Overview

Initial Impression: UOB Royal Orchid Plus Preferred (ROP Preferred) is a premium travel card tailored for Thai Airways enthusiasts, offering accelerated mile accumulation and exclusive travel privileges that enhance the flying experience

Benchmarking

UOB ROP Preferred is ideal for frequent Thai Airways flyers, offering unmatched perks like unlimited Royal Silk Lounge access and a fast-track to Gold status. Compared to peers, it offers stronger airline integration but less flexibility in mile transfers. While the annual fee is high, the exclusive travel benefits and accelerated mile earning on Thai-related spending make it a strong

Earn Mechanism

UOB ROP Preferred offers generous points earn rates on all general spend, and bonus categories for dining, travel, and internal spending that will likely come in handy. While other cards tend to offer good bonus rates for categories where spending is quite limited, UOB ROP Preferred tackles the two that is most popular for many: dining and travel.

• Base Earning Rate: Earn 1 UOB Reward Point for every 20 baht spend
• International Spending Bonus: 1 UOB Reward Point for every 15 baht spend 
• Travel Spending Bonus: 1 UOB Reward Point for every 15 baht spend 
• Dining Spending Bonus: 1 UOB Reward Point for every 15 baht spend 

You can see how this earn mechanism works in the examples below:

There is no general cap on bonus points you can earn on this UOB ROP Preferred. However, do take note that you will earn UOB point on up to 200,000 baht spent at supermarkets per billing cycle. While this is indeed a constraint, it is far from restrictive. To exceed this, you will need over 2.4 million baht spending at supermarkets over the course of one year.

Maximum Spending Eligible for Points 

The 1:1 transfer ratio from UOB Rewards Points to ROP miles is attractive because it ensures full value conversion—for every point earned, you get one airline mile without any loss. Many other cards in Thailand offer less favorable rates (e.g., 2 or 4 points per mile), so this makes UOB’s card more efficient for earning flights.

However, having only ROP as a transfer partner is limiting. While Thai Airways is a strong carrier, relying solely on ROP means you're tied to one airline’s availability, blackout dates, and redemption pricing. Competing cards offer transfers to multiple programs (e.g., KrisFlyer, Asia Miles), giving you flexibility to hunt for better redemptions, routes, or availability across airlines—especially useful for international travel or frequent flyers who value optionality.

Note: For ease of comparison, all examples would refer to Thai Airways ROP miles unless otherwise stated.

Based on the points earn rate, we can infer the following miles earn rate for UOB ROP Preferred:

Getting Cashback

UOB ROP Preferred does not allow you to directly convert your UOB points to cashback. As an airline co-branded card, this is unlikely to be offered even as a campaign

When you use a credit card overseas, your purchases are charged in a foreign currency and then converted to Thai Baht. This conversion comes with a foreign exchange (FX) spread or fee—a hidden cost many cardholders overlook.

UOB ROP Preferred FX fees are right on par with all other cards. While you can somewhat offset the spread with the preferential UOB points earn rate when spending in select ASEAN currencies. While it may help to offset some of the FX cost, it is unlikely to fully cover the FX fees charged by UOB. Furthermore, as there are already bonus rates offered for travel and dining spend categories, you really won’t gain any additional value from international spending there –i.e., same points at Hai Di Lao Shanghai as Hai Di Lao Central World.  Here's a breakdown of the charges:

• Currency Conversion Fee: Foreign Currency Conversion Fee of ~2% on top of the Visa/Mastercard spread.
• Exchange Spread: Depending on which version of the UOB Zenith card you get, this will refer to either Visa or Mastercard’s spread that is built into their respective rates. This typically stands at ~1%.

For example, you spend 30,000 baht on an overseas trip.

Lounge Access

UOB ROP Preferred does offer lounge access, although the conditions to access this perk can be rather restrictive: you must be flying with Thai Airways out of Suvarnabhumi Airport or Chiang Mai to access it.

Other Perks

In addition to the typical miles earn and perks one can expect form a credit card, a co-branded cards also provide exclusive perks from the co-branded partner: Thai Airways. These include:

• ROP Gold Fast Track: Fast Track to Royal Orchid Plus Gold Status when meeting either conditions in the first membership year
• Spend 1 million baht or more on the UOB ROP Preferred card
• Earn 22,000 qualifying miles or flying 15 international flights
• Limousine: Receive complimentary airport limousine (BKK only) service 2 times per year and a 50% discount on subsequent rides

Bonus Points: Receive 50% more miles when spending every 50,000 baht per sales slip for purchasing tickets from Thai Airways, Royal Orchid Holidays, and Thai Shop

Eligibility Criteria

To apply for the UOB ROP Preferred, you must meet specific eligibility criteria based on nationality, income, and employment status. Here's a breakdown of the requirements:

A. Ordinary Requirements:

Thai Nationals

Foreigner

B. Alternative Requirements:

No officially published alternative requirements have been announced by UOB. You can contact UOB directly regarding the possibility of using your AUM or fixed deposits and collateral for UOB credit cards.

Annual Fee

The annual fee for UOB ROP Preferred is extremely steep with no official published waiver conditions. While you can still get in touch with UOB every year to request one, this will not always be guaranteed.

Primary Card

Supplementary Card

UOB ROP Preferred supplementary cards will earn miles into the ROP account of the primary cardholder. While the miles may only be used by the primary cardholder, they can redeem tickets on another's behalf, which is equally useful.

For example, if both you and your spouse spend ฿15,000 per month, you’ll earn points as if you spent ฿30,000—reaching travel or cashback rewards much quicker.