Most of our regular readers are no doubt familiar with Pelago, SIA’s own Klook-like “destination discovery platform” launched late 2020 and offering a range of activities, experiences and attraction tickets both in Singapore and overseas at SIA destinations like Bangkok, Phuket and London.
Pelago has always had a year-round KrisFlyer miles earn rate of 1 mpd attached to all its activities, though there have been promotional bonuses including 5 mpd offers at launch, and again in late 2021 and early 2022.
Since these miles are credited directly to your KrisFlyer account by Pelago, they come on top of up to 6 mpd earning through your credit card, for some attractive total miles collecting in many cases.
Pelago now offers 3 mpd year-round
Pelago has now announced that its year-round earn rate is being hiked from 1 mpd to 3 mpd, effective for bookings made from 28th June 2023 onwards.
“Starting from 28 June, Pelago will triple its always-on miles earn rate to 3 miles per S$1 spent on all eligible transactions for both new and existing users.
Pelago
KrisFlyer members can indulge in travel activities such as tours and day trips, adventures, exquisite dining experiences, iconic attractions and landmarks, and more, while effortlessly accumulating miles.”
This is a good year-round rate sitting about halfway between the previous norm and the occasional 5 mpd bonus promotions.
New users earn up to 25 mpd
Pelago has also announced a new quarterly rewards program titled “Miles Rush Week”.
The inaugural promotion in this series runs over the seven days from 28th June 2023 to 4th July 2023, and allows:
- KrisFlyer members who are new Pelago users to earn 25 mpd (capped at 2,500 miles), on top of the regular year-round 3 mpd rate, by booking via this exclusive link.
Your booked experience must be completed by 30th September 2023.
In order to be considered a new Pelago user, you must either:
- Sign-up to the platform using a KrisFlyer account that hasn’t previously made a Pelago booking, or
- Use your existing account to book, assuming you have signed up previously, but have not yet made a booking.
Up to 2,500 bonus KrisFlyer miles are awarded regardless of the number of tickets purchased in the same booking.
As a new user, you must enter their own KrisFlyer membership number upon checkout, and ensure that your booking details correspond with your KrisFlyer membership details for the KrisFlyer miles to be successfully credited to your account.
Upon completion of the activity, the regular 3 mpd will be credited directly into your KrisFlyer account as normal. The bonus 25 mpd (capped at 2,500 miles) will be credited into your KrisFlyer account by 30th November 2023.
For example, for a booked activity with a transaction amount of S$100, new users will accrue 2,800 KrisFlyer miles under this campaign:
- 300 miles (regular 3 mpd earning credited once the activity has been completed)
- 2,500 miles (bonus from “Miles Rush Week”)
- 2,800 miles total (28 mpd)
Full terms and conditions for this promotion are available here.
It will be interesting to see what subsequent “Miles Rush Week” promotions Pelago has to offer, since this is promised to be a quarterly deal that will hopefully include some bonus deals for existing customers too in future.
Pelago has expanded significantly
Despite launching in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic with relatively few options focused on Singapore, Pelago now boasts close to 8,000 activities worldwide, including over 370 here in Singapore itself.
These include include theme park admission, food and drink tours and wellness treatments, ranging from just a few dollars to over S$5,000 at the time of writing.
As we recently reported, Pelago is now the only experiences platform earning KrisFlyer miles directly, after Singapore Airlines axed ties with both Klook and KKday in recent months.
Here’s how Pelago works:
You must ensure that your Pelago booking is made under your name, as it appears in your KrisFlyer membership records, to be eligible for miles earning.
Miles earned will be calculated based on the final amount paid for the booking including taxes, after eligible discounts have been applied, rounded up to the next whole mile.
Earn bonus miles at Pelago with the right credit card
Pelago’s payment provider is using the following Merchant Category Code (MCC) when processing credit card payments:
MCC 4722: Travel Agencies and Tour Operators
Pelago bookings also classify as online transactions, giving you the following options to earn up to an additional 6 mpd through your credit card points for these transactions, for 9 mpd equivalent total year-round, or an incredible 34 mpd for a first-time booking of up to S$100 under the new “Miles Rush Week” promotion.
| Card | Earn Rate |
Notes |
 UOB Lady’sUOB Lady’s Solitaire |
6 mpd | Capped at S$1,000 per calendar month (Lady’s) or S$3,000 per month (Lady’s Solitaire), provided Travel is selected as one of your bonus earn categories. |
 DBS WWMC(see our review) |
4 mpd | For online spend, capped at S$2,000 per calendar month. |
 HSBC Revolution(see our review) |
4 mpd | For online spend at travel agencies (MCC 4722), capped at S$1,000 per calendar month combined with other 4 mpd bonus spend. |
 Citi Lazada |
2 mpd | For travel transactions under MCC 4722, capped at S$2,250 spend per statement cycle but combined with other 4 mpd / 2 mpd bonus spend (i.e. S$2,250 cap assumes your only bonus category spend in a statement cycle is Travel). |
Don’t use your Citi Rewards card for Pelago bookings, as MCC 4722 falls under the travel category, specifically excluded from earning the 4 mpd rate for online spend with that card.
It will therefore only earn 0.4 mpd, so it’s probably much better in that case to use your best general spend card, assuming you don’t have one of the above options, or have already hit your monthly bonus cap with these other cards.
Strangely, the KrisFlyer UOB credit card, which earns 3 mpd for all SIA Group spend including at the KrisShop and more recently on Kris+, does not award this higher rate for Pelago transactions.
It’s just the basic 1.2 mpd to look forward to in this case – so ideally pick another option from the table above, or failing that a better general spend card!
Enhanced KrisFlyer miles redemption at Pelago
Pelago expanded its KrisFlyer partnership in May 2021 to include the option to redeem miles instead of earning them for experience bookings.
As usual with these ‘cash out’ options for your KrisFlyer miles, “earn but don’t burn” is our advice – since Pelago only offers S$1 off your experience bookings per 150 KrisFlyer miles redeemed year-round (0.67 cents per mile value).
Between now and 14th July 2023, Pelago is offering a slightly better redemption rate of S$1 off your experience bookings per 120 KrisFlyer miles redeemed (0.83 cents per mile value), but this still isn’t a great way to use them, with Singapore Airlines premium cabin flight redemptions often coming in upwards of 2 cents per mile.
KrisFlyer miles are expiring again from July 2023, and if you’re affected we have a full guide on how you can get the best value from these without necessarily having to redeem for poor-value options like this.
Summary
Pelago has hiked its regular year-round KrisFlyer miles earn rate for activity and experience bookings from 1 mpd to 3 mpd, which could net you up to 9 mpd effective earning when paired with the right credit card.
On top of that, new users to the platform can benefit from 25 mpd on the first S$100 spend for the first booking, netting an additional 2,500 KrisFlyer miles on top of the regular 3 mpd rate.
Pelago is now the sole activities and experiences provider earning KrisFlyer miles directly, and it’s worth a look now that the platform has significantly expanded its offerings to around 8,000 activities in a variety of countries.
(Cover Photo: Pelago)