BIZ BUZZ: EastWest wants more flyers

Gotianun-led EastWest Bank is placing its bets on tourism and travel demand to boost its credit card portfolio —so much so that it has “enhanced” one of its credit card partnerships focused solely on earning rewards through traveling with one of the world’s top airlines.

The bank recently unveiled the improved EastWest Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer World and Platinum Mastercard.

The key selling point here is that you can earn one KrisFlyer mile—think Philippine Airlines’ Mabuhay Miles but Singapore Airlines version—for every P12 spent on the World card or every P15 spent on the Platinum card.

According to Lawrence Lee, EastWest executive vice president and head of consumer lending, 25,000 miles will get you an economy roundtrip flight from Manila to Singapore.

If we’re doing the math right, it means you’ll have to spend around P300,000—on flight bookings or other travel expenses—to get that free flight.

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“Those pesos [spending] converted to miles [rate] is the most generous in the market,” Lee told reporters. “We made sure it’s the best travel card in the market.”

The bank does indeed seem to be attracting many credit card users, with EastWest credit card business head Mia Tamayo confirming that they may have reached 1.4 million cardholders by the end of September.