OCBC has launched a new ‘Spend and Buy Miles’ promotion for selected Voyage and 90°N cardholders, which depending on how your deal is structured may allow you to purchase up to 350,000 KrisFlyer miles if you have a very significant spend coming up over the next couple of months, and you’ve been targeted for the offer.

That’s a significant stash of miles – enough for three round-trip tickets in Business Class from Singapore to Johannesburg or Istanbul, for an administrative fee of S$4,888, but with a minimum qualifying spend of S$100,000 on the card between now and the end of June to unlock the opportunity – this one will be out of reach for most.

Luckily there are smaller purchase opportunities for a lower minimum spend in many cases, which may be of interest.

Here’s how it works.

OCBC Spend and Buy Miles Promotion

This promotion runs from 1st May 2023 to 30th June 2023, but the first thing to note is that it’s targeted.

That means in order to participate, you’ll have to be a principal OCBC Voyage or 90°N credit card holder who has received an official SMS, email or push notification message from OCBC to participate in this deal.

The invitation to participate is not transferrable to another cardholder.

You must then successfully register to participate in this promotion. That requires principal cardholders to send an SMS to 72377 using their mobile number registered with OCBC, in the following format:

MILES [space] Date of Birth (DDMMYY) [space] Your 10-digit KrisFlyer membership number Example: If your Date of Birth is 1st January 1950, and your KrisFlyer number is 1234567890, you will need to send “MILES 010150 1234567890” to 72377

To unlock the ‘buy miles’ promotion, you will then have to meet a certain minimum qualifying spend on your OCBC Voyage or 90°N card between 1st May 2023 and 30th June 2023.

There are also offers for Titanium Rewards and Premier Visa Infinite cardholders.

There are three offers in total, but you’ll only be targeted for one of them (if you’re targeted at all).

OCBC Spend and Buy Miles Promotion
(Promo: SBM)

Qualifying Spend	KrisFlyer Miles	Fee	Cost per mile
S$0 – S$14,999	—	—	—
S$15,000 – S$19,999	25,000	S$418	1.67¢
S$20,000+	48,000	S$788	1.64¢

OCBC Spend and Buy Miles Promotion
(Promo: SBM2)

Qualifying Spend	KrisFlyer Miles	Fee	Cost per mile
S$0 – S$19,999	—	—	—
S$20,000 – S$49,999	48,000	S$788	1.64¢
S$50,000+	80,000	S$1,288	1.61¢

OCBC Spend and Buy Miles Promotion
(Promo: SBM3)

Qualifying Spend	KrisFlyer Miles	Fee	Cost per mile
S$0 – S$49,999	—	—	—
S$50,000 – S$99,999	80,000	S$1,288	1.61¢
S$100,000+	350,000	S$4,888	1.40¢

OCBC Spend and Buy Miles Promotion
(Promo: SBM4)

Qualifying Spend	KrisFlyer Miles	Fee	Cost per mile
S$0 – S$99,999	—	—	—
S$100,000+	350,000	S$4,888	1.40¢

Quite how they managed to make it so complicated is anyone’s guess!

If you have been targeted and successfully registered, you will be credited with the KrisFlyer miles gift shown above by 31st August 2023, based on which promotion you were targeted for and which of the the qualifying spend groupings you then achieve.

The fee appropriate to the spend you made will be charged to your card account a month earlier – by 31st July 2023.

For example, if you are targeted for the first Voyage card promo (SBM2) and your qualifying spend is S$30,000 during the promotion – you will:

• be charged S$788 by 31st July 2023; and
• receive 48,000 miles in your KrisFlyer account by 31st August 2023.

Note that KrisFlyer Miles will be credited directly into your KrisFlyer account – they cannot be held as Voyage miles or 90°N miles under this promotion.

You will still earn Voyage miles or 90°N miles as usual for the spend itself of course, which will remain in your rewards account.

Qualifying spend

Eligible spend for the amount you’ll need to clock to take advantage of this promotion refers to any retail transaction (including face-to-face or online purchases) excluding those defined in the terms and conditions applicable to this deal.

Noteworthy exclusions include:

• Charitable donations
• Education
• EZ-Link transactions
• Gambling
• Grab and GoJek rides
• GrabPay top-ups
• Government services
• Insurance premiums
• Tax payments
• Utility bills

CardUp and ipaymy spend is not on the exclusion list – so these should be eligible.

Is it worth it?

While the cost per mile during this promotion is decent in our opinion, and the volume of miles you’ll earn is potentially very useful, it definitely isn’t worth stretching yourself financially to achieve one of these very high spend thresholds.

These are super large sums to spend in a two-month period for most people (at least S$7,500 per month on average), though many Voyage card holders in particular will be regularly hitting these levels, and for them the promotion could make sense, if short of miles.

Terms and conditions

Full terms and conditions for this promotion are available here:

 OCBC Cards SBM Promotion (15k & 20k spend) T&C
 OCBC Cards SBM2 Promotion (20k & 50k spend) T&C
 OCBC Cards SBM3 Promotion (50k & 100k spend) T&C
 OCBC Cards SBM4 Promotion (100k spend) T&C

About the OCBC Voyage card

Unfortunately the OCBC Voyage card made headlines for the wrong reasons in December, with cardholders having their annual complimentary limo ride entitlement slashed from 24 per year to just 8 per year, while points transfers to airline miles like KrisFlyer, previously free, now all incur a fee of S$25 per conversion.

Nonetheless, the card earns 1.3 mpd for local spend and 2.2 mpd for foreign currency transactions, and offers unlimited access to Plaza Premium airport lounges.

It also offers 15,000 miles on renewal each year, for payment of the annual fee, while transfers to KrisFlyer miles are available in one-mile denominations.

Despite currently only transferring to KrisFlyer miles, eight new hotel and airline transfer partners will also be added to the card’s repertoire:

• Accor Live Limitless
• Air France-KLM Flying Blue
• British Airways Executive Club (and indirectly, Qatar Airways Privilege Club)
• Cathay Pacific
• Etihad Guest
• IHG One Rewards
• Marriott Bonvoy
• United MileagePlus

Transfer ratios from Voyage Miles (or 90°N miles) into these programmes have not yet been announced, with the implementation itself turning into a bit of a debacle – initially promised by the end of 2022, then by the end of February 2023, and now simply listed as “coming soon” at the time of writing!

For full details about the Voyage card, see our comprehensive review, covering all its features.

OCBC is offering some very large KrisFlyer miles bounties to selected Voyage, 90°N, Titanium Rewards and Premier VIA cardholders over the next two months, for a reasonable fee given the volumes on offer, but a significant spend is required in return – upwards of S$15,000 in just two months.

Generally, the significant spend required will be enough to put most cardholders off – unless you had these sort of expenses coming up anyway in May and June.

That said, this might be of interest to a few readers, so watch out for an SMS invite from the bank in the coming days to see if you’ve been targeted, and remember you will need to register if you’re going to participate.

(Cover Photo: Singapore Airlines)