Review: DBS Altitude – Free Lounge Access Makes This Mile Card Useful Even For Cashback People

Unconditional cards are pretty unexciting with their generally low earn rates, but with DBS Altitude’s free lounge access and the chance to clock 3 mpd on flight/accommodation expenses, this card is an indispensable part of a mile chaser’s card portfolio. Cashback people won’t say no to free lounge visits either.

Provider	DBS
Type	Unconditional Miles
Earn Rate	– 1.2 mpd on local spend – 3 mpd for online flight & hotel expenses
Limits	Generally unlimited; $5,000 per month for flight & hotel expenses

At 1.2 mpd, this would be far from your first card to put spending on since 4 mpd cards exist. However, when the situation arises and you can’t meet the requirements of high-earn 4 mpd cards, DBS Altitude comes in really handy.

For instance, if you have a sizeable flight or hotel expense, your 4 mpd CitiRewards doesn’t work (travel expenses are excluded). Even the venerable DBS Woman’s World Card has a limit of $2,000 so that may not serve your purpose. For such purposes, DBS Altitude has a roomy $5,000 monthly capacity for 3 mpd on online flight/hotel expenses.

Free lounge access

Even if you never use this card for spend, it’s hard to say no to a complimentary Priority Pass membership with grants you access to over 1,200 airport lounges worldwide. Each 12-month period of the membership comes with 2 free lounge visits, whichis why even cashback people should have such a card in their arsenal.

A look at Altitude’s DBS Points

If you have already been clocking points with one of another bank’s mile cards, you may be more reluctant to start having another pocket of miles to worry about because there is a transfer fee of $26.75 to pay to DBS each time you wish to convert your DBS Points to miles.

The good thing is that DBS Points earned by DBS Altitude never expire, so you can take your time to clock your miles… although miles do decrease in value over time, typically much faster than cash in your bank does.

Also, DBS Points earned by DBS Altitude pool with other DBS cards that earn DBS Points, such as the 4 mpd DBS Woman’s World Card, so you can save on conversion costs. Most banks do this… except Citibank.

DBS Points can be converted into cash rebates at 100 DBS Points = $1, which turns the 1.2 mpd card to a abysmal 0.6% cashback card. If you have enough points, you could also redeem it at a rate of 100 Points = $1.50, which represents 0.9% for Altitude’s 1.2 mpd. It’s not great value, so unlike some mile cards where it can make sense to trade points for cash, DBS Altitude isn’t for cashback at all.

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Conclusion

The DBS Altitude is a generally simple to use card with the a high-earn category of 3 mpd for online hotel/flight expenses. With free lounge access, it’s a card that anyone, even cashback people, should get.

The good:

• Free lounge access (two visits a year)
• High $5,000 monthly limit for 3 mpd on online flight/hotel expenses
• DBS Points earned by Altitude do not expire
• DBS Points pool with other DBS cards

The bad:

• Generally unexciting 1.2 mpd
• Hotel/flight category is online only and doesn’t work for offline transactions

The ugly:

• Annual fee of $192.60 for 10,000 miles? You can get miles cheaper.