Why is there no KrisFlyer co-branded credit card?

[anyonebutqantas]

Given the popularity of SQ in Australia you'd think such a card would be a no-brainer?

 

[Lost Redditor]

Couldn't tell you why, but being majority owned by the Singapore government might have something to do with it. I'm only seeing CC with sign-up bonuses for Singapore residents

Edit: Looks like some other Asian countries get this as well. Might happen some day! HSBC released that card that fast tracks you to Gold

 

[Mattg]

Westpac used to have one, but it got closed down a few years ago.

 

[anyonebutqantas]

Couldn't tell you why, but being majority owned by the Singapore government might have something to do with it. I'm only seeing CC with sign-up bonuses for Singapore residents

Edit: Looks like some other Asian countries get this as well. Might happen some day! HSBC released that card that fast tracks you to Gold

Emirates is owned by the UAE Government but we've had Emirates co-branded cards in the past. Or is this the fault of unimaginative Aussie banks who think the world revolves around Qantas?

 

[dajop]

Couldn't tell you why, but being majority owned by the Singapore government might have something to do with it. I'm only seeing CC with sign-up bonuses for Singapore residents

Absolutely nothing to do with it. Zero, zilch, nothing.

Australian residents have access to much more generous sign-up bonuses to cards that provide access to Krisflyer, than Singapore residents do, without actually having co-branded cards. In fact I'd go far as to say, Krisflyer's hard expiry of miles probably make these cards much more attractive than direct earn co-branded cards - and perhaps even explains why they don't have such cards in the market against the likes of QFF and Velocity which don't have hard expiry of miles.

As a Singapore resident Australian, I can assure the sign up bonuses here are insignificant and come with all sorts of T&Cs', compared to the signup bonuses on bank issued credit card programs in Australia (which in turn are insignificant to the sign up bonuses on credit cards in the US which are ruining loyalty programs for everyone else).

This is an example of a very unusually high sign up bonus of 45,000 Krisflyer miles in Singapore:

Get up to 45,000 miles

• Promotion is valid for new Standard Chartered credit card holders only
• Get approved for and make eligible spends on your Standard Chartered Journey Credit Card to be eligible for rewards
• Up to 25,000 miles: Additional 5 miles per dollar from eligible spends within 30 days of card approval, capped at S$5,000
• 10,000 miles: From annual fee payment of S$194.40
• 10,000 miles: From S$5,000 eligible foreign currency spends
• Promotion is valid until 17 July 2023
• Terms and Conditions apply

Amex has branded cards with sign up bonuses many of which are contingent on paying hefty annual fees and significant spends. The Amex platinum card has 75,000 sign up bonus as follows, with an annual fee of $1728. So you're basically buying points @ 2.3c (SGD) or 2.5c (AUD) per point.

Receive 75,000 Membership Rewards® points upon Annual Fee payment and min. spending of S$15,000 within first 3 months of Card approval.

 

[anat0l]

...in turn are insignificant to the sign up bonuses on credit cards in the US which are ruining loyalty programs for everyone else

LOL sorry cannot help but laugh at this.

Mind, the last signup bonus I got that had KF as a sweep option was 110k points, but you need to halve that to get the KF bonus (very soon, will need to divide that by 3). That said, all you needed to do was spend a certain threshold amount; no acrobatics required here.

That's more than the one you mentioned, though not mind bogglingly more and certainly not enough to do a lot with, cf. Singaporeans who can make some useful redemptions even with 45k miles (or even half that amount). Of course, no idea how many Singaporeans play the mileage game.......

 

[levelnine]

cf. Singaporeans who can make some useful redemptions even with 45k miles

This raises an interesting point.

One of the reasons Australians get so screwed in the points & miles game is that they need so many miles for so many destinations.

For Americans, a single credit card sign up bonus (circa 100K converted at 1:1) is enough to get one person return business class to Europe.

For Australians, you need three credit card sign up bonuses (even with a 90K Qantas bonus converted at 1:1) to get one person return business class to Europe.

Yes Australians have Asia & NZ for cheap, but that's about it.

 

[anyonebutqantas]

This raises an interesting point.

One of the reasons Australians get so screwed in the points & miles game is that they need so many miles for so many destinations.

For Americans, a single credit card sign up bonus (circa 100K converted at 1:1) is enough to get one person return business class to Europe.

For Australians, you need three credit card sign up bonuses (even with a 90K Qantas bonus converted at 1:1) to get one person return business class to Europe.

Yes Australians have Asia & NZ for cheap, but that's about it.

We really need Qantas to fly to more Asian destinations. It's a joke that they've only started Seoul recently and the only QF service to BKK is from SYD.

 

[XPOSE]

HSBC have a Star Alliance credit card - with fast track to gold on signup.