The Westpac American Express Singapore airlines card is ending 4th April 2018.
Would appreciate any suggestions on which card I should go for (AMEX or otherwise) that would earn points towards Krisflyer.
Thanks in advance.
End of Westpac Singapore Airlines AMEX card- Where to next for earning Krisflyer points
GammaMelb on 23/03/2018 - 17:24
Comments
The AmEx Platinum Edge Credit Card (or AmEx Platinum Charge Card) will convert Membership Rewards Ascent (or Membership Rewards Ascent Premium) points at a 1:1 ratio to SQ KrisFlyer points.
The AmEx Explorer (or AmEx Essential) Credit Cards will convert Membership Rewards Gateway points at a 1:0.75 ratio to SQ KrisFlyer points.
With some work, you can get the Explorer to earn 2 KF points per dollar.
Can you give a short explanation on how to maximise the KF points? I am considering the death of the bank AMEX as an excuse to move to the Amex program instead of Qantas FF.
I'm interested in any comments on this, as I find looking through the point hack and businessflyer sites hard work, as they assume a fairly high level of knowledge and aren't particularly friendly!Sure.
The Explorer is linked to the Gateway program, and earns a rate of 2 Gateway points per dollar spent (except for government spend). A nice aside to this is that it is the only AmEx card I know of that earns this rate for utilities, as all other cards say "except for utilities and government spend".
Now the problem with the Gateway program is that it transfers to airline FF programs such as SQ's KF at a rate of 4:3 (that is, 0.75 FF per dollar of spend). So effectively, each dollar of spend is earning you 1.5 FF points.
However, if you also hold a card that earns into the Ascent (or even Ascent Premium) program, these programs convert to airline FF programs at a much better 1:1 rate. An example of an Ascent earning card is the Platinum Edge, and the Platinum Charge card earns into Ascent Premium.
What you can do, is apply for the Explorer card, collect the bonus points on the minimum spend, then apply for the Platinum Edge. After you activate your Platinum Edge, you simply call up AmEx Customer Care and request that the points earn of your Explorer card to be linked to your Platinum Edge card's Ascent program (please do note though that people have had varying levels of success with this, sometimes it takes one call, sometimes ten. My experience was slightly different (see below paragraph). This means that you will now earn 2 Ascent points per dollar, and therefore 2 KF points per dollar, compared to the previous 1.5 KF points per dollar. If you spend a lot, that extra 0.5 point per dollar makes a huge difference. Not to mention the added travel credits too!
My pathway was different, though. My first AmEx was a Platinum Edge that I obtained a while ago due to the first year being free (it was a promo). This therefore made me an existing AmEx customer, which meant that my quest for any signon bonuses was thwarted. So I applied for the Explorer using the same user account that my Platinum Edge was housed in, which meant that the "linking" happened automatically and I didn't have to call up for this! So now I'm comfortably earning 2 Ascent points per dollar of spend (and hence 2 KF points).
I hope that explains it a bit better?
Its actually 1.33 FF points per dollar for the Amex Explorer Gateway program. 1/0.75 is 1.33
Check it this way:
4 Gateway points give 3 FF points (the stated AmEx rate).
Divide both sides by 2 to get:
2 Gateway points give 1.5 FF points.
Given that 1 dollar of spend gives you 2 Gateway points, then because "2 Gateway points give 1.5 FF points", this means that 1 dollar of spend gives you 1.5 FF points.I hope that clears it up?
Lol damn it thought I could trip up MathNerd! failed! I completely forgot about the 2 points earned per dollar lol…. Thanks for clearing up mate! Now to mop up the mess I made :p
Citibank visa and Anz visa can also transfer points to krisflyer directly. The point earn rate is not as good as amex but they are visa cards so more places accepted.
If you make more than 150k per year you can apply the top level citibank prestige visa card which gives you 3 points per dollar spend. It can be a nice card for krisflyer.
Amex direct reward point can be converted 1:1 so an Amex direct issued card could be an option for you.