OCBC launches one-stop travel site ahead of Singapore’s re-opening

Also included with the launch is a credit card focusing on travel.

A one-stop travel site was unveiled by OCBC in a news release posted yesterday.

The travel site, Travel with OCBC, will be rolled out by November. Through this site, customers can book airline tickets, hotels and car rentals. OCBC reward points will be made available through this site. 

The site will also include more than 550,000 hotels and resorts, 800 airlines and 200 car rental locations. Compared to other online travel portals, Travel with OCBC will not mark up prices for commission. 

Travel insurance related to Covid-19 and booking of pre-travel Covid-19 tests are also expected to be made available within the portal as well. 

The portal will also be integrated into OCBC Digital, the web and be accessible from OCBC Pay Anyone and OCBC Digital mobile banking apps.

OCBC rewards points and miles from their OCBC credit cards can also be used to redeem purchases.

Also included in the news release was the announcement of a credit card.

This coming Friday, the travel-themed card, the OCBC 90°N VISA Credit Card, will be the first of its kind to be launched in Singapore since 2019. It will offer one of the highest air miles earn rate in daily spending categories, which includes groceries, food delivery and online streaming services.

This VISA version is expected to accompany the Mastercard version released in 2019.

During the launch promotional period of October 15, 2021, to January 15, 2022, customers can earn four times the reward points for their online streaming services, food delivery, online retail stores, grocery shopping and transactions in foreign countries. Six times reward points for all other bookings via selected travel partners.

Users will be allowed redeem their miles at a block of 1,000 miles, down from the norm of 10,000 miles. The conversion fee of $25 will also not apply. These miles will also have no expiry date. 

One of the selling points of the OCBC 90°N credit card is the flexibility that it allows customers to choose between different card reward types. Travel$ can be converted into miles, cashback for 1,000 Travel$ to $10, and reward points from 1,300 Travel$ into $10 shopping vouchers.

Sunny Quek, Global Head of Consumer Financial Services, OCBC Bank, spoke about how this launch was a reaction to the announcement of more Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTL). 

“International travel declined by almost 75 per cent and deeply affected digital travel sales, but we are confident that we will be able to leverage and ride the wave as a result of Vaccinated Travel Lanes and gradual easing of restrictions. We understand the excitement and the buzz behind the recent announcement of more Vaccinated Travel Lanes and we are glad to be able to play a part in helping our customers satisfy their desire to travel out of Singapore,” Quek said.