Travel Alliance kicks off cross-border telco rewards programme with Grab, Trip.com

The Travel Alliance, comprising Singtel, AIS, Globe, HKT, Optus, Taiwan Mobile and Telkomsel, announced a strategic partnerships with leading ride-hailing, delivery, and travel brands Grab and Trip.com last month to enable savings for Alliance customers when they travel.

The Travel Alliance was formed in February 2024 with the aim of launching the first-of-its-kind cross-border rewards programme to enable its almost 300 million customers to enjoy a slew of incentives on transport, dining, merchandise, and lifestyle services when they travel to the markets where the operators are based. Trip.com and Grab are the first to join the ecosystem of partners to provide perks that can be seamlessly accessed by Alliance customers.

Anna Yip, CEO, International Digital Services (Designate), Singtel, said: “Digital tools and services have become an integral part of our lives and play a greater role when we travel as we rely so heavily on them to help us navigate new spaces and access experiences like tours, dining and more. We’re proud to have Grab and Trip.com join us as we build the programme to enhance our customers’ experiences and provide more value beyond connectivity.

"The Travel Alliance will continue to establish partnerships with key goods and service providers so we can continue to provide our customers with the best deals that support their evolving travel and lifestyle needs.” 

Source: Singtel. Announcing the Travel Alliance.

 

As part of the regional cross-border rewards programme, Trip.com will provide Travel Alliance customers with best-in-market concessions of 10% and 6% off hotel and flight bookings respectively. Eligible Alliance customers will also enjoy an instant upgrade to Trip.com’s top tier Diamond status and receive exclusive perks such as free access to airport VIP lounges and car model upgrades for airport transfers.

“As a customer-focused company, Trip.com is delighted to partner with the alliance of seven telcos to bring exceptional travel opportunities to their users across the Asia Pacific region. This collaboration reflects our commitment to making travel more accessible and rewarding by leveraging innovative partnerships. By combining the convenience of our platform with exclusive discounts for the telco customers, we aim to inspire more people to plan the perfect trip for a better world,” added Han Feng, Head of Marketing, Trip.com. 

The Travel Alliance and Grab will work together to create exclusive deals and discounts for Alliance customers, including a special Grab Tourist Pack, to be launched in early 2025. 

“With our presence in over 700 cities across 8 countries in Southeast Asia, Grab believes we can be the one app travellers need for hailing rides, ordering food, dining out or getting emergency supplies delivered to their doorstep. We are pleased to partner the Travel Alliance to support the travel needs of their vast combined customer base,” said Chuck Kim, MD, Group Business Development & Strategic Partnerships, Grab. 

Pratthana Leelapanang, Chief Consumer Business Officer at AIS, stated: "We are excited by the successful collaboration between major Asian telecom providers. This partnership allows AIS to offer exceptional travel experiences to its customers abroad. Leveraging familiar and convenient services like Trip.com and Grab, along with the additional benefits from The Travel Alliance, AIS is confident this initiative will significantly enhance customer convenience while travelling, fulfilling its commitment to exceptional service.” 

Monita Leung, CEO of Digital Ventures at HKT, said: "The Club, our loyalty platform within the HKT ecosystem, is committed to enriching the cross-border travel experience for our customers. We're thrilled to join hands with leading telcos of the Alliance and international brands, like Trip.com and Grab, to offer delightful benefits and travel opportunities across the region. 

"Our travel agency, Club Travel, also provides a comprehensive range of travel services, including flights, accommodation, events and ticketing, to offer bespoke unforgettable journeys for our valued travellers." 

“We are always seeking bold, innovative ways to elevate our customers’ experiences, wherever they are. This partnership empowers our customers to travel smarter and more affordably, unlocking exclusive rewards that enhance convenience and connectivity. With Globe, every journey becomes seamless and truly rewarding,” said Darius Delgado, Chief Commercial Officer, Globe Telecom. 

Tony Lin, Chief Business Officer of the Consumer Business at Taiwan Mobile, stated that in this tech-savvy era, travellers seek personalised and convenient travel experiences. "With a user-centric approach, Taiwan Mobile strategically partners with renowned global travel brands to provide seamless services for programme members, encompassing everything from their doorstep and airports to their destinations and attractions, creating rich and diverse travel reward experiences. The Telecom Cross-Border Rewards Programme will continue to expand its partnerships, building a transnational rewards ecosystem that allows both business and leisure travelers to easily accumulate points and flexibly redeem rewards. 

"Looking ahead, Taiwan Mobile will continue to embody its Open Possible brand philosophy, combining its Telco+Tech strategy with global partners to jointly create a smarter and more convenient travel ecosystem," he said. 

Telkomsel’s CMO Derrick Heng said: "As the leading digital telco service provider in Indonesia, Telkomsel is committed to enhance customer journey and experiences through innovative and excellent connectivity, service, and solutions. This collaboration empowers our customers, particularly users of our all-digital telco product by.U, to redeem their loyalty points for services from Trip.com, Grab, and other partners, while travelling to seven participating countries. 

"We also welcome Travel Alliance customers to Indonesia, enabling them to redeem their points to explore the rich cultural heritage and unique beauty that Indonesia has to offer." 

The Travel Alliance programme will be progressively expanded to cover key travel corridors and popular destinations globally. Promotions on accommodations, flights, rides, and food deliveries will be progressively rolled out by the Alliance members in 2025. Details on the offerings from the first partners to join the programme include: 

Trip.com 

Over the next six months, Alliance members will be sharing discount codes that their customers can redeem for hotel and flight bookings on Trip.com. These are applicable for travel up to 30 June 2026. 

Customers can use these codes to enjoy 10% off hotel bookings. Subsequent campaigns will include 6% off flight bookings and other promotions. 

Alliance customers on loyalty programmes, such as Singtel Red and Prestige*, may be eligible for an additional perk of getting upgraded to Trip.com’s Diamond status membership. More details on these campaigns will be shared by the respective telcos. 

Grab 

The Grab Tourist Packs, which offer savings on rides and meals, can be easily accessed via Alliance members’ apps, starting with Singtel’s. The offers can be used when traveling to locations in Southeast Asia where Grab is available. The Alliance will be collaborating with Grab to develop tailored Tourist Packs for their respective markets to ensure added benefits and a more personalised experience for their customers when they travel.

*Singtel Red is an all-in-one rewards membership programme that offers subscribers vouchers, exclusive partner deals, and more data on Singapore's 5G network. Singtel Prestige is an exclusive membership that rewards customers on premium plans.

Singtel's Dash launches rewards programme

Singtel’s Dash customers now have more reasons to spend on the Dash app and earn rewards. The all-new Dash Rewards programme enables Dash users to earn points on all payments and overseas remittances that can be exchanged for rewards including Singtel mobile services, grocery, dining, retail and lifestyle vouchers.

Source: Singtel website. Dash Rewards is a new
rewards programme which will reward Dash
users for transactions.

Dash Rewards is designed to add more value by allowing points to be earned with every dollar spent¹ in-store at Dash’s 60,000 merchants islandwide, online with the Dash Visa Virtual Account at millions of global merchants, as well as with each remittance² sent overseas.

Gilbert Chuah, Head of Mobile Financial Services, International Group said, “Following the recent launch of Dash financial services, we’re excited to introduce Dash Rewards to further engage and delight our growing base of customers. Dash Rewards is our way of thanking our customers for their loyalty, and offering an even more integrated experience that gives them more bang for their buck through useful, everyday rewards.

"As we continue to enhance Dash as an all-in-one mobile wallet, we will be rolling out even more reward options in the months ahead, giving customers more to enjoy.”

The Dash Rewards catalogue features over 50 vouchers from some of Dash customers' most popular and frequently-patronised merchants. On top of Singtel mobile services such as its hi! SIM Card and 1 GB data vouchers, customers can look forward to vouchers from:

- Supermarkets and convenience stores such as Giant, Cold Storage and 7-Eleven

- Transport providers like Grab and Gojek;

- Food delivery services GrabFood and FoodPanda;

- Retailers like Sephora, Zalora, and Adidas; as well as

- Lifestyle and entertainment partners such as Steam and Razer.

The programme features three tiers—Silver, Gold and Platinum. As users move up the tiers, they can accumulate points at an accelerated rate.

Details:

As part of the launch, Dash is also offering double the Dash reward points from now until end December for payments³ with Dash.

1 Excluding transactions for Singtel bill payment, donations to charity organisations, topups to Dash accounts, payments to another Dash account, payments to Etiqa Insurance, payments to Great Eastern General Insurance, cashout and adjustments made for refunded transactions.

2 Each remittance earns 100 points, regardless of value.

3 Double Dash Rewards does not apply to remittances.

Great Eastern launches more rewards for online shopping together with RebateMango

Great Eastern and RebateMango have collaborated to launch a new dimension of rewards on UPGREAT, Great Eastern’s all-in-one rewards platform.


A new range of dining, lifestyle and shopping rewards have been introduced as part of the insurer’s regional consumer strategy to engage its customers online. Through this direct integration, Great Eastern’s UPGREAT members will experience a new seamless journey and the opportunity to receive more UPGREAT points when they shop at over 500 Singapore retailers such as Shopee, Agoda, AliExpress, Booking.com, Lazada and more.

By using RebateMango to power the merchant offerings, UPGREAT members simply need to open the UPGREAT app, select the retailer and start shopping to earn UPGREAT Points. At the same time, it allows UPGREAT to enjoy easy scalability in their offering to users. UPGREAT Points can be exchanged for KrisFlyer miles, Shell Select vouchers, GrabFood vouchers, dining vouchers and other rewards.

RebateMango, which powers the retailer access within the UPGREAT app, has been available as a rewards shopping platform for over three years, providing users with a choice of rewards such as cashback, air miles and loyalty points whenever they shop online. Currently available in four markets, RebateMango was previously available strictly on the RebateMango platform, and has now moved into business-to-business (B2B) solutions as well with UPGREAT by Great Eastern as the first partner to launch.

Ryan Cheong, MD, Digital for Business, Great Eastern, said: “We are pleased to collaborate with RebateMango to bring a vast selection of retailers onto UPGREAT and provide a wider range of attractive options for the users of UPGREAT app to earn UPGREAT Points. As we look to launch UPGREAT across the region, we will continue to work with RebateMango and likeminded partners to engage our members in new and exciting ways.”

Paul Koh, Co-Founder of RebateMango added: “Partnerships are a big part of our business and providing Great Eastern with our solution is just another way of helping them to achieve their objective of a more rewarding shopping experience for UPGREAT members. We are delighted to have a partner like Great Eastern - the integration was seamless and we look forward to coming up with more innovative solutions to bring greater value to them and other partners alike.”

UPGREAT rewards users with lifestyle dining and shopping privileges. It is a single mobile platform where users can enjoy their loyalty benefits and rewards digitally, transfer and share with their friends and family members. Users can accumulate reward points as there is no expiry date for these points. UPGREAT presently has 168,000 members in Singapore and the app is free for anyone to download - it is not restricted to Great Eastern policyholders.

Great Eastern is a market leader and trusted brand in Singapore and Malaysia. With over 8 million policyholders, including 5 million from government schemes, it provides insurance solutions to customers through three successful distribution channels –a tied agency force, bancassurance, and financial advisory firm Great Eastern Financial Advisers. The Group also operates in Indonesia and Brunei and has a presence in China as well as a representative office in Myanmar. Great Eastern is a subsidiary of OCBC Bank, the longest-established Singapore bank, formed in 1932.

RebateMango.com is an online rewards digital platform that allows users to choose their preferred rewards such as cashback, air miles or loyalty points whenever they shop online at over 500 popular retailers. The company is now present in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines with a membership base of over 1.5 million users.

Hashtags: #GreatEasternSG, #TheLifeCompany, #LifeproofMedia

ADIB and Rotana join hands to offer the ADIB Rotana Rewards Exclusive Card

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) and Rotana, a hotel management company, have partnered to launch the ADIB Rotana Rewards Exclusive Card. Card members will receive Rotana Rewards points and privileges every time they spend using the card.

Source: ADIB. From left: Sarvesh Sarup, Global Head of Retail Banking, ADIB, and Omer Z. Kaddouri, President and CEO Rotana.

The ADIB Rotana Rewards Exclusive Card is the first co-branded hospitality card in the wider Central Eastern Europe & Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) region developed by a local issuer, and the first globally by an Islamic bank. It works in conjunction with the existing Rotana Rewards Exclusive programme and can be used for Rotana benefits including free hotel stays and dining offers in any of the 50 Rotana hotels and resorts, and at over 250 restaurants across the region. 

The cardholder receives Rotana Rewards points every time they spend using their ADIB-Rotana co-branded card. This includes two Rotana points for every AED1 spent at any of its properties, one point for every AED1 spent in the UAE, and three points for every AED1 spent internationally. Clients also receive welcome points upon activation of their ADIB Rotana Rewards Exclusive covered card.

Commenting on the partnership, Sarvesh Sarup said: “The partnership between Rotana and ADIB brings together two market-leading UAE brands with a shared set of customer-centric values and a rapidly expanding international footprint. The card will bring customers unparalleled value in terms of lifestyle and financial benefits from both the partners. In keeping with best international practices, the card will offer customers the benefit of global contactless payments and special recognition at ADIB’s rapidly expanding merchant network. We look forward to working with Rotana to keep the new card at the forefront of innovation and value.” 

“The launch of this co-branded hospitality card continues Rotana’s history of innovation and industry leadership,” said Omer Z. Kaddouri, President & CEO of Rotana. “The ADIB Rotana Rewards Exclusive Card offers an unmatched value proposition to customers who can now look forward to benefiting from a broad range of perks and special services. It’s the first product of its kind in the region and will allow Rotana to provide more engaging guest experiences and further build loyalty among our customer base. 

"As home-grown, Abu Dhabi-based enterprises that went on to establishing a global presence and reputation, Rotana and ADIB share the same core values and commitment to customers, and we hope the introduction of the ADIB Rotana Rewards Exclusive Card is only the beginning of a long and mutually rewarding partnership.”

Additional lifestyle and travel benefits of the card include unlimited airport lounge access, concierge services, rental car discounts, and premium offers for shopping, dining, and travel. The new ADIB Rotana rewards co-branded card will include all benefits of the Rotana Rewards Exclusive programme in its annual fee, such as extended checkout times, hotel discounts and dining discounts.

The Rotana Rewards Exclusive programme features late check-out, VIP treatment, upgrades, complimentary dining, points when spending at any Rotana food and beverage outlets, discounts on room rates and miles from partner airlines among other privileges.

StarHub revamps loyalty programme so customers can redeem more

Singapore's StarHub has unveiled a revamped customer incentive programme to enable customers to earn and redeem points sooner.

StarHub is partnering e-merchants to allow customers to earn StarHub Rewards Points while shopping online. Agoda, a hotel booking site, was the first merchant to partner StarHub. Shopback—a Singapore-based startup that connects consumers to e-tailers such as ASOS, Groupon, Lazada and Zalora is also on board.

Every dollar spent at Agoda via starhub.com/agoda will earn one StarHub Rewards Point for StarHub customers. Customers who shop at Shopback via starhub.com/shopback may earn one or more StarHub Rewards Points. StarHub will also be partnering merchants for one-off promotions. Those who book a hotel from Agoda for June will earn three times the number of StarHub Rewards Points.

The Points can then be used to redeem StarHub Rewards across its Eat, Shop and Play catalogues, which include over 50 merchants and brands.

As part of StarHub’s SG50 promotions, customers can also look forward to redeeming over 5,000 items for 50 StarHub Rewards Points across a span of five weeks from early July.

“At StarHub, we value the loyalty and support of our customers. That is why we enhanced our loyalty programme around their needs; to reward them with what is relevant to them. We recognise that, increasingly, consumers are shopping online, hence, our partnerships with Agoda and Shopback will enable customers to be rewarded whenever they shop online with our partners,” said Jeannie Ong, Chief Marketing Officer, StarHub.

“Through these partnerships, customers will be able to earn StarHub Rewards Points faster and redeem for rewards they want across a richer variety of options. We are constantly on the lookout to bring the latest trends and offerings to our customers, and will continue to introduce more partners and exciting rewards options in the near future.”

Interested?

Find out more about the loyalty programme
Existing customers can redeem rewards (login required)

Real estate professionals upbeat about Asian economies

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and professional recruiters Macdonald & Company have announced that average salaries for real estate professionals have shrunk over 2013 as part of the findings of the annual Asia Rewards & Attitudes Survey 2014. 

The report found average salaries fell 3.4% for real estate professions in Asia, at around US$96,087 (HK$749,479), chiefly due to a significant 21.4% decrease at the Executive Director/ MD/ CFO/ COO levels.

This occurred despite 55.8% of respondents receiving an average of 10% increment in base salary. Malaysia leads Asia region with a salary growth of 11%. Salary increases in Hong Kong and Singapore have averaged 9.2% and 9% respectively, while mainland China salary growth grew 7%.
 
Professionals in mainland China enjoy the highest average salary per annum at around US$138,400 (approximately HK$1,079,520) when compared to Singapore at around US$125,580 (approximately HK$979,524), Hong Kong (US$98,929, approximately HK$771,646), and Malaysia (US$71,804, approximately HK$560,071).
 
Respondents with the RICS qualification working in the Asian real estate markets continued to secure 42% more salary against those who were not professionally qualified (US$73,861, approximately HK$575,765) though their average salary dropped 13% year on year to US$105,159 (approximately HK$820,240).

More than six in ten (62%) of respondents say they are fairly likely or very likely to change jobs in the next 12 months, which is slightly up from 60% last year. Salary remains the primary factor when it comes to job satisfaction as voted by 75% of respondents.

Overall, the Asian region is demonstrating an improvement in economic activity or business sentiment. More respondents (48%) across the region are predicting a growing economy in their respective markets compared to the previous 12 months (40%). Those in Singapore are generally the most optimistic with 55% anticipating an increase in economic activity, while 40% of those in China anticipate an increase.

The survey also showed that the construction industry in Hong Kong and Singapore is buoyant and developers in both locations have continued their plans in mainland China.

Dr Daniel Ho, RICS Governing Council member cum Chairman, RICS Hong Kong commented: "It is the 8th year that RICS commissioned this survey in Asia. The results give property professionals and clients valuable guidance on the industry trend on work attitude and level of rewards which helps career and business plans. I am glad to see that respondents expect an optimistic economic growth in the region and hiring intention is on the rise. 

"The property sector faces a shortage of surveying professionals in different areas. We urge for more investment of resources into education and training to meet this need. RICS is committed to setting and upholding the highest standards of the industry and its members. We are happy to know that our qualification enables members to secure significantly higher rewards."

William Glover, International Director, Macdonald & Company said: "Macdonald & Company is delighted to extend its work with RICS in Asia into its eighth year. This year's results are revealing in that over 60% of staff consider it likely that they will move jobs over the next year. It is, therefore, imperative that managers take care to plan ahead and provide the right environment for their staff to thrive in their businesses."

The full survey report is available at: http://www.macdonaldandcompany.com/Salary-Survey

*The RICS and Macdonald & Company Asia Rewards & Attitudes Survey is an annual survey done by RICS and Macdonald & Company. It is the most comprehensive survey undertaken for the property sector. 1,525 Asian real estate professionals participated online between November 2013 and January 2014, representing an increase of 16.6% respondents compared with last year.