American Express has adjusted its sign-up bonus for the KrisFlyer co-brand credit cards this month, for approved applications over the next two months between now and 30th June 2020.
The new deal marks the withdrawal of the double spend bonus in months four to six of card membership for baseline ‘Blue card’ applicants, meaning both cards now have a simple one-off welcome bonus plus a single bonus level subject to minimum spend in the first three months of card approval.
The KrisFlyer Credit Card offer
The following deal is now offered effective from 1st April 2020 to 30th June 2020 for the Blue card.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer American Express Credit Card
- 5,000 KrisFlyer miles welcome bonus on first spend with the card.*
- 8,000 bonus KrisFlyer miles if you spend S$5,000 within three months of card approval.
- Total: 13,000 KrisFlyer miles bonus.
* The 5,000 miles welcome bonus is only applicable to first time applicants for any co-branded American Express Singapore Airlines credit card.
Including the miles earned for spending a total of S$5,000 in the first 6 months (5,000 x 1.1 = 5,500), you’ll net a total of 18,500 miles by fulfilling the offer, an equivalent earn rate of 3.7 miles per dollar spent.
The SIA KrisFlyer (Blue) Credit Card is fee-free in the first year.
The KrisFlyer Ascend offer
The following deal is now offered effective from 1st April 2020 to 30th June 2020 for the Ascend card.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer American Express Ascend
- 5,000 KrisFlyer miles welcome bonus on first spend with the card.*
- 16,000 bonus KrisFlyer miles if you spend S$10,000 within three months of card approval.
- Total: 21,000 KrisFlyer miles bonus.
* The 5,000 miles welcome bonus is only applicable to first time applicants for any co-branded American Express Singapore Airlines credit card.
Including the miles earned for spending a total of S$10,000 in the first 6 months (10,000 x 1.2 = 12,000), you’ll net a total of 33,000 miles by fulfilling the offer.
The first year annual fee of S$337.05 is payable for the Ascend card, equivalent to ‘buying’ the 21,000 bonus miles for 1.6 cents each, even if you don’t place any value on the card’s other benefits.
Spend exclusions
Like most sign-up bonus offers, the qualifying spend excludes certain categories. In this case the exclusions cover the following:
- Charges processed and billed prior to the Enrolment Date or charges prepaid on any Card Account prior to the first billing statement for that Card Account following the Enrolment Date;
- Cash Advance and other cash services;
- Express Cash;
- American Express Travellers Cheque purchases;
- Charges for dishonoured cheques;
- Finance charges – including Line of Credit charges and Credit Card interest charges;
- Late Payment and collection charges;
- Tax refunds from overseas purchases;
- Balance Transfers;
- Instalment plans;
- Annual Card fees;
- Amount billed for purchase of KrisFlyer miles to top-up your miles balance;
- Purchase and top-up charges for EZ-Link Cards using American Express Cards;
- Bill payments and all transactions via SingPost SAM kiosks and mobile app;
- Payments to insurance companies (except payments made for insurance products purchased through American Express authorized channels);
- Payments to Singapore Petroleum Company Limited (SPC) service stations;
- Payments for the purpose of GrabPay top-ups;
- Charges at merchants or establishments that are excluded by American Express at its sole discretion and notified by American Express to you from time to time.
Important exclusions to remember here are bill payments, insurance payments, petrol at SPC stations and GrabPay top-ups.
Note: ipaymy and CardUp payments are eligible spend for this promotion.
You can check the latest updated list of excluded transactions for KrisFlyer miles earning at amex.co/SGexclusions.
Spend on any supplementary card(s) will combine with that of the main cardholder in respect of the promotion.
When will the miles be credited?
The welcome bonus (5,000 miles in the case of both cards) will be credited as soon as you make your first transaction.
The spend bonus (either 8,000 miles or 16,000 miles depending on which card product you choose) will be credited approximately 8-10 weeks from the date you meet the spend threshold.
Remember as this is a co-brand product linked to your KrisFlyer account, both the bonuses and the miles accrued from your general spend will be transferred directly into your KrisFlyer account. They are then valid for three years.
It is not possible to have your miles credited to any of the American Express Membership Rewards transfer partners offered to other Amex cardholders in Singapore.
Supplementary card bonuses have ended
American Express was offering KrisFlyer co-brand cardholders a bonus of 1,500 miles for each approved supplementary card on their account, capped at 3,000 miles (i.e. two supplementary cards).
This bonus has now ceased under the new offer for May and June 2020.
| Until 30 Apr | From 1 May |
 |
 |
Whilst these were ‘easy’ extra miles to accrue, especially given that your supplementary cardholder(s) didn’t need to make any transactions on their card(s), we never included these miles in our sign-up bonus, since many readers either wouldn’t desire or be able to make use of it.
Is it worth waiting?
This frankly isn’t one of the best sign-up deals Amex has offered for its KrisFlyer co-brand cards. It’s been possible to get up to 21,000 miles for the Blue card and 35,000 miles for the Ascend card in the last year for example.
Here’s how the current sign-up bonus compares to recent ones offered for these cards over the last couple of years.
| Amex KrisFlyer Sign-up Bonuses (2018 – 2020) |
||
| Period | |
 |
| Jun ’18 – Sep ’18 | 13,000 – 25,000 |
20,000 – 36,000 |
| Oct ’18 – Nov ’18 |
12,500 | 31,000 |
| Dec ’18 – Jun ’19 |
12,500 – 20,000 |
20,000 – 35,000 |
| Jul ’19 – Jan ’20 |
12,500 |
20,000 |
| Feb ’20 – Apr ’20 |
13,000 – 21,000 |
21,000 |
| May ’20 – Jun ’20 |
13,000 | 21,000 |
As you can see it’s been a couple of years since the Amex KrisFlyer co-brand cards offered the highest sign-up bonus levels of up to 25,000 and 36,000 miles respectively.
With the sign-up offers at more or less historic lows, hopefully a better deal will come along on 1st July 2020.
Fun fact: Amex briefly uploaded a 37,000 miles sign-up bonus for the Ascend card to its website on 15th April 2020, but removed it the following day. A sign of things to come?
About the cards
Here’s how the two American Express Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer credit cards look alongside one another.
| Comparing the Amex SIA KF co-brand cards | ||
|
|
|
| Annual fee | S$176.55 (first year free) |
S$337.05 |
| Local earn rate |
1.1 mpd | 1.2 mpd |
| Overseas earn rate | 1.1 mpd | 1.2 mpd |
| Overseas earn rate (Jul & Dec) |
2 mpd |
2 mpd |
| Lounge visits |
None | 4/yr |
| Min. income |
S$30,000/yr | S$50,000/yr |
| OUR REVIEW | OUR REVIEW | |
Top sign-up bonuses
We’ve updated our top sign-up bonuses page, covering miles earning credit cards in Singapore, to reflect this updated offer.
Click here for our full list of the top sign-up bonuses currently on offer
As you can see there, the Citi PremierMiles card deal, running until 30th June, is competitive with a 26,500 miles sign-up bonus at a cost of 0.73 cents per mile. Unfortunately though you’ll have to spend S$9,000 in the first 3 months for that one, quite a big ask for many.
Also worth considering are the 10,800 miles sign-up bonus for the Citi Rewards card (spend S$3,000 in 3 months)and the 10,000 miles bonus for the DBS Altitude cards (spend S$6,000 in 3 months), both fee-free options in year one.
Summary
It’s a shame Amex has removed the ‘double bonus’ on the blue card this month, offered on a fairly regular basis lately and allowing you to replicate the spend bonus element by repeating it in months four to six of card membership.
With a sign-up bonus now close to historic lows for these two cards, we think it may be worth holding off applying in the hope of a better deal returning from 1st July, especially with a good alternative offer from Citi also running for the PremierMiles card.
If you are interested though, then for the KrisFlyer Blue card the sign-up bonus is still worth 13,000 miles (around S$250, as we value KrisFlyer miles at 1.9 cents each). Remember though this card is fee-free in the first year so the total bonus miles remain technically ‘free’ assuming you have S$5,000 spend to make in the next 3 months.
For the KrisFlyer Ascend card there’s still a reasonable bonus – 21,000 miles for a S$10,000 spend in the first 3 months is worth S$400 off future flight redemptions.
The annual fee of S$337.05 remains payable for the Ascend card though, meaning you’re effectively ‘buying’ KrisFlyer miles for 1.6 cents each with a S$10,000+ spend in three months. That’s not the most competitive rate, so again it may be worth holding out for a better offer in future.
In the meantime, consider the DBS Altitude (10,000 miles free, with a 50% spend bonus for the Amex card) and Citi PremierMiles (26,500 miles @ 0.73 cents each) sign-up bonuses as better alternatives if you don’t currently hold those cards.
Remember the welcome bonus element (5,000 KrisFlyer miles in each case) is only applicable to first time applicants for any co-branded American Express Singapore Airlines credit card, so if you’ve held one before you’ll only be eligible for the spend bonus element.
(Cover Photo: Masahiro Takagi)