OCBC VOYAGE cardholders can accumulate airport limo rides throughout 2020

With the Covid-19 pandemic, the value of travel benefits on credit cards has been severely devalued. After all, there’s no point in having complimentary lounge access or the 4th night free on hotels if you can’t go anywhere in the first place.

But there’s some good news for OCBC VOYAGE cardholders.

OCBC VOYAGE is allowing cardholders to accumulate limo rides throughout 2020

The OCBC VOYAGE awards a free limo ride with every S$3,000 charged in a calendar month, capped at two rides per month. Rides normally need to be used by the end of the 3rd month after they’re earned.

In light of the current situation, however, OCBC has decided to extend the validity of all limo rides earned in 2020 until 31 December 2020 (or the actual expiry date, whichever is later). Customers will have received the following SMS:

OCBC VOYAGE: In light of current travel restrictions, any limo rides that you have earned – or that have expired – on or after 1 January 2020 will be valid till 31 December 2020. We will continue to monitor the situation and inform you if there are further changes. Questions? Call 6438 6088

To illustrate how this works:

This means that customers who meet the monthly spending thresholds can accumulate rides throughout 2020, theoretically holding as many as 24 credits by the end of the year.

Rides which expired in 2020 will be reinstated

OCBC has also announced that they will be extending the validity of any limo allowances which expired on/after 1 January 2020. So if you earned a free ride towards the end of 2019, for example, but couldn’t use it due to the Covid-19 outbreak, that award gets a new lease of life until the end of 2020.

More banks should be doing this

As far as I know, other cards with limo allowances like the UOB PRVI Miles AMEX and the HSBC Visa Infinite are still adopting “use it or lose it” policies. I heard some anecdotes of cardholders using their rides for a trip to Jewel to eat and shop, at least before the circuit breaker measures kicked in.

Cardholders are still dutifully using their cards for day-to-day spending, not to mention paying the annual fees (which, on S$120K cards, are pretty substantial). Why should they lose out because of a situation beyond their control? It’s not like the banks are going to reduce the annual fees, so it wouldn’t go amiss if they provided some alternative benefits during this period to replace the ones that can’t be used.

Conclusion

OCBC VOYAGE cardholders will be able to accumulate limo rides throughout 2020, and any rides that expired this year will be reinstated. I hope other banks follow suit, because it’s becoming harder and harder to justify the annual fees on premium credit cards in an environment like this.