Amex PPS Club Credit Card

[Savage25]

Just redeemed one of the annual Amex PPS discounted awards today. BOM-xSIN-BKK//KUL-SIN(stopover)-BOM economy saver award for 14K miles (65% off 40K award). *

*SGD 388 in taxes/fuel surcharges

[SQFAN]

I thought you will travel monthly to Asia. Thus mileage usage for upgrade would be handy, right?

Just managed to upgrade one way LHR-SIN but middle seat in J. That was handy. Don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Got my vouchers in Feb and also had a similar deadline of June 08, let me know how it goes if you are able to get an extension.

Will write and complain ans post results here. AmEx and SQ Krisflyer seems disjointed and not customer focussed inthis respect. Grrr.

[SQFAN]

Received this from Krisflyer Membership Services :-

KrisFlyer Membership Number: XXXXXXXXXX

Dear XX XXXXX

Thank you for your letter dated 14 April 2008 regarding the American Express PPS Platinum Credit Card promotion.
Please be assured that we value your feedback regarding the time period you were given to utilise the promotion. We have brought this matter to the attention of the relevant department.

XX XXXXX, once again, thank you for taking the time to write to KrisFlyer Membership Services. It is through such feedback that KrisFlyer can improve its services and consistently meet your expectations.


Yours sincerely
XXXXXX XXX
Customer Service Executive
KrisFlyer Membership Services

Let us see if Krisflyer will follow up with a response to me. I bet they don't.

[SuperJonJon]

Received this from Krisflyer Membership Services :-



Let us see if Krisflyer will follow up with a response to me. I bet they don't.

They took over a month to give you a "standard reply"?

[SuperJonJon]

Just recieved a letter from Amex announcing that there is a promotion where S$1.00 earns 2 KF miles! Did not read in detail the terms and conditions.

[aerosmith]

There you go: www.americanexpress.com.sg/doublemiles

[milehighj]

Just recieved a letter from Amex announcing that there is a promotion where S$1.00 earns 2 KF miles! Did not read in detail the terms and conditions.

There you go: www.americanexpress.com.sg/doublemiles

Thanks for the info. Since the recent devaluation, I've effectively stopped using this card. Prefer to use the Citi Premier Miles which leaves open the option of converting to Asiamiles or Krisflyer.

[aerosmith]

Thanks for the info. Since the recent devaluation, I've effectively stopped using this card. Prefer to use the Citi Premier Miles which leaves open the option of converting to Asiamiles or Krisflyer.

I have both these credit cards. Though I am not happy with the huge redemption costs for B77W and A380 for a C seat and more likely to redeem a C seat with business saver rates, I still have vested interest in KrisFlyer miles though I am in the thick of PPS double dipping. Speaking for myself, it is a no brainer for me to use the PPS AMEX card should I be patronising those outlets in this promo between now and 15th Jan 2009. For non-promo outlets and after 15th Jan 2009, you guess it right, it's the Citi Premier Miles Visa Signature card. The earn factor difference between 2.0 and 1.2, to me, is huge and it outweighs the flexibility of converting the Citi miles to either SQ, CX, TG or NW FFP program.

[Kyo]

Do bear in mind if you are spending > 40k SGD, there's that huge 20k bonus miles on the Citi...

[aerosmith]

Do bear in mind if you are spending > 40k SGD, there's that huge 20k bonus miles on the Citi...

Irrelevant as a point of consideration with regard to this PPS AMEX promo as far as I am concerned and I will tell you why:

Citi Premier Miles Card, the threshold spending to max out the bonus miles is SGD50K (not SGD40K). Assuming you hit this spending level, at a factor of 1.2 you will get 60K miles. Plus the 20K bonus miles you get a total of 80K miles. Against the spending of SGD50K, the earn factor is only 1.6. And against the PPS AMEX promo of 2.0 earn factor, again it is a no brainer on which card to use should one patronise the PPS AMEX promo outlets.

Enjoy while it last.....

[Kyo]

aerosmith, on that point do allow me to kindly point out the *fine print* from the link you provided:

From now (my emphasis, 15th October 2008, see below) until 15th January 2009, all Cardmembers will enjoy a breakthrough offer of 2+ KrisFlyer miles for every dollar spent at over 1,000 participating outlets islandwide:
• Double KrisFlyer miles at Singapore Changi Airport Merchants and KrisShop • Double KrisFlyer miles at over 370 petrol stations • Double KrisFlyer miles at over 35 major supermarkets • Double KrisFlyer miles at over 200 health and wellness outlets • Double KrisFlyer miles at over 190 coffee outlets

1. Promotion is valid from 15 October 2008 to 15 January 2009 and open to American Express Singapore Airlines PPS Club Platinum Credit Cardmembers only. Promotion is valid for selected merchants in Singapore only. For Changi Airport, the offer is valid for all spend at card accepting shopping and dining locations as listed on www.americanexpress.com.sg/doublemiles. Participation of merchants is subject to change without prior notice to Cardmembers. Double KrisFlyer miles will be credited into Cardmember's account at the end of each month during the promotion period. Information is correct at the time of print.

One could surmise the following:

-You have 3 months from today (well, minus 6 days if you haven't already spent at the establishments participating) to exploit the earn factor of 2.0 on the Amex.
-With the Citi card, this 1.2 earn factor is for the entire 12 months. The 1.6 earn factor comes into play if you spend over $50,000 SGD (quite rightly pointed out with thanks!), this is also valid for the entire 12 months all of a sudden should you spend $50,000.
-A minimum spend of $4166.67 per month for 12 months is required in order to obtain the 1.6 earn factor (Calculator also available on the Citi website)
-You only obtain this 2.0 earn factor (remember, for only 3 months) when you patronise the establishments given. Whether this is a plus or minus depends on where you spend. As you rightly pointed out:

"should one patronise the PPS AMEX promo outlets."

I would suspect from a quick scan through the participating outlets, that it would be nigh impossible to spend *that* much within the 3 months, despite the 2.0 earn factor, with the other 9 months earning only 1.2.

The final conclusion about which card is better ultimately comes down to how much is charged to either card.

For those with an annual credit card spend above $50,000 SGD annually - with 12 months at 1.6 earn factor (on everything, not just participating establishments), the Citi card certainly holds its own.

For those not meeting the 1.6 earn factor (card spending sub-$50,000 SGD annually), it would be worth combining the Amex and the Citi to get 2.0 and 1.2 earn factors respectively over the next 3 months.


And lastly, two final points to confuse things even further ...

1) One has to take into account the opportunity cost that maybe a little additional spending to hit the $50,000 SGD mark may be necessary to get the 1.6 earn factor, especially if they are not far off (certainly the number of people spending $40,000-49,999 SGD annually would be exponentially higher), so they may want to divert a 2.0 earn factor even during the 3 months at those establishments over to the Citi card.
2) As milehighj pointed out: there is also the added flexibility to convert Citimiles to Krisflyer, TG ROP, NWA Worldperks and AsiaMiles, unlike the Amex which would only convert into KF miles.

[aerosmith]

Don't worry Kyo, this is all within the spirit of healthy forum discussion.

To reiterate, highlight and emphasizing my earlier points:

1. This is only applicable for spending from now till 15th Jan 2009 at those listed PPS AMEX promo outlets for this discussion.

2. If one's preference is for NW, TG or CX miles, then spending on Citi Premier Miles card is the way to go.

3. If one wants to have the flexibility of SQ, NW, TG or CX miles, then Citi card is also the way to go. But should one decide to convert to SQ miles at a later juncture, and he/she did spend at the PPS AMEX promo outlets during the promo period, then he/she will face the opportunity costs of not crediting to the PPS AMEX card (2.0 minus 1.6 or 1.5 or 1.4.....1.2).

4. The 1.6 factor (maximum) for Citi is for discussion purposes only. This factor will depreciate should you spend more. E.g. Should you spend SGD100K on Citi card, your earn factor will drop to 1.4, a case of diminishing marginal utility.

5. There is also a PPS AMEX promo/benefit where you will get a quasi 35K miles voucher, which I have excluded for the purpose of this analysis, but nonetheless a value/benefit for at least half of PPS AMEX card holders.

6. Then again, I would agree with you if one's Citi card anniversary year ends on 15th Jan 2009 for example, and he/she is at year-to-date spending of say SGD40K or above but below SGD50K, and based on incremental value-add, it is more worthwhile to go ahead and spend on Citi card at those PPS AMEX promo outlets as it will garner an additional 10K points once it hit the SGD50K spending mark.

7. Ceteris paribus, my opinion is if you are keen to get SQ miles, and till 15th Jan 2009, should you patronise any of those PPS AMEX promo outlets, it should be a pain-free decision to use PPS AMEX card over the Citi card. Because the next dollar you spend at these promo outlets on PPS AMEX earns you 2.0 (with no spending hurdle), while Citi earns you between 1.2 and 1.6 only (with spending hurdle).


And that's what I meant exactly when I end my previous post, "enjoy while it last" with this PPS AMEX double miles promo from now till 15th Jan 2009 by maximising miles earning on spending at those promo outlets.

[9V-JKL]

Here's a curveball for you number-crunchers. Unless I'm not reading right but is the AMEX promo limited to 35K miles bonus only under T&C point 3. So any spend above that would be rather "point-less"? (pun intended)

[Kyo]

9V-JKL, that will come into effect at some point, should one's card-spend be that high.

However, I do believe that based on this sentence, the voucher is a separate matter (anyone with the Amex, feel free to shed more light):

Double KrisFlyer miles will be credited into Cardmember's account at the end of each month during the promotion period. Information is correct at the time of print.

[aerosmith]

Here's a curveball for you number-crunchers. Unless I'm not reading right but is the AMEX promo limited to 35K miles bonus only under T&C point 3. So any spend above that would be rather "point-less"? (pun intended)

You will get this quasi 35K miles voucher when you renew your PPS AMEX card for another year, no spending requirement. This voucher works as a 50% discount towards your round trip economy class (only) redemption; or as a 50% discount towards your round-trip upgrade (from Y to C, or C to F).