Singapore Airline’s lifestyle rewards App, Kris+ is back with its annual ‘Gastronomy Series’ dining campaign 2023. This year, you can earn an astonishing 12 miles per dollar (MPD) at 14 participating restaurants in Singapore.

There are also a variety of menus exclusively curated for Kris+ users and you can have a gastronomic dining experience while earning 12 miles/ S$1 spend.

If you stack it with the right credit card for dining transactions, you can get an additional 6 miles per dollar (on top of the 12 miles per dollar offered by Kris+) which means you can earn up to 18 miles per dollar when you dine at the participating restaurants during this period.

The Kris+ app is seriously one of the best travel hacks to accelerate your miles earning to redeem your next business class flight for your dream holiday!

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT KRIS+ GASTRONOMY SERIES 2023

• Earn 12 miles per dollar from now till 30 June 2023 at 14 participating restaurants. Pair it with UOB Lady’s Solitaire and UOB Lady’s Card which offer 6 miles per dollar on eligible dining spend, and you can get a whopping 18 miles per dollar.
• Remember to make your reservations through “Reserve a Table” on the Kris+ app to receive an additional 100 miles with each completed reservation.
• Receive up to S$25 rebate when you spend a min. of S$100 at participating restaurants in a single transaction and pay with Mastercard® on Kris+.

These are the 14 participating restaurants where you can earn 12 miles/ S$1 spend:

SO France Bistro
USHIO Sumiyaki & Sake Bar
Red House Seafood
TungLok Seafood
Tandoor
Mikuni
Tanglin Cookhouse
Li Bai Cantonese Restaurant
Tapas,24
Woolooomooloo Steakhouse
Enjoy Eating House
5 ON 25
Cheeselads
The Dining Room

And here are some of our top picks on where you should go for a nice meal and rack up lots of miles.

MIKUNI

At Mikuni, guests can embark on a culinary journey that showcases the finest seasonal Japanese ingredients, as master chefs at the Teppanyaki and Sushi live stations create stunning and exquisite dishes.

Priced at S$280 nett per pax, Mikuni’s Gastronomy Series dinner menu is a real treat for the senses and you can feast on premium seafood, whole abalone, A5 Ohmi Sirloin at the Teppanyaki live station.

RED HOUSE SEAFOOD

Established in 1976, Red House Seafood is one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in Singapore and they have been offering masterful creations that display Singapore’s kaleidoscopic gastronomical palate to their loyal customers for decades.

Red House Seafood’s Gastronomy Series menu at their Grand Copthorne outlet is S$128++/pax (min. 2 to dine) and the highlights of the 6-course menu include Double-boiled Abalone & Fish Maw Cartilage Soup, Wagyu Beef served with Sea Salt and its Signature Chilli Crab Meat.

TAPAS,24

For those of you who have never heard of Tapas,24, it is the brainchild of one of Barcelona’s best-known chefs Carles Abellán, who has worked for the legendary chef Ferran Adria at the world-famous El Bulli restaurant (which boasted three Michelin stars and was crowned World’s Best Restaurant multiple times when it was still in operation).

For Kris+ Gastronomy Series 2023, Tapas,24 is serving a signature homemade sangria flight & Tapas,24 platter at S$50++. Indulge in 3 signature homemade sangria alongside their award-wining tapas dishes.

TUNGLOK SEAFOOD

Known for their commendable service and exceptionally fresh Singapore-style seafood delicacies, expect nothing short of a stellar dining experience at TungLok Seafood.

They will be offering several set menus which start from S$228 for 3-4 pax and you can enjoy their famous seafood dishes including Steamed Razor Clams, live crabs, Deep-fried Prawns with Wasabi Mayo.

WOOLOOMOOLOO STEAKHOUSE

From their elegant, woody decor and classic trimmings, right down to their variety of classic steak cuts, Wooloomoo Steakhouse at Swissotel The Stamford is a popular steak restaurant which comes with a great view of the city’s skyline.

The Kris+ Gastronomy Series lunch menu is affordably priced at S$48++ per pax and it comes with a choice of appetiser, soup, main course and dessert. Be sure to top up S$25++ for their 300 Day Grain Fed USDA Prime Ribeye.

Kris+ is a must-have app for miles hackers and people looking to save on air ticket costs for their next holiday. Even without the Gastronomy Series miles bonuses, Kris+ still offers the highest miles earn rate up to 9 miles / S$1 spend on top of credit card rewards.  There’s no cap on the miles you can earn from Kris+, and all miles earned can be transferred to KrisFlyer at a 1:1 ratio with no transfer fees. It is a great way to earn miles while dining at your favourite restaurants in Singapore.

Other than the 14 participating restaurants under Kris+ Gastronomy Series, you can also earn up to 9 mpd at more than 400 Kris+ partners across Singapore as well as enjoy deals and discounts at 1,500 retail and dining outlets. You can even make KrisShop purchases, or book your taxi rides through Kris+.

There is really no reason not to use the Kris+ app to earn more miles to redeem air tickets for your next holiday.

This post was brought to you by Kris+.

Sick of taking budget airlines and want to up your travel game and fly via business class? Welcome to the miles game.

When it comes to earning miles, You have to put in time and energy to learn the miles game. There are many miles hacks to speed up the process of earning more miles, and these miles can be used to redeem your next business class flight out.

Do note that airport taxes and other miscellaneous charges are still payable, even if you fully redeem your air tickets.

From the best miles credit cards to sign-up bonuses, and other useful information that you should know about miles, here is our beginners’ guide to the miles game—our tips and travel hacks on how you can accelerate your miles earnings.

THE BEST CREDIT CARDS FOR MILES

Let’s start with credit cards. The most common question that we get is “which is the best credit card for miles”?

Well, sorry to burst your bubble but one size doesn’t fit all; there is no single best credit card for miles. You need several right credit cards in order to maximise the number of miles you can earn because every card rewards differently.

How to decide which credit card to get? This really depends on your spending. Here are the miles credit cards that every miles chaser should get.

4MPD CREDIT CARDS

There are several credit cards that offer you 4mpd (miles per dollar) for certain transactions. Everyone should definitely have these credit cards.

• DBS Women World Mastercard – 4mpd for online shopping, capped at S$2,000 per calendar month.
• UOB Preferred Platinum Visa Card – 4mpd for contactless payments, capped at S$1,000 per calendar month.
• UOB Visa Signatures – 4mpd for contactless payments, minimum S$1,000 per month & capped at S$2,000 per statement month.
• Citi Rewards Visa – 4mpd for all online shopping, capped at S$1,000 per statement month.
• OCBC Titanium Rewards – 4mpd for online & offline shopping, capped at S$12,000 per membership year.

CREDIT CARD FOR GENERAL SPEND

Unless you can get a credit card that offers you 1.6 mpd—including UOB Reserve Card, DBS Insignia Card, OCBC Premier Voyage Card, Citi Ultima Card—your best bet is probably UOB PRVI Miles Visa card which offers 1.4/2.4mpd for local/overseas spending.

Every cent counts. Charge everything to the right credit cards and you will soon be on your way on a business class flight to your favourite destination.

SIGN-UP BONUSES FROM CREDIT CARDS

Several credit cards in Singapore offer pretty decent sign-up bonus when you apply for the credit cards. Here are some credit cards that you can apply to enjoy sign-up bonuses.

• Citi PremierMiles Visa – 6,400 / 26,500 miles (26,500 miles if you spend a minimum of S$9,000 in the first 3 months, or 6,400 miles if you spend S$3,000 in the same timescale with first-year annual fee waived.)
• Standard Chartered Visa Infinite - 35,000 miles (S$588.50 annual fee)
• HSBC Visa Infinite – 35,000 miles (S$650 annual fee)
• Standard Chartered Visa Infinite X – 30,000 miles (S$695.50 annual fee)
• Citi Prestige MasterCard – 25,000 miles (S$535.00 annual fee)
• OCBC Voyage Visa Infinite – 150,000 miles (S$3,210 annual fee)
• DBS Altitude Visa / Amex – 10,000 miles (free annual fee for the first year)

BOOKMARK MILES WEBSITES AND READ MORE ON HOW YOU CAN EARN AND MAXIMISE YOUR MILES

There are many great miles websites that offer a lot of useful tips and travel hacks on how you can earn and maximise your miles.

Some of the miles websites that we refer to and recommend are Mainly Miles, The Milelion, The Shutterwhale & The Points Guy. They provide really in-depth tips and we have benefited greatly from them.

SOME COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT MILES

1. Cash-back or miles credit cards?

There’s no right or wrong answer for this. For those of you who don’t like to travel or are happy with whatever class you are flying, you can get credit card(s) for cash-backs if you are looking for rebates. But if you aspire to travel more (be it on economy class or business class), it’s really a no-brainer. You need more miles to make this happen!

The dream to fly on business (or first for some) class may seem very far away. But like all good things in life, you need to work hard for it.

2. Which is the best miles card for dining?

Use a good contactless card such as UOB Preferred Platinum Miles (4mpd, capped at S$1,000 per calendar month) or UOB Visa Signatures (4mpd, min spend of S$1,000 and capped at S$2,000 per statement month) when you pay for your bill at restaurants. Note: this only applies to dining places that accept paywave.

Another good credit card for dining is the UOB Lady’s Card (4mpd, capped at S$1,000 per month). You just have to choose ‘dining’ for the bonus category.

3. I just started my first job. Should I apply for credit card(s)?

If you are the kind who has no discipline and cannot stop yourself from spending money, please do not apply for a credit card. The last thing you want is to get into more debts when you haven’t finished paying your study loan.

For everyone else, please do yourself a favour and apply for credit cards. You are going to spend money on things such as transport, food, buying clothes for your new job etc. Why not accumulate miles while you are at it? Just remember to pay your credit card bills on time (or apply giro for them).

4. How do you remember which credit cards to use for different types of spending?

That is honestly the main challenge. Just try your best to remember or create a simple spreadsheet/note for all the credit cards.

5. Do you recommend redeeming miles for economy class?

If you prefer quantity over quality, by all means, use your miles for economy flights. However, from a dollar value stand point, it’s typically not worth it to accumulate miles to redeem economy flights or to upgrade your flight from economy to business class. If you are really planning to accumulate and maximize the value of your miles, save enough to redeem Business or First Class tickets.

6. Is there any way to earn miles on large payments such as rent, taxes and condo maintenance fee?

YES! This brings us to our next point. You guys need to start using ipaymy!

IPAYMY – THE BEST PLATFORM TO EARN MILES

If you want to really rack in the miles, and collect them fast, here’s our secret.

One of the best things that we did since embarking on our journey on chasing miles—other than applying for the right credit cards—is use ipaymy. Since we started using ipaymy in early 2019, we’ve been sharing it with everyone and haven’t looked back since.

ipaymy allows anyone in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia to use your credit card(s) to pay for virtually anything currently paid by bank transfer or cheque including rent, insurance, taxes, tuition, condo maintenance fee etc locally and abroad to over 30 different countries.

By simply shifting these large expenses you are already paying, to ipaymy and your credit card you can earn those miles much faster than you would on normal spend of dining, shopping, and general expenses.

And if you run your own business, you can sign up for an ipaymy business account to pay operating expenses such as invoices to your suppliers and salaries to your employees. You don’t need us to tell you how much miles you can get from these expenses.

ipaymy business accounts also get access to the ‘BE PAID’ product where businesses can issue and collect invoice payments via credit cards from their customers.

HOW IPAYMY WORKS

It takes minutes to create a free ipaymy account. On the easy-to-use dashboard, select what you want to pay: rent, invoice, tax or salary. From there, let ipaymy know who you need to pay, how much and their bank account details. ipaymy then charges your card that amount plus a small fee and pays your landlord, supplier or employees as fast as the next day. It’s THAT EASY to earn more miles!

Plus, you can set up your rent or other obligations on a recurring basis leaving you with one last thing to think about while you passively earn miles every month.

VALUE OF USING IPAYMY

ipaymy charges a transaction fee starting at 2.25% per payment and occasionally runs promotions for reduced fees. (Tip: follow their Facebook page to be in the know on their latest offers.)

First-time ipaymy users can use our code ‘LIC’ to enjoy a discounted fee of only 1.79% on your first payment made with locally issued Visa or Mastercard.

If you are someone wants to travel better, faster, and for up to 70% less then ipaymy is definitely worth it!

Let’s run through a scenario, a business class ticket to Tokyo on Singapore airlines is 94,000 miles. Assuming you have a credit card such as UOB PRVI Miles Visa card that offers you 1.4mpd and you currently spend S$2,000 a month you will earn 2,800 miles per month ($2,000 x 1.4 mpd). At this rate, it will take you 34 months, or just under three years, to earn enough points for a business class ticket. That is a long time to wait and you also run the risk of airmiles devaluing over time.

Now add ipaymy to the scenario. By also paying you monthly rent of S$3,500 for example, you will now be earning 7,700 miles per month allowing you to accumulate enough miles for a Business Class ticket to Tokyo in just 1 year! Adding other expenses, such as taxes, will only accelerate this. Accelerate your miles balance even further by using a newly issued credit card on ipaymy to quickly reach the sign-up bonus.

To give you a dollar perspective, a business class ticket on Singapore Airlines to Tokyo typically cost around S$3,000. The cost of paying your rent for a year on ipaymy is S$928.60 with the LIC 1.79% promo code on your first payment. This is roughly a 70% savings from the market price of a business class ticket! If you are planning a trip to Tokyo, you might as well do it in style!

Ready to get started with ipaymy? You can find a list of the cards that currently earn miles on ipaymy and they are all backed by ipaymy’s ‘Points Guarantee.’

New users of ipaymy can use our code ‘LIC’ upon signing up for an account to make any transaction on ipaymy for a fee of 1.79% on a one-time payment made with locally issued Visa or Mastercard.

You get the idea now? Good, start using ipaymy.

All the best for your miles game!

This post was brought to you by ipaymy.

Ever felt envious whenever you see photos of business/ first class flights on your social media timelines? That could be you too, except that you need to know how to get started on accumulating miles.

Miles are the best thing ever since we are no Jenners who own our own jets. And miles can come from various “channels”.

Have you heard of www.Mileslife.com? It is a relatively new app—and also our favourite one—to accumulate miles through everyday spending. It is super easy to use and the miles go directly into your Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer or preferred frequent flyer program account. It is also our go-to app to use now for dining, activities and travel and if you do so too, your next business class or even first class flight might happen soon!

If you are already on Mileslife, you’d be happy to know that there is an upcoming promotion of X5 miles! That is A LOT and you must head out from 14-17 May 2018 to dine to enjoy this promotion. If you are new to Mileslife, use our code ‘Ladyironchef‘ upon your first spending to get 1,000 miles.

WHAT IS MILESLIFE

Mileslife is a one-of-a-kind app that is free to download. It features many F&B, lifestyle, and travel merchants that are all participating partners who reward users with miles.

The idea is simple: you pay using the app when you dine/spend at any of the participating partners and every transaction will be converted to miles based on the respective conversion with up to 5 miles per dollar! The best thing is you can double dip with your credit card to earn double the miles.

HOW DOES MILESLIFE WORK

Upon downloading Mileslife, create an account and link your preferred frequent flyer program account. That will be the payment gateway. There are no hidden costs; whatever your bill is, that is what you will be paying via the app.

Whenever you make a payment for your purchase, it will be done via the app with your authorisation.

The reward system for miles differs from partner to partner. Some would give you as high as 5 miles per dollar spent; this definitely makes clocking miles so much easier!

From time to time, Mileslife would have thematic “promotion” too. Say for example the month’s promotion is 5x miles; you will get up to 25 miles (5 x 5) per dollar! You can also top up mileslife credits to earn miles. For example, you can top up S$300 to get 300 miles and if you top up S$10,000, you will earn 20,000 miles.

Isn’t that just too enticing; how can you not be using Mileslife?!

Hua Ting: 1 S$ = 2 Miles on Mileslife

WHEN SHOULD YOU USE IT

Mileslife has a very long list of partners ranging from F&B, travel and lifestyle.

Where everyday usage is concerned, dining is the easiest way to clock miles. If you have to dine out, might as well pick somewhere that is available on Mileslife so that you can clock miles while doing what you have to do, yes?

You can filter by the area, type of cuisine, the most popular restaurant(s) etc. It won’t be too difficult to find something that you fancy.

Pro tip: filter via ‘Best for Miles’. We always go for the ones that give 3 miles per dollar.

Under ‘Lifestyle’, there are many listings including hotels—such as The Fullerton Singapore, Six Senses Duxton, Capella Singapore—spa, activities, to attractions.

You can also purchase Gift cards—from Lazada, Zalora, Naiise, RWS Invites—for a loved one, and accumulate miles while doing so as long as you pay via Mileslife!

OUR FAVOURITES ON MILESLIFE

After several months of using Mileslife, we have our favourites and that includes a long list of restaurants such as Crystal Jade, Tanuki Raw, Awfully Chocolate, Long Chim, Akira Back, Food Exchange, The Clifford Pier, Hua Ting and The Hungry Caveman.

FIRST-TIMERS’ CODE FOR MILESLIFE

If you are new to Mileslife, you really should sign up soon and start accumulating miles for your next flight ticket.

Simply download the app, key in our code ‘ladyironchef‘ and you will automatically enjoy 1,000 miles in your account to get you started. The only term is that your first transaction has to be at least S$49 and within 30 days of inputting the code and within 14 days of sign-up so as to get the first bundle of miles.

You can refer as many friends as you want.

5X MILES FOR THE MONTH OF MAY

From 14 to 17 May 2018, enjoy 5x miles when you use Mileslife for your purchases! This is definitely the most incredible deal ever, guys. It is capped at 2,000 miles per user per day and is valid for all transactions except gift cards and topping up of Mileslife Credits.

We did a double take when we first heard about this but this is real. 25 miles per dollar; you wont be able to find this level of remuneration everywhere!

Brb while we start making plans on where to dine for that three days!

This post is brought to you by Mileslife.