Most of our regular readers are already 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 is now the sole KrisFlyer miles-earning option across the experiences and activities portals, following the termination of partnerships with Klook and KKday in 2023.

When Pelago first launched, promotional KrisFlyer miles earning bonuses of up to 5 mpd were offered, but the platform initially settled on a year-round rate of 1 mpd.

That changed in late June 2023, when 3 mpd became the norm, and since these miles are credited directly to your KrisFlyer account by Pelago, they come on top of up to 4 mpd earning through your credit card, for some attractive total miles collection rates of 7 mpd in many cases.

Back in mid-February 2024, Pelago began capping KrisFlyer miles accrual on a per-booking basis to 5,000 miles, meaning if your transaction cost more than S$1,667, you were no longer earning 3 mpd, but a progressively lower earn rate the more you spend, since accrual then becomes limited to the maximum 5,000 miles level.

Now there’s good news to report.

Miles accrual now capped at 50,000

Effective from 26th December 2024, Pelago is now capping KrisFlyer miles accrual on a per-booking basis made via its website or mobile app to 50,000 miles, instead of the previous 5,000 miles, a 10x hike.

That means provided your booked activity comes in at no more than S$16,667, you’ll be earning the full 3 mpd accrual rate, a much better situation than when accrual was capped at the but 5,000 miles level.

“KrisFlyer miles are earned on the final amount paid for bookings made through Pelago, after eligible discounts have been applied, and are subject to a maximum amount of 50,000 KrisFlyer miles per booking.”

Pelago T&Cs
26th December 2024

If you are locking in a very expensive experience, such as this 10 night tour of Korea at S$14,985 per person, you can maximise your miles accrual by making two separate bookings.

Here’s the accrual for two persons, which as you can see is capped at 50,000 miles in total:

Here’s the miles accrual for a single-person booking:

As you can see you’ll net 44,511 miles for each single-person booking (89,022 miles in total) for making individual bookings on the same date for a couple, rather than being capped at 50,000 miles for a simple couple booking.

That’s well worth the extra hassle, ensuring you’re still getting 3 mpd on top of your credit card points, rather than a more lacklustre 1.67 mpd.

What about Kris+?

As you may recall, it’s now possible to book Pelago experiences via the Kris+ app, with an introductory rate of 10 mpd initially offered, later dropping to 9 mpd for last two months of 2024.

Pelago bookings made via Kris+ now match the year-round direct website booking KrisFlyer miles accrual rate of 3 mpd.

The interesting thing about this new method of booking was that:

• The 5,000 KrisFlyer miles accrual cap did not apply to Kris+ bookings
• Miles accrual was instant, whereas you have to wait until you have completed your experience booking made directly at pelago.com or via the Pelago app to receive the miles in your account

Do note that Kris+ bookings are subject to a maximum transaction cost of S$20,000 (60,000 miles), so there is effectively an earning cap in place, but only for very expensive experiences.

One other point to note is that you won’t be able to apply voucher codes to Pelago bookings made via Kris+, so this may leave you only able to use the direct website portal instead.

Earn bonus miles at Pelago with the right credit card

Pelago’s payment provider uses the following Merchant Category Code (MCC) when processing credit card payments:

MCC 4722 Travel Agencies and Tour Operators

Pelago bookings also qualify as online transactions, allowing you to earn up to an additional 4 mpd through your credit card rewards, for a total of 7 mpd, year-round. This is subject to Pelago’s new accrual cap of 50,000 miles per booking.

Credit card accrual at Pelago.com / Pelago app

Card	Earn Rate	Notes
UOB Lady’s	4 mpd	Capped at S$1,000 per calendar month, provided Travel is selected as one of your bonus earn categories.
UOB Lady’s Solitaire	4 mpd	Capped at S$2,000 per calendar month, provided Travel is selected as one of your bonus earn categories.
DBS WWMC (see our review)	4 mpd	For online spend, capped at S$1,500 per calendar month.

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.com transactions, despite Pelago (under its official name Encounters Pte. Ltd.) being a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines.

However, if you are booking Pelago experiences via the Kris+ app, this one does come into play.

Credit card accrual at Pelago via the Kris+ app

Card	Earn Rate	Notes
KF UOB Credit Card (see our review)	3 mpd	For all Kris+ spend, with no upper cap.

Don’t use your Citi Rewards card for Pelago bookings, either directly or via Kris+, since 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.

Do note that the HSBC Revolution card also no longer awards bonus points for MCC 4722 transactions, since 1st January 2024 – so avoid that one too.

Pelago hiked its regular year-round KrisFlyer miles earn rate for activity and experience bookings to 3 mpd in mid-2023, which could net you up to 7 mpd effective total earning when paired with the right credit card.

Unfortunately a direct miles accrual was then capped at 5,000 miles per booking, quite restrictive in some cases, but the good news is that’s now been hiked significantly to 50,000 miles instead.

This issue now only starts having an impact one you’re spending S$16,667 or more in a single booking – unlikely for most readers.

Nonetheless, if you’re locking in an activity for multiple people that exceeds the threshold, consider splitting it into separate bookings, to maximise your total miles earning.

This change removes the strange disparity that existed between Kris+ Pelago bookings, which weren’t capped, and direct pelago.com bookings, but do remember booking via Kris+ still potentially has the edge, due to instant miles accrual.

(Cover Photo: Pelago)