Hello Grasshoppa,

It has been 2 months since I started to change my credit card from my Hong Leong Bank AirAsia Credit Card to Alliance Infinite Credit Card. Overall, I would say that they have the best points reward system compared to other credit card companies but there are some major issues that make me dislike the credit card, mainly due to the app or banking issue. What did I like & what I don’t like about the credit card?

What I Like

As I mentioned earlier, their Timeless Bonus Points (TBP) are the best features of all. There is no expiration date for their points therefore you can take your own sweet time to collect as many points as possible & redeem the reward whenever you need. Many credit card companies do offer points redemption but it also comes with an expiry date & it is almost impossible to redeem those items with higher points unless you are able to accumulate high points before the expiration date. For my spending between July to August (1 month), I have managed to earn more than 67,000 TBP which I managed to convert to AirAsia Points by using 66,000 TBP to convert to 22,000 AirAsia Points (Worth RM220). To redeem their highest reward which is a 60-inch TV (1,813,400 TBP), it will be possible to achieve it, especially with the no expiry feature by Alliance Bank.

Compared to other premium travel & reward cards out there, they are offering the lowest Annual Fee waiver which you can waive when you spend RM12,000 per annum. That is just RM1,000 per month. In order for you to achieve RM1,000 per month, you can easily just convert some of your monthly expenses to your credit card such as e-wallet top-up, monthly subscription bill, insurance, food, petrol & other expenses. The more you spend with it, you can waive your Annual Fee & earn TBP as well.

For Airport Lounge access, I was supposed to use it during my trip to Japan where I was transiting in KLIA but the problem was Plaza Premium Lounge was outside the boarding gate therefore I had to wait for my next trip to use it for free. This was one of the reasons why I liked this card where I can get free complimentary access to Plaza Premium Lounge worldwide.

What I Don’t Like

This may not be related directly to Alliance Bank since I applied it using CompareHero, I was supposed to receive an RM300 credit from Touch’nGo e-wallet but nobody has reached out to me even when the campaign is over. It was due over 2 months but they have not reached out to me until today. Not sure if anyone else ever experienced such experience with CompareHero or others but it was definitely not a good experience.

Timeless Bonus Points (TBP) are only reflected once a month instead of every day. I am comparing based on my old AirAsia card where the points will be reflected based on my daily spending instead of once a month. For the AirAsia card, I can see how many points I earn on a daily basis by checking from my AirAsia app (third-party app) since my AirAsia card is linked directly to the AirAsia app.

I find that their app & their system is not as good as other bank app such as Citibank & Hong Leong. This is based on my experience in the past when I used to use Citibank card & Hong Leong card. Whenever I swipe or spend, it takes up to 5 days for the expenses to be reflected in the app. Citibank used to be the fastest to reflect followed by Hong Leong Bank where it took a maximum of 3 days. The Alliance Bank app, makes my expense tracking less accurate & slower as I have to backtrack it for 5 days in order for me to check on my expenses with the card. My credit card expense planning is less accurate compared to the past due to the delay in the credit card transaction details. To avoid any underpayment, instead of paying for the outstanding amount, I will be paying for the balance based on my Available Limit (Credit Limit minus Available Limit) to ensure I do not owe the bank any outstanding amount.

Conclusion:

It is hard to get a credit card that is able to suit 100% of our needs. We will just need to find the card that is able to suit most of our requirements. While the AirAsia card will not be available after 30 September 2023, my Black membership status might be downgraded soon & I won’t be enjoying perks such as Priority Boarding, Xpress Baggage & other Black membership perks. But at the same time, the perks of the Alliance Infinite card are definitely a good substitute that I can use for the next few years until the next perfect credit card is introduced to the market. With this card, I can enjoy a higher AirAsia points redemption for more free flights & also some other perks such as complimentary Plaza Premium Lounge access.

OSS!