2024 MileLion awards: Announcing the winners!

2024 may be over, but there’s still time to hand out a few pointless awards, selected in secrecy based on an arbitrary set of criteria, in a self-congratulatory and overproduced ceremony.

No, not the Oscars. I’m talking, of course, about The First Annual MileLion Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence (maybe we’ll just call it The Mileys for short). These honours, which I hold to be just as prestigious as anything dished out by Skytrax, seek to recognise the best (and not-so-best) of the miles and points game in Singapore.

Please keep your acceptance speeches brief, and avoid jokes about alopecia.

Buff of the year award

🏆 Winner: DBS yuu Card

Honorable mention: The OCBC Rewards Card received a 6 mpd buff for department stores in April 2024, which has been extended all the way till 30 June 2025. Pair this with Heymax vouchers, and you can earn 6 mpd on most of your expenses, capped at S$1,000 per month.

The DBS yuu Card, by any measure, had a sensational year.

In February 2024, its 18% rebates at yuu merchants were extended indefinitely, and then in September 2024, a new partnership with KrisFlyer turned it into a 10 mpd card. That’s right- 10 mpd at Cold Storage, Giant, Guardian, gojek, foodpanda, and any other yuu merchant. 

It’s anyone’s guess as to how long this can continue because, at the risk of stating the obvious, 18%/10 mpd is not sustainable. But hey, worry about that when it happens, right? For the moment, relish in the fact that the DBS yuu Card offers unbeatable value, at least within the yuu ecosystem. 

Nerf of the year award: HSBC Revolution

🏆 Winner: HSBC Revolution

Honorable mention: AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend, which in November 2024 removed its airport lounge visits, nerfed its already poor earn rates, added complicated Miles Redemption Vouchers that no one asked for, and raised its annual fee to S$397.85

If 2024 were a boxing match for the HSBC Revolution, the referee would have stopped the fight a long time ago.

I mean, just look at this carnage:

It’s not like 2025 is going to bring much relief either, because from 1 January, MCCs 3000-3299 & 4511 (Airlines), MCCs 3300-3499 (Car Rental), MCCs 3500-3999 (Lodging) and MCC 4411 (Cruise Lines) have all been removed from the bonus whitelist. Oh, and KrisFlyer transfers will be devalued from 16 January 2025, and complimentary travel insurance removed from 1 April 2025.

Some will argue that so long as MCC 5311 (Department Stores) remains a bonus category, there’s still an opportunity to make hay with the HSBC Revolution, via Heymax vouchers. But that argument only holds if you’re looking to earn miles with frequent flyer programmes other than KrisFlyer, given the impending devaluation.

If you want to earn KrisFlyer miles, this card is pretty much dead to you.

Promo of the year award: American Express

🏆 Winner: American Express

Honorable mention: American Express had another excellent acquisition offer in February 2024 for the AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card, where you could get 30,000 miles for just S$500 spend. Sensational stuff.

The general rule when it comes to welcome offers is that new customers have all the fun, and existing customers should count their lucky stars if they get so much as a fee waiver.

But for a couple of months in 2024, American Express flipped the script by extending its new customer bonuses to existing cardholders as well. This was a great opportunity to pick up an AMEX Platinum Charge or AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend, so hopefully you managed to take advantage of it!

Fail of the year award: DCS Imperium

🏆 Winner: DCS Imperium

Honorable mention: MyMillennnium, the hapless loyalty programme of Millennium Hotels and Resorts, who in the space of five years have gone from three tiers to one tier, to two tiers, to three tiers again!

What’s that, DCS? You want to launch an ultra-luxe, invite-only metal card and charge a S$3,583.92 annual fee?

Well, what benefits does it offer?

100,000 miles? That’s a good start, but worth less than half the annual fee.

Five airport limo rides with no minimum spend? OK, keep going.

Six airport lounge visits? Great! I won’t need to embarrass myself by getting a much cheaper $120K card with unlimited access.

Free access to the Crisis24 portal? Now you’re talking! Where else would I find advice on how to wash my hands properly, or overcome jetlag, or how to stay safe on a cruise (actual tip: apply all pool safety measures you’d apply on land)?

Personalised card number? Awesome! Finally, a card that cares about my tetraphobia.

Generic World Elite Mastercard benefits? Woohoo! That will save me the trouble of opening a HSBC Premier or OCBC Premier account and getting them for free!

It appears that the Imperium’s business model is to dress up a generic World Elite Mastercard with a few additional benefits, sell it in the neighbourhood of a DBS Insignia or UOB Reserve, and hope no one notices. 

All I can say is good luck with that!

“How is this legal?!” award: Trust Cashback Card

🏆 Winner: Trust Cashback Card

Honorable mention: The Airasia Unlimited ASEAN Pass, which costs S$388 and offers “unlimited”  international travel between selected countries. The catch? You still need to pay taxes and surcharges, flights must be booked 14 days in advance, blackout dates apply, maximum two bookings at a time, all free seats “subject to availability”. Needless to say, people are unhappy.

Trust Bank loves to pat itself on the back for “transparency and simplicity”, so why is its new Trust Cashback Card so shady?

Trust tells cardholders that they can earn up to 15% cashback with the Trust Cashback Card— only they can’t:

• To earn 15% cashback, you must spend at least S$6,000 per quarter
• Of this S$6,000, only the first S$1,667 is rewarded at 15%
• The remaining S$4,333 is rewarded at 0-1% cashback
• Your real-world cashback is 4.2-4.9%. Earning 15% is mathematically impossible!

In other words, the minimum spend required to earn the advertised cashback rate is far in excess of the cashback cap.

This is conceptually similar to launching a miles card and advertising a 100 mpd rate, and in the fine print saying:

• Minimum spend of S$1,000 per month required
• Bonus capped at 500 miles
• 1 mpd after the cap is reached

You earn 100 mpd, sure…on the first S$5. The remaining S$995, which you must spend in order to enjoy the 100 mpd rate, is awarded at 1 mpd, making your real-world earn rate 1.5 mpd. 

To make things even dodgier, Trust chooses to present the spending on a monthly basis, and the cashback on a quarterly basis. It even feels the need to artificially inflate the cashback rate by adding “Savings” to the figure, when the average customer may have no use for those deals.

Guys, if you want to play it that way, why not offer 1% off at Tiffany’s and come up with savings of S$10,000, based on an assumed purchase of S$1,000,000? It’d be easier.

Distrust: Trust Bank’s misleading new cashback card

Heart attack of the year award: Citi Rewards x Amaze

🏆 Winner: Citi Rewards x Amaze

Honorable mention: DBS adding CardUp and ipaymy to its rewards exclusion list one fine morning…then reversing the move shortly after.

In January 2024, panic ensued when Amaze transactions stopped earning bonus points with the Citi Rewards Card. 

This affected all kinds of transactions, regardless of the underlying MCC: Atome, dining, duty free, shopping, you name it. It even seemed to affect MCCs that were on the Citi Rewards whitelist, like clothes and department stores.

Several theories were put forward, from the obvious Citi nerf, to Amaze no longer converting offline transactions into online ones. Anyway, five days later the missing points started showing up, which means the Citi x Amaze combination survives…but for how long?

Goodnight sweet prince award: XNAP

🏆 Winner: XNAP

Honorable mention: The GrabPay Mastercard kicked the bucket in June 2024, and while it had long faded to irrelevance, I’ll always fondly remember the heady times of GrabPay-AXS-HighFlyer.

Ah, XNAP. This nifty little app allowed you to pay with credit cards at QR-only merchants, making 4 mpd at wet markets and hawker stalls a reality. 

But in April 2024, XNAP just plain stopped working. A notification about “maintenance” was posted to the website, attempts to reach customer service were unsuccessful, and the XNAP Facebook page taken down. 

Rumours that the app would relaunch later in the year in a new incarnation never materialised, and with its departure, AMEX Pay and Shopback Pay are your best bet. 

Glitch of the year award: Flying Blue

🏆 Winner: Flying Blue

Honorable mention: World of Hyatt accidentally offered a 36% discount on points in February 2024, due to an error where they applied the 20% discount twice. This reduced the cost per point to 1.54 US cents each, well below the usual sales price.

Flying Blue’s dynamic pricing model usually results in some ridiculously priced awards— but sometimes, the ridiculousness can work in your favour. 

On Christmas day, members spotted that short-haul awards were pricing at incredibly low rates. You could fly between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur for 2,000/5,000 miles in Economy/Business, or book Delta flights for 1,500/4,000 miles in Economy/First. 

This has to go down as the cheapest-ever way of scoring a oneworld lounge safari at Changi, and hopefully you didn’t sleep in that morning.

Hotel stay of the year award: Ritz-Carlton Perth

🏆 Winner: Ritz-Carlton Perth

Honorable mention: The Madi Padi Bangkok was another memorable stay in 2024, with beautiful design, a great breakfast spread, and very generous evening cocktails for Platinums and above.

In August 2024, I did a one-night stay at the Ritz-Carlton Perth together with the MileLioness and MileCub.

I booked the stay through the AMEX Fine Hotels & Resorts programme for S$444 nett, which came with breakfast, guaranteed 4 p.m check-out, and a US$100 hotel credit. Our room was upgraded to a suite with incredible views of Elizabeth Quay, the breakfast was excellent, the vitality pools in the spa hit the spot, and the MileCub was fussed over at every restaurant. 

It’s just a shame the swimming pool was closed during our visit (it was winter, after all), but I’d certainly return in a heartbeat.

Flight of the year award: Etihad Airways

🏆 Winner: Etihad Airways B787-9 Business Class

Honorable mention: Nothing comes to mind, honestly, as all my other flights in 2024 were rather run-of-the-mill stuff.

This year I had the opportunity to finally try Etihad’s Boeing 787-9 Business Class from Singapore to Abu Dhabi, and then onwards to Madrid. 

The experience didn’t disappoint. While this was the older generation seat, and not the new Collins Aerospace Elements that’s installed on newer planes, it was still in great condition. The seat lacked doors, but it was still very private and couple-friendly.

The Armani/Casa bedding was exquisitely comfortable, and I don’t think I’ve ever had as good a sleep on a plane before.

Both these flights were red-eye, and what I really appreciated was that the cabin lights were dimmed the entire time, even during meal service. Those who wanted to eat could simply turn on their own personal reading light, and those who wanted to snooze were able to do so without interference. It makes you wonder why Singapore Airlines insists on turning up the lights to full blast when meals are served!

Conclusion

So that’s a wrap on the first-ever Mileys! 10 awards, 10 very deserving recipients, and if you’re one of the winners, do reach out so I can send you a crayon-drawn certificate.

If there’s something else from 2024 you think is worthy of a nomination, or if you have ideas for new categories for 2025, feel free to share them!