American Express has kickstarted October by announcing a major refresh to all four cards in the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer cobrand card portfolio.
I’ve already covered the (mostly negative) changes to the AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend โ the fallout of which I’m sure we’ll be discussing more in the weeks to come โ so now I’m going to turn my attention to the AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card.
For what it’s worth, the changes to this entry-level blue card are relatively mild, and mostly relate to cuts in earn rate. And while no one likes to see that, I don’t think it changes the best use case for this card: bonus and banish.
 Summary: AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card Changes |
|
| New T&Cs | |
| โ New | โ Nerfed |
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card: New features
Earn 2 mpd on Scoot tickets
| Till 31 Oct 24 | From 1 Nov 24 | |
| Uncapped 2 mpd |
|
|
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Cardholders currently earn an uncapped 2 mpd all transactions made at:
- Singapore Airlines website
- Singapore Airlines mobile app
- KrisShop purchases onboard Singapore Airlines
- KrisShop purchases at krisshop.com
From 1 November 2024, the uncapped 2 mpd will also be extended to all transactions made via:
- Scoot website
- Scoot mobile app
It’s always been a weird quirk that Scoot was excluded from the 2 mpd earn rate, given that it’s part of the SIA Group, so at least that’s been rectified. But as I said over in the AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend, there’s no reason for you to use this card for Scoot, or any airline tickets in the first place, when there’s better alternatives out there.
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card: Nerfed features
FCY earn rate reduced to 1.1 mpd
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Cardholders currently earn 2 mpd on FCY spending, but only in June and December. This was one of the weakest value propositions on the entire market, and sadly, it hasn’t been addressed; in fact, it’s been made worse.
From 1 November 2024, the earn rate will be a standard 1.1 mpd year round, both for SGD and FCY spend.
I guess the consolation is that even at 2 mpd, there was no reason to use the AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card for FCY spending given all the alternatives, but still…
Grab earn rate reduced to 2 mpd
| Till 31 Oct 24 | From 1 Nov 24 | |
| Grab Earn Rate | 3.1 mpd | 2 mpd |
| Cap | S$200 per c. month | S$200 per c. month |
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Cardholders currently earn 3.1 mpd the first S$200 spent with Grab per calendar month, excluding GrabPay top-ups.
From 1 November 2024, the earn rate will be reduced to 2 mpd, with the monthly cap remaining the same. All spending beyond this cap will earn 1.1 mpd.
Am I sounding like a broken record if I say again that the AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card was never the right card to use for Grab anyway, with plenty of 4 mpd alternatives available?
500 bonus miles for telco bill payments removed
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Cardholders currently receive a one-time bonus of 500 miles when they make their first recurring bill payment at Singtel, Starhub, M1, Circles.Life or MyRepublic. This will no longer be awarded from 1 November 2024.
While 500 free miles is always nice, the one-time nature of the bonus means I doubt many will notice its absence.
What’s my take on the changes?
While there’s a few things here to digest, when we get down to brass tacks, I don’t think a whole lot has changed.
The AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card is still a card you get for its welcome offer, then never spend on again unless an attractive AMEX Offer comes along. If AMEX waives the annual fee for your second year, keep it. If not, wave goodbye- you haven’t lost anything.
| โ Should I cancel the card to reset my new-to-bank status? |
|
Unlike other card issuers, which generally only consider you new-to-bank if it’s been at least 12 months since you cancelled your last principal credit card. American Express has no timeout period at the time of writing. For example, if I only hold the AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card, I could cancel it today, and next week apply for an AMEX Platinum Credit Card and enjoy the new customer welcome offer. |
For example, earlier this year we saw an amazing welcome offer for the AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card: 29,450 bonus miles with just S$500 spend. I don’t know about you, but that’s a deal I’d take any day of the week.
| AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card First year free |
|
| Apply Here |
|
| New-to-AMEX | |
| First Spend | 5,000 miles |
| Spend S$1,000 (First 30 days) |
10,900 miles + S$50 eCV |
| Base Miles from S$1,000 (@ 1.1 mpd) |
1,100 miles |
| Total Spend | S$1,000 |
| Total Miles | 17,000 miles + S$50 eCV |
As for right now, the current offer features up to 15,900 bonus miles and a S$50 eCapitaVoucher with a minimum spend of S$1,000. It’s still a decent deal in and of itself, given that there’s no need to pay the first year’s fee, but either way you don’t want to be putting a further dollar of spend on this card beyond that first S$1,000.
Conclusion
The AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card will be seeing some changes from 1 November 2024, which adds 2 mpd on Scoot tickets, at the expense of reduced overseas and Grab earn rates, and the loss of its one-time 500 miles bonus on recurring telco payments.
Even though the changes are mostly negative, they don’t bother me all that much because this was never a good card to use for spending- at least not beyond the welcome offer period.
It just feels like a wasted opportunity for American Express to make the value proposition more compelling, because this card badly needs it.
Do you happen to know if you are considered new to bank if you only hold the highflyer card?