Nerfed: KrisFlyer UOB card hiking SIA min. spend, dropping bonus earn rate

Suitesmile rating:

✍️ Short summary
This card gives you an uncapped 3 mpd earn rate on Singapore Airlines, Scoot, KrisShop, Kris+ and Pelago.

Cardholders can also receive an uncapped 2.4 mpd earn rate (1.2 base + 1.2 bonus) on everyday spending categories like dining, online shopping, online food delivery, ride-hailing and public transport, as well as travel spending made on selected websites like airbnb.com, booking.com and expedia.com. To receive the 1.2 mpd bonus, cardholders have to spend at least S$1,000 on Singapore Airlines, Scoot, Pelago or KrisShop collectively in a card membership year.

All other transactions earn 1.2 mpd, including foreign currency spending which comes with 3.25% in fees (very poor!).

On top of that, cardholders can also get priority check-in and boarding, free standard seat selection and one-time booking flexibility waiver on Scoot bookings made through flyscoot.com/KrisFlyerUOB.

While this card makes all the right headlines, cardholders should know that bonus miles (1.2 mpd) are only credited within 2 months, at the end of the card membership year. This can be a dealbreaker for many who do not want to wait up to 14 months to receive the bonus miles! The delayed miles crediting can also force you into paying the annual fee (instead of cancelling the card), if a waiver is not granted.

Another obvious point to note is that the miles earned on this card can only be transferred to KrisFlyer, albeit with no transfer fee.

Flexibility is very important in the Miles Game and unfortunately, this card offers very little of that. I recommend maximizing the limits of other 4 mpd cards first, before using this one.

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💸 Annual fee
$196.20
(First year waived, get 10,000 miles with subsequent annual fee payments)

💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year

🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%

⏰ Miles expiry
3 years from the time they are credited into KrisFlyer account.

🫱‍🫲 Transfer partner
KrisFlyer only

🧮 Transfer block
N/A

💲 Transfer fee
No transfer fee

🤗 Miles/Points pooling
Miles earned from this card cannot be combined with those from other UOB cards and can only be transferred out separately.

❓ How/When miles are credited
Earn 6 base miles per $5 dollar spent, plus 6 bonus miles for eligible transactions (equivalent to 2.4 mpd in total). Base miles are credited into your KrisFlyer account at the end of each calendar month; bonus miles up to 2 months after the end of card membership year (up to 14 months).

📜 Terms & conditions