One of Malaysia’s most popular travel credit cards will be revamped come June 2023. The Standard Chartered WorldMiles World Mastercard will soon be renamed as the Standard Chartered Journey Credit Card, and will offer revised key benefits.

Not all information has been announced, but from what Standard Chartered has shared today, it covers the following key areas:

• new rewards points name from WorldMiles points to Miles Points (but no information on redemption partners and redemption rates)
• revised points earning rates
• exclusion of transactions that earn Miles Points, including utilities and e-wallet transactions
• revised cashback programme on airport transfer

The Standard Chartered Journey Credit Card will officially be available from 10 June 2023. It’s a pretty comprehensive overhaul of the card, so let’s go through them.

Revised points earning rates

Currently, cardholders earn WorldMiles Points with an earning rate of 1 Point for every RM3 spent on local transactions, and 3 Points for every RM2 spent in overseas retail transactions. From 10 June 2023, the Journey Credit Card will earn 1 Miles Point for every RM1 spent in three categories: Dining, Travel, and Overseas retail transactions. For all other transactions, cardholders will earn 1 Miles Point for every RM5 spent.

Meanwhile, Miles Points earned may be redeemed for actual air miles, cash, as well as gifts just as with the current WorldMiles card. However, StanChart has not yet revealed details on the new AirMileage programme, so we can’t yet tell if the bank will retain the same redemption rates as the WorldMiles for air miles (2,000 WorldMiles Points = 1,000 Enrich Points / KrisFlyer Miles / Asia Miles / AirAsia Points).

One small info we found was a considerable change in the cash redemption. Currently, WorldMiles cardholders may redeem their points for cash at a rate of 74 WorldMiles = RM1 in multiples of RM1. For the Journey Credit Card, cardholders are required to redeem a minimum of RM50 and in multiples of RM10 thereafter.

Exclusion of points-earning transactions

The Journey Credit Card will also revise transactions that earn Miles Points. Most of the current restrictions are retained (such as government-related, cash withdrawals, etc), but with the inclusion of a few more: utilities (including telco and cable TV, which are usually not under this category), e-wallets, and special events categories (such as catering, funeral, studio rentals, and even florists).

Revision to airport transfer programme

Finally, there’s a revision to one of the jewels of the WorldMiles card: its airport transfer programme. Currently, cardholders can enjoy cashback for return airport transfer of up to RM80 simply by using the card a minimum of three times in foreign currency in the past 30 days before the airport transfer. The programme covered both KLIA Ekspress trains as well as most of the airport limo services at KLIA and KLIA2. With no minimum spend condition on the required transactions, it meant cardholders could enjoy a deeply discounted airport taxi or train ride home.

With the Travel Credit Card, however, this benefit will be revised only to cover Grab rides and capped at RM65. In addition, the spend requirement is also revised to spending a minimum of RM2,500 in “travel retail purchases” (no specifics beyond this term, but it can be assumed to cover travel-related transactions like airline, hotel, and overseas transactions) in the past 90 days.

What’s not yet announced?

Besides the major revisions above, there are a few other details that have not yet been revealed. The AirMileage programme as mentioned earlier is a major one – this will largely determine if the new Journey Credit Card is a worthy air miles card for Malaysian consumers.

Meanwhile, it is also not known if the other jewel of the WorldMiles card – unlimited airport lounge access in KLIA and KLIA2 – has been revised. After all, it’s one of the very few cards in Malaysia to still offer unlimited lounge access. Other details, such as the card face, annual fee, and income requirements are also not yet revealed. StanChart’s notice does mention that other terms besides the ones mentioned above have not been changed, so we’ll have to take their word for it until we can take a closer look come 10 June 2023.

(Source: Standard Chartered)

• TAGS:
• Standard Chartered
• Standard Chartered Journey Credit Card
• Standard Chartered WorldMiles