How to Maximise Your Credit Card Miles with Airbnb?

By far, the best way to maximise your air miles on Airbnb bookings is with credit cards. By charging your booking to an eligible credit card, you will be able to earn air miles on the entirety of your Airbnb fee. 

This is most easily accomplished with travel credit cards, especially since they do not exclude Airbnb transactions, and award bonus air miles for overseas transactions. 

Rewards cards that offer 10x points (or 4 mpd) for travel or online spends will give you more air miles – but only if your card issuer recognises Airbnb transactions as being eligible for rewards. 

This varies from time to time; for instance, in Jan 2024, the HSBC Revolution Credit Card dropped Airbnb and many online travel agencies from bonus rewards. A peek at the FAQs reveal that MCC codes 4722  and 7011 – which Airbnb codes under – are absent from the list of eligible transactions.

The UOB Lady’s Card and Lady’s Solitaire Card are among the best credit cards to use for your Airbnb bookings, especially for short getaways. That’s because you can earn 10x points, equivalent to 4 miles per dollar, on the total sum charged to your card. But to do so, be sure you set your preferred spending category to Travel. 

Note that bonus points are capped monthly to the first S$1,000 for the Lady’s Card, and S$2,000 for the Lady’s Solitaire Card. Hence, they might not be the ideal cards to use if you’re looking to book a long or luxurious Airbnb stay.

The DBS Woman’s World Mastercard is another good choice for shorter Airbnb bookings. It gives you 10x points (4 mpd), capped at the first S$1,500 eligible spends charged to the card each month. 

The qualifying reward category here is “online spends”, so you can also earn bonus points for plane tickets and other purchases made over the Internet. 

The KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card gives you 3 miles per dollar on travel spends, but you’ll first need to complete a rather specific task

Achieve at least S$800 annual spend on Singapore Airlines Group purchases – this includes SIA and Scoot flights, KrisShop and Kris+ transactions – and your Airbnb booking will earn 1.8 bonus air miles per dollar, up from the regular 1.2 miles per dollar. 

Now, for a less fussy way to earn miles on your Airbnb booking, try using the UOB PRVI Miles Card. You’ll get 1.4 miles per dollar with unlimited cap, and there's no minimum spend required. 

As there is no limit to how many miles you can earn, this card is the superior choice if you’re looking to book a long or costly Airbnb stay.

Coming hot on the heels of the UOB PRVI Miles Card is the DBS Altitude Credit Card, which offers the same no-fuss, no-limit value proposition. 

Just charge your Airbnb booking and you’ll earn air miles without having to fulfil any minimum spends or watch for any caps. 

The only difference is the slightly lower air miles earn rate of 1.3 mpd. 

Another way you can maximise your miles with Airbnb is to book your stay through partner Frequent Flyer Programmes (FPPs). 

There are two implications to consider when taking this route:

1. Bookings will be made in foreign currencies, which will incur overseas charges and foreign currency transaction fees. However, this will also allow you to enjoy higher air miles on eligible travel cards.
2. You will only earn air miles from the associated FPP, which may not be transferable to the FPP that you regularly use. You’ll need to consider if it’s worth the trouble maintaining two or more FPPs.

Note that you’ll need to make your bookings through dedicated landing pages, as detailed in the following section.