Calculating the Value of Your Miles

Getting More Miles

Earning miles solely from credit cards can take a while so here are a few more sources where you can pool them in from:

1. Credit card sign-up bonus promos such as Citibank’s
2. Rebate websites/apps
3. Rewards systems
4. Airline partners

It’s also a good idea to wait for promos before converting credit card miles to actual airline miles or even redeeming them. Doing so could further stretch the miles you earn/you’ve earned.

For example, Asia Miles would sometimes have promos wherein you can get extra miles. The last promo I was able to take advantage of gave me additional 15% miles but I’ve heard from a friend that it could go higher.

Additionally, flight redemptions using miles could sometimes go on sale. In fact, Mabuhay Miles would often hold Great Mabuhay Miles Travel Sales/Getaways from time to time.

Earning Miles with Citibank PremierMiles

If you’re a Citibank credit card holder (more specifically PremierMiles), there is one more thing you can do.

This would be utilizing Citi PayAll. Citi PayAll is a feature provided by Citibank. Here, you’re using your credit card’s limit as cash that is to be directly deposited to a receiver’s bank account. Citi PayAll can be done a maximum of 6 times a month with each transaction up to PHP 200,000.00 max. Do also note that you can only transact up to PHP 1,000,000.00 in a month. A single transaction also costs up to 3% of the amount you set-up. 

With all those additional charges, would doing these still be beneficial? Well, it depends!

Take for example the Cebu Pacific (GetGo) flight earlier. With PayAll, you actually “lose” PHP 3,1884.44!

This isn’t the case with Singapore Airlines’ (KrisFlyer) flight however. 

In conclusion, flight redemptions with better value of miles will most likely net you better “earnings”/”savings”. On hindsight though, these charges are actually you “buying” the miles so whether this is something you would consider doing is really up to you. 

Whew, that’s a lot to take in, isn’t it? Don’t worry and take your time to really think about how you want to fly and whether using miles is the way to go about it. Hopefully, this somehow helped you to fly for free in the future, when everything is alright again!