American Express has launched a new sign-up offer for the American Express Singapore Airlines Business Credit Card (also known as the AMEX HighFlyer Card) that runs from now till 31 January 2023.
New cardholders who spend S$5,000 in the first 3 months of approval have a choice of either:
- 55,000 bonus HighFlyer points, with a S$299 annual fee (S$301.79 from 1 Jan 2023)
- 15,000 bonus HighFlyer points with a first year fee waiver
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| Apply Here |
| ๐ No minimum business size required |
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While the AMEX HighFlyer Card is meant for businesses, there’s no minimum turnover or number of employees required to apply. If you’re running a home business, giving tuition or engaged in some other side hustle, setting up a sole proprietorship or LLC would qualify you to apply. Do note that you must be earning at least S$30,000 per annum to qualify for a card, as per MAS regulations. This need not come from the business itself; for example, I could earn S$30,000 from my day job with Company A, and have a separate side hustle with my own Company B. I can then apply for a HighFlyer Card by virtue of Company B, using Company A’s payslips. |
All AMEX HighFlyer Card members continue to enjoy a complimentary Accor Plus membership, which offers a free hotel night and up to 50% off dining, as well as two complimentary lounge visits each year.
They will earn the equivalent of up to 8.5 mpd on Singapore Airlines fares (except Economy Lite), and 1.8 mpd on all other spending (including GrabPay top-ups), making this a must-have card for anyone who owns a small or medium-sized business.
| ๐ณ Key Info: AMEX HighFlyer Card |
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AMEX HighFlyer Card Sign-Up Bonus
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| Apply Here |
| T&Cs |
| There is no requirement that you be new-to-AMEX. This offer is valid even if you already hold an existing AMEX consumer card. Applicants who have cancelled the AMEX HighFlyer Card previously for the same company are not eligible. |
Applicants for the AMEX HighFlyer Card have a choice of the following offers when they apply by 31 January 2023 and get approved by 30 April 2023.
- 55,000 bonus HighFlyer points, with a S$299 annual fee (S$301.79 from 1 Jan 2023)
- 15,000 bonus HighFlyer points with a first year fee waiver
Both offers require a minimum spend of S$5,000 in the first 3 months.
On top of this, they’ll earn 9,000 HighFlyer points for spending S$5,000 (based on 1.8 HighFlyer points per S$1).
Which offer should you take?
It all boils down to how much you value a mile, but if you’re like me and use a 1.5 cents per mile valuation, then 55,000 bonus HighFlyer points (~S$825) is superior to 15,000 bonus HighFlyer points and a S$299 fee waiver (~S$524).
Even if you use a lower valuation of 0.95 cents per HighFlyer point (the value you get when you spend points on airfares), the 55,000 bonus HighFlyer points (~S$520) is still better than 15,000 bonus HighFlyer points and a S$299 fee waiver (~S$440).
What counts towards eligible spending?
American Express is fairly liberal with what counts towards sign-up bonus spending. With the exception of the following, everything else will count towards the minimum spend requirement:
- Charges processed and billed prior to the Enrolment Date or charges prepaid on any Card Account prior to the first billing statement for that Card Account following the Enrolment Date
- Cash Advance and other cash services
- American Express Travellers Cheque purchases
- Charges for dishonoured cheques
- Finance charges โ including Line of Credit charges and Credit Card interest charges
- Late payment and collection charges
- Tax refunds from overseas purchases
- Balance Transfer
- Instalment plans, except where American Express determines otherwise
- Annual Card fees
- Amount billed for purchase of HighFlyer points to top-up your points balance
- Purchase and top-up charges for EZ-Link cards using American Express Cards
For avoidance of doubt, CardUp spend, GrabPay top-ups and insurance payments will earn points and count towards sign-up bonus spending.
When will I get the bonus?
All bonus HighFlyer points will be credited “6 weeks or more” from the date of meeting the spend threshold.
Overview: AMEX HighFlyer Card
| Apply Here |
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| Income Req. | S$30,000 p.a. | Points Validity | 3 years |
| Annual Fee | S$299 (First Year Free Option) |
Min. Transfer | N/A |
| Miles with Annual Fee |
None | Transfer Partners | SIA |
| FCY Fee | 2.95% | Transfer Fee | None |
| Local Earn | 1.8 mpd | Points Pool? | N/A |
| FCY Earn | 1.8 mpd | Lounge Access? | Yes |
| Special Earn | Up to 8.5 mpd on SIA tickets | Airport Limo? | No |
| Cardholder Terms and Conditions | |||
AMEX HighFlyer Card members earn up to 8.5 HighFlyer points per S$1 on Singapore Airlines and Scoot revenue tickets (this includes the base 5 HighFlyer points that all HighFlyer companies already earn), and 1.8 HighFlyer points per S$1 on transactions elsewhere.
| โ๏ธ What is HighFlyer? |
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HighFlyer is Singapore Airlines’ loyalty program for SMEs. The program is free to join and does not require any minimum spend commitment; all you need to sign up is an ACRA business registration number. HighFlyer is essentially a cash rebate scheme. Companies earn 5 HighFlyer points per S$1 spent on Singapore Airlines, Scoot, Lufthansa, and SWISS (excluding airport fees and government taxes), and can redeem them at a rate of 1,050 HighFlyer points= S$10. HighFlyer points are valid for 3 years, and cannot be earned on Q, N, V and K booking classes (i.e. Economy Lite fares). They can be converted into KrisFlyer miles for nominated employees at a rate of 1 HighFlyer point= 1 KrisFlyer mile. |
This makes the AMEX HighFlyer Card the best general spending card on the market with a 1.8 mpd earn rate (versus 1.2-1.6 mpd for other cards).
Do note the following restrictions when converting HighFlyer points to miles:
- Each HighFlyer account can only be linked to a maximum of five selected KrisFlyer accounts for the purpose of converting HighFlyer points to KrisFlyer miles
- Each HighFlyer account is only allowed to convert HighFlyer points to a maximum of 150,000 KrisFlyer miles per calendar year
- Each selected KrisFlyer account may receive a maximum of 30,000 KrisFlyer miles converted from HighFlyer points per calendar year, regardless of which HighFlyer accounts the points are converted from
Is the annual conversion cap of 30,000 KrisFlyer miles a deal-breaker? I don’t believe so. At end of the day, your key use case for this card should be transactions that don’t qualify for rewards. Simply top up your GrabPay account with the AMEX HighFlyer Card, and use the balance to pay for income tax, MCST fees, insurance premiums and government expenses via AXS. This way, you’re effectively earning 30,000 extra miles that you wouldn’t normally have been able to earn.
Purchases of Singapore Airlines tickets will enjoy 0% interest for six months, and other purchases get 51 days of interest-free credit. Employees who purchase tickets with the card will still be entitled to accrue miles for personal use, based on the fare class purchased.
In terms of personal benefits, cardholders enjoy:
- Two complimentary visits to Priority Pass lounges per year
- A complimentary Accor Plus membership with one free stay every year and up to 50% off dining
- Hertz Gold status with 10% off best available rates and one class upgrades
- A fast track to KrisFlyer Elite Gold status with S$15,000 or more spent on Singapore Airlines group transactions in the first year of card membership
- Complimentary travel insurance when travel tickets are bought with the card
AMEX HighFlyer Card members will also enjoy the following spending bonuses:
- First year only: 5,000 HighFlyer points for S$500 SIA Group spending
- Every year: 15,000 HighFlyer points for S$10,000 SIA Group spending
Complimentary Accor Plus Membership
One of the highlights of the AMEX HighFlyer Card is the free Accor Plus membership, which includes one complimentary hotel night each year.
This can be redeemed at hotels in Singapore and overseas; I recently used my certificate for a free stay at the Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour.
Accor Plus members also get access to the periodic Red Hot Rooms sale, which may be a good opportunity to book cheap staycation rates. I’ve seen the Fairmont Singapore going for as low as S$143 nett, and the Grand Mercure for as little as S$64 nett.
The other big draw of an Accor Plus membership are the dining discounts. The discount structure works like this:
- 25% off dining: 1 member only
- 50% off dining: 1 member and 1 guest
- 33% off dining: 1 member and 2 guests
- 25% off dining: 1 member and 3 guests
- 15% off drinks in Asia
Some examples of participating Accor Plus restaurants in Singapore include Prego, Mikuni, Asian Market Cafe and Szechuan Court at the Fairmont, SKAI, Bar Rouge, Cafe Swiss and Kopi Tiam at Swissotel and The Cliff, The Garden, Kwee Zeen at the Sofitel Sentosa Resort.
In fact, should you enjoy the benefits of an Accor Plus membership, it’s still cheaper to pay the AMEX HighFlyer Card’s S$299 annual fee instead of buying an Accor Plus membership (S$408 for the version with one free hotel night).
For those who have already received their AMEX HighFlyer Card, here’s how to go about activating your Accor Plus membership.
Conclusion
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| Apply Here |
New AMEX HighFlyer Card members can now enjoy up to 55,000 bonus HighFlyer points when they spend S$5,000 in the first 3 months of approval. That’s a very decent return indeed, all the more so when you can achieve it through GrabPay top-ups.
Remember to apply by 31 January 2023 to be eligible.
Son of a… I only got 40k for my bonus!!!!
Did you have to pay the full annual fee too?
New offer is rubbish why you promoting it like it’s amazing. For anyone who’s out of the loop it was 49K with AF waiver last month.
Man’s gotta eat bro.
He should at least share half of the $300 capitaland vouchers he gets for each referral if he’s trying so hard to promote this rubbish offer
Don’t be so hard up for the $300 vouchers. Use vouchers cannot collect miles – isn’t that why we’re all here?
On a more serious note, why are you even bringing it up the previous offer in the first place? Last time people can buy landed GCB for $1m – does it mean you shouldn’t buy GCB now?
It’s just an article about its uses and benefits. I’ve been using it for a year, it’s great. I love it.
Hard up? $300 in equivalent of cash is equal to 37500 miles bought during the annual PayAll promos. That’s what he’s getting per referral at the expense of his readers. You can’t deny that this offer is monumentally inferior to every single offer over the past years. This card has ALWAYS had an AF waiver along with good signup bonuses. This quarter’s offer is effectively just 15k miles which should be a HARD PASS but he’s making it seem like it’s a good offer. I just want him to be more honest. Not even a single sentence highlighting how bad… Read more »
I can tell you your facts are wrong. While I do receive an affiliate commission, it’s not nearly in the neighbourhood of $300. Offers change all the time. It’s interesting you talk about honesty- all the past articles are up for anyone who’s willing to do their homework and compare. All the same Sir, thanks for reading, and take care. I believe the readers will be the ultimate judge of whether the stuff here is worthy of their time. And if you have concerns, well if you’re willing to meet in person for a drink to discuss them I’m always… Read more »
Wow. Pretending to extend an offer to discuss this further but then deciding to ban me from posting a follow up. Way to be the better man. Look Aaron. I’m more than happy to use your referral links for good offers. I’ve used a couple over the years. This offer is just plain rubbish and I expected more than you using the 55k offer in the heading without mentioning the AF is no onger waived. Unsuspecting users will just be comparing headlines when doing a search and be baited into thinking this is the best offer ever without realising that… Read more »
Ban from follow up? How so? Use contact us if you’d like to get in touch!
I don’t recall saying “best ever offer” anywhere…
Re:mgm, I don’t know what to tell you! Other than if you don’t want to believe me then you should get your resources from a more trusted source.
If you can’t read and decide for yourself you probably deserve to get the worst deals anyway.
$300 cash = 37500 miles? Your PayAll promo is 125mpd? Forget Milelion, bro I think you can be Milegod. Back to the original – he isn’t comparing against previous editions. He’s told you what the current offer is. The decision to get this card or not should not be contingent on what past offers were, simply because, past means they are not longer available. Just like you buy assets based on your own impression of existing and future benefits, not its historical price. I.e., this card has a great value proposition. That’s all, isn’t it? @Aaron I’m still commenting because… Read more »
thanks kai! good way of putting it.
0.8cpm for PayAll. Basic mathematics.
Anyway, I’ve always wanted to know is what’s the deal between Milelion and MainlyMiles. They always have the same topics but MM seems to put in more effort and push out less gimmicky promos.
If you feel the articles and information you’ve gained from the Milelion over the years have been useful and you’d like to express support, feel free to use the links in this article
We get the content and internet we’re willing to support!
Agree. He should be more honest like before…
Is the accor plus free stay every year per calendar year or membership year?
hi anyone can help me with this please
Free stay is per accorplus membership calender year….so depends on when you first activate your A+ in the amex portal
do note that pretty much nothing about the highflyer system is working at the moment (cannot transfer hf points to kf account, web client shows error messages for updating profile, etc, cannot enable mobile 2fa) emailing them also yields a “At this point of time, we are unable to advise on the timeline of the fix.”, if they do reply (was ignored via email for more than a week) there is also no other way to contact the highflyer team other than email, i managed to get a number to call from the pps club hotline but it rang into… Read more »
Im still having difficulty loggin into the account. may i ask wheres the website to log in? thx
Did they fix the dumpster fire of a portal yet? Or is that even planned? Anyone know?
Does anyone know how long it takes for amex to transfer the points to HF account? Points were deducted on 24th but as of 25th my krisflyer account has not been credited with the points yet. Thanks
If I only have 1 SME account for myself that means I can convert 150,000 miles for myself annually?
Btw, @aaron I am happy that there are affliates links and you get $ out of it in exchange for quality, accurate & up to date information.
thanks tim! you are limited to 30,000 miles per KF account. assuming it’s a family business, you could of course nominate wife/other family members as nominees and max out the 150,000 miles limit.
hi aaron,
is 55k considered part of the 30k limit per account we can transfer each year?
also, if we already have an existing accor membership, can we still get another one free with this card?
Hi Aaron,
1. Can I understand why it is recommended to use GrabPay Mastercard to pay for these bills (IRAS, mortgage, utilities, condo maintenance.. etc) rather than pay directly to the institution using the AMEX Highflyer credit on AXS? Do these categories not qualify for the 1.8mpd accrual?
2. Does anyone know if we are able to pay for DBS home loan using AXS? And does it have to be via GrabPay per question above?
Reason I ask is that GrabPay has an annual transaction limit of 30k. Thanks!