My Miles & Credit Card Strategy for 2025, as a Singapore-based traveller

During the pandemic years, I made a major shift in my miles and credit card strategy.

Instead of focusing mainly on credit card earn rates (miles-per-dollar value), I started putting more weight on miles/points flexibility, when choosing the best cards to use for each spending category. This has paid off handsomely, as I’ve had little trouble finding award availability since then, even for last-minute trips!

Plus, I never had issues with expiring miles/points in the past 4 years!

What’s my Travel Pattern?

Obviously, your best miles and credit card strategy depends on your travel pattern (i.e. where, when and with how many people you usually travel with).

I fully understand what type of traveller I am:

• Travel mostly as a couple
• Very flexible with travel dates
• Prefer redeeming miles for Business/First Class, on flights over 4 hours
• Enjoy trying out Business/First Class products from different airlines
• Perfectly fine travelling with low-cost carriers on flights under 4 hours
• Okay with travelling on non-direct flights (max. 1 layover, up to 5 hours)
• Okay with repositioning to a neighbouring city, where there is award availability
• Okay with paying for fuel surcharges, if the amount of miles saved is justified

Related: What Type of Traveller are you? Is your Travel Pattern a Good Fit for the Miles Game?

Why did I change my Miles strategy?

Prior to the year 2020, the “standard” Miles strategy was pretty straightforward: First, you’d pick the credit cards offering the highest earn rates for each spending category. Then, you’d transfer them to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, before redeeming them for a Singapore Airlines Business or First Class flight to a preferred destination.

So, why did I move away from this “cookie-cutter” miles strategy? The reason was actually really simple: Business and First Class seats were never meant for mainstream travel.

Over the past 4 to 5 years, we saw a huge increase in interest on award travel, and travel-hacking in general. As such, there are many more people “fighting” for the same number of Business/First Class seats, leading to shortage of award availability.

Besides, as compared to KrisFlyer, other FFPs require substantially fewer miles to/from popular regions like Europe, Japan and South Korea.

It’s unfair to expect airlines to accommodate to the increase in demand for premium award seats, as they want to sell them for as much as possible; these are for-profit businesses after all!

Furthermore, unlike larger countries like the US, the UK and Australia, there is only one major commercial airport in Singapore, where all Singapore-based mile-chasers fly to and from.

Unfortunately, it is impossible for everyone in Singapore to “win” the Miles Game. A lot of us who are still stuck with the old strategy will end up making poor-value redemptions and/or end up with expired miles.

Related: Beginner’s Guide to the Miles Game and How to Get Started

My credit card strategy

My workaround? Start accumulating miles that improve my flexibility when trying to make an award redemption, and avoid micro-managing common traps hoops like MCCs and minimum spending requirements.

Instead of trying to earn as many miles as possible for every single transaction, and face the following issues:

…I am perfectly okay with earning slightly fewer (but flexible) miles, and gaining the following advantages:

Additionally, I am comfortable using great cashback cards when it makes more sense, as I am very much aware of the methods to buy miles at a good price (more about this later).

Related: Best Miles and Cashback Cards in Singapore

Here’s a breakdown of how I am currently using my credit cards every month.

Note: As some spending categories overlap, cards listed higher are always prioritized, until monthly/annual limits are reached.

1) Chocolate Card

I use this card for the following spending categories:

• Foreign Currency (ANY category)
• Utilities
• Public Transport
• Hospital & Clinic
• Insurance
• Government Payments (e.g. road tax, season parking, business renewals etc.)
• In-person SGD transactions under S$20

Chocolate

✅ Earn 2 mpd (max. $1,000/month)
✅ Miles never expire
✅ Many useful transfer partners
✅ No worries about MCCs
✅ No foreign currency fee
✅ No annual fee

❌ KrisFlyer is not a transfer partner
❌ Debit card

2) Citi Rewards Mastercard

I use this card for the following spending categories (any currency):

• Online Shopping*
• Ride-Hailing*
• Food Delivery*
• Phone Bill*
• Government Hospital & Polyclinic (via HealthHub)
• Dining (via Amaze)**
• Groceries (via Amaze)**
• In-Person Shopping (via Amaze)**

* Via Amaze if foreign currency (save ~1% FX fee)
** SGD transactions via Amaze come with a 1% fee. If paying in SGD via Amaze, I only use this card when paying S$50 and above per transaction (as Amaze charges min. 50 cents fee on SGD transactions)

Citi Rewards Mastercard

✅ Earn 4 mpd (max. $1,000/month)
✅ 5-year points expiry term from card opening date
✅ Many useful transfer partners
✅ No worries about MCCs

❌ 3.25% foreign currency fee (~2% via Amaze)
❌ Have to request for annual fee waiver every year
❌ Will not be as good without Amaze linkage
❌ Bad for flight and hotel spending

3) UOB Preferred Platinum

I use this card for the following spending categories (any currency, mobile contactless):

• Dining
• Groceries
• In-Person Shopping
• Hotels (in-person)

❗Note: If paying in SGD, I only use this card when paying $20 and above per transaction (as UOB rounds down your transactions to the nearest S$5 before awarding points).

UOB Preferred Platinum

✅ Earn 4 mpd (mobile contactless only, max. $1,000/month)

❌ Bad for smaller transactions due to $5 earning block
❌ 3.25% foreign currency fee
❌ 2-year points expiry term from transaction month
❌ Only 2 transfer partners
❌ Have to request for annual fee waiver every year
❌ Bad for online flight and hotel spending

4) Citi Rewards Visa

I use this card for the following spending categories (any currency):

• Online Shopping
• Ride-Hailing
• Food Delivery

Citi Rewards Visa

(no longer open for application)

✅ Earn 4 mpd (Online only, max. $1,000/month)
✅ 5-year points expiry term from card opening date
✅ Many useful transfer partners
✅ No worries about MCCs

❌ 3.25% foreign currency fee
❌ Have to request for annual fee waiver every year
❌ Bad for flight and hotel spending

5) UOB Lady’s

I use this card for the following spending categories (any currency):

• Flights
• Hotels
• Online Travel Agencies (e.g. Agoda, Trip.com, Klook)

UOB Lady’s

✅ Earn 4 mpd (Travel category selected, max. $1,000/month)

❌ 3.25% foreign currency fee
❌ 2-year points expiry term from transaction
❌ Only 2 transfer partners
❌ Have to request for annual fee waiver every year

6) Trust Cashback

I use this card for the following categories:

• Foreign Currency (ANY category)
• Overseas ATM Withdrawals (free, no limit)

Trust Cashback

✅ No foreign currency fee (save >3% vs other credit cards)
✅ Unlimited 1% cashback
✅ Unlimited free overseas ATM cash withdrawals
✅ No annual fee, ever

❌ Bad for SGD spending

7) AMEX True Cashback

I use this card for the following spending categories (SGD only):

• Utilities
• Petrol (SPC only)
• Insurance

AMEX True
Cashback

✅ Earn 1.5% cashback, 22% savings on petrol

❌ 3.25% foreign currency fee
❌ Have to request for annual fee waiver every year

8) Citi Prestige

I use this card for the following purposes:

• Airport lounge, restaurant & spa access (unlimited, +1 guest)
• 4th night free on hotel bookings (chain hotels only)
• In-person SGD transactions under S$20

Citi Prestige

✅ Airport lounge, restaurant & spa access +1 guest
✅ 4th night free on hotel bookings
✅ $545 annual fee always come with 25k miles

❌ 3.25% foreign currency fee
❌ Poor earn rates
❌ $120k annual income requirement

9) Citi SMRT

I use this card for the following purpose:

• Large Online Spending (e.g. buy miles, laptop, phone, furniture)

CITI SMRT

✅ 5% cashback (min. $500/month, max. $12,000/year)

❌ 3.25% foreign currency fee
❌ Not good for online flight and hotel spending

⚠️ Good cards that I DON’T use

1) HSBC Revolution: HSBC almost-completely obliterated this card in 2024. I’d pick this card over other online shopping cards like DBS Woman’s World and OCBC Rewards, but I don’t currently shop online enough (cards listed above already cover this category very well).

🤗 *Patiently waits for an attractive HSBC sign-up bonus next year*

HSBC Revolution

✅ Earn 4 mpd (online shopping, max. $1,000/month)
✅ 3-year points expiry term from transaction month
✅ Many useful transfer partners
✅ No annual fee, ever

❌ 3.25% foreign currency fee
❌ Bad for flight and hotel spending
❌ Bad for transfers to KrisFlyer

2) DBS Woman’s World: This card served me well in the past. But with only 2 useful transfer partners and a short expiry term of just 1 year, it is hardly useful to me these days, thanks to better alternatives shared above.

🤗 *Patiently waits for an attractive DBS/POSB sign-up bonus next year*

DBS Woman’s
World

✅ Earn 4 mpd (online spending, max. $1,500/month)
✅ Good for DBS Rewards voucher promos

❌ 3.25% foreign currency fee
❌ 1-year points expiry term from transaction month
❌ Only 3 transfer partners
❌ Have to request for annual fee waiver every year
❌ $80k annual income requirement

3) DBS yuu: This is a fantastic card if you spend at least $600/month (collectively) at specific merchants like Giant, Cold Storage, Gojek and Foodpanda. I don’t.

But if you do, please don’t be that guy who chooses 10 mpd over 18% cash rebate. That’s like using this card to pay 1.8 cents per KrisFlyer mile (which you can easily do without any actual spending).

DBS yuu

✅ Earn 18% cash rebate or 10 mpd (specific merchants, min./max. $600/month)

❌ Poor miles earn rate when compared to cash rebate alternative
❌ Have to request for annual fee waiver every year

4) UOB Visa Signature: This card is good, if I am 100% sure about meeting the minimum spending requirement. I don’t use it much as I don’t want to lose the opportunity to earn higher-quality miles from Citi and Chocolate cards, while chasing the $1,000 minimum spending requirement every month.

UOB Visa
Signature

✅ Earn 4 mpd (foreign currency and/or contactless spending, min. $1,000/month, max. $2,000/month)

❌ 3.25% foreign currency fee
❌ $1,000 minimum spending per month
❌ 2-year points expiry term from transaction month
❌ Only 2 transfer partners
❌ Have to request for annual fee waiver every year

❌ Credit cards that I AVOID

Understanding the above list makes it really easy to eliminate the usage of other cards, especially general spending ones with low earn rates, poor flexibility and over 3% FX fees.

Another popular specialized card that I don’t use because of poor miles flexibility, is the KrisFlyer UOB card (read more here).

However, I can imagine it being useful to someone who spends a lot on Singapore Airlines or Scoot flights, or over $5,000/month on dining and online shopping. If you don’t, there are plenty of better cards out there for those spending categories.

What if I don’t have enough miles for a trip?

If I need more miles for an award goal, here’s the game plan:

1) “Buy” miles through Citi PayAll

Because of its flexibility, I value Citi miles/points more than those from other banks.

For payments that can’t get me decent miles or cashback (e.g. taxes, bills, insurance), I use the Citi PayAll payment facility, which allows me to pay a small fee for my expenses, and receive miles in return; allowing me to “buy” miles for cheap when there is a promotion.

Note: This is not a no-questions-asked method of buying miles. You need to be paying for something legitimate.

2) Buy miles through good offers

Great FFPs like Aeroplan and the Avios family have good miles/points sales throughout the year. I’d aim for prices under 2 cents (SGD) per mile.

3) Boost Avios after transferring from credit cards

British Airways Executive Club allows members to boost Avios that were earned, or transferred from credit cards.

Members can boost their newly-earned Avios by 1x, 2x or 3x, at a rate of around 1.6 cents (SGD). This great rate is available to all members, capped at 300,000 boosted Avios per calendar year.

4) Buy Avios through a subscription

British Airways Executive Club also allows members to subscribe and buy Avios and a good rate of around 1.8 cents (SGD).

The catch is that only the top-tier plan, Adventurer, offers this rate. This plan requires you to prepay US$2,575 for an annual subscription, to receive 16,667 Avios per month, for 12 months. This works out to around 1.8 cents (SGD).

And yes, as 16.7k Avios is hardly enough for award redemptions, you should be planning ahead with this method.

5) Buy miles through UOB Payment Facility

UOB cardholders can currently buy unlimited miles at 1.8 cents each, no questions asked. But keep in mind of the limitations of UOB UNI$:

• Miles expire after 2 years
• Only KrisFlyer and Asia Miles are transfer partners

Note: UOB Reserve cardholders can buy miles at 1.6 cents each

Where do I credit paid flights?

With sufficient miles and no award availability issues, I only pay for two types of flight:

1. Error fares (some shared exclusively on Telegram)
2. Outstanding fares
3. Short haul on budget airlines (under 4 hours)

Generally, these are not big spendings, and as airline statuses are not useful to me, I credit these paid flights to FFPs that fit my award goals, at that time.

Award Redemption Goals: Which Frequent Flyer Program should you transfer your credit card Miles/Points to?

Summary

Business and First Class travel were never meant for the masses. If you haven’t already, it’s time to rethink your Miles strategy to stay on the winning side.

Have a look at Suitesmile’s sweet spot articles to compare the award rates across multiple FFPs to each region, and stay subscribed on Telegram to be the first to know about the latest news, deals and hacks.