Grab Has Revamped Their Loyalty Program – How Is It? Decent, But Nothing Exciting.

A revamp is usually a devaluation, but surprisingly, the changes to the GrabRewards program actually don’t seem too bad.

Grab has relaunched/revamped GrabRewards. They announced this some time on June 30 to take effect July 1. Short notice much?

The content of this is mainly geared towards the Singapore version of Grab, although these changes apply to all the markets within which Grab operates.

Information at this stage is scarce. Here’s my summary:

• GrabRewards will no longer expire, provided there is some sort of activity at least once every 6 months (otherwise all your points expire 6 months from the last activity)
• There will be “challenges”, which are tasks which you complete which I assume will earn you GrabRewards
• They are adding “big ticket items” to the catalogue
  • Here are the items and my rough valuation on these items:
    • Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 Wireless Speaker – 60k Pts (~$158)
    • Samsung Galaxy S10e 128GB – 490k Pts (~$1289)
    • Samsung Galaxy Buds – 95k Pts (~$250)
    • Apple Watch Nike+ Series 4 – 300k Pts (~$789)
    • Nintendo Switch Console – 190k Pts (~$500)
    • Dyson Airwrap Styler – 260k Pts (~$684)
    • Bose QuietComfort 35 – 200k Pts (~$526)
    • Apple AirPods – 115k Pts (~$303)
  • The valuations above are based on the assumption that 1900 pts = $5, which is the number of points required for Platinum members redeeming a $5 Grab voucher.
  • I do not know the market value of the items above, but from a quick glance, I don’t see any standout bargains and I certainly was not expecting any. If you can buy these items for cheaper than my cash estimation, then these are not good deals.
  • I am aware there are hypothetically better-valued rewards (1200pts for $5), but these are very limited and are only suitable if it suits your personal lifestyle. The StashAway one, for example, is good for me, but is limited to 3 redemptions per customer.

The two other “new features” don’t appear to be new:

• Unlock exclusive travel benefits when you reach Gold/Platinum – this is not new – they’ve already had the Booking.com Genius partnership, discounted Plaza Premium Lounge Access, and dining discounts at airports for a while.
• Use your GrabRewards to offset purchases – although the rate is absolutely poor.

If I was to conclude whether the changes are good or bad, I would have to say good. The inclusion of big-ticket items is insigificant – I just won’t redeem them. The change to the expiry of points is good, and the inclusion of challenges sounds like a good thing. Of course, it’s yet to be seen how good/compelling these challenges are, but this looks like a positive change.