Does it Make Sense to Use Miles Cards if I Only Take Economy Class?
Does it make sense to use miles cards if you are not intending to take Business Class flights? This is something you can decide by comparing the miles required against the cash you’d have to pay for ticket prices in Economy Class.
Generally, the miles required for a particular flight is fixed while ticket prices can vary depending on the dates you travel in. This means that when ticket prices are high, redeeming a flight with miles makes more sense since you are offsetting more spend using your miles.
Looking at a real example
Let’s start with a short regional trip to Bangkok on Singapore Airlines.
Looking at the available flights over the next few months, the cheapest return trip I’ve found in Economy Class is around S$311. The miles required for this return trip is 26,000 miles with around S$114 of taxes.
Someone using a 4 miles per dollar card will need S$6,500 spend to collect the 26,000 miles required. A 5% cashback card will need S$6,220 of spend to reach S$311 of cashback.
Making a fairer comparison
This is, however, a very unfair comparison. The person using miles still has to pay the taxes of S$114 out of pocket and this is not covered by the miles card, while the S$311 ticket has taxes included which the cashback card will cover with S$6,220 of spend.
To make things fair, we can do one of two things:
- We make the 4 miles per dollar card also earn enough points to offset the taxes of S$114.
- We take taxes out of the ticket price so both cards have equal footing. This means that we will pay the tax amount of S$114 out of our own pocket in both scenarios.
Option 2 is likely the neater and easier way to do things. Moreover, miles cards are terrible at earning cash rebates, so Option 1 will make them look significantly worse.
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Short-haul Example: Bangkok
With taxes set aside, a 4 miles per dollar card user needs to make S$6,500 of spend to hit the 26,000 miles required to book the flight, while a 5% cashback card user will need just S$3,940 of spend to get S$197 (which is S$311 ticket price – S$114 taxes). Both of them then fork out S$114 of their own money to complete their flight booking.
In this scenario where ticket prices are cheaper, a cashback card beats miles card handily. Don’t forget also that buying the ticket also means you can earn card rewards on the full ticket price, while redeeming with miles only allows you to earn rewards on the tax portion.
When tickets are pricier, however, miles start to show more usefulness. I have found tickets going as high as S$1,105. This requires S$19,820 of spend on a 5% cashback card after we set aside taxes.
| Ticket Price | Miles Required | 4 mpd Card | 5% Cashback Card | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S$311 (S$197 + S$114 taxes) | 26,000 miles + S$114 taxes | S$6,750 spend | S$3,940 spend | Cashback |
| S$1,105 (S$991 + S$114 taxes) | 26,000 miles + S$114 taxes | S$6,500 spend | S$19,820 spend | Miles |
Long-haul Example: Amsterdam
For a longer flight like Amsterdam, you can find cheap return flights for S$1,186 to Amsterdam over the next couple of months. A 4 miles per dollar miles card will find it tougher to get the 88,000 miles required for this redemption, requiring S$22,000 of spend, while a 5% cashback card will require S$19,980 of spend.
When tickets prices get expensive, miles again become very useful. One of the more expensive return flights I found was S$3,862 which requires S$73,500 of spend on a 5% cashback card. Saver redemptions are not available here, so someone using miles have to book Advantage instead which requires 158,000 miles. Even then, the Math works out in the miles card’s favour, requiring just S$39,500 of spend to book this flight.
| Ticket Price | Miles Required | 4 mpd Card | 5% Cashback Card | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S$1,186 (S$999 + S$187 taxes) | 88,000 miles + S$187 taxes | S$22,000 spend | S$19,980 spend | Cashback |
| S$3,862 (S$3,675 + S$187 taxes) | 158,000 miles + S$187 taxes | S$39,500 spend | S$73,500 spend | Miles |
Spontaneous Escapes
Don’t forget that Singapore Airlines has a monthly Spontaneous Escapes promo where you can usually get a 30% discount on the miles required.
That’s 18,200 miles for our Bangkok example instead of 26,000, and this requires S$4,550 of spend. Depending on how much the same flight cost, this could tilt the playing field towards using miles.
Another win for miles: one-way or open-jaw flights
For one-way flights, redemption flights are priced fairly – if a return trip costs 26,000 miles, the one-way flight costs 13,000 miles as one might expect. When paying with cash, this is almost never the case, and one-way ticket prices can be almost the same price as a return flight.
This makes miles very useful for open-jaw flights too, where you can fly into City A, and leave from City B. Such a booking tends to cost more than normal when you pay with cash, making miles often a better choice when it comes to booking such itineraries.
What if I take budget airlines like Scoot?
Looking at budget airlines? You can also use KrisFlyer miles to book Scoot flights, and I’ve covered this in my article:
The Verdict
Miles can be very useful even when it comes to booking economy flights, unless you are someone who will only travel when ticket prices are low, or will often compare across different airlines for the absolute cheapest price. Miles may not make sense all of the time if you are a low-cost traveller, but even then there are also situations where it is better to use miles for even budget flight bookings.
It is also worth noting that the credit card landscape has shifted quite a bit over the past couple of years, and my opinion is that cashback cards have become significantly weakened. Meanwhile, a few miles cards have become dramatically better, and ignoring miles to focus solely on cashback can mean a lot of missed value.
The good thing is that you don’t have to choose. Some of the strongest miles cards now allow you to get pretty decent earn rates that can rival many cashback cards, so you can collect points first and then decide later if you want cash rebates or miles.
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Seth Wee was a licensed financial adviser representative from 2009 to 2025, with over 16 years of experience in Singapore’s financial advisory industry.
He started Sethisfy.com in 2019 to share practical insights on credit cards, banking products, and miles strategies, helping readers identify financial products that deliver the best value. Seth has been featured in CNA, Channel 8, Today, and a host of other publications. In 2025, he was also part of a panel at CPF’s Ready For Life festival.
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