Mileslife today announced Qantas as its latest frequent flyer programme partner, enabling Qantas Frequent Flyer members to earn Qantas Points on the Mileslife’s network.
Mileslife is currently available in Singapore, Hong Kong and China, and allow users to earn miles on lifestyle spending through its app at select merchants.
Earn bonus points from now till 11 April 2019
In celebration of the new partnership, new users to the app who link their Qantas Frequent Flyer accounts will earn a bonus 2,500 Qantas Frequent Flyer points when they spend a minimum of S$30.
For every additional $30 spend from now until 11 April 2019, users will also earn an extra 150 points on top of the on-going earn rates. This promotion is capped at 7,500 points (i.e. a maximum spend of S$1,500).
Other frequent flyer programmes
Qantas is the 17th airline to join the programme, with other major airlines such as Singapore Airlines, ANA, British Airways, EVA Air, Emirates and Lufthansa already on the programme.
Cardholders now need to spend S$20,000 per quarter instead of S$1,500 for 2 rides.
One of the best perks of the Citi Prestige will no longer be so valuable in future.
The mid-tier card – which requires an annual income of S$120,000 in Singapore – has got some pretty strong benefits, including two free limousine transfers each quarter with a minimum spend of S$1,500 in foreign currency.
This benefit will change from 1 April 2019, and cardholders will now need to spend a minimum of S$20,000 (local and foreign combined) each quarter to receive the same benefit.
A 1333% increase on minimum spend is definitely not an enhancement (tsk tsk, Citibank), it’s definitely not the end of the world.
Complimentary limo services with minimum of S$20,000 spend per quarter from 1 April 2019.
So tell me why I should keep the card
While the limo services will no longer be within reach by the bulk of the cardholders, the Citi Prestige card remains pretty competitive for its hotel travel perk.
If you book four consecutive nights at the same hotel through the Citi Prestige Concierge, you will receive the last night complimentary with no black-out dates. This is a pretty good perk and the only card offering such a perk on the market, which makes it still very attractive if you do a lot of travelling.
The full cost of the accommodation will first be charged to your card, with the cost of the complimentary night to be credited to you 6-8 weeks after the stay.
Apart from this, there’s also the Priority Pass unlimited lounge access, which is a much better offering that most other credit cards that offer a few complimentary entries a year.
Of course, if you were one of those like me and applied for the card, you would have experienced the very rudimentary application process (read: paper and pen, coupled with snail mail), the incredibly long wait for the card to turn up before enjoying the absurdly good miles earning ratio.
As with many new programmes, all good things must come to an end. As MileLion have explained in a few articles, Bank of China has slowly, but surely, introduced changes to tighten the ways they dish out miles.
The latest set of terms and conditions was strangely postdated 15 March 2019, and is probably a sign of things to come.
So what have changed since the launch?
(1) Definition of local spend and foreign spend: Under the original T&Cs, foreign spend was defined as “all transactions posted in foreign currency”. Based on the latest definition, this has now changed to “all Card transactions charged overseas, including card transactions made overseas but effected/charged in Singapore dollars, and online transactions effected in Singapore dollars or foreign currencies at merchants with payment gateway outside of Singapore. “
By contrast, the latest definition of local spend is: “all Card transactions charged in Singapore, and online transactions effected in Singapore dollars or foreign currencies at merchants with payment gateway in Singapore. “
While this is pretty standard industry practice, one common issue faced by cardholders is the ability to identify whether a payment gateway was located in Singapore or overseas.
(2) More exclusions, including GrabPay: The original wording had a generally standard exclusion clause, which excluded instalment plans, loading of prepaid cards and so on. While the exclusions were broad, the BOC Elite Miles card was great for all ad hoc payments, including Parking.sg payments and using it as my public transport card.
In the latest set of T&Cs, BOC have put in a table of excluded merchant, as below:
It’s noteworthy that BOC has decided to exclude GrabPay, Transitlink, SP Services and all government payments from earning miles. That’s a pity because I personally use the card a lot for GrabPay credit topups, as well as transport.
For those who are not aware, Grab payments (i.e. for transport services) are classified as MCC 4121 – Taxicabs and Limousines, while Grabpay credit top-ups are classified as MCC 7399 – Business Services Not Elsewhere Classified, so your best card to go with for GrabPay credit topups will be Amex.
(3) Capping of mileage conversions from BOC Bonus Points to Asia Miles or Krisflyer: As MileLion has pointed out, this is a strange one. BOC has decided to cap the number of miles that can be converted per transaction to 60,000 Asia Miles or 100,000 Krisflyer miles each time, at a cost of S$30 per conversion. The only reason I can think of for BOC to do this is to earn more conversion fee, which is pretty petty and silly.
(4) Plaza Premium Lounge complimentary entries: When BOC Elite Miles was first introduced last year, one of the key perks was the four complimentary passes a year. This was reflected in the first set of T&Cs back in July 2018, but have since been deleted.
However, according to Milelion’s post, this is a time-limited offer that is still available as long as you get your card approved before 30 June 2019:
I’ve been told that the four Plaza Premium lounge visits offered to cardholders is a limited-time promotion, and the decision to extend it has not been made yet. However, any cardholder who applies and is approved for the card before 30 Jun 2019 will still receive the vouchers- it’s just that all the access vouchers expire on 30 Jun 2019.
When it was first launched, the BOC Elite Miles World MasterCard was somewhat of a unicorn: an incredible offer, higher-than-usual earn rates, and definitely got the town talking.
However, like i said, good things never last. The card was obviously subject to a lot of gaming and abuse (there are plenty of people with enough free time to do that), and as we are more than six months in, it’s high time for a revision.
These changes are not all that bad, save for the cap on the number of miles that can be converted at a time (it’s quite… a cheap move).
In spite of a relatively high foreign currency processing fee, this card has still one of the best miles earning rates at 1.5 miles per dollar spent locally and 3 miles per dollar spent overseas. I’ll definitely be keeping the card for now, unless things change further down the road.
SilkAir has announced yet another exciting new destination on its network, this time to Seoul’s second largest city: Busan.
This is SilkAir’s first destination in South Korea, less than two years after it launched its service to Hiroshima. As with the Hiroshima service, the Singapore-Busan service will be operated using the Boeing 737 MAX 8.
The service will commence from 1 May 2019, offering four flights a week to Busan from Singapore. SilkAir will also be the only airline offering non-stop services between the two cities.
The schedule
The outbound flight from Singapore operates overnight and arrives into Busan in the morning, while the return flight departs Busan in the morning.
Route
Flight
Departure
Arrival
Flight time
Days
Aircraft
SIN-PUS
MI876
2315
0700(+1)
6h 45m
Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat
Boeing 737 MAX 8
PUS-SIN
MI875
0800
1415
7h 15m
Tue
Boeing 737 MAX 8
0830
1415
6h 45m
Thu, Sat, Sun
Boeing 737 MAX 8
The aircraft
SilkAir Boeing 737 MAX 8 Business Class
The service between Singapore and Busan will be operated with SilkAir’s newest Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in a two-class configuration, with 12 Business Class seats and 144 in Economy Class.
Thoughts
The integration with Singapore Airlines from next year is obviously changing the way SIA Group is looking at its network proposition in this awkward transitional phase.
SilkAir didn’t used to venture beyond Southeast Asia given its brand as a ‘regional carrier’, but in recent years there have been slow but sure expansion into further destinations, including a more regular Cairns offering, Hiroshima and now Busan.
And surely after the (seemingly) successful launch of Hiroshima and more recently, the news on new lie-flat business class seats selected for the narrow body aircraft, I expect SilkAir to continue to introduce more destinations over the next two years.
Back in November 2018, Citibank trialled a targeted promotion for its new PayAll service, essentially a cash advance service that earns you miles. The offer was very compelling, and almost the best in town, when you can effectively get a cash advance and buy miles for as low as 0.8 cents apiece.
So what has changed since?
1.5% or 2.0% processing fee
During the initial launch phase, the processing fee was three tiered fees depending on the amount you requested for, but this has now been changed to either a simple 1.5% or 2.0% fee, personalised for each customer.
Based on Mainly Miles’ report, it seems that customers targeted at the trial are now offered 1.5%, while those who weren’t are now offered 2.0%. It’s unclear why Citibank chose to offer different rates for different customers.
How to use?
At present, the facility is only available through the Citibank mobile app under the payment facility in the menu.
The steps to setting up a payment is pretty intuitive. You key in the recipient’s bank account details and the amount you will like to debit either as a one-time payment or a monthly payment. As with the trial, recipients of your payments need not bank with Citibank. They will receive payment via a normal bank transfer, typically within seven working days.
You will then be charged for the same amount, with the 1.5% or 2% processing fee. Miles will be earned only on the base amount.
While Citibank has explicit listed rent and education fees as categories that PayAll can be used for, it is actually unclear (and unproven) how they have decided to enforce this. For instance, if I’m paying my son’s tutor via PayAll each month, is Citibank really going to check whether it’s a bona fide education cost?
So how do I know whether I get 1.5% or 2% processing fee?
As mentioned above, it seems like previously targeted customers will now enjoy 1.5% fee (regardless whether you took up the earlier offer), while everyone else gets 2%.
To check what you get, simply log into the Citibank app, and try setting up a payment. You will be able to see the processing fee you will have to pay and derive the processing fee you are eligible for.
Cost per mile
Here’s the cost per mile analysis for PayAll, depending on whether you are targeted with 1.5% or 2.0% fee, based on the card you use.
Card
Earn rate (mpd)
Cost per mile
1.5% fee
2.0% fee
Citi Ultima
1.6
0.94¢
1.25¢
Citi Prestige
1.3
1.15¢
1.53¢
Citi PremierMiles Amex
1.3
1.15¢
1.53¢
Citi PremierMiles Visa
1.2
1.25¢
1.67¢
Citi Rewards
0.4
3.75¢
5.00¢
As you can see from above, topping the list is the Citi Ultima card, being able to buy miles for 0.94 cents each. As you go down, the Pretige and PremierMiles Amex cards let you buy them from 1.15 cents each, but if you are holding the Visa version of the PremierMiles, you can only buy them from 1.25 cents each. And that’s if you targeted with the 1.5% fee offer.
The Citi Rewards card obviously pales in comparison, so just be sure not to use that card for any of your PayAll transfers.
Is this worth using?
While Citibank has paled in comparison to many other miles cards available in the market, one of the biggest pull that it still has over its competition is the ability to transfer to many other programmes on top of Krisflyer and Asia Miles, including Qantas Frequent Flyer, British Airways Executive Club, Malaysia Airlines Enrich, Thai Royal Orchid Plus and more.
This makes Citi miles very valuable – it opens up new redemption opportunities which can often work out much cheaper than what Krisflyer demands of your precious miles, especially after the most recent round of devaluation.
For instance, you could use your Citi Miles to transfer to Qantas Frequent Flyer points, and in turn redeem it for Emirates flights.
Final thoughts
This is definitely a very timely alternative to UOB PRVI Pay, given UOB PRVI’s recent revision of its PRVI Pay rates, making the Citi PayAll a very valuable proposition for any transactions that needs to be done via a bank transfer.
The flat processing fee rate is also a very good improvement over the previous tiered level fees, because simplicity is always good.
However, it’s still beyond my comprehension why they would offer different processing fee rates for different customers, and the segments they would offer a ‘preferential’ rate to.
While the terms and conditions of using Citibank PayAll has been pretty extensive to prohibit paying oneself, or to use the facility as a cash advance, it remains to be seen if the bank will actively enforce them, or if they will mete any penalty for infringements. Banks are notorious for its buried terms and conditions and strict compliance rules, so many a times these rules are in place to indemnify themselves from any unlawful activities surrounding these promotions.
Shanescape 