OCBC Voyage Card

[limster]

Really? Which cards? As far as I am aware, none of these cards (usually branded as Visa Infinite or World Elite Mastercards) have lowered their requirement. Some of them might be offered to someone with low income, but high assets (& thus a member of the bank's priority banking). I'm talking about cards like Citi Prestige, HSBC Visa Infinite, Amex Platinum Charge Card (NOT the credit card).

They can call it Infinite or whatever, but they are not offering it to HNW but to the new marketing term 'mass affluent', those around $120k p.a.

For mass affluent cards, there is no exclusivity and the history of such cards, eg: Amex Platinum Reserve, is that the income requirement drops as time goes by.

 

[epigram]

I applied for the card this morning and OCBC called me like 10AM. Bloody efficient. Anyhow, this card allows the redemption of taxi rides form airport to home for 3K Voyager Miles. Very useful for me.

i applied last night. till now, no sound no picture.

 

[TravellingMcDs]

How to redeem? Book first? Or take a taxi then fax the receipt in to claim?

I like how "fax the receipt" is still thought of as a actual possibility here in SG.

 

[purpletoysmum]

Everybody is moaning abt the low earn rate for this card. Have you factored in that the flights redeemed can accrue miles? if accrued at full rate it is not that bad a deal IMO. Can help you get your Krisflyer Gold status.....no?

 

[final1]

Actually, this seems to be a dining card.
2.3 miles per dollar for local dining.

For people, who always eat at restaurants alot, this is a pretty good earn rate per dollar.

Btw $10k a month = $120k a year = mass affluent?
I didn't know that lol.

 

[Polar Bear King]

Actually, this seems to be a dining card.
2.3 miles per dollar for local dining.

For people, who always eat at restaurants alot, this is a pretty good earn rate per dollar.

Btw $10k a month = $120k a year = mass affluent?
I didn't know that lol.

Agree,dining card,weekend still better with 365 card 6%.
The miles/$ spent rate is not that good. I turned it down already. Stick to 365 good enough.

 

[Suleyman]

They can call it Infinite or whatever, but they are not offering it to HNW but to the new marketing term 'mass affluent', those around $120k p.a.

For mass affluent cards, there is no exclusivity and the history of such cards, eg: Amex Platinum Reserve, is that the income requirement drops as time goes by.

According to Amex's website, Platinum Reserve requirement is $150k p.a.

BTW, if you know anything about Amex, the Platinum Reserve was never their 'mass affluent' or whatever you want to call it card. That card is the Platinum Card (the charge card, not the credit card, with the logo in the middle).

Basically, any card that you can fill in a form and send it in, not in the same category.

I asked for a callback yesterday morning and got a call in the late afternoon. I think the CSOs are being given very little information atm so they are also not able to answer anything more than what we already know from the website.

He did mention that the redemption from VM directly to ticket is tied to the ticket price, in which case, I think the card would be as someone mentioned, which is similar to a rebate card. However, he cannot say 1 VM = how many $.

He also mentioned that there is a current promotion for a return ticket to HKG on SQ for 15,000 VMs. That is a great value in terms of miles, and if you are going to HKG, makes the paying of the annual fee a little less painful; although $400+ is still a bit high for a SIN-HKG ticket.

Bottomline, I'm going to hold off on this card for awhile, until there is more info.

 

[epigram]

I think the CSOs are being given very little information atm so they are also not able to answer anything more than what we already know from the website.

He did mention that the redemption from VM directly to ticket is tied to the ticket price, in which case, I think the card would be as someone mentioned, which is similar to a rebate card. However, he cannot say 1 VM = how many $.

He also mentioned that there is a current promotion for a return ticket to HKG on SQ for 15,000 VMs. That is a great value in terms of miles, and if you are going to HKG, makes the paying of the annual fee a little less painful; although $400+ is still a bit high for a SIN-HKG ticket.

Bottomline, I'm going to hold off on this card for awhile, until there is more info.

I got my callback. Similar encounter - CSO unable to say what the VM conversion rate is except to say that the VM conversion rate will be better than the KF conversion rate.

As miles earning cards go, this is not particularly compelling, so I have put it on hold. For dining, might as well go for HSBC advance which covers online, dining and entertainment or UOB PP AX.

 

[epigram]

Everybody is moaning abt the low earn rate for this card. Have you factored in that the flights redeemed can accrue miles? if accrued at full rate it is not that bad a deal IMO. Can help you get your Krisflyer Gold status.....no?

that's a fresh perspective. maybe someone else can ask if the VM redeemed flights on SQ will be on 100% KF accrual fare buckets, i.e. not one of those sweet deals, 2 to go nonsense.

 

[icicic]

If 1y fee waiver or good sign up gift maybe will try. Gotta love metal card, I recall Steven Segal took out a kidnapper who asked for ransom in a movie by slitting his throat with a credit card. "Do you take cards?" probably Amex centurion

 

[Awesom Andy]

Everybody is moaning abt the low earn rate for this card. Have you factored in that the flights redeemed can accrue miles? if accrued at full rate it is not that bad a deal IMO. Can help you get your Krisflyer Gold status.....no?

Using the previous example of 2x SIN-HKG return flights. Voyage is 75k miles, and earns about 6400 KF miles. Using a 1:1 scale, it's still a net cost of 68.6K miles. Assuming KF has the availability, 2x SIN-HKG return is 51k miles.

Come to think of it, for the 2 tickets, you can go business class one way and economy class the other way for SIN-HKG, and it would still only come to 72,250 KF miles.

Because they value the perks and privileges more than the 2,500.

Have to say though, the perks and priviledges offered by the $488 here seem rather poor.

 

[Inix]

Not I say one. OCBC say one. I was surprised as well at the 'low' salary requirement given their stated aim of attracting high net worth and affluent customers.

Affluent OK lah,*HNWI not exactly. Affluence is more about how much you earn, and $120KPA for a single person isn't exactly low, but yet, not enough to turn into a HNWI as to be HNWI needs to normally have $1M in nett invest-able assets.

 

[Inix]

that's a fresh perspective. maybe someone else can ask if the VM redeemed flights on SQ will be on 100% KF accrual fare buckets, i.e. not one of those sweet deals, 2 to go nonsense.

That's correct, but *Gold isn't exactly that useful if a person is flying business 90-100% of the time. I mean, it still is for guesting of that additional person into the lounge and 1 additional luggage, but can't find other value

 

[Inix]

I called up the Voyager Exchange, and basically the bank (OCBC) have not setup the ratio yet. But from the conversation, it looks to me that it might be somewhere around 1K Miles = $15-$20 worth. Again, this goes back to the example which the bank had set, which is 75K miles for 2 commercial tickets to HKG. That will cost around $1K (Flex - 50% Mileage), to ($1.5K - Full Y).

So this is likely not going to be too different from SQ's buy ticket with miles option I reckon, only hopefully better value

 

[lalaisgongon]

More interestingly, will be there a difference in benefits for
the normal voyage card
vs
premier
vs
Bank of singapore card.

I dont think the BOS people will be to happy to have the same benefits as the premier people.

 

[hclee01]

I called up the Voyager Exchange, and basically the bank (OCBC) have not setup the ratio yet. But from the conversation, it looks to me that it might be somewhere around 1K Miles = $15-$20 worth. Again, this goes back to the example which the bank had set, which is 75K miles for 2 commercial tickets to HKG. That will cost around $1K (Flex - 50% Mileage), to ($1.5K - Full Y).

So this is likely not going to be too different from SQ's buy ticket with miles option I reckon, only hopefully better value

OCBC website has been updated to give some illustration on the number of points needed to redeem for air ticket:
OCBC Voyage Cards - The first metal cards to let you redeem miles for flights on all airlines, on any day | OCBC Bank

E.g. Bangkok - 38K points (Business Class)
Tokyo - 38,150 points (Economy Class)

I suspect that most probably 1K points can be used to redeem around S$2.50 worth of air ticket fare based on flexible fare ticket. As such for local spending, every dollar probably yield around 0.25% rebate.

 

[lalaisgongon]

OCBC website has been updated to give some illustration on the number of points needed to redeem for air ticket:
OCBC Voyage Cards - The first metal cards to let you redeem miles for flights on all airlines, on any day | OCBC Bank

E.g. Bangkok - 38K points (Business Class)
Tokyo - 38,150 points (Economy Class)

I suspect that most probably 1K points can be used to redeem around S$2.50 worth of air ticket fare based on flexible fare ticket. As such for local spending, every dollar probably yield around 0.25% rebate.

You can choose to redeem Voyage Miles directly for free flights or convert Voyage Miles to KrisFlyer miles at a rate of 1 to 1.

 

[Suleyman]

OCBC website has been updated to give some illustration on the number of points needed to redeem for air ticket:
OCBC Voyage Cards - The first metal cards to let you redeem miles for flights on all airlines, on any day | OCBC Bank

E.g. Bangkok - 38K points (Business Class)
Tokyo - 38,150 points (Economy Class)

I suspect that most probably 1K points can be used to redeem around S$2.50 worth of air ticket fare based on flexible fare ticket. As such for local spending, every dollar probably yield around 0.25% rebate.

Actually closer to 3.4%.

I did a comparison using SQ Economy (using SQ flexi fares), Business and First/Suite fares. The business and first fares come out consistently to about 3.4 VM/$ (except for Taiwan as SQ has no First Class fares to Taipei). Economy fares went as high as 4% but I see those as less accurate since there can be quite a bit of seasonal fluctuation in Economy fares.

(BTW, using the 3.4% ratio, the 15,000 miles sign on bonus would be equivalent to $510, which is about what the annual fees are.)

So, if you look at it as a pure rebate card, that translates to air tickets rather than cash, this card isn't bad.

 

[Suleyman]

Taking the maths of the card further, there is an interesting conclusion.

Because the 'rebate' percentage is consistent across all classes, the card is actually better for redeeming Economy class tickets rather than premium class seats.

When redeeming from KF charts, miles are worth about 2c each when redeeming economy, 4.5c for business and 6c for first (this takes into account surcharges that needs to be paid for award tickets). So, this card will trump the best general miles earning card out there (UOB PRVI Miles - 1.6 miles/$ or 3.2c/$) when redeeming in Economy. For dining & overseas spend, it will still compare favorably with the 10x cards like UOB Preferred Platinum Amex & UOB Visa Signature (7.82 c/$, compared to 8c/$), but you have no issue with award availability and earns miles on the ticket.

Conclusion is that this is the miles card to get if you are looking to fly economy class (perhaps even budget as well), which is an odd place to be in for a card targeting affluent/HNW...

 

[civicguy]

Implementation seemed rush ?