Pelago offering year-round 3 mpd on bookings, plus bonus 25 mpd for new users

In case you haven’t heard of Pelago, it’s Singapore Airlines’ version of Klook or KKday, an activities booking platform offering almost 8,000 experiences, attraction tickets and tours in Singapore and overseas.

Pelago has launched a new quarterly rewards programme called Miles Rush Week, the first edition of which runs from 28 June to 4 July 2023.

As part of this promotion, new users can enjoy a bonus of 25 miles per S$1 spent on Pelago, though it’s capped at a maximum spend of just S$100.

In addition to this, the year-round earn rate for Pelago has been upsized to 3 mpd for both new and existing users, compared to 1 mpd previously. Making Pelago bookings with the right credit card will earn you a bonus 4-6 mpd, for a total earn rate of up to 9 mpd. 

With Singapore Airlines having ended its partnerships with rival platforms Klook and KKday, Pelago is now the only activities booking platform to award miles (though you can obviously earn credit card miles on all three platforms).

Pelago offering 3 mpd on all bookings

Pelago

From 28 June 2023 onwards, Pelago has tripled its year-round earn rate on all bookings to 3 KrisFlyer miles per S$1 (previously 1 mile per S$1). 

This applies to any activity booked on the platform, although at the time of writing the website has yet to be updated and still reflects the previous 1 mpd rate.

Miles will be automatically credited to your KrisFlyer account up to one week after completing the booked experience. 

For miles to be credited:

• your KrisFlyer membership number must be reflected on the booking details page
• Your Pelago booking must be made under your name as it appears in the KrisFlyer membership records

In other words, you can’t earn miles on bookings made for other people.

KrisFlyer miles will be awarded on the final amount paid for Pelago bookings (including taxes), after eligible discounts have been applied. 

Up to 2,500 bonus miles for new users

As part of Miles Rush Week, new Pelago users will enjoy 25 mpd on their first booking. That sounds like an incredible earn rate, but it’s capped at just S$100. 

In any case, this is on top of the usual 3 mpd earn rate, so a new user who books an activity costing S$200 would earn 3,100 miles, broken down as follows:

• 2,500 bonus miles (S$100 x 25 mpd)
• 600 base miles (S$200 x 3 mpd)

In order to receive the bonus miles, your activity must be booked via this link between 28 June and 4 July 2023, and completed before 1 October 2023. Bonus miles (i.e. the 25 mpd) will be credited by 30 November 2023.

The terms and conditions for this offer can be found here.

Redeeming KrisFlyer miles on Pelago

KrisFlyer members can normally redeem miles on Pelago at a rate of 150 miles= S$1, but from now till 14 July 2023, the rate has been upsized to 120 miles= S$1. 

This values 1 mile at 0.83 cents — certainly better than the usual 0.67 cents rate — but still suboptimal compared to a flight redemption.

To make matters worse, Pelago takes an all or nothing approach to redemption. You must pay the entire amount with KrisFlyer miles; there’s no option to mix cash and miles!

For example, suppose I want to buy an attraction ticket that costs S$48. At check-out, I can select KrisFlyer miles as my payment method, but the system forces me to pay the entire S$48 with 5,760 miles. 

This means that you couldn’t even use Pelago to selectively burn a small number of miles that are due to expire.

A few other things to note:

• Pelago bookings redeemed with KrisFlyer miles must be made under your name, or the name of one of your redemption nominees
• Pelago bookings redeemed with KrisFlyer miles can be cancelled, subject to the activity’s T&Cs. If so, miles will be refunded within two weeks. They’ll still have their original expiry date tagged to them, so you won’t be able to use this as a roundabout way of extending miles.

What card to use with Pelago?

Pelago transactions code as MCC 4722: Travel Agencies and Tour Operators, which means you can pay with the following cards to earn an additional 4-6 mpd. 

Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply	6 mpd	S$3K per calendar month. Must choose travel as 10X category Review
UOB Lady’s Card Apply	6 mpd	S$1K per calendar month. Must choose travel as 10X category Review
DBS Woman’s World Card Apply	4 mpd	S$2K per calendar month Review
HSBC Revolution Apply	4 mpd	S$1K per calendar month Review

Avoid using the Citi Rewards Card, as MCC 4722 is classified as a travel transaction and explicitly excluded from earning the bonus 4 mpd rate for online transactions.

No more miles with Klook or KKday

Back in November 2022, Singapore Airlines and Klook launched a partnership that allowed KrisFlyer members to earn 1 mile per S$1.40 spent (temporarily upsized to 2 miles per S$1.40 spent during the launch period).

This always felt like a rather ad-hoc arrangement, since certain categories were excluded, and miles could only be earned via the desktop site and not the Klook app. But with Klook’s wide range of activities, this was still a great feature to have. Unfortunately, Klook ended the partnership in May 2023. 

Similarly, Singapore Airlines used to have a partnership with KKday which offered 2 miles per US$1 spent, but this was also ended at some point (even though KKday is still shown as a partner on the SIA website).

This means that Pelago is the only option remaining for earning miles on activities, experiences and attraction tickets, and provided you can find something you like, why not take an extra 3 mpd while you’re at it? 

Conclusion

Pelago now offers a year-round 3 mpd earn rate on all bookings, which is stackable with a further 4-6 mpd by using the right credit card. If you’re a new user, you can also earn up to 25 mpd, though it’s capped at just S$100.

Pelago’s selection is steadily increasing, but still nowhere as big as Klook or KKday. Unfortunately, the latter two no longer partner with Singapore Airlines, so Pelago’s the only game in town now for earning miles on activities.