UOB And KrisFlyer Launch Industry-First Credit Card and Savings Account Solution For Travellers To Earn Miles For Every Dollar They Spend And Save
23 April 2019 - Singapore, 23 April 2019 – United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) and KrisFlyer1 today announced the launch of the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card. This is the first credit card in Singapore which can be combined with a savings account to earn bonus KrisFlyer miles when customers spend and save.
In designing the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card and upgraded KrisFlyer UOB Savings Account, the two homegrown brands analysed the spending, saving and travelling behaviour of Singapore consumers over the last three years. They found that travel was the number one spend category for UOB cardmembers, accounting for 15 per cent of total spend from 2016 to 20182. The data also showed that KrisFlyer miles were the most popular card reward among UOB cardmembers, accounting for 70 per cent of all UNI$ redemptions in 2018.
With travel being so important to the lives of many, the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card and KrisFlyer UOB Savings Account combination rewards travellers with more of what they want – the opportunity to earn KrisFlyer miles at a faster rate.
Ms Jacquelyn Tan, Head of Personal Financial Services Singapore, UOB, said, “We are pleased to deepen our partnership and to launch yet another market first. With the co-branded KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card and Savings Account, we have created a complete banking solution that enables our customers to earn more miles in a shorter period of time. This offers them a great way to bank and to travel.
“Our Singapore cardmembers prefer to fly with the SIA Group, with more than half of total airline spend on UOB cards made on its fleet of carriers. Given that travel is a priority for our customers, we have tailored the solution to their lifestyles so that they can earn KrisFlyer miles faster and more easily on their everyday spend and savings,” Ms Tan said.
Mr Tan Kai Ping, Senior Vice President Marketing Planning, Singapore Airlines, said, “We have worked closely with UOB, our long-term partner, for about a year to curate the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card benefits. The KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card showcases our commitment to constantly enhance the benefits for our members. With this new card, we are adding to the KrisFlyer brand promise of enabling our members to ’earn easier, redeem faster and travel better’.”
Take off with accelerated KrisFlyer miles with everyday spend
With the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card, cardmembers will earn three KrisFlyer miles on their everyday spend, such as on dining and online food delivery, online shopping and public transport. These everyday spend categories were chosen as they were the fastest growing spend categories for UOB cardmembers last year.
For example, spending on transport increased by 200 per cent for all cardmembers and even more for millennials at 230 per cent. Similarly, e-commerce spending (such as for online shopping purchases, food delivery and online travel bookings) increased by 60 per cent last year. Again, millennials led the charge of this growth, with their online purchases growing by 105 per cent.
In addition, KrisFlyer UOB Credit Cardmembers will earn three KrisFlyer miles for every dollar spent on the SIA Group of carriers, as well as for KrisShop purchases.
Save more, earn more
To make it even easier and faster for travellers to accumulate KrisFlyer miles, customers can pair their KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card with the KrisFlyer UOB Savings Account. Customers will enjoy a new base earn rate of five KrisFlyer miles for every dollar saved with a minimum monthly average balance of $1,000, up to their spending cap3. If they credit their monthly salary4 to the account, the earn rate increases to six KrisFlyer miles per dollar spent, up to their spending cap5.
For example, young professionals with $15,000 of savings simply need to credit their monthly salary in the KrisFlyer UOB Savings Account and spend $1,200 a month on their KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card to earn as much as 60,000 miles within 16 months. They can then redeem these KrisFlyer miles for round-trip flights on Singapore Airlines or SilkAir to destinations such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and cities in South China. They can also use these KrisFlyer miles to make purchases from KrisShop.
Enjoy more travel benefits
In addition to an accelerated KrisFlyer miles earn rate, customers will also be able to enjoy an exclusive suite of privileges and benefits when flying on Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Scoot. These include a fast track to KrisFlyer Elite Silver status with a minimum of $5,000 spend on the SIA Group of airlines, and various Scoot travel benefits, such as priority check-in and boarding, additional baggage allowance, convenience fee waiver, seat selection and booking flexibility waiver.
As part of launch celebrations, customers will be given 12,000 KrisFlyer miles as a welcome bonus or 5,000 KrisFlyer miles with a complimentary return ticket on either Singapore Airlines or SilkAir to Bangkok, Lombok or Penang.
In addition, they can enjoy discounted airfares to seven destinations6 in the SIA Group’s network, as well as discounted Grab rides to and from the airport7.
UOB and KrisFlyer plan to extend their partnership to their customers beyond Singapore, with a regional marketing campaign set to launch in May 2019 in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The campaign will see an additional four million KrisFlyer miles made available for UOB cardmembers in the region.
1 Singapore Airlines Group’s frequent flyer programme
2 Source: UOB data
3 The new bonus earn rate will be effective from 1 May 2019.
4 Account-holders must credit a minimum salary amount of $2,000 to qualify for the bonus KrisFlyer miles. Miles are capped at five per cent of the monthly average balance.
5 Bonus earn rates are capped at five per cent of the monthly average balance maintained in the customer’s KrisFlyer UOB Savings Account. The new bonus earn rate will take effect from 1 May 2019.
6 Destinations include Brisbane, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, Nagoya, Perth, Phnom Penh and Seoul.
7 Limited to two trips per customer and capped at $15 per trip.
