Author: Shane

REVIEW: InterContinental Kuala Lumpur, Grand Premier Room with Club access

Published by

In a frantic attempt to complete the IHG Accelerate challenge by 31 July 2018, the end of the promotion period, I had to clock two nights at any InterContinental properties across Asia Pacific or the Middle East. Given that I’m not going to hop on a seven-hour flight to the Middle East for a stay, I began scouring this region. The cheapest InterContinental property in Asia Pacific turned out to be right next door: Kuala Lumpur. I booked myself into the entry level room for two nights at the InterContinental Kuala Lumpur for a total of just under RM1,100 over two nights. The property has also offered a e-Upgrade option where you can opt for certain payable upgrades, which will be confirmed at check-in. For this stay, apart from offering a paid room upgrade opportunity, the hotel also offered Club InterContinental access for RM150++ per person per day. Since I was going to stay alone, this is much more worth it than paying RM230++ for an upgrade to a Club InterContinental Room. The Hotel InterContinental …

Amex offers 4 bonus KrisFlyer miles for every dollar spent on mobile wallets

Published by

American Express is the latest card to jump on the mobile payment promotion bandwagon, with an offer launched on 15 August 2018 for Singapore Airlines co-branded credit card holders. For every S$1 spent, Amex will give you 4 bonus miles, on top of the usual mileage. That means PPS Club branded cards can earn up 5.3 miles per dollar, Ascend can earn up to 5.2 miles per dollar and the blue Krisflyer card earns 5.1 miles per dollar. There’s a very big BUT However, the promotion is capped at a grand total of… 1,200 bonus miles. That’s right, that’s a pathetic S$300 spend. Also, foreign spend will not count towards the promotion too. This offer is obviously not as generous as what Citibank did with their insane up to 8 miles per dollar spend, but still a relatively easy way to scoop up some miles if you are already holding the card. How to sign up? Because this promotion is not available on their website, I assume that only those targeted for this promotion (i.e. …

Earn double status credits on Qantas Frequent Flyer

Published by

For the minority of you who are Qantas Frequent Flyer members, Qantas is running its double status credits promotion again, this time from 9 to 14 August 2018. The mechanics are fairly simple: 1. Register for the promotion here. Needless to say, you need to be a Qantas Frequent Flyer member first. 2. Book your flight between 9 to 14 August 2018. Your flight(s) must be between 21 August 2018 and 9 August 2019. Note that the deadline for booking is 11.59pm AEST (Sydney time), so that means 10pm Singapore time. 3. Travel and wait for your bonus status credits to come in! Now the fine print… You can book as many flights as you want during this promotion and all of them will qualify for bonus status credits. You can fly other airlines and qualify for the bonus status credits as long as they have a QF code. So this means you can fly Singapore to London on Emirates (via Dubai) as long as you book it on Qantas.com. And that will earn you …

Singapore Airlines introduces KrisPay

Published by

tl;dr: don’t ever, ever convert your Krisflyer miles to KrisPay miles. EVER. Singapore Airlines introduced KrisPay yesterday, where Krisflyer members can use their miles to offset cash payments at a range of merchants in Singapore (lucky you, rest of the world). This is how the marketing email sells it: KrisPay is the new digital wallet that turns your KrisFlyer miles into instant purchases – right from your mobile phone, starting from as little as 15 miles. You can now use KrisPay for everyday spend such as your petrol purchases at selected Esso service stations^, M1, Challenger and many more participating merchants. How bad is it? It is… really bad. From the mechanism, to the conversion rate, to the redemption levels. Let’s look at them one by one. The mechanism First you will have to download the KrisPay app (I’ve downloaded it, so you don’t). The first bugger that annoyed the hell out of me was that the app can only be installed on iOS 11.0 or later. So if you are like me and detest updating …

Bank of China introduces Elite Miles card, possibly the best miles card ever

Published by

Banks are probably one of the last few advertisers who still believe and benefit from print ads in newspapers, because this caught my eye today: Bank of China is relatively new foreign retail bank operating in Singapore. They offer a very decent banking account offer for customers but in terms of credit cards, they have predominantly been offering in cash back cards. Exceptionally high earning rates So what is BOC Elite Miles card offering? Local spend: promotional rate of 2 miles per dollar spent (usually 1.5 mpd) Overseas spend: promotional rate of 5 miles per dollar spent (usually 3 mpd) 4 complimentary entry to Plaza Premium lounge per year And a chance to win Singapore Airlines return economy ticket to Bangkok The promotional earn rates are valid for spend till 31 December 2018, but in any case these trump any promotions made by banks locally so far. Miles credit card punters will be incredibly familiar that the market norm for Singapore is anything between 1 to 4 miles per dollar spent, or maybe up to …