Which airline and hotel programmes can you transfer credit card points to?

While Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles are probably the two best-known frequent flyer programmes in Singapore, there’s a much bigger universe out there.

Cardholders can now transfer their points to 19 airline and five hotel loyalty programmes, a far cry from the scene when I first started collecting miles more than 10 years ago!

But not all partners represent good use of your hard-earned points, and with so many to choose from, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. In this guide, we’ll go through the important things to know about transfer partners, and how to get maximum value from your points.

Where can you transfer your credit card points?

Here’s a table summarising the various airline and hotel loyalty programmes available to cardholders in Singapore. 

Leading the pack is HSBC, with an impressive 17 airline and four hotel partners to choose from. These were previously only available to TravelOne Cardholders, but have now been rolled out to all HSBC cards. 

This replaces the previous leader Citibank, which has 10 airlines and one hotel partner. American Express is in third with eight airlines and two hotel partners, then OCBC with six airlines and three hotel partners.

Outside the “big 4”, the rest of the banks are largely the same. All offer KrisFlyer and Asia Miles at a minimum, with airasia, Qantas and Malaysia Airlines making the occasional appearance.

There’s a few important things I want to highlight.

Not all transfer ratios are the same

For the majority of banks in Singapore, all airlines share the same transfer ratios. Not only does this make things simpler, it also means you can take the headline earn rate at face value. 

For example, when the Citi PremierMiles Card advertises 1.2 mpd on local spend, we know that it holds regardless of which of the 10 airline partners you choose, since they all share the same conversion ratio.

But when the HSBC TravelOne Card advertises 1.2 mpd on local spend, we need to take a step back and ask “for which programme?” Depending on which frequent flyer programme you transfer points to, the actual earn rate would be anywhere from 0.6-1.2 mpd!

Here’s a summary of the arrangement for each bank. 

There are two banks where the ratios are not uniform across programmes: HSBC and OCBC.

HSBC

✈️ HSBC Airline Partners
Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (HSBC : Partner)
	50,000 : 10,000
	40,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	30,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000

🏨 HSBC Hotel Partners
Hotel Programme	Conversion Ratio (HSBC Points : Partner)
	30,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 5,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000

OCBC

✈️ OCBC Airline Partners
Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (OCBC$ : Partner)
	25,000 : 10,000
	10,000 : 4,000
	10,000 : 3,600
	10,000 : 3,600
	10,000 : 2,900
	10,000 : 2,800

🏨 OCBC Hotel Partners
Hotel Programme	Conversion Ratio (OCBC$ : Partner)
	10,000 : 2,000
	10,000 : 4,000
	10,000 : 4,000

Minimum transfer amounts may be different

Even if a bank has the same transfer ratio for all partners, the minimum transfer amount may vary depending on partner.

There are three banks where the minimum transfer amounts differ across programmes: Bank of China, Maybank, and OCBC.

At Bank of China, the minimum transfer amounts are:

• 10,000 KrisFlyer miles
• 6,000 Asia Miles

At Maybank, the minimum transfer amounts are:

• 10,000 KrisFlyer miles
• 5,000 Asia Miles/Enrich Points

At OCBC, the minimum transfer amounts are:

• 10,000 KrisFlyer miles
• 4,000 FlyingBlue miles
• 3,600 British Airways Avios or Etihad Guest miles
• 2,900 Asia Miles
• 2,800 United MileagePlus miles

For all other banks, the minimum conversion amounts are the same regardless of partner.

British Airways and Qatar Airways are effectively the same

Both British Airways and Qatar Airways use Avios as their frequent flyer currency. Members can make free, instant 1:1 conversions between programmes. 

Therefore, if a bank offers British Airways Executive Club, it effectively offers Qatar Airways Privilege Club (and vice versa). Take note of this if you have a HSBC card, as it’d be silly to transfer points to Qatar Privilege Club at a 3.5:1 ratio when you could do it via British Airways Executive Club at a 2.5:1 ratio!

Not all miles are made the same!

At the risk of stating the obvious, 1 KrisFlyer mile is not worth the same as 1 Asia Miles is not worth the same as 1 Qatar Avios etc etc. Think of them as different currencies, each with their own rules, redemption partners, and award pricing.

These differences give rise to what we call “sweet spots”, routes where the price with one particular frequent flyer programme is much lower than others. 

For example, suppose I want to fly from Singapore to Bangkok in Business Class on Singapore Airlines. I could redeem this flight through:

Notice how the cost ranges from 20,000 to 50,000 miles, though you get exactly the same flight. To the extent that your credit card points can be converted at the same ratio to all programmes, you would of course want to pick the one with the lowest redemption costs!

It’s beyond the scope of this article to highlight all the sweet spots out there, suffice to say that understanding and finding these are key to stretching your miles.

Which alliance is the airline part of?

The benefit of transferring miles to a frequent flyer programme that’s part of an alliance is the ability to redeem them for flights on any member airline. For example, Asia Miles can be used  not just for Cathay Pacific flights, but for flights on oneworld partners like American Airlines and Qatar Airways.

Here’s a rundown of the three major airline alliances and their members.

Star Alliance
Aegean Airlines Air Canada Air China Air India Air New Zealand All Nippon Airways Asiana Austrian Airlines Avianca Brussels Airlines Copa Airlines Croatia Airlines EgyptAir	Ethiopian Airlines EVA Air LOT Polish Airlines Lufthansa SAS (leaving 1 Sep 24) Shenzhen Airlines Singapore Airlines South African Airways SWISS TAP Air Portugal THAI Airways Turkish Airlines United Airlines

oneworld
Alaska Airlines American Airlines British Airways Cathay Pacific Finnair Iberia Japan Airlines	Malaysia Airlines Oman Air (joining 2H 2024) Qantas Qatar Airways Royal Jordanian S7 Airlines SriLankan Airlines

SkyTeam
Aeroflot Aerolineas Argentinas Aeromexico Air Europa Air France ITA Airways China Airlines China Eastern Airlines Czech Airlines Delta	Garuda Kenya Airways KLM Korean Air Middle East Airlines SAS (joining 1 Sep 24) Saudia TAROM Vietnam Airlines Virgin Atlantic Xiamen Air

But there’s more than just the three main alliances. Frequent flyer programmes can also have non-alliance partners, where agreements are worked out bilaterally. For example, KrisFlyer members can also redeem miles for Alaska Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia and Vistara flights, despite the fact that none of them are part of Star Alliance. 

FFP	Non-Alliance Partners
	Alaska Airlines Malaysia Airlines Virgin Atlantic	Virgin Australia Vistara
	Air Canada Air China Air New Zealand Austrian Airlines Bangkok Airways Gulf Air	LATAM Lufthansa S7 Airlines Shenzhen Airlines SWISS
	Aer Lingus Air Nostrum Fiji Airways	Jetconnect QantasLink Sun-Air Vueling
	Air New Zealand Air Serbia Air Canada Air Europa Air France ANA American Airlines Asiana Brussels Airlines El Al Garuda	Gulf Air Hainan Airlines KLM Korean Air Malaysia Airlines Oman Air Royal Air Maroc Saudia SAS SriLankan Airlines Virgin Australia
	Air Canada Air Mauritius Azul Bangkok Airways Condor Copa Airlines easyJet GOL Japan Airlines	Jetstar Korean Air Malaysia Airlines Qantas S7 Airlines South African Airways TAP Air Portugal United Airlines
	Air Corsica Air Mauritius airBaltic Aircalin Bangkok Airways Chalair Copa Airlines Etihad	GOL Japan Airlines Malaysia Airlines Transavia Twin Jet WestJet Winair
	Air France Air New Zealand Air Tahiti Nui Aircalin Bangkok Airways China Airlines China Eastern El Al	Emirates IndiGo Jetstar KLM LATAM Solomon Airlines WestJet
	Bangkok Airways JetBlue LATAM MEA	Oman Air RwandAir Virgin Australia

Do note that partner awards may only be available on selected routes. For example, Asia Miles allows redemptions on SWISS, but only for flights between Zurich and Berlin, Brussels, Florence, Geneva, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Stuttgart, and Venice.

Moreover, you may not be able to book all partner awards online, so if you don’t see what you want on the website, try calling up customer service. 

Check the respective websites for the full details and restrictions.

A word about fuel surcharges

Fuel surcharges, for the uninitiated, are basically junk fees that airlines tack onto award tickets, in an attempt to squeeze some additional cash out of members. It’s an absurd concept if you think about it, kind of like going to a restaurant and having to pay an “ingredient surcharge”.

The good news is that Singapore Airlines no longer imposes fuel surcharges, ever since March 2017. The bad news is that KrisFlyer will continue to pass them on wherever applicable, and these can be substantial on carriers like Lufthansa.

Unfortunately, that’s the case for all the frequent flyer programmes available to cardholders in Singapore, with just two exceptions:

• United MileagePlus (for all awards)
• Qatar Privilege Club (For Qatar Airways flights only)

All you can do in that case is focus on redemptions on airlines with modest or no fuel surcharges, such as Finnair, Qantas (excluding departures from Europe) or United, or originate from countries that ban or regulate fuel surcharges such as:

• Australia
• Brazil
• Hong Kong
• New Zealand
• Philippines
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• Turkey
• Vietnam

Flights originating from these countries should have considerably lower fuel surcharges.

What about hotels?

You may have noticed that I’ve not addressed hotel loyalty programmes at all in this post. There’s a reason for that: it almost never makes sense to convert credit card points to hotel programmes.

For example, suppose you’re a Citi cardholder with 25,000 ThankYou points. You could convert that to 10,000 KrisFlyer miles, or 10,000 IHG points. I personally value a KrisFlyer mile at 1.5 cents, and an IHG point at 0.67 cents (since you can easily buy them at 0.5 cents when they go on sale). Therefore, by taking the IHG points, you’re taking a haircut of more than 50%!

Fundamentally, the problem can be summarised in two points:

• On a one to one basis, most hotel points are worth less than miles
• Most banks in Singapore offer the same conversion ratios to hotel points as airline miles

There have been some cases when I converted credit card points to hotel programmes, but they were almost always exceptional. For example, I cashed out my entire StanChart X Card welcome bonus on Accor Live Limitless points, because of an excellent 100% transfer bonus offered at the start of COVID (giving me the equivalent of 3 cents per mile). Likewise, back in 2018 American Express offered a transfer bonus of 3 Hilton points per MR point, which was almost certainly an error. AMEX still honored it, however.

If you really want hotel points, you’re better off buying them when they go on sale.

Conclusion

KrisFlyer and Asia Miles are useful programmes, but you shouldn’t limit your horizons to just these two. Over the past few years we’ve seen banks adding more and more “exotic” partners to their rosters, which can open up great redemption opportunities.

Before you decide on yet another KrisFlyer or Asia Miles transfer, think about where you want to go, which programme offers best value for that particular route, transfer bonus opportunities, as well as alliance and non-alliance partners. It’s not always a straightforward exercise, but can be the difference between taking one free trip or several!

Which programmes do you usually transfer your credit card points to?