1. Introduction to Miles

If you are reading this, you are probably new to miles collecting. Before you head straight to copying my miles strategy, you have to first take note of what your spending habits are. Start by keeping track of (i) how much you spend, (ii) in which areas you spend on, (iii) which method of payment you typically use, and (iv) in what currency do you spend.

• How much you spend? Knowing how much you spend is important to choose the right card(s) for you. All good miles cards have a maximum spending (above which accrues you negligible miles), and some of which imposes a minimum spending.

• Where do you spend on? Utilities, food, transportation (public transport, grab/gojek), online shopping, online and offline groceries, travel (flights, intercity trains such as shinkansen), drinks/bars (yes, they count differently from food), insurance, just to name a few.

• Which method of payment you use? First, miles collection is only possible with credit cards, which might not be an option if you often buy from hawker centres or merchants that only accept Paylah/PayNow. Second, NETS payment does not accrue miles. Third, some cards only accrue miles for online transactions, and conversely some only allow for in-person contactless. Fourth, even for in-person contactless, it matters if you are using the card physically to tap (i.e. contactless) or using Google Pay, Apple Pay or Samsung Pay (i.e. mobile contactless).

• What currency? Some cards have different miles rate if charged in foreign currencies, but charge you bank fx fees that often do not make it worth it. Some cards even require you to hit a minimum spending in foreign currencies before you get 4mpd.

Before we begin, it is important to taper expectations on how much you expect to get out of miles collecting. Here are three things to keep in mind before we begin:

1. Flying business is a luxury, not just a mode of transport.

Typically you would get about 4 miles per dollar (mpd) spent, and a one-way flight to Japan will require a minimum of 54,000 on KrisFlyer (Singapore Airlines' loyalty programme). This means to redeem a return flight to Japan each year, you need to spend about $27,000 a year, or $2,250 a month.* And that is assuming you optimised your expenditure!

Of course, it might be lower in reality because the credit card sign-on bonuses, but these are not free (see next). So to really make the effort worth it, you must see the experience on business class as part of the goal (i.e. the end, not just means to the end).

2. It is difficult to use your miles.

Seats available for mile redemptions run out quickly. You will need to fix your flight dates almost a year early, and book the moment the flights are released. For example, for my upcoming Osaka flight, I woke up at 7+ to book my one-way ticket to Osaka from Singapore at 8am, 355 days in advance. I booked my June 2026 flight, in July 2025.

You can only reliably get enough miles for Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific. Using the cards issued by the Singapore banks, you are realistically able to convert your miles to KrisFlyer (Singapore Airlines) or Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific). One of the cards below (DBS Yuu Card) can only be converted to KrisFlyer.

You need to be flexible and creative in your flight routes. For flights where Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific do not have connections to, or if popular routes run out of redemption flights, you have to be creative. Fly to a nearby city, and use land transport or connecting to get to your destination. For example, you can fly to Nagoya or Fukuoka instead of Tokyo or Osaka, and take local trains or shinkansen to where you originally intended to go. You could even fly to another city to take redemption flight, but that it too high-level for casual miles collectors.

3. Miles are not free.

Miles cards compete with cashback, which is the major source of opportunity costs. The simplest cashback cards give you ~1.5% cashback. Assuming you use the best miles card with 4mpd, each mile technically lost you the chance to earn 0.375 cents. If you earn miles to redeem a return flight to Japan, that flight cost you $405. This could be more if you are using good cashback cards.

There are hidden fees that add up when using miles to redeem flights. These include the cost of converting credit card points (which is what you earn) to airline miles, and the fuel surcharges and airport taxes when you purchase a business class ticket. Yes, the miles only cover the base fare.

You don't earn interests on miles. Yes, this is a very small benefit that cashback cards have over miles, but everything adds up.

4. Not everyone should do miles collection.

It is a lot of work, especially when you are starting out on miles collecting. You have to know which card to use for which transaction, and you have to keep track of how much you have already charged each card to make sure you do not bust the cap. I have spent countless hours reading MileLion, MainlyMiles and SuiteMiles (all awesome bloggers) and relentlessly including my expenditure on the phone app Money Manager (awesome, cannot recommend it enough). Not to mention, I need to know the cycle of each card (statement month vs. calendar month) and whether the transaction is based on posting date or transaction date.

• If you think you can get by with just a general spending miles card with 1.6mpd and use it for everything, you will need to spend ~$5,600 per month to redeem the same return flight to Tokyo each year. At that point, if you use a mix of cashback cards and earn an effective cashback rate of 4%, you would get ~$2,700, enough to buy your own return flight on business class to Tokyo without having to go through the hassle of fighting to book the limited redemption seats.

Not everyone derives the same level of utility from business class. Ultimately it is just a more comfortable mode of transport on a specific airline. If you are the kind who does not care how comfortable the plane seat and experience is, stick to cashback.

With that out of the way, let's begin. I will start with sharing what I use, and what I think you should use depending on your needs and spending.

2. My Card Strategy

Before we dive in, I need to explain how much I spend and what I pay for. In general, I spend about $3,000 on discretionary spending (i.e. ignoring taxes) per month.

• How much I spend? About $3,000 on spending (excluding taxes).

• Where do I spend it on and which method of payment? 

• Which currency? Mostly SGD, though I do spend some in foreign currency (which I will explain later). 

2.1 Daily Drivers

These are cards that I use consistently on a day to day basis.

2.2 Back-up and Niche Uses

These are cards I use if I expect big ticket spending, or have specific use cases such as skirting around restrictions that generally apply to most miles-accruing cards. Yes, most cards above exclude the following:

• Top-up on wallets, e.g. YouTrip, GrabPay. No cards gives you miles/cashback, if not it would be an unlimited money loop.

• Government transactions, e.g. paying taxes. No cards gives you miles directly, though you can use CardUp or other payment methods which we will not elaborate on because of how niche and potentially expensive it is.

• Insurance payments. Most insurances are excluded, unless you buy them on Online Travel Agents (OTA) such as Klook.

• For an exhaustive list, please see MileLion's article. They include hospital and education expenditures, charity etc.

2.3 Foreign Currency

This is a special segment because there are so many options recently. You may see some repeats of the cards above, e.g. Citi Rewards and Chocolate Visa, and they are important because now there are very good cashback cards that do not have bank fx fees. This means it is now much more expensive to collect miles on foreign currencies, and it is also time to get rid of your YouTrip/Revolut/Wise cards.

3. AI Chat Bot (?)

I know, the information above is really information overload. And that does not even take into consideration the list of cards that I do not use but might be useful for you. These include HSBC, OCBC and Maybank cards. Not to forget, the sign-on bonuses that you might want to consider, but I think those are not for the casual users.

As a next step, I am working on a ChatGPT bot to help you determine what your next steps should be, making personalised recommendations of the suite of cards that you should apply for based on your spending habits. Hurray.