Visiting Osaka? ‘Travel with OCBC’ can help you save money

Savings, loyalty points, easy to use website. It’s all here.

| Tan Min-Wei | Sponsored | March 11, 2023, 10:53 AM

The world is open for travel again (well, mostly), and after three years, it's time to go exploring/shopping/to the beach and get away from everyone else. 

But that wanderlust is inevitably mixed with an element of hesitancy as the cost of just about everything has been getting higher and higher.

If that hasn't dampened your enthusiasm for travel, it might have at least gotten you to look into how to make a dollar stretch. 

As I’m thinking of going to Osaka in April with a friend, I decided to see if ‘Travel with OCBC’ made any sense. 

What’s the Point(s)?

Most of us are familiar with our usual bevy of travel websites: Agoda, Expedia, Klook, etc. 

But if you’re an OCBC Credit or Debit card holder, another option comes into the mix - ‘Travel with OCBC’.

As I’m a cardholder with a competitor to OCBC, my perspective on ‘Travel with OCBC’ comes from the experience of an outsider, evaluating whether it's worth the switch in terms of travel options alone. 

The way I used to save money when travelling would be to trade my credit card’s rewards points for miles with a national airline. 

Any travel reward I got from there would then be obtained through that airline’s reward structure. 

This has worked out very well for me so far and I even managed to get a nice long holiday at very little cost earlier this year. 

Not having to pay much beyond airport fees for the flights saved me enough money for some nice meals.

It also helped me afford the absurd train ticket prices for intercity travel… But that’s a different story. 

‘Travel with OCBC’, however, is far more flexible. 

Right off the bat, the feature that stood out to me is the ability to mix points with cash. 

Please note that the pictures and prices shown in this article are for illustrative purposes only - for up-to-date prices, you will have to log into ‘Travel with OCBC’ yourself. 

With points: 

Images are for illustrative purposes only

Without points:

Images are for illustrative purposes only

After picking your desired destination and dates, a slider is available for you to indicate how many of OCBC’s various rewards points you would like to use, rather than cash. 

I really appreciated how the slider works without me having to reload the page, which isn’t always the case for hese kinds of options. 

In fact, the site’s interface makes a lot of decisions surprisingly easily, and is very friendly to use. 

I also appreciated that the filters didn’t require a page reload to use, so I could search through options (stopovers, etc) with ease.

Images are for illustrative purposes only

This came in really handy when looking at hotels. 

My Osaka trip is tentatively scheduled for July, and I would rather avoid the roulette of house booking sites like AirBnB. 

The range of hotels on offer really run the gamut, from the literal Ritz, to smaller business hotels. 

Again, it's a thoughtful website, which very clearly puts together summaries of reviews for each hotel in a straightforward and detailed manner. 

Images are for illustrative purposes only

The design of the website pretty much had me sold.

After all, a convenient buying experience is not to be underestimated and as a beloved character from a video game once said, “Time is money, friend!” 

Comparisons

But it's not just about interfaces - there are savings to be had. 

Logging into a cardholder’s OCBC account will allow one to access Travel with OCBC’s exclusive prices. 

I did a quick comparison between ‘Travel with OCBC’s’ prices and a competitor and was pleasantly surprised to see the price difference for hotels.

Here’s what I got on Expedia:

Images are for illustrative purposes only

And with ‘Travel with OCBC’: 

Images are for illustrative purposes only

Users should note that they will have to log in to ‘Travel with OCBC’s’ site in order to see the discounted prices and make bookings. 

They will not be able to access them otherwise; instead seeing: 

Images are for illustrative purposes only

Also, with ‘Travel with OCBC’, you will also get the chance to offset costs with points, which is something that you won’t get to do on other sites. 

To top it off, any additional savings you make, ‘Travel with OCBC’ is offering an instant saving of between S$50 to S$120 on a minimum spend of S$400 to S$1,200 from now until April 16, 2023. 

  • Use promo code OCBC50 to enjoy S$50 off when you spend a minimum of S$400
  • Use promo code OCBC100 to enjoy S$100 off when you spend a minimum of S$800
  • Use promo code OCBC120 to enjoy S$120 off when you spend a minimum of S$1,000

That'll get you a nice night out on your holiday! 

Travel time

At the end of the day, all this research really hyped me up for my trip as the offerings that ‘Travel with OCBC’ has put together are quite impressive. 

Not only is it simple to use, the deals are also comparable to or better than other travel portals. 

And because it’s so convenient to offset points, I'm actively looking to change cards, which, frankly, was not what I expected when I took on this article. 

Top image via Nomadic Julien/Unsplash 

This sponsored article by Travel with OCBC will hopefully save the author enough money to be a hero in the office with holiday snacks. 

Travel with OCBC is operated by a third party provider and all products and services made available therein are fulfilled by third parties. T&Cs apply.

All views and opinions expressed in this post are from Mothership.