Bank of China is running an SG61 Travel Special on its Elite Miles World Mastercard, lifting the earn rate to 4 mpd on overseas spend until 6th September 2026. There’s no minimum spend, no cap, and – refreshingly for BOC – nothing to register for.
The Bank of China (BOC) Elite Miles World Mastercard is not a card anyone holds for the customer service. What keeps it on the radar is that once or twice a year the bank does something impressive with the earn rate, and this month is one of those occasions.
Regular readers will remember the 2025 earn rate hike to 1.4 mpd locally and 2.8 mpd on foreign currency spend, which pulled the card back into contention after five years in the wilderness. That was followed in September 2025 by an 8.8 mpd promotion on selected categories – an outstanding deal, advertised to run until the end of the year, that was then withdrawn early.
The latest offer is more modest than that one, but it’s also considerably simpler, and there’s a decent chance it survives its full advertised run precisely because it is more modest.
What’s on offer
From 7th August to 6th September 2026, eligible spend on the BOC Elite Miles card earns an additional 6 BOC Bonus Points per S$1, equivalent to 1.2 mpd, on top of the card’s usual foreign currency earn rate.
Stack that on the standard 14 points per S$1 (2.8 mpd) and you arrive at 20 BOC Bonus Points per S$1 – a headline rate of 4 mpd.
| BOC Elite Miles SG61 Travel Special |
|
| Feature | Detail |
| Promotion period | 7 Aug – 6 Sep 2026 (both dates inclusive) |
| Usual earn rate | 14 BOC Bonus Points per S$1 2.8 mpd |
| Bonus | 6 BOC Bonus Points per S$1 1.2 mpd |
| Total earn rate | 20 BOC Bonus Points per S$1 4 mpd |
| Eligible spend | Foreign currency transactions in selected MCCs |
| Minimum spend | None |
| Cap | None |
| Registration | Not required |
| Points credited | Within 60 days of 6 Sep 2026 (by 5 Nov 2026) |
Here’s how that sits against the card’s year-round rates.
| BOC Elite Miles earn rates 7 Aug – 6 Sep 2026 |
||
| Spend type | BOC Bonus Points per S$1 |
Miles per S$1 |
| Local (SGD) spend | 7 | 1.4 mpd |
| Foreign currency spend outside the bonus MCC list |
14 | 2.8 mpd |
| Foreign currency spend within the bonus MCC list |
14 + 6 = 20 | 4 mpd |
There’s no minimum spend, and no upper cap on how many bonus points you can earn, whether per transaction, per month or over the campaign as a whole.
There’s also no limit on how many cardholders can take part, which is a departure from BOC’s January offer this year, which handed 50,000 miles to the first 50 cardmembers, and nobody else.
There’s one caveat though…
How long have you actually got?
We’d normally leave this to the small print at the bottom, but with BOC it always belongs near the top, because it’s the single thing most likely to cost you with this promotion.
The advertised end date is 6th September 2026. Clause 22 of the terms and conditions gives the bank the right to vary, suspend or terminate the campaign at any time, without notice, and it says so expressly even where a cardholder hasn’t yet earned the reward. Clause 25 then makes BOC’s decision final, with no appeals or correspondence entertained.
Boilerplate stuff, you might think – practically every bank promotion has some version of it. The difference is that BOC actually uses it.
BOC pulled its 2024 campaign offering 7 – 8 mpd after about a fortnight, having originally trailed it as a month-long run. The 8.8 mpd promotion we covered last September was billed as a four-month campaign and ended after two.
This one may fare better. 4 mpd across a restricted set of MCCs is a far smaller commitment than the bank has made before, so there’s less reason for them to cut it short. That’s grounds for optimism rather than a guarantee, though, and it would be unwise to plan your spending around the full month. With BOC you just never know.
The full terms and conditions for this promotion can be found here.
What spend qualifies?
Here’s where it gets a little muddled, because BOC is telling two slightly different stories depending on where you read about this.
The promotional artwork the bank is circulating describes the offer as applying to “overseas travel & dining spend”, with no mention of retail at all. The accompanying written promo, meanwhile, lists “flights, hotels, car rentals, dining, shopping and more”, which reads like almost anything you’d charge to a card on an overseas trip.
The terms and conditions land somewhere between the two, and of course they are all that counts. Shopping does qualify, so the artwork undersells the offer on that front, but only four narrow retail categories make the cut, so “and more” oversells it just as much as it’s undersold in the other direction.
The bonus applies solely to transactions carrying one of nine specified Merchant Category Codes, as shown below.
| Qualifying Merchant Category Codes | |
| MCC | Description |
| 3000 – 3350 4511 |
Airlines, Air Carriers |
| 3351 – 3500 7512 |
Car Rental Agencies |
| 3501 – 3999 7011 |
Lodging: Hotels, Motels, Resorts |
| 4722 | Travel Agencies and Tour Operators |
| 5812 – 5814 | Eating Places, Restaurants Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages) Fast Food Restaurants |
| 5311 | Department Stores |
| 5611 – 5699 | Apparel & Accessories Stores (Men’s, Women’s, Children’s, Family, Sports, Shoes) |
| 5944 | Jewelry, Watches & Silverware Stores |
| 5948 | Leather Goods and Luggage Stores |
The travel side of the list is quite generous.
Airlines are comprehensively covered, both the generic 4511 code and the 3000 – 3350 range used by individual carriers. Hotels get the same treatment with 7011 plus the 3501 – 3999 chain-specific range, while 4722 sweeps in the online travel agencies like Agoda, Booking.com and Expedia, and also captures Airbnb bookings (which land as either 7011 or 4722).
Provided you’re billed in foreign currency, these should all be reliable 4 mpd options during the promotion. Note, however, that cruise lines (4411) are not eligible, nor are tourist attractions, theme parks and museums (7991, 7996, 7998, 7999).
“Shopping” is less generous than it sounds.
What actually qualifies here is department stores, clothing and shoe shops, jewellery and watches, and leather goods and luggage. It’s a reasonable selection, but with a number of notable exclusions for travellers “shopping” overseas:
- Duty free stores (5309)
A common overseas purchase for travellers, and it’s not on the list - Supermarkets and grocery stores (5411)
Not included - Convenience stores (5499)
Not included - Rail and local transport (4111, 4112, 4121, 4131)
No bonus on a JR Pass, a Eurostar ticket, a metro top-up or an overseas Grab, Uber or taxi ride - Electronics and computer stores (5732, 5734)
Not included - Cosmetics and beauty (5977)
Not included, and a good number of Sephora-style stores code this way - Souvenir and gift shops (5947)
No 4 mpd on your fridge magnets and other trinkets
That doesn’t mean those transactions earn nothing. They’ll still pick up the standard 2.8 mpd foreign currency rate, which remains among the better year-round rates in the market. You just won’t see the bonus 1.2 mpd on top.
Even outside the bonus categories, the BOC Elite Miles card remains a strong performer. Its 2.8 mpd is matched by the Maybank Horizon and beaten only by the SCVI 3 mpd (both subject to minimum spend), but BOC’s 3% foreign currency fee is lower than either, so it still comes out cheapest per mile.
So unless you hold a card earning 4 mpd or better on the category in question, there’s probably no need to swap cards mid-trip.
Spend must be charged in FCY
One further condition is that the terms define Qualifying Overseas Spend as transactions charged in a currency other than Singapore Dollars, with the SGD-converted amount then used to work out the reward.
That means Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) will cost you the bonus outright. If a terminal in Tokyo or Sydney offers to bill you in Singapore Dollars and you accept, the transaction is charged in SGD and drops out of the promotion, and out of the card’s 2.8 mpd foreign currency rate too.
Always decline and pay in the local currency, which is our regular advice regardless of any promotion but carries an extra penalty this month.
The same logic rules out Amaze, because Instarem’s card converts everything into Singapore Dollars before the transaction reaches your BOC card, so however the underlying purchase was priced, all BOC sees is an SGD charge.
Online spend needs a little more care.
This promotion’s terms only require a transaction to be charged in a currency other than Singapore Dollars, and say nothing about where the merchant’s payment gateway sits. The card’s underlying 2.8 mpd rate, however, does have that requirement, since BOC defines overseas transactions as those made at merchants with payment gateways outside Singapore.
It’s therefore safe to say that’s also a requirement for this promotion, so while spending on the ground overseas is fine, if you’re booking online it’s worth checking where the merchant processes before assuming 4 mpd.
Some good news though – eligibility runs off the transaction date, not the posting date. A purchase made on 6th September that doesn’t post until a week later still counts, so there’s no need to stop spending early to allow for settlement time.
What it’s actually worth
The card’s 3% foreign currency fee undercuts the 3.25% most issuers charge, which is important when you’re spending abroad specifically to earn miles. Set that against a 4 mpd return and each KrisFlyer mile costs you 0.75 cents, or nearer 0.83 cents once you allow for the roughly 0.3% spread Mastercard’s rates carry over a money changer.
Either way, that’s an excellent rate, and comfortably below what you’d pay through most miles-buying promotions.
Do remember though that the bonus is credited as BOC Bonus Points, not as KrisFlyer miles, and getting them across to miles will cost you.
Conversions happen in blocks of 50,000 BOC Bonus Points to 10,000 KrisFlyer miles, and BOC charges a flat S$30.56 including GST for a transfer of up to ten blocks.
You cannot convert fewer than 50,000 points, which at 20 points per S$1 means S$2,500 of qualifying overseas spend just to reach a single convertible block. If this promotion is the only activity on your card and you spend less than that, the points are stuck on the BOC side until you top them up – subject, of course, to the expiry rules further down.
Since one fee covers up to ten blocks, the fee dilutes steadily up to 100,000 miles and then resets. Convert 110,000 miles and you pay S$61.12, not S$30.56.
| Transfer cost per KrisFlyer mile | |||
| Transfer blocks |
KrisFlyer miles |
Conversion fee |
Transfer cost per mile |
| 1 | 10,000 | S$30.56 | 0.31 cents |
| 2 | 20,000 | S$30.56 | 0.15 cents |
| 5 | 50,000 | S$30.56 | 0.06 cents |
| 10 (sweet spot) |
100,000 | S$30.56 | 0.03 cents |
| 11 | 110,000 | S$61.12 | 0.06 cents |
* One block = 50,000 BOC Bonus Points = 10,000 KrisFlyer miles.
Ideally you should transfer in multiples of ten blocks wherever you can, but that’s not always realistic depending on your BOC Points balance.
If you’re carrying an existing BOC Points balance, the sensible move is to wait until this promotion’s bonus points land in November and move everything across together.
No SMS this time
If you wrestled with the 2024 and/or 2025 BOC promotions, there’s good news this time round.
Both of those campaigns required cardholders to respond to an SMS from the bank after each month’s spend, within five calendar days, from a registered Singapore mobile number, in a prescribed format – and forfeit the promo if they missed it. It was, to put it politely, an “unusual” approach to customer engagement.
This promotion has none of that. The terms clearly state that no registration, application, claim or other action, including by way of SMS, is required. The reward is computed by BOC and credited automatically to your BOC Bonus Points account within 60 calendar days of the promotion ending, which puts it in your account by 5th November 2026, with no additional action on your part.
Some small print
There are a couple of clauses in the terms that deserve a mention.
- 12-month clawback. If you close your card account or your banking relationship with BOC within twelve months of the promotion ending (i.e. on or before 6th September 2027) the bank reserves the right to recover the value of the reward.
- Manufactured spend. Spending deemed commercial, non-personal, manufactured or artificial can be disqualified and any reward clawed back. As ever, CardUp and ipaymy transactions have been excluded from earning on this card since July 2025 in any case.
Don’t forget the points expiry
One quirk of the BOC programme that catches people out. BOC Bonus Points expire on 30th June each year, covering transactions made between 1st July two years earlier and 30th June the previous year.
| BOC Bonus Points expiry | |
| Points earned between | Expire on |
| 1 Jul 2025 – 30 Jun 2026 | 30 Jun 2027 |
| 1 Jul 2026 – 30 Jun 2027 | 30 Jun 2028 |
| 1 Jul 2027 – 30 Jun 2028 | 30 Jun 2029 |
Points from this promotion fall into the 1st July 2026 to 30th June 2027 period, giving you until 30th June 2028 to convert them, then once they reach KrisFlyer, the usual three-year expiry clock starts ticking from there.
Summary
BOC’s SG61 Travel Special lifts the Elite Miles World Mastercard to 4 mpd on selected overseas spend until 6th September 2026, with no minimum spend, no cap on what you can earn, and no SMS registration ritual to get wrong.
At an effective 0.75 cents per mile it’s a great rate for a month of overseas spending, but the qualifying list is narrower than the marketing suggests. What you’re getting is 4 mpd on flights, hotels, car hire, travel agencies, restaurants and a thin slice of retail. Duty free, supermarkets, transport and attractions all miss out, as does anything billed to your card in Singapore Dollars.
Decline DCC at every terminal, and spend early rather than late, since BOC has ended its last two campaigns ahead of schedule without explanation.
(Cover Photo: Robert Bye)