Most of our regular readers are now familiar with Pelago, Singapore Airlines’ own Klook-like “travel experiences platform” launched in late 2020 and offering a range of activities and attraction tickets both in Singapore and overseas at SIA destinations like Bangkok, Phuket and London.
Since June 2023, Pelago hiked its year-round KrisFlyer miles earn rate from 1 mpd to 3 mpd, while also offering an impressive 25 mpd additional bonus on your first booking using the platform, capped at 2,500 bonus miles, for a temporary period that same month.
The good news is the ‘Miles Rush Week’ promotion is back for the next seven days, and with these miles being credited directly to your KrisFlyer account by Pelago, they stack with up to 6 mpd earning through your credit card too, for up to 34 mpd total earning in some examples.
Miles Rush Week: Up to 28 mpd on your first Pelago booking
Back when ‘Miles Rush Week’ made its debut in June 2023, Pelago had promised it would be a quarterly deal that we hoped would eventually include some bonus offers for existing customers in future.
As it stands, they have just rehashed the previous deal a second time, which is a bit unfortunate for some, but still a good opportunity if you’ve yet to book via this platform.
The latest promotion in this series runs over the seven days from 21st September 2023 to 27th September 2023, and allows:
- KrisFlyer members who are new to Pelago, or have signed up but not yet made a booking, 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 1st December 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 your 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, up to one week after the experience has been completed.
The bonus 25 mpd (capped at 2,500 miles) will be credited into your KrisFlyer account by 31st December 2023.
For example, if your make a first booking with a transaction amount of S$100, with the activity on or before 1st December 2023, you will accrue 2,800 KrisFlyer miles under this campaign:
- 300 miles (regular 3 mpd earning credited within one week of the activity having 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. Do note that JR Whole Japan Rail Passes (here) are excluded from this deal.
While Pelago is clearly still trying to drive new customers to use its platform, hopefully some of these future quarterly “Miles Rush Week” promotions can include some bonus offers for existing customers too.
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 (3 mpd + 25 mpd + 6 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+, still 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!
Pelago has expanded significantly
Despite launching in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic with relatively few options, initially focused on Singapore (well, we couldn’t really leave!), Pelago now boasts over 9,400 activities worldwide, including close to 400 here in Singapore itself.
These 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.
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 (a dreadful 0.67 cents per mile value).
Between now and 31st December 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 now expiring again, and if you’re affected this is one option to get 0.83 cents per mile of value from them, which is better than nothing, but do check the other options first.
Summary
Pelago is back with its 25 mpd bonus on up to S$100 spend for your first booking, netting an additional 2,500 KrisFlyer miles, on top of the regular uncapped 3 mpd rate.
Those rates are in addition to up to 6 mpd when you use the right credit card to pay, for a potential 34 mpd haul on any activity up to S$100, provided you haven’t booked through the platform before.
Pelago is now the sole activities and experiences provider earning KrisFlyer miles directly, and it’s worth a look now that the provider has significantly expanded its range of offerings to over 9,400 activities in a variety of countries.
(Cover Photo: Pelago)