What is the best credit card to fly faster on Cebu Pacific Airlines with GetGo Rewards?

If you live in the Philippines and want to earn free flights on Cebu Pacific Airlines by earning points in their GetGo Rewards Program with a credit card, you can choose from a variety of cards from 9 local banks! The rewards you can earn, the benefits of the cards and the fees vary greatly, so I dig into the details and compare the cards to help you find the best credit card to earn Cebu Pacific GetGo points!

Similar to Cebu Pacific’s local competitor, Philippine Airlines and their Mabuhay Miles program, there is a plethora of cards to choose from. And because the local banks prefer to offer their own reward currencies that transfer to airline miles at different ratios, it’s very hard to compare the cards. After a lot of calculations, there are clear winners and losers and I have a cards I recommend to get – and cards I suggest to avoid or cancel!  
Before you apply for a card, make sure to read my general advice on reward cards, read the fine print before applying, make sure you understand all the fees and pay off your credit card in full every month – or the interest will be more than any rewards you earn!

The best cards to apply for:
Cebu Pacific partners with Union Bank to offer three branded GetGo cards – the GetGo Visa and Visa Platinum Credit Cards as well as the first and only Debit Card in the Philippines to earn GetGo points!
Both credit cards have a good earn rate of 1% – the best in this comparison! The Platinum card offers additional benefits like lounge access, priority boarding and free check-in luggage that makes it the better choice for frequent travelers who want to make travel on the low-cost carrier a little more comfortable. The annual fees can be waived by invitation only for select customers of Union Bank! The high earn rate, automatic conversion and additional benefits on Cebu Pacific make these the cards to hold for anybody who flies exclusively or most of the times on Cebu Pacific.
If you don’t qualify for the credit cards, don’t spend enough or don’t want to risk the interest charges, the Union Bank Debit card is a good alternative with a decent earn ratio of 0.34%. You can read my reviews of the Get Go Union Bank Debit Card and GetGo Union Bank Credit Cards for more details!

The Citibank PremierMiles Visa Card offers the same earn rate of 1% as the Union Bank credit cards – but even better, it earns flexible points that can be converted to airline miles for other carrier, like Philippine Airlines, Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific, including for Business or First Class cabins! That makes the Citi PremierMiles my favorite card – you get the same earn rate and more flexibility. You can also avoid the fees with an annual spend of PHP180,000 – increasing your award rate even more! It’s notable that the Citibank PremierMiles card also was the best card to earn Mabuhay Miles (read my comparison here), making it a stand-out for Philippines-based travelers!

Cards to avoid:

While all the other cards sound very similar in the advertising to the Citi PremierMiles card, promising to earn 1 point for as little as 20 Pesos spend, the devil is in the detail. They require as many as 12 credit card points to convert to 1 GetGo point, resulting in very poor earn ratios of 0.1-0.28%. Add to that high fees and these cards are not worth owning for anybody looking to redeem points for travel. The worst card to earn GetGo points is the Security Bank Platinum Master Card – you’d have to spend more than 1.8 Million Pesos per year to offset the annual fee before you earn any awards!

 

Bottomline: The Citibank PremierMiles card is my recommendation for Philippines-based travelers looking to fly faster on Cebu Pacific with the GetGo Rewards Program. You get the same earn rate as the Union Bank card, also have the best earn rate for Philippine Airlines and can transfer to many other airlines serving the Phiiippines.
If you always or most of the time fly on Cebu Pacific, the Union Bank credit cards provide an easy-to-use alternative with the same earning ratio and without having to transfer points. Their unique debit card is a good alternative for anybody not able to qualify for a credit card or not willing to risk the fees and interest charges of the credit cards!


Comments

What is the best credit card to fly faster on Cebu Pacific Airlines with GetGo Rewards? — 4 Comments

    • Yes, you can sign him up for GetGo Rewards and add him and other family members to your “circle” – that way you can share all the points you earn!

  1. Might be worth noting that using the UnionBank GetGo Platinum Card to book Cebu Pacific flights gives you 1 GetGo point per 5 peso spend which is pretty insane. Worth getting over the PremierMiles if you fly CebPac exclusively

    • The earn rate of 1 point per 5 peso is not a published feature of the Union Bank Platinum GetGo card – maybe it was a targeted promotion for some users? The standard earn rate is 30P = 1 point.

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