CNY offer for Citibank PremierMiles Visa cardholders: Buy miles at 1 cent each

Spend S$8,888 by 31 March, pay a S$288 admin fee and get 28,223 miles.

To mark the Lunar New Year period, Citibank has launched a very impressive spending promotion for existing Citibank PremierMiles Visa cardholders.

If you’re currently a principal cardholder of a Citibank PremierMiles Visa card (no love for AMEX holders, sadly), and have been for at least 6 months (i.e. 1 Aug 2018), you should have received an invitation from Citi to register for their “CNY Tactical Spend” promotion.

Registering, paying an admin fee of S$288, and spending S$8,888 (or its foreign equivalent) between 1 Feb and 31 Mar 2019 nets you at least 38,888 miles. This is broken down as follows:

  • 10,655 base miles earned from S$8,888 @ 1.2 mpd (assumes you spend in SGD, otherwise 2.0 mpd)
  • 28,223 bonus miles earned from meeting the S$8,888 threshold and paying the S$288 admin fee

In other words, spending S$8,888 unlocks the ability to buy 28,223 miles at S$288, or 1.02 cpm each. That’s a fantastic price to pay to buy miles.

Even if you hold a card with a higher general spending rate and want to factor in opportunity cost, the math still makes sense. Suppose I have a BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard, which earns 1.5 mpd on local spend. By spending S$8,888 on the Citibank PremierMiles Visa card, I’m forgoing 2,666 miles (S$8,888 @ 0.3 mpd). This makes my effective cost 1.13 cents per mile ($288/[28,223-2,666]), still an excellent price.

Registration is required: Simply SMS “38MILES Last 4 Digits of your Citibank PremierMiles Visa card” to 72484 from your registered mobile number. Note that there is a space between “38MILES” and the last 4 digits of your card.

The admin fee of S$288 will be charged to your PremierMiles Visa account within 2 months after 31 Mar 2019. Make sure the charge goes through successfully, because if not you won’t get any bonus miles! Do have a read of the full Terms and Conditions as there are certain spending exclusions to take note of.

How does this compare with other ways of buying miles in Singapore?

Back in 2017, Citibank awarded 31,200 bonus miles for spending S$9,000 and paying an admin fee of S$238, which allowed you to buy miles at 0.76 cents each. The current offer clearly isn’t as good as the 2017 one (especially when you consider that award prices have increased in the interim), but still one worth taking advantage of.

Here’s an overview of the different ways of purchasing miles in Singapore, to give you an idea of where 1 cpm ranks. Apologies about the weird formatting if you’re on mobile, I’m working to get that fixed.

MethodIncome RequiredCPM
DBS Insignia + RentHero$500K1.07
SCB Visa Infinite Tax Payment$150K1.14-1.6
HSBC Visa Infinite Tax Payment$120K1.2-1.5
HSBC Premier MC Tax PaymentAUM: $200K1.25
Citi ULTIMA + PayAll$500K1.25
HSBC Visa Infinite Welcome Gift$120K 1.39-1.86
SCB Visa Infinite + EasyBill$150K1.43-2.0
DBS Altitude + RentHero$30K1.43
Citi Prestige + PayAll$120K1.54
UOB PRVI Miles + CardUp (GET225)$30K1.57
Citi PremierMiles + PayAll$30K1.67
HSBC Visa Plat/Revolution Tax Payment $30K1.75
DBS Altitude/Citibank PremierMiles + CardUp (GET225)$30K1.83
OCBC VOYAGE Tax Payment$120K1.9
UOB Reserve VI Payment FacilityInvitation1.9
OCBC VOYAGE Payment Facility $120K1.9-1.95
Citibank PremierMiles, DBS Altitude, KrisFlyer UOB Card, OCBC 90N Annual Fee$30K1.93
UOB PRVI Pay Facility $30K2.0
UOB VI Metal Payment Facility $150K2.0
OCBC VOYAGE Annual Fee- Option 2$120K2.14
Citi Prestige Annual Fee$120K2.14
DBS Altitude Tax Payment $30K2.5
OCBC VOYAGE Annual Fee- Option 1$120K3.25

Conclusion

If you were targeted for this offer and are confident of spending an average of S$4,444 a month over Feb and March, it’s definitely worth paying the S$288 admin fee to unlock the bonus miles. Citibank has the most transfer partners of any bank in Singapore, and Citi Miles allow you to access programs with useful partners and great sweet spots, like Avios and Etihad Guest.

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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TesQ

Hey Aaron, thank you for sharing this! Do you know if this is for selected cardholders? I have met all the criteria but did not receive an invitation.

Phil

I didn’t notice an invite either, but SMS’s the number and instantly got a reply saying I was enrolled.
“Registration is required: Simply SMS “38MILES Last 4 Digits of your Citibank PremierMiles Visa card” to 72484 from your registered mobile number. Note that there is a space between “38MILES” and the last 4 digits of your card.”

Annabel chee

Hmms but they said any official means and its posted on product page. Think should be ok.

RTK

Thanks Aaron.

Would be interesting to see if Citi’s PAYALL transactions count towards eligible spend?

Hector

Hi Aaron, thank you for sharing. I wonder whether Citibank PayALL would count as qualified spending? In T&C it indeed mentioned “(v) bill payments made using the Eligible Card as a source of funds”. Would you shed some light here? Thank you.

Spencer

I wonder if the transactions of Citi PayAll counts, which can come in handy for hitting the 8888 target.

Vijay

Does not include PayAll – I had checked with them.

Powell

Citi miles are worth buying because of the number of airline partners they have.

Panpan

“Qualifying Spend” refers to any retail transactions (including internet purchases) which do not
arise from (i) any Equal Payment Plan (EPP) purchases, (ii) refunded/ disputed/ unauthorised/
fraudulent retail purchases, (iii) Quick Cash/Ready Credit PayLite and other instalment loans,
(iv) Paywise/ cash advance/ quasi-cash transactions/ balance transfers/ annual card
membership fees/interest/goods and services taxes, (v) bill payments made using the Eligible
Card as a source of funds, (vi) late payment fees and (vii) any other form of service/
miscellaneous fees.

Well…that excludes PayAll then since it’s not retail transaction

Sammy

If I spent 1000$ today but register this next week, will the 1000$ counts?

Thanks

James

Although not specifically mentioned, i assume all transactions which currently doesn’t get any miles, e.g. Insurance payment, would not qualify?

Justin

I just called in. The officer said insurance payment dont earn but can be considered into qualifying spend. But total miles wont add up to 38888 since some txn no base earn of 1.2.

Al.

I’ve received the promotion at 6pm which also offers another option ‘Spend S$2,888 and pay a one-time programme fee of S$58 for 8888 miles’. This is about $1.07/mile but definitely more easily achieved than spending $8888 (at least for me!)

Spencer

Thanks for sharing this, turns out this one has a different T&C http://citibank.com.sg/global_docs/pdf/EarnUpTo_42K_MilesTCs.pdf

And the text msg to be sent is also different

SMS to 72484:
MILESLast 4 digits of your Citi PremierMiles Visa Card number
(E.g. MILES 1234)

James

Think should just register for both smses since don’t meet spend the program fee is not deducted

Jialing

Hi, would this be applicable for CitiRewards card too? I SMSed to register and got a positive confirmation back.

Happy Camper

Hwa! Talk about a stretch!?

Ahtan

Is ipaymy and Cardup payments counted towards $8888 spent requirement?

JC

Hi, is this only applicable for main card holder, or does supp card count for the spending?

Flo

Yes, supplementary card and main card spending all count. Just confirmed with CSO.

Sean

I called up the CSO and understand that insurance payment would be considered under the $8,888 qualifying spend but not earn the basic 1.2 miles per $1 spend.

However, does anyone knows if insurance payment through Cardup would be considered as a qualified spend which also earns the base 1.2 miles per $1?

Would appreciate if anyone can enlighten.

JK

I have the same question too!

Eric

Same for hospital bill payment. It does not qualify for the base miles but count for the purpose of the $8,888 spending.

Edi

Has anyone tried insurance with cardup/ipaymy and is successful?

John

Has anyone received their miles yet?

Anton

No yet….anyone else?

Matt

Got the bonus Miles and 288 charge today.

James

Same here

Renton

HI Aaron, I participated in this prom my my miles recently. Two of my transactions were used to book hotel that’s not utilised yet. Now i realise that me my hotel price has dropped, and thinking if I can cancel my current bookings to rebook my accommodation. Do u think they will clawback the points given to me if I do that?

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