards the are a few changes of late that will affect those racking up miles. But overall:

1. Best card for purchasing airline tix is the ANZ Travel Visa. 2.8 miles per $ spent. And downside? You have to wait several weeks for the bonus miles and you cannot check your transactions online.

2. Best card for Paywave spend is the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa. 4 miles/$ is absolutely HUGE. You can also get the same rate for online spend as long as the transactions are not travel-related (or insurance, bills, etc.). Downside? From June or July they will only give this high ratio for the first $12k you spend in a year.

3. The true MUST-HAVE card, funnily enough, is the DBS Woman's MC (the bronze one, not the green one). Here you get a massive 4 miles/$ for online spend, but limited to the first $2k per month. Still, that's a guaranteed 8k miles every month for spending $2k. For online spend you can just use the 2k to top up prepaid MC/Amex cards like the Fevo or Imagine ones and just use those. Downside? None. Apart from the $2k spend limit each month for the big miles ratio.

4. Best regular spend card, generating 1.6 miles/$, is the UOB Privi Amex. 1.6 is big, and overseas you even get 2.5 miles/$ for your spend. Downside, umm... need I mention Amex acceptability.

[Brah]

I wouldn't fly Tiger anymore if you paid me

why?

[zzm9980]

I wouldn't fly Tiger anymore if you paid me

why?

Ok maybe a bit of an exaggeration. I avoid them now unless they're the only option. I've found that most of the time after all of the taxes and fees they tack on to their advertised price, I'm much closer to the big name (CX, SQ, or VN as I often flew them to VN) ticket than you'd think. So by that point, the extra $100-200 is generally worth the much better experience.

A couple of examples:
- In HKG, Tiger checks in at Terminal 2. You can only check in 2 hours before the flight (Tiger thing, the normal airlines are 12-24 hours at HKG) at which point it is a kiasu mad-house of people trying to get back to Singapore from their +852 shopping holidays. T2 is a good 10-15 minutes from security and immigration at HKG, so by the time you're in the terminal proper you have now time to relax and get food or a coffee.

-KLIA Budget terminal vs the normal one. Everyone here knows this one.

- So one flight I chose to pay for a front row. I mistakenly didn't also pay for early boarding. So I get my seat near the front (to avoid the rush off at the end), but all of the overhead bins in front are taken up by the people who sit in the back and wanted their BAGS at the front of the plane. So my bag gets into a bin halfway to the back of the plane. (In most cases you could see how this penalizes me even more for buying the ticket, but using something learned through observation in Singapore I threw an entitlement fit. The FA was kind enough to put my bag in the cabin then. )

- The fellow passengers tend to skew towards the significantly less pleasant to fly with. It's a minor thing, but lots of small kiasu, blur, displays add up to a more annoying flight.

[Brah]

Interesting. And there are more choices now, with Scoot on the scene.

[zzm9980]

Amex got some miles offer

Best airmiles offer from Amex with free travel insurance.

Here is the direct link so you don't have to go through the sponsored link above:
https://www.americanexpress.com/sg/sing ... redit-card

That said the card sounds crappy:

You can start your next adventure sooner with the American Express Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Ascend Credit Card

Earn 2 KrisFlyer miles* for every S$1.20 spent on selected Singapore Airlines tickets purchased at singaporeair.com and when you shop at KrisShop, in-flight or online.
Spend a minimum of S$1,000 in a calendar month, and receive a bonus 300 KrisFlyer miles* for every additional S$500 you spend in the same month, with no cap to what you can earn! With no caps to this bonus, you can take off on your next adventure sooner.
Your KrisFlyer miles are transferred to your account directly with no conversion fees or charges.

The way it's worded, it sounds like you only earn 300 miles for every $500 you spend after the first $1000 in a month, or when you use the card to buy SQ tickets?

[Wd40]

I wouldn't fly Tiger anymore if you paid me

why?

Ok maybe a bit of an exaggeration. I avoid them now unless they're the only option. I've found that most of the time after all of the taxes and fees they tack on to their advertised price, I'm much closer to the big name (CX, SQ, or VN as I often flew them to VN) ticket than you'd think. So by that point, the extra $100-200 is generally worth the much better experience.

For Bangalore, there are only 3 direct flights. SQ, SilkAir and Tiger. SQ and SilkAir are usually exactly double of Tiger prices. Also if you want to book just one way Tiger prices stay constant whereas SilkAir and SQ one is more expensive than 2 way.

For us, Tiger has been one of the best things about staying in Singapore, after Mustafa, that connects us with India Also the timings are just perfect. The flights are in the night and fly from Terminal 2 which has the Indian restaurant Ananda Bhavan open 24 hrs and the flight is just 4 and 1/2 hrs. Eat at the restaurant and also pack some for the flight, no problems

[Wd40]

Interesting. And there are more choices now, with Scoot on the scene.

Scoot has been a big boon for travellers to Australia. We wouldn't have planned for the Sydney trip if not for the $200 return ticket that we got on scoot
I read that after the launch of scoot the traffic from Singapore-Sydney increased 33%

http://www.todayonline.com/business/sco ... ompetition

“In the 12 months before we started flying to Sydney, the number of Singaporeans flying there declined by about 1 per cent. In the six months since Scoot started flying there, we increased the number of Singaporeans arriving there by 33 per cent,”