Good (But Slightly Confusing) Deal: Up to 43,000 Miles With DBS Altitude

DBS is offering a good deal: get up to 43,000 miles when you sign up for DBS Altitude card. A rare thing for sign-up promos, existing cardholders of DBS/POSB cards are also eligible for this offer, albeit with a lower amount of miles. This offer lasts until 30th September 2022.

The mechanics are a little confusing as there are a variety of options, but I shall make it clearer for those reading this post.

Promo details (for new cardholders)

Here is a table that I came up with with reference from their terms and conditions. The ⭐️ emoji I have placed is my recommendation on which deal is the best in my opinion.

Card	DBS Altitude (Amex)	DBS Altitude (Amex) ⭐️	DBS Altitude (Visa)	DBS Altitude (Visa)
Offer	Up to 43,000 miles	Up to 33,000 miles with annual fee waiver	Up to 34,000 miles	Up to 24,000 miles with annual fee waiver
Promo code	ALTMEX	ALTMEXW	ALTVIS	ALTVISW
(A) Bonus Miles With $4,000 spend	21,000 miles	21,000 miles	12,000 miles	12,000 miles
(B) Miles earned on $4,000	4,800 miles	4,800 miles	4,800 miles	4,800 miles
(C) Bonus miles if $4,000 spent on online hotels/flights	7,200 miles	7,200 miles	7,200 miles	7,200 miles
(D) Payment of $192.60 annual fee	10,000 miles	Not applicable	10,000 miles	Not applicable

The “43,000 miles” figure comes from (A) + (B) + (C) + (D), which means you would need to spend $4,000 on online hotel/travel expenses, and pay the annual fee.

Promo details (for existing DBS cardholders)

Card	DBS Altitude (Amex)	DBS Altitude (Amex) ⭐️
Offer	Up to 32,000 miles	Up to 22,000 miles with annual fee waiver
Promo Code	ALTMEXA	ALTMEXAW
(A) Bonus Miles With $4,000 spend	10,000 miles	10,000
(B) Miles earned on $4,000	4,800 miles	4,800 miles
(C) Bonus miles if $4,000 spent on online hotels/flights	7,200 miles	7,200 miles
(D) Payment of $192.60 annual fee	10,000 miles with  payment of 1st year card annual fee of S$192.60 (Inclusive of GST)	Annual Fee waived
Total	32,000 miles	22,000 miles

The total achievable 32,000 miles come from (A) + (B) + (C) + (D), which means you would need to spend $4,000 on online hotel/travel expenses, and pay the annual fee.

Why (D) isn’t a good deal

Paying $192.60 for 10,000 miles works out to 1.926 cents per mile, and this is an expensive price to pay. There tends to be a variety of ways to “buy” miles at significantly lowered rates. The recent PayAll promo saw a cheap 0.8 cents per mile rate, while even its normal non-promotional rate is between 1.5 to 1.67 cents per mile depending on the specific Citi Card you have.

Payment services also typically charge around 2% – lower with promos – and the buy rate can be around 1.5 cents, again depending on the card you use.

Realistic earnings from this promo

Since (C ) requires you to spend on online hotels and flights, the more realistic amount of miles you can get from this is most likely going to be (A) + (B), unless of course you are indeed going to be booking travel stuff with your new Altitude card. The value proposition of this promo increases if you were to indeed use the card for your online hotel and flight expenses.

Assuming all your spend are on non-travel and everyday expenses, however, (A) + (B) would get you 25,800 miles as a new to DBS cardholder. It’s quite a great deal if you’re into miles.

Existing cardholders not using this card for their hotel/flight expenses get 14,800 miles instead. If you’re not using this card for hotel/fights, you are arguably better off with 4 mpd cards which would give you 16,000 miles instead. Of course, those cards require certain requirements to be met, and often come with caps. Using this promo would give you 3.7 miles per dollar on $4,000 of spend with very few exclusions or conditions.

Sign up

Update: thanks to S W for informing that DBS Altitude Amex does not give complimentary lounge access.

It’s not part of this promo, but it’s worth mentioning that DBS Altitude Visa is one of the cards that offer free lounge access, so that’s another sweetener to this deal.

Remember to sign up using the correct promo code, and do pick the American Express version which gives you better rewards (though with fewer merchants accepting Amex, and without the lounge access). Not that existing cardholders have a choice.

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