As covered in my previous entry, Hilton Honors Points are incredibly difficult to earn in Asia. In Singapore, there are only two credit card companies that allow you to earn Hilton points from spending (albeit still at a very low rate). A reader recently brought the American Express Rewards Card to my attention. The low fee credit card allows for an excellent chance at earning HHonors Points (or miles, if you prefer).

There are a couple of requirements you have to fulfill before you are eligible for the bonus points:

Annual Income needs to be greater than SGD$30,000.
You need to be a new American Express Rewards Card applicant (it is ok if you are currently holding a Platinum or Krisflyer card).
You need to pay the annual fee of $53.50 (inclusive of GST).
You need to spend $1,500 from the date of approval.

Upon spending $1,500 within three months from the date your credit card was approved, you will receive 21,000 bonus Membership Rewards Points. On a normal rate of earning, this card gives you 1 Membership Rewards Point per SGD$1 spent. As a bonus, you get 100% bonus points for the first three months of your new account. Therefore spending $1,500 would normally give you 1,500 points but you will receive 3,000 points should you spend this amount within this time frame. Combined with the 21,000 bonus points, you will receive a total of 24,000 Membership Rewards Points for spending $1,553.50 [$1,500 + $53.50 (Annual Fee)]. 1 Membership Rewards Point is equivalent to 1.25 HHonors Points. Therefore, this opportunity will present you with $1 to 19.31 HHonors Points for the first $1,500 spent (within the first 3 months), leaving you with 30,000 HHonors Points.

This truly is an exceptionally rare opportunity and I beseech everyone who is a HHonors Points collector to make use of it.

Citibank is the other bank that allows consumers to earn Hilton Honors Points from spending. The Citibank Rewards Card provides 10x base earning bonus when you shop for clothes, bags and shoes or at departmental stores (e.g. Tangs) or online shopping websites (e.g. Amazon). With a base earning of 0.4 HHonors Points per dollar, this is equivalent to 4 HHonors Points (or 4 Miles) per SGD$1 when you shop and these locations.

Alternatively, the Citibank Premiermiles (VISA) allows you to earn 1.2 Citi Miles per SGD$1 spent on anything (or 2.0 Citi Miles per dollar in Foreign Currency). 1 Citi Mile is equivalent to 1.5 Hilton Honors Points, and therefore:

Local Currency (SGD): $1 = 1.8 Hilton Honors Points
Foreign Currency (SGD - after conversion) = $1 = 3.0 Hilton Honors Points

There is an American Express version of this Citibank Premiermiles card with slightly higher earning rate but I personally think the AMEX version is more restrictive and you generally end up paying more after currency conversion due to higher charges. For those that are interested, here are the conversion rates:

Local Currency (SGD): $1 = 2.1 HHonors Points
Foreign Currency (SGD - after conversion): $1 = 3.0 HHonors Points
Singapore Airlines/SilkAir (SGD): $1 = 3.75 HHonors Points