Philippine Airlines is offering a credit card in cooperation with Philippine National Bank (PNB) that earns miles in the Mabuhay Miles rewards programs and offers you perks when flying with PAL. You get a sign-up bonus of 2,000 miles to get started – find out whether it’s worth to get this card as a frequent PAL flyer!
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Here is a summary of what the Philippine Airlines MasterCard offers:
Sign-up bonus of 2,000 miles on activation- 1 Mabuhay Mile for every PHP33 spend (or 1.45 miles per US$)
- Priority Check-In
- 10,000 bonus miles after PHP100,000 spend with PAL
- Travel insurance, concierge service
- P6,000 annual fee, 1.5% foreign exchange fee, EMV chip
Sign-up bonus of 2,000 miles on activation
Credit Cards in the Philippines don’t offer the same great sign-up bonuses as in the USA, so 2,000 miles (worth about $30/PHP1,500) is not much, but better than nothing.
The earn rate of 1 mile per PHP33 (or 1.45 miles/US$) on all spend is very good, but not quite as high as the Citi PremierMiles card.
The bonus of 10,000 miles after spending PHP100,000 ($2,000) with PA is interesting – it is a bonus of 5 miles/$ for your first $2,000 spend!
You also can use the Priority Check-In at PAL Business Class counters with the card – a nice perk, considering the often long economy lines at the airport! The travel insurance and concierge service are nice add-ons, comparable to similar cards.
The PNB MabuhayMiles card requires a P6,000 ($120) annual fee, which cannot be waived, making the card pretty expensive to hold – you have to spend more than PHP300,000 per year to enough miles worth this fee!
The card charges a foreign exchange fee of 1.5%, which is lower than most other credit cards issued in the Philippines.
Bottomline: The PNB Mabuhay Miles MasterCard offers a good earn rate, priority check-in and other benefits for a steep fee – making it most interesting for people who have high spend (including a lot of PAL spend and international spend) and usually fly economy class. For most people, the Citi PremierMiles card is the better card, with higher earning, more flexible reward points and a lower fee – read my post Best Credit Card to earn free flights on Philippine Airlines for more information!