I have actually been planning for my epic epic out of this world trip to Europe next year after I leave my service in the Air Force. It would be an extraordinary one with my flying suites on Singapore Airlines to Europe then to the States. SQ Suites is one of the greatest way to fly in this world. The Suites is detrimental to the aviation industry and one of the milestones when launched in the past, certainly it is also the best way to fly across the atlantic. Only available onboard the A380 jumbo jets, it cost 110,000 Miles one way from Singapore to NYC while from Frankfurt it cost 67,500 Miles. Furthermore you get a 15% discount off when making the booking online. It is worthy to take note that Singapore Airlines Suites/First Class are absolutely exclusive, it is probably only possible to redeem through SQ owns Krisflyer membership! While there had been many articles and tips on miles accrual overseas, especially in the states, there hadn’t be a useful one for locally in Singapore.
While the majority of the banks and credit cards here are transfer partners with Krisflyer there are some cards that offer the best mileage accrual rate that you should focus your spend on. Typically this is the main consideration when I choose which card to use.
- No Expiry Date
- Accrual Rate
- Promotion
Of course the main concern will be the expiry date of the credit card points or the miles that you earn. Furthermore, if you are not a huge earner that racks up required miles quickly the earnings could be a waste. This is why it is important to consolidate your spending on a couple few cards that has no expiry date and slowly save up to the required amount for a dream trip or honeymoon! Come on! Nothing beats a double bed in the skies on SQ! Additionally there are conversion charges, usually about 25 bucks per conversion, some of the cards offer zero conversion rates. It also make sense to convert in large amount at one shot with one conversion fee! You could also make use of this trick, since KrisFlyer expiry period is 3 years, even after you convert your miles, your miles can be kept for 3 additional years in your KrisFlyer account too!
These are the couple few cards that I utilize to rack up my miles, they got the best accrual rates and most of them have fee waiver too!
1. UOB Previ Miles Mastercard / AMEX
- Expiry: 2 Years
- Rules of Conversion: 5000 Pts to 10,000 Miles
- Earn Rate
- 3 Miles/S$1 (SQ Spending)
- 2.4 Miles/S$1 (Overseas Spending)
- 1.4 Miles/S$1 (Local Spending)
- Transaction Fee: S$25
This is by far the best credit card in town for normal spending, it also provide the bonus miles when you are spending on Singapore Airlines, by far it has the best accrual rate for a non vip bank status credit card. The AMEX version even provides a 20,000 Miles bonus when you spend 50K. The downside would be the 2 years expiry limit and also the high block points needed to make a redemption. It means that if you only have 4900 points you can redeem miles and also if you got 5100 points, you can only change 5000 points.
2. Citi Prestige
- Expiry: No Limit
- Rules of Conversion: 5 Pts to 2 Miles
- Earn Rate
- 2 Miles/S$1 (Overseas Spending)
- 1.3 Miles/S$1 (Local Spending)
- Bonus points per membership year according to banking relationship (5% to 30%)
- Transaction Fee: S$25
This is one of the greatest product to go for in Singapore! Although the accrual rate isn’t as high as the previous one, the cards offer a ton of luxury benefit, from private concierge service to free Priority Pass membership to a unlimited super worth 4th night free at hotels benefit. It also provides a large sign on bonus per year of 25,000 Miles. The downside would be the high membership fee of $535.
3. DBS Altitude Card
- Expiry: No Limit
- Rules of Conversion: 5000 Pts to 10,000 Miles
- Earn Rate
- 3 Miles/S$1 (Online Flight and Hotel Booking)
- 2 Miles/S$1 (Overseas Spending)
- 1.2 Miles/S$1 (Local Spending)
- Transaction Fee: S$42.80 per year
You may at first feel that this is so similar to the UOB Previ Miles that I have recommend earlier, but despite the higher transaction fee that it it has far better perks in certain ways. You would not want to use this card for local normal spending since it only gives you 1.2 miles per dollar. But in the other way, it has no expiry of the miles and it gives you a hefty 3 miles return on flights and hotel bookings, including third party site such as booking.com and airbnb.com. Although the rate of conversion is similarly high, the fee allows you to do multiple redemption in the year for free. There are even providing a 15,000 miles bonus for spending 2K in 2 months upon approval.
3. American Express Platinum Credit Card
- Expiry: No Limit
- Rules of Conversion: 450 Pts to 250 Miles
- Earn Rate
- 3.5 Miles/S$1 (10 Times Partners Spending)
- 0.7 Miles/S$1 (Normal Spending)
- Transaction Fee: Zero
Actually this is the card you should not use unless you are spending at one of AMEX 10 Times Partners. Since it provide a hefty 3.5 miles return on spending. Without that the 0.7 miles is miserable. However the Amex card provides a ton of dining and lifestyle privileges which may prove worthwhile having them in the wallet. Since it does not have any expiry date, it make sense to slowly dine your way to a suites ticket.
4. Citi Premier Miles
- Expiry: No Limit
- Rules of Conversion: 1 Citimile to 1 Mile
- Earn Rate
- 2 Miles/S$1 (SQ & Overseas Spending)
- 1.2 Miles/S$1 (Local Spending)
- Transaction Fee: S$25
While the earn rate are one of the lowest in town in comparison to the above, this card does not have any expiry date and there are times where bonus earn rate are provided for spending. The current promotion that they have now are one of the best in town. From a hefty out of the world 42,000 Miles if you spend 10K in three months. That is more than enough for a Suites to Hong Kong.
Bonus. Changi Rewards Card
- Expiry: 1 Years
- Rules of Conversion: 3000 Pts to 1000 Miles
- Earn Rate
- 1 Miles/S$1 (Platinum)
- 0.66 Miles/S$1 (Gold)
- Transaction Fee: Zero
While this might not be a credit card in Singapore, it is one of the good ways to almost double your earn rate in Singapore. Perhaps this is more for the peeps that stays in the East side of Singapore, since we practically treat Changi Airport as a shopping mall. A membership card from the airport it actually gives you miles when you are a gold or platinum member. Although only lasting one year, the rate is actually pretty decent since it is on top of what you earn on your credit card. Together with zero GST at the airport, you will earn double miles!
It also pays to look thru the promotions that the bank provide at certain timing. There use to be large sign up bonus to free miles upon hitting a spending limit. Currently the most lucrative promotions would be Citibank. As part of their promotion for their Premier Miles Card you could earn 15,000 miles with the first charge and also an additional 15,000 miles when you spend 10K in three months. DBS is currently also offering 15,000 miles when you spend 2K upon card approval. With this, you might already be halfway to Europe on Suites! Of course, please forget about using your miles on Economy Class, with many frequent promotions nowadays, the taxes that you pay on the redemption might be more than half of the promotion tickets already. The best redemption deals still comes from premium cabin! I would seriously recommend that you rather keep them and spend one shot on a nice trip to pamper yourself.
Flying to states for 93,500 miles or crossing the Atlantic for 57,375 Miles? It is time to save up right now and spend your money the right way!
Seeing The World In Steps 
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