Compared to the United States, the Philippines credit card market is relatively new. However, with the booming economy a new middle class has a resulted in a plethora of new credit cards hitting the Philippine market.
Traditionally, American Express has featured the strongest program in the Philippines, but recently Citibank has significantly upped the ante with the launch of its Premier Miles card, which I think is one of the best daily spending cards in not just the Philippines, but globally.
Let me explain why, but first let’s take a general overview of Citi PremierMiles card.
How to earn Points
There are two types of Citi Premier Miles card, the basic and the signature. The features are pretty much identical, with the main exception of how many pesos you need to spend to earn 1 Citi PremierMile.
Essentially the main difference is the basic card earns 1 point for every 40P spent, which is on par with what a top tier US card typically earns.
The signature card on the other hand earns a 1 point for every 30P spent, which is essentially a 3.34% rebate on every purchase. This is by far one of the best everyday spending cards in the world, beating even the best daily spending cards in the US.
Almost all purchases are eligible to earn points, except those which are counted as cash advances, so you can’t for example go to the casino, buy chips, and cash them out.
In addition, you may earn PremierMiles for one bill each month of up to 100,000 pesos, except for Meralco and PLDT payments, which is capped at 20,000 pesos.
Extensive List of Transfer Partners
What makes the Citi Premier Miles so valuable are Citi’s numerous airline & hotel partners. Each Citi Premier mile can be converted to one airline mile or hotel point of your choice.
These include British Airways, Etihad, and Singapore Airlines all which typically offer a significantly better award chart then Filipino domestic carriers and typically have a much easier process to redeem your miles.
I’ve written guides to each of the three airlines’ frequent flyer program and their redemption sweet spots for Filipinos.
Here are some of my favorite redemptions you can use with your Citi Card:
Fly to Japan for only 9000 British Airways miles each way. If you have the Citi PremierMiles signature card, this means you’ll have to merely spend around 45,000 PHP a month to get a round trip ticket to Tokyo from Manila!
If you’re a big spender, you may have enough points for more luxurious redemptions including Etihad’s first class apartment, which runs on a few select routes (none unfortunately from Southeast Asia).
A one way ticket from Sydney to Abu Dhabi costs 128,845 Etihad Guest Miles, a Citi Premier Miles partner. This would be equivalent to spending $3500 a month for two years.
If you prefer to get a glimpse of the high life without spending a fortune in miles, you can fly Singapore Suite class from Singapore to Hong Kong for 31,875 Krisflyer miles each way. If you prefer to have more time in the world famous suites, a flight from Manila to New York in First class would cost 93,500 miles.
Keep in mind you can have a free stopover at Singapore or Frankfurt, meaning you could fly to Europe, have a stopover, and then continue on to New York!
In addition to the Citi’s numerous foreign transfer partners, you can also convert your Citi PremierMiles into Philippine Airline’s Mabuhay miles or CebGO points. However, I wouldn’t recommend converting your points unless PAL is running its occasional 50% points sale.
There is a minimum of 500 or 1000 points to convert, the conversion table can be found below.
Alternatively you may use 1500 premier miles for a 500 PHP credit statement, although you can get much more value if you transfer your miles to Citi’s partner airlines.
Extra Benefits
Besides having the industry’s best card for earning miles for day to day spend, the Citi PremierMiles card doest come with a few benefits.
The most interesting and perhaps unique benefit is Citi’s 30 day purchase protection plan which covers any accidental loss for purchases made within 30 days. This is only valid for certain cards, so do inquire when applying if you’re eligible for this benefit.
Also, if you travel often, the PremierMiles card grants access to the Miascor lounge in NAIA terminal 1 and Sky View Lounge in Terminal 3.
Also, receive complimentary access to Plaza Premium lounges at Cebu & internationally. I’ve had some fantastic experiences at the Plaza Premium lounge in both Taipei & Hong Kong, so this could be a good benefit if you’re a frequent flyer.
A full list of locations can be found here. https://www.plaza-network.com/locations
Additionally, Citi does often partner with certain merchants to provide discounts for cardholders, which you can find here.
For those who prefer a card with more benefits, I’d suggest you take a look at the Citi Prestige card, which offers complimentary airport lounge access with Priority Pass and 4th night free for any hotel stay globally.