All posts tagged: News

BOC Elite World MasterCard revised terms & conditions

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The good ol’ days are over. Bank of China is now tightening what used to be a quick and easy way to earn miles. So back in July 2018, Bank of China created an uproar in the miles chasing community in Singapore with what was possibly the best miles card ever launched in Singapore. 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 …

SilkAir offers flights from Singapore-Busan from May 2019

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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 The service between Singapore and Busan will be operated with SilkAir’s newest Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in …

UOB raises fee to 2.1% for PRVI Pay

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If you are into accumulating miles through your credit card spending in Singapore, chances are you will hold the UOB PRVI MasterCard (or Visa, or it’s more affluent counterpart – Amex). While the earn rate is now somewhat on the average side with newer entrants such as the BOC Elite Miles card, one of the most powerful function of this card is the ability to buy miles on demand through PRVI Pay. What is PRVI Pay? Launched in 2017, PRVI Pay is essentially a cash advance facility offered by UOB with a 2% fee for a one-time drawdown (which means you need to pay back at the end of your billing cycle), or a 2.2% fee if you want to break the about into a 3-month instalment. As with any other unsecured loan, you do not actually need to show that you actually need the money and it is credited into your bank account directly. The cash advance also earns you an effective rate of 1 mile per dollar drawn through PRVI Pay, awarded in …

A deeper look into UK airport fees: why does this matter?

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If you are a frequent traveller to UK, you will notice that airfares are always inherently expensive when you fly out of airports within the UK. UK airports have infamously high airport taxes, probably one of the highest in the world. Those who have redeemed miles on those flights before will know that there is a usually a hefty fee added on top of the miles used for the flight and you wonder why. Let us break it down. Typically, UK airports levy two fees, a UK air passenger duty (APD) levied by the UK authorities, and a passenger service charge by the airport. Both of these are included in your fare at the time of booking. UK air passenger duty This is relatively straightforward and also the one that is insane. There are essentially three rates – reduced, standard and higher – applied across two distance bands. Reduced rates apply to the lowest class of travel on the plane with seat pitch (distance between your seat back and the seat in front of you) …

Marriott Rewards to be rebranded; hotel category changes in 2019

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While Marriott and SPG’s loyalty programmes merger that took place last year August was probably one of the biggest event in the industry in 2018, there are still more changes coming. Marriott Rewards to be rebranded Marriott Bonvoy This has been widely reported in many loyalty and hotel news sites, and the new brand will take effect from 13 February 2019. The three programmes that preceded this – Marriott Rewards, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest – will be abandoned after the new brand kicks in. The other change that comes with the new brand is that the Platinum Premier tier, and the Platinum Premier with Ambassador Tier will be rebranded as Titanium and Ambassador respectively. The unified tier charts of Marriott Rewards came under fire when it was unveiled last year for having three platinum tiers. Marriott hotel category changes; new category 8 kicks in March 2019 Another major change coming is the introduction of category 8 award pricing, a new tier above the current 7-tier chart that Marriott Rewards have. The means that …