Citi has launched a year-end bonus miles earning offer for its Prestige and PremierMiles cardholders in Singapore, who can earn 3 miles per dollar for travel-related spend made in SGD across categories like flights, hotels and cruises.
To qualify for the bonus miles you’ll have to successfully register for the promotion and meet a minimum general spend (or combined general / travel spend) on your card, after which the bonus miles on the travel spend are capped, so you can’t get too carried away!
The offer
You will earn bonus miles for local (SGD) travel spend as follows:
- Citi Prestige: Earn 3.25 Citi ThankYou Points per S$1 plus an additional 4.25 Citi ThankYou Points mile per S$1 (i.e. 3 mpd total); or
- Citi PremierMiles: Earn 1.2 Citi Miles per S$1 plus an additional 1.8 Citi Miles per S$1 (i.e. 3 mpd total),
when you spend a minimum of S$2,000 in qualifying spend each calendar month during the promotion period.
The following upper total earning cap per month applies:
- Citi Prestige: S$3,000 of travel spend (max. 22,500 TYP = 9,000 miles)
- Citi PremierMiles: S$2,000 of travel spend (max. 6,000 miles)
Thereafter any further eligible travel spend in the same month will revert to the card’s basic earn rate.
Note that all travel spend in foreign currency using these cards will earn at their normal retail rate for overseas transactions (i.e. 2 mpd for both cards), which is a bizarre omission now that we can travel overseas again!
First step – register!
The bonus earn rate is not automatic – you must successfully register to participate in this promotion. That requires principal cardholders to send an SMS to 72484 using their mobile number registered with Citi.
Here’s how it works for Citi Prestige cardholders:
 PRES3MILES [space] Last 4 digits of your Citi Prestige Card number [to] 72484 Example: If your card ends 1234, you will need to send “PRES3MILES 1234” to 72484 |
Here’s how it works for Citi PremierMiles cardholders:
 PM3MILES [space] Last 4 digits of your Citi PremierMiles Card number [to] 72484 Example: If your card ends 1234, you will need to send “PM3MILES 1234” to 72484 |
All cardholders are eligible for this promotion, with no upper participant cap.
You are successfully enrolled once you have received an SMS from Citi confirming that your enrolment request has been received, which looks like this:
You can enrol any time during the promotion period (1st November 2021 to 31st December 2021), but we would advise doing so right at the start (before spending) in case you forget later, or there are any technical issues with your registration.
Qualifying spend
For the S$2,000 in monthly charges to the card to qualify for the applicable enhanced earn rate within that month, the following typical Citi exclusions apply:
- Any Equal Payment Plan (EPP) purchases
- Refunded / disputed / unauthorised / fraudulent retail purchases
- Quick Cash/Ready Credit PayLite and other instalment loans
- Paywise / cash advance / quasi-cash transactions / balance transfers / annual card membership fees/interest/goods and services taxes
- Betting or gambling (including lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, off-track betting, and wagers at race tracks) through any channel
- Bill payments made using the Eligible Card as a source of funds
- Late payment fees
- Any other form of service / miscellaneous fees
The general monthly spend of S$2,000+ to activate this bonus rate for travel spend can include PayAll, CardUp and ipaymy transactions and can overlap with the travel spend itself.
Eligible spend
The following Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) are valid for the bonus miles under this offer for local travel spend (remember, SGD only):
Travel Spend
| Category | Eligible MCCs |
| Airlines and Air Carriers | 3000 to 3302 4511 (e.g. Singapore Airlines, Jetstar) |
| Hotels, Motels and Resorts | 3501 to 3999 7011 (e.g. Hilton, Pan Pacific, JW Marriott) |
| Cruise Lines | 4411 (e.g. Royal Caribbean, Dream Cruises) |
| Travel Agencies and Tour Operators* | 4722* (e.g. Klook, Trip.com, Traveloka, Pelago) |
* Excluding Agoda and Kaligo, which have their own bonus earn rates using these cards.
Any spend made by supplementary cardholders during this promotion will be combined with that of the principal cardholder, for calculation of both the qualifying minimum spend and the eligible spend components.
Qualifying spend vs. Eligible spend
Qualifying spend can include eligible travel spend, for example a S$2,000 flight ticket at Singapore Airlines in November 2021 will unlock the local travel spend bonus (S$2,000+) and be awarded 3 mpd earn rate (it’s also eligible spend).
In other words you don’t necessarily need to make S$2,000+ of qualifying spend to then unlock the bonus for subsequent eligible online spend, the two amounts can overlap if you wish.
Here are another couple of examples using a Citi PremierMiles card for someone who has successfully registered for the promotion.
If your only two transactions on the card in November 2021 are a S$900 purchase at Cold Storage and a S$1,000 Singapore Airlines air ticket purchased in SGD, you’ll get 1.2 mpd on all S$1,900, because you didn’t make S$2,000 of total qualifying spend (even though both are qualifying spend and the flight ticket is eligible spend).
On the other hand, if in December you spend S$1,100 in Cold Storage and S$1,000 on a Singapore Airlines air ticket purchased in SGD, you would get 1.2 mpd for the Cold Storage spend and 3 mpd on the SIA ticket, because you hit S$2,000+ in total qualifying spend and made some eligible spend the same month.
Holding both cards?
If you’re holding both the Citi Prestige and PremierMiles cards, you can maximise this promotion by registering each primary card for the campaign, then making the necessary minimum monthly qualifying spend on each card in the same month you are making eligible local travel spend (which can be the same thing, if you wish).
In total you could then accumulate 30,000 miles during the two months of the promotion (including the bonus):
- Citi Prestige: 9,000 miles x 2 months = 18,000 miles
- Citi PremierMiles: 6,000 miles x 2 months = 12,000 miles
4 mpd options exist
Before you commit to this promotion with these Citi cards, remember that there are already some 4 mpd options out there offering their bonus earn rate on local travel spend (and overseas travel spend, which is not included in the Citi promo).
4 mpd Travel Spend
| Card | Earn rate | Notes |
 DBS WWMC |
4 mpd | Online spend, capped at S$2,000 per calendar month. (e.g. fully prepaid hotel reservations / flight bookings made online) |
 HSBC Revo |
4 mpd | Online or contactless spend at travel merchants (hotels, airlines, cruises), capped at S$1,000 per calendar month. |
 UOB Lady’s |
4 mpd | Travel spend, capped at S$1,000 per calendar month. (Travel must be selected as one of your quarterly bonus categories) |
 UOB Lady’s Solitaire |
4 mpd | Travel spend, capped at S$3,000 per calendar month. (Travel must be selected as one of your quarterly bonus categories) |
If you’re holding any of these cards, make sure you’re maximising the monthly 4 mpd bonus cap on any travel spend before considering this Citi offer.
In addition, DBS Altitude cardholders already get 3 mpd for online flight and hotel bookings, including at singaporeair.com, cathaypacific.com and qatarairways.com, capped at a generous S$5,000 spend per calendar month.
When are the bonus miles credited?
Initially all your local travel transactions will earn at the card’s general spend rate, even once you’ve successfully registered for the promotion and made the required spend each month.
The bonus Citi ThankYou Points or Citi Miles will be credited into your account within two months from the end of the promotion period, which is by 28th February 2022.
Is it just for KrisFlyer miles?
No – Citi has one of the widest range of frequent flyer programmes for you to transfer your points into, including British Airways, Etihad Guest, Turkish Airlines and Qantas, making these very flexible points to accrue.
Both Citi ThankYou Points earned through the Prestige card and Citi Miles via the Citi PremierMiles card never expire while they remain in your Citi rewards account.
You can transfer your miles into 10 different frequent flyer programmes and on the hotel side into IHG points.
Singapore credit card to FFP transfers
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Terms and conditions
Full terms and conditions for this bonus miles offer are available at the Citi website:
Citi Prestige Local Travel Spend Promo
Citi PremierMiles Local Travel Spend Promo
Summary
Provided you register and make a general spend of at least S$2,000 in the calendar month of November or December 2021 (or both), you’ll trigger a 3 mpd earn rate on all travel related spend in the same calendar month using your Citi Prestige or Citi PremierMiles cards.
Unfortunately this is limited to travel spend in Singapore Dollars, not in foreign currency, which is a strange omission given that we can finally travel overseas again!
The 3 mpd deal is also capped at S$2,000 of travel spend per month with the PremierMiles card and S$3,000 per month with the Prestige card, so big ticket flight and hotel expenses may not fully benefit from the promo.
Even for smaller travel spend, don’t forget the 4 mpd options with some other cards on the market before considering this offer, not to mention the year-round 3 mpd bonus with DBS Altitude cards.
(Cover Photo: Kevin Hacker)