The American Express KrisFlyer co-brand credit cards are considered as general spending cards where you can earn up to 1.3 mpd depending on which variant of the AmEx KrisFlyer co-brand credit card you hold.
At present, one of the best features of the AmEx KrisFlyer credit cards is that you can earn up to 3.3 mpd on all Grab transactions (yes this officially includes GrabPay top-ups) on the first S$200 per calendar month.
Other than for topping up my GrabPay wallet, the only time when I use my AmEx KrisFlyer credit card is when AmEx launches targeted promotions such as the extra 3 mpd on foreign currency and the current mobile wallet promotion where you can earn up to 5.3 mpd on the first S$300 worth of transactions made through Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay.
Earn an additional 2 mpd at select merchants
AmEx has just enhanced the AmEx KrisFlyer co-brand card line-up with a new benefit for cardholders. Starting today, you will now be able to enjoy an additional 2 mpd on “Daily Essentials” , capped at S$200 per calendar month. This means you can earn up to 3.3 mpd on purchases at participating merchants.
At present, only these merchants are participating in the bonus 2 mpd offer:
It’s great that Deliveroo and Foodpanda have been included in the list as this now effectively guarantees that you will be earning at least 3.1 mpd for most food delivery services.
| Note that Topping up your GrabPay wallet with the AMEX KrisFlyer co-brand cards will earn you up to 3.3 mpd on GrabFood transactions when you pay with GrabPay. |
You can even stack this with Foodpanda’s recent announcement that sees you earning an additional 1 mpd on Foodpanda orders to maximize your miles earning on your food delivery orders with Foodpanda.
In the terms and conditions of this promotion, AmEx writes that they may exclude the earning of bonus miles from Subways located in hospitals and educational institutes (NUS, NTU, SMU) and Unity’s located within Fairprice outlets.
This cap is separate from the S$200 cap on Grab transactions. There is also no end date for this promotion and this should be a permanent feature for the AmEx KrisFlyer co-brand credit cards going forward.
Stack this with other promotions from AmEx
As I mentioned earlier, AmEx is currently running a promotion where you will be able to enjoy an additional 4 mpd when you pay with your AmEx KrisFlyer co-brand card via Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay. This promotion is run fairly often and you should definitely always keep a look out for it.
If you have already registered for this promotion, you will potentially be able to earn up to a whopping 7.3 mpd on your purchases at the participating merchants. Just be reminded that the Mobile Wallet promotion caps off at S$300 over the entire promotional period between now and 15 June 2019.
Here’s an example of how many miles you will potentially earn from a meal at McDonald’s if you combine the mobile wallet promotion with this new additional 2 mpd benefit:
- 5.5 base KrisFlyer miles on a S$5 McChicken meal
- 10 bonus KrisFlyer miles from the “daily essentials” promotion
- 20 bonus KrisFlyer miles from the mobile wallet promotion
- Total KrisFlyer miles earned for a S$5 McChicken meal: 35.5 KrisFlyer miles (based on the 1.1 earn rate of the AmEx KrisFlyer credit card)
Concluding Thoughts
Although the cap of S$200 does seem pretty stingy, I’m still pretty happy about this new enhancement. Although you might argue that there are 4 mpd options (UOB Preferred Platinum Visa/ UOB VS) available for use at the participating merchants in this promotion, there might be situations when you have already maxed out the spending caps on those cards and you will now have the AmEx KrisFlyer co-brand cards as a handy backup.
If there’s one thing I’m not happy about, is that they did not include KFC as one of the merchants. Grr.
[H/T: The Shutterwhale]
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