Which MCCs are included in the UOB Lady’s Card “Travel” category?

UOB Lady’s Cardholders will earn 4 mpd on their choice of one or two bonus categories, including Beauty & Wellness, Dining, Entertainment, Family, Fashion, Transport and Travel.

Card	Bonus Categories	Bonus Cap
UOB Lady’s Card	1x	S$1,000 per c. month
UOB Lady’s Solitaire	2x	S$1,500 per c. month (S$750 per c. month per category)
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Metal Card	2x	S$2,000 per c. month

But Travel has always been a problematic category, because unlike the rest, UOB doesn’t provide a list of eligible MCCs in its T&Cs. Instead, Travel is simply defined as:

To make matters more confusing, the UOB Lady’s Card website defines travel as:

Travel comprises of airlines, hotels & resorts bookings and duty-free stores.

Note the mention of duty-free stores, which aren’t in the T&Cs. And if you look at the specific merchants listed on the website…

…all of a sudden we have cruise liners and travel agencies too! I’m not complaining — it’s good that the net is growing wider — but it makes the skimpy T&Cs all the more frustrating. Obviously, UOB must have an MCC list to refer to on their backend (how else would they award bonuses?), but for whatever reason, they’ve decided against publishing it.

Well, I was able to view the actual list back in 2023 (to the best of my knowledge it hasn’t changed since then), and based on that I’ve been able to piece together the following.

✔ Included in UOB Lady’s Card’s Travel category

Airlines (MCC 3000-3299, 4511, 4582)

UOB says that all “major airlines” will qualify for bonuses under the Travel category, and in one sense they’re correct because the following MCCs are included:

• MCC 3000-3299: Individual airlines like Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways etc.
• MCC 4511: Air Carriers Not Elsewhere Classified
• MCC 4582: Airports, Airport Terminals and Flying Fields

However, there are some exceptions.

First, technically speaking, not every single MCC within the 3000-3299 range is included. But this shouldn’t keep you up at night, because the excluded ones mostly relate to defunct airlines like Ansett (anyone remember them?), Pan American and Virgin America, or airlines I doubt you’d ever fly, like Zambia Airways and Sudan Airways.

Second, the airline MCC range actually runs from MCC 3000-3350. Fortunately, there are only five airlines which occupy this range (all the other MCCs are unused): 

• MCC 3300 Azul Brazilian Airlines
• MCC 3301 Wizz Air
• MCC 3302 Flybe (defunct)
• MCC 3303 Tigerair (still active in Taiwan)
• MCC 3308 China Southern

The main one to be careful of here is China Southern, because this omission has caught out more than a few people (though points were granted on appeal).

Cruise Liners (MCC 4411)

Cruise liners which code under MCC 4411 are included as part of the UOB Lady’s Card Travel category.

This includes Royal Caribbean International (mentioned explicitly on the UOB Lady’s Card website), Carnival Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Holland America, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Resorts World Cruises etc.

Duty-free Stores (MCC 5309)

Duty-free stores which code as MCC 5309 are included as part of the UOB Lady’s Card Travel category.

This includes DFS, Heinemann, KrisShop, Lotte, The Shilla Duty Free etc. Don’t forget- KrisShop often stocks the latest iPhone at launch, so a cardholder with the Travel category selected could earn 4 mpd on their purchase too (just that the price of iPhones now would easily burst the bonus cap!).

Hotels (MCC 3501-3999, 7011)

Hotels code as MCC 3501-3999 & 7011, and UOB says that all “major hotels” will qualify for bonuses.

Again, making reference to the MCC list I’ve seen, I can say the omitted MCCs mostly belong to chains that have gone out of business, or have been acquired by larger ones.

Perhaps the only exclusion worth flagging is MCC 3627 Extended Stay America, a budget chain with 650 locations across the USA and Canada. 

Airbnb transactions code under 7011 (and are explicitly mentioned on the UOB Lady’s Card website), so you will earn 4 mpd on this too.

Travel Agencies (MCC 4722)

Online & traditional travel agencies code as MCC 4722, and are included as part of the UOB Lady’s Card Travel category.

This includes Agoda, Expedia, Hotels.com and Klook (mentioned explicitly on the UOB Lady’s Card website), Booking.com, Trip.com, Kayak, Traveloka etc. It also covers Chan Brothers & EU Holidays (mentioned explicitly on the UOB Lady’s Card website), CTC Travel, Dynasty Travel, Nam Ho, New Shan Travel, SA Travel, WTS Travel etc.

✖ Not included in UOB Lady’s Card Travel category

I’ve listed some categories below that are often assumed to fall under Travel, but in fact do not.

Airport Transfers, Private Hire Cars, Taxis (MCC 4121)

Airport transfers, private hire cars and taxis code under MCC 4121, and are not included as part of the UOB Lady’s Card Travel category (it’s covered under the Transport category instead).

Bus Liners (MCC 4131)

Bus liners (e.g. Chuo Bus, FlixBus, Greyhound, MegaBus, Peter Pan) code under MCC 4131, and are not included as part of the UOB Lady’s Card Travel category.

Rental Cars (MCC 3351-3500, 7512)

Rental car companies (e.g. Avis, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz, Sixt) code as MCC 3351-3500 or 7512, and are not included as part of the UOB Lady’s Card Travel category.

Trains (MCC 4111, 4112)

Trains fall into two main MCCs:

• 4111 (Transportation-Suburban and Local Commuter Passenger)
• 4112 (Passenger Railways)

MCC 4111 is typically used for intra-city public transport (e.g. the local bus/MRT equivalent), and is not included under the UOB Lady’s Card’s Travel category (it’s covered under the Transport category instead).

MCC 4112 is typically used for inter-city trains (e.g. Shinkansen, Trenitalia, Eurostar), and is not included under the UOB Lady’s Card’s Travel category. 

How do you check the MCC?

When dealing with a big-ticket expense like travel, it’d definitely be a good idea to check the MCC before spending.

If you’re uncertain about the MCC, here are three ways you can check it before making a purchase.

For a detailed guide, refer to the following article.

How to check Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) before making a purchase

Full list of eligible MCCs

To recap, here is the full list of eligible MCCs covered under each of the UOB Lady’s Card’s bonus categories.

Frankly, it may be simpler to just select Fashion as your bonus category, since this includes MCC 5311, which is how HeyMax vouchers are coded. HeyMax sells vouchers spanning a wide range of categories, including shopping, transport, food delivery, travel, groceries, and electronics.

Sign up here
Airalo Amazon Best Denki Courts Deliveroo Foodpanda Giant Grab IKEA Isetan Klook Natureland NTUC FairPrice	Oddle Eats Pelago Pupsik Ryde Shein Shell Sheng Siong Sephora TADA TANGS Wine Connection ZALORA

For more thoughts on which bonus category to pick, refer to the following guide.

UOB Lady’s Cards: Which bonus categories should you choose?

Conclusion

While UOB does not provide an explicit MCC range for the Travel category, hopefully this article helps shed some light on which transactions do and do not earn bonuses. 

The tl;dr is:

Final note: while I welcome comments, there’s not much point asking “will merchant X earn bonuses”, because you can assume my answer will be “yes, if it falls under the relevant MCC”. 

It’s better to go find the MCC through one of the methods I’ve mentioned, then match it to the MCCs in this article.