I’ve previously written about HeyMax, a fintech startup with ambitious plans to reshape the rewards ecosystem in Singapore.
HeyMax already provides a very useful MCC lookup tool, which though not 100% reliable is much faster to use than the alternatives. It also wants to launch a Max Card that automatically routes each purchase to the highest-earning option.
๐ 1,000 Max Miles joining bonus |
Sign up for a HeyMax account and get up to 1,000 Max Miles as a welcome bonus |
1,000 bonus Max Miles |
While I highly doubt the Max Card will ever see the light of day (at least not in its original form, since Visa is never going to let you route transactions via Mastercard and vice versa), a much more viable product is the Max Shopping Portal, which is basically ShopBack but with miles and points instead of cashback (think of it as the spiritual successor to the now-defunct Rebate Mango).
Whenever you buy vouchers, shop online or purchase insurance policies via the Max Shopping Portal, you earn Max Miles, HeyMax’s own non-expiring rewards currency. In this post, we’ll look at the various redemption options available for Max Miles, and which ones I’d choose.
Airline and hotel points conversions
Max Miles can be transferred to 26 airline and hotel loyalty programmes at a 1:1 ratio, without any fees.
Airline and hotel partners can be grouped into two categories: direct points transfer partners, and cash-for-miles.
Direct Points Transfer Partners | Cash-For-Miles | |
Minimum Conversion | 1,000 Max Miles | 10,000 Max Miles |
Conversion Blocks | 100 Max Miles = 100 partner points or miles | 1,000 Max Miles = 1,000 partner points or miles |
Number of Partners | 14 | 11 |
Transfer Fees | None | None |
Direct Points Transfer Partners
โ๏ธ HeyMax Direct Points Transfers | |
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Direct Points Transfer Partners are the simplest to understand, because these work just like regular credit card points transfers.
Simply login to your HeyMax account, visit the points transfer portal, choose the programme, and enter the number of Max Miles you wish to transfer in increments of 100 (with a minimum redemption of 1,000 Max Miles).
Points will then be deposited directly into your loyalty account, which can take anywhere from 1-21 business days depending on partner.
Partner | Processing Time |
Air Canada Aeroplan | Up to 1 business day |
Airasia Rewards | Up to 1 business day |
Avianca LifeMiles | Up to 1 business day |
British Airways Executive Club | Up to 1 business day |
Club Vistara | Up to 1 business day |
Etihad Guest | Up to 1 business day |
Flying Blue | Up to 1 business day |
Qantas Frequent Flyer | Up to 1 business day |
Qatar Privilege Club | Up to 1 business day |
Shangri-La Circle | Up to 1 business day |
THAI Royal Orchid Plus | Up to 1 business day |
Turkish Miles&Smiles | Up to 1 business day |
Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club | Up to 5 business days |
JAL Mileage Bank | Up to 21 business days |
HeyMax partners with Ascenda Loyalty to power most of its points transfers, and so I’m fairly confident that all the partners quoted as “up to 1 business day” are actually processed instantly, since there’s a direct API connection.
Cash-for-miles
โ๏ธ HeyMax Cash-for-Miles | |
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Cash-for-miles is slightly more complicated. If you choose this option, you’ll fill out a manual form and HeyMax customer service will get in touch with you via email to process the transaction.
This involves them issuing a single-use virtual Visa debit card, which you’ll use to purchase the miles or points yourself via the programme’s official portal.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: what’s stopping me from taking that card and spending the money on booze and drugs, or cashing it out via GrabPay? Well, HeyMax has set controls on the backend so that the card will only work at the merchant’s points purchase portal. Using it anywhere else will result in a failed transaction.
Do note that all purchases are subject to the individual programme’s rules and regulations, including annual purchase caps (for example, World of Hyatt only allows members to buy a maximum of 55,000 points pre-bonus each calendar year). HeyMax does not track this from their side, so it’s possible that your requested cash-for-miles transfer can’t be processed properly. In that case you’ll need to get in touch with HeyMax customer service to sort things out.
Points purchased via the programmes’ official portals are normally credited instantly to your account, but Points.com has a policy to hold all purchases with a new card number for at least 24 hours for fraud verification. And since every virtual Visa debit card HeyMax issues is new, you’ll need to wait for that process to finish, which in my experience takes 48-72 hours.
Which programme should you choose?
Not all points currencies are made equal, and the fact that all HeyMax partners share the same conversion ratio means there’ll be some which are great options, and others which are terrible ones.
I personally see Max Miles as a way of accessing “exotic” loyalty programmes that don’t partner with any credit card in Singapore (e.g. Alaska Mileage Plan, Avianca LifeMiles, World of Hyatt), or which do, but with conversion ratios that leave a lot to be desired (e.g. Air Canada Aeroplan, JAL Mileage Bank).
Put it another way, it feels a bit wasteful to convert Max Miles to programmes that I could already access at reasonable conversion ratios via credit cards.
But this assumes you can accumulate a critical mass of miles or points to make the whole exercise worthwhile; there’s no point in having 5,000 orphan Aeroplan points, for instance. So unless you’re willing to buy miles, or credit revenue flights to these programmes, it might not be the best option for you.
In that case, there’s no shame in sticking to programmes like:
- Qatar Privilege Club (Singapore to Europe in Business from 70,000-75,000 miles, to USA for 95,000 miles, to Koh Samui in Economy from 6,000 miles)
- Flying Blue (Singapore to Europe in Business from 70,000 miles)
Either way, I would strongly advise you against converting Max Miles to the following programmes:
- Airasia Rewards
- Club Vistara
- Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings
- Frontier Miles
- THAI Royal Orchid Plus
- Velocity Frequent Flyer
These represent poor value for various reasons, such as affiliation with a budget carrier, lack of alliance partners, or dynamic award pricing.
I would also advise against converting Max Miles to hotel programmes like Marriott Bonvoy or IHG One Rewards, because these points often go on sale where you can buy them cheaper. For instance, Marriott Bonvoy points can be bought at 0.9 US cents and IHG One Rewards points at 0.5 US cents each during sales, so you’re receiving relatively low value compared to airline miles.
There’s one exception: World of Hyatt, where the per point value is significantly higher. I personally decided to exchange my Max Miles for World of Hyatt points, since I’d normally be paying 1.8+ US cents to buy these during points sales otherwise.
Other transfer options
For the sake of completeness, I should mention the other redemptions that HeyMax offers- with the caveat that they’re all poor value and better off ignored.
Gift cards
Max Miles can be exchanged for gift cards with Amazon, Deliveroo, Grab, Lazada, TANGS and many more merchants at a fixed rate of 100 Max Miles= S$1 (with a minimum redemption of 1,000 Max Miles).
Unless you value your miles at less than 1 cent apiece (in which case, why are you even playing the miles game?), this is an option to avoid. There isn’t even an argument to be made for clearing out orphan miles, since the minimum redemption of 1,000 Max Miles is the same as that for Direct Points Transfer Partners.
Book flights and hotels
Max Miles can be used to pay for flight or hotel bookings made via the HeyMax rewards portal. This works just like a regular OTA, where you enter your route/city and dates, then hit search.
From what I can see, the value of Max Miles when used to book flights or hotels is roughly 0.90 cents apiece, which again isn’t great. Use your miles instead for airline miles or hotel points.
Conclusion
๐ 1,000 Max Miles joining bonus |
Sign up for a HeyMax account and get up to 1,000 Max Miles as a welcome bonus |
1,000 bonus Max Miles |
Making purchases via the Max Shopping Portal earns you Max Miles, which can be redeemed for miles or points with 26 airline and hotel partners. All share the same 1:1 ratio, which means there’s great value to be found (and terrible value to be avoided!).
I’ve been cashing out my Max Miles for World of Hyatt points so far, and am quite pleased with the process. Maybe we’ll never get the Max Card, but a reincarnation of Rebate Mango is a good consolation prize.
What are you cashing out your Max Miles for?
I’ve been having some trouble buying vouchers – seems like a Fave problem. Anyone facing the same?
Sorry about that experience. We’re actively working on adding more options to smooth out the process. Please allow us to help fix. Could you send me an email (joe@) or use the customer support chat in the heymax.ai app directly Thanks
The idea sounds great in theory but the reality so far is that it’s just a ridiculous slog to build up any kind of critical mass in Max miles to use them meaningfully with the exotic partners ๐
yes, you’d have to supplement via buying miles or crediting other flights to the particular programme.
I hear you man. We are working on many fronts to make the earning velocity stands out. One way we are doing this is by partnership with partners like SingSaver, PAL to put Max Miles everywhere. For many businesses they do see the value of giving customers an open loop, customer-centric loyalty point instead of a proprietary one to lock them in. I think this is a great trend going forward. This allows customers to enjoy one big pool of points instead of fragmented points… let us fight on your behalf!
Good stuff Joe! Happy to hear, good luck fighting the good fight! Looking forward to more exciting stuff from heymax then!
And also some merchants like Agoda takes 3 months for the max miles to realise. Which is an age to say the least!๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ
I’ve had a mixed record of having my purchases correctly tracked by the Max Shopping Portal. Notably, I still have missing miles for a purchase of over $10k worth of air tickets on Qatar after over a month. So for anyone thinking of making big purchases via Max, I’d suggest some caution.
Super sorry to hear that experience Bayle! Sometimes we have to raise the issue directly with the merchant like Qatar Airways to track the missing Max Miles and they take some time to get back to us. Weโre working on better tools and ways you can guarantee you earn the Max Miles youโre seeking after a purchase. Can you please reach out to customer support on the heymax app so we can trace down your missing Max Miles? Thanks!
i’ve been waiting for a reply about my missing miles from heymax since january 2024 and the same reply given from calvin “As soon as this process is successful after the next few weeks, Max Miles will be credited into your heymax account.”
Hi, Iโm sorry you havenโt received your Max Miles yet. Weโre working on beefing up our customer support experience so we can resolve your queries better & faster! Can you please reach out to me at vinit@heymax.ai or customer support on the heymax app so we can get back to you on your Max Miles from your purchase? Thank you!
I’ve also had issues with receiving missing miles that heymax has been tracking and supposedly in contact with the merchant. They tell me that no favorable reply has been received from the merchant, but the merchant tells me that have actively reached out to heymax. I wonder if there is any real intent and effort in awarding these missing miles.
Signed up since Oct’23, still in waiting list and haven’t gotten the card….
I’m working to furnish my new place and have been trying to find ways to maximize miles on 5712 MCC (Furniture…). So I used Max with UOB LadyโFashion, as their vouchers are under Department Stores MCC. This way, I have managed to get bonus UNI$ for IKEA vouchers.