Tag Archive for Amex

Biometric Health Screening

1 December 2013 Exercise, Marina Bay, New Chapter No comments

On Monday, 25th November, we had a biometric health screening session scheduled for MBFC, so I was keen to do a check-up to see how I was doing – health-wise. I previously had one done in early 2012, so was keen to check whether I was still alive and kicking!

The Biometric screening was basically focused on a few quick checks – your height, your weight, your waist, a quick prick on the finger to check your blood sugars, your blood pressure and then a quick profile check. The great news is that I passed with flying colours.

Having been ill over the weekend prior (I had a stomach bug) I was a bit worried that this could impact my results, but in a way, it could have helped in the sense that my body was clear of any toxins 🙂

My weight was 53.8kg (8stone 6lbs), my height 176.8cm (5feet 10 inches) and 72cm waist. My BMI was 17.21 – which basically means I am slightly underweight, so I need to eat more, do more exercise, have a balance diet and eat protein etc – to puff up a bit.

My blood pressure was okay 126/75mmHg, my total cholesterol was 100mg/dl – so VERY good (and low), my glucose is 5.1 – which is in the health range, although my heart rate was in the low rate of 72bpm, so I definitely need to do more exercise.

Anyway, it’s not all bad – so I am pretty happy with the results!

The second intermediary and advance screening – was also done, and they took some blood for these more detailed tests. The funny thing is the clinic staff advised us that the costs were covered by the employer, but we then received an email later in the morning stating that there was a cost incurred for the intermediary and advance tests – I complained to them stating that we had volunteered our blood, and I felt that there was some miscommunication. Finally, they accepted this error, and they advised us that the checks would be free for those that gave the blood, and they corrected the communication for the other new tests from the afternoon onwards. Yay – more free tests 🙂

I am hoping to do a more thorough health screening to do additional checks and discuss in more details what plans I can deploy to improve my overall health and wellbeing.

Amex Reach Out With a Smile (ROWAS) Merchant Event

26 October 2013 Entertainment, Exhibition, Marina Bay No comments

Each year, the American Express Singapore team go out on a merchant event to say hello to them and thanks for accepting the card.  This year, it was scheduled for Friday, 25th October and we were based at the Fullerton Hotel.  This is a great way to speak to our merchant customers, something that the majority of the Amex team will unlikely do on a daily basis.

At the start of the event, there was some general quiz questions and I jumped to the chance to answer. I knew the MC that was on stage, and he knew it was my birthday, so he managed to get 400 odd Amex Singapore employees to sing Happy Birthday to me – what a nice treat 🙂

We separated into various teams, and the GNP teams were based around Orchard and Somerset.  My particular location was the Concorde Hotel – I initially was given 3 sheets of merchants (about 75-80 locations), but then 2 of the sheet were taken back, so I only had 30 merchants to visit, phew!

Some of the merchants were ‘interesting’ – especially as this place had a House of Condom and a few bars/clubs – the latter would be difficult to visit, as most would have been closed.  It is strange why these are still added to the merchant list, when we can’t “see them” during the business day. Anyway, I did the majority, gave all of my gifts out and actually enjoyed the visits and speaking with the merchants.

I took special attention to visit the House of Condom location – an ‘interesting’ shop…haha!  I managed to speak with the sales agent/owner, and she agreed to put an open/close sign on the door – which she kindly put up on the spot.  Lovely juvly – job done! 🙂

My tenth year anniversary at Amex

1 September 2013 Marina Bay, New Chapter No comments

10 years ago to the day, I embarked on what would become a new life adventure. Never would I have thought of the work style I would have encountered during this period – and fun of course!

I initially joined Amex on an IT Graduate Scheme on 1st September 2003, a scheme that was piloted in 2003 after a period of absence in the Amex Tech (AET) division, due to the dot com crash in 2000. The then CIO, Glen Salow, commented that after an absence of graduates in IT, it was important to bring in and develop new talent into the AET division, and the IT Graduate Scheme was developed with this sole purpose in mind.

Unlike the previous approach which resulted in 1-2 graduates being recruited as part of the wider company wide scheme – which continued, but focused on sales, operations, project management, marketing etc, the IT one focused on IT only (you could have guessed that from the title of the scheme) and with an increase intake of 30 graduates a year, with the intention to convert about 10% as full term employees at the end of the 2 year scheme. They event sponsored a Masters of Science as part of the programme.

I succeeded in completing the graduate scheme and got a distinction in the MSc degree as well…bonus! … and enjoyed the experience in the Project Management field.

After 18 months I managed to secure a permanent position in the GNS business (jumping from Tech to Business) on 1st December, and actually the timing resulted in me attending the Global employee conference in Miami. Wow that was a spot of luck and a great opportunity to meet and great all of my fellow colleagues in the division. I had some really enjoyable experiences, including working on some really high-profile, challenging but enjoyable projects, and did a few business trips as well. In March 2008, I was prompted to a Senior PM in the same team. I continued to do well in my role, including driving consultancy placements in Greece, Latvia and in 2011 in Saudi Arabia – the latter involved providing PM training to the Partner Bank organisation a that was an experience.

I then managed to secure a secondment (as part of a Global Rotation Programme) in the second half of 2011, and did well on this. So much so, I managed to secure an Internal transfer into the JAPA region, based on Singapore starting on 1st January 2013. I continue to do well in my role, helping to implement key initiatives, and take on a more operational role too (which is certainly different to my role in the UK).

And as they say the rest is history. 10 years on, I don’t know what the future will have for me. I have seen many interesting experiences (some good, some ‘different’), and I have managed to bypass several retrenchments over the past decade as well…phew!

Let’s see what happens in the next 10 years…where will I be, what will I be doing? Who knows!! One thing for sure, I will still be having fun and more importantly smiling strong 🙂

Singapore Credit Cards – Amex of Course!

20 February 2013 New Chapter, Shopping No comments

Well after using my DBS Visa Debit card for several weeks of my new life in Singapore, I decided to focus on which credit cards I should get – Amex of course!  I looked around and there was a few on offer.  What makes Singapore quite different is that all credit cards charge membership fees – which is something the UK market is trying to introduce.  It seems to work here in Singapore – although it is diluted when you get the first year free etc.

Anyway, there were a few options available:

DBS Amex Altitude Card

DBS Amex Altitude Card

 DBS Altitude Card (Amex) – you get 1.6 miles for every $1 spent and received 10k bonus miles each year. Complimentary DBS Altitude Butler Service – nice touch!

Annual Fee – S$192.60, waived for the first year.

DBS Visa Altitude Card

DBS Visa Signature Altitude Card

 DBS Altitude Card (Visa Signature) – you get 1.6 miles for every $1 spent and received 10k bonus miles each year.  Complimentary DBS Altitude Butler Service – again, nice touch! But the Visa card has Priority Pass lounge access for free for the first year, whilst the Amex card doesn’t…hmmm!!

Annual Fee – S$192.60, waived for the first year.

UOB Prvi Miles Amex Card

UOB Prvi Miles Amex Card

 UOB Prvi Miles Platinum Amex Card – you get 1.6 miles for every $1 spent locally and 20k bonus miles each year and unlimited airport limo service (VERY tempting).

Annual Fee – $256.80, waived for the first year.

UOB Singtel Platinum Card

UOB Singtel Platinum Card

 UOB SingTel Platinum Card – you earn up to 4% SMART$ (UOBs reward programme) on your SingTel bill and an additional rebate of 0.5% on all other spend.

Annual Fee – Free card for life (longing your charge the SingTel bill to the card).

Amex Krisflyer Gold Card

Amex Krisflyer Gold Card

 Amex Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Gold Card – 50% + 50% bonus KrisFlyer miles with 5k bonus miles upon the first use of the card.

Annual Fee – $110, waived for the first year.

I ended up getting the DBS Altitude Card (both Amex and Visa), but I am very tempted to get the UOB Prvi Platinum Card (Amex) and the KrisFlyer one, but awaiting to see if there is an acquisition/marketing campaign before I do…I can stagger the sign-ups in any case – to maximise the first year annual free approach 🙂  haha!

 

 

© 2012-2026 Aaron Brigatti - Brigatti Online   ® All Rights Reserved.