For many years, the most popular DBS miles-earning cards in Singapore have offered bonus earn rates of 6 mpd for hotel bookings and selected flight bookings though Expedia, and in the case of the Altitude cards a 10 mpd deal when making hotel bookings through Kaligo.com.

Unfortunately the bank has quietly discontinued these longstanding promotions, effective from 1st April 2024.

This latest development deals yet another blow to Altitude cardholders in particular, following the abrupt no-notice removal of a longstanding enhanced 3 mpd earn rate for online flight and hotel bookings in August 2024.

Notably affected were transactions made on platforms such as singaporeair.com, cathaypacific.com, and qatarairways.com. The backlash was such that the bank found itself compelled to roll back these changes by a month, but they did then come into effect from 1st September 2023.

DBS was also forced to shelve its vague plan to shake up the card’s benefits again from February 2024 – all has since gone quiet on that front.

Kaligo 10 mpd deal axed

DBS Altitude cards have had an ongoing bonus miles relationship with hotel booking site Kaligo, offering 10 mpd as standard (capped at S$5,000 spend per calendar month).

While it sounds great, it wasn’t always a good deal. Kaligo works by sharing some of the commission it receives for each hotel booking with you in the form of miles. Since a ‘middle man’ is involved, it often means paying more than the best available rate for the stay.

We’ve probably done enough worked examples over the years for Kaligo bookings to show you that you can be getting anything from a terrible deal (buying miles well in excess of 2 cents each), a good deal (buying miles at closer to 1 cent each), or an excellent deal (when Kaligo matches the best available rate, but still awards miles).

Unfortunately the option has now been axed from the DBS Altitude cards, effective from 1st April 2024.

Expedia 6 mpd deal axed

Prior to 1st April 2024, DBS Altitude, Vantage and Insignia cardholders were eligible to earn 6 mpd on all hotel bookings made via a dedicated Expedia site, provided a pre-paid rate was chosen.

Additionally, 6 mpd was offered for Expedia flight bookings made for travel on the following participating airlines:

For each of these cards, spend in this 6 mpd category was capped at S$5,000 per calendar month, shared with the same Kaligo 10 mpd S$5,000 monthly limit.

Unfortunately this offer has also been axed from the Altitude, Vantage and Insignia, effective from 1st April 2024.

That’s a shame, and slightly surprising – just last year the DBS Altitude cards were offering 8 mpd for Expedia flight and hotel bookings, a repeat of a similar deal six months earlier.

DBS has replaced its Expedia discount offer with a rather lacklustre promo code deal for Altitude cardholders only, offering either S$40 or S$80 off hotel bookings (with nothing for flights).

• ALT40: S$40 off selected hotel bookings with a min. spend of S$380 (terms)
• ALT80: S$80 off selected hotel bookings with a min. spend of S$580 (terms)

Booking is via the dedicated DBS portal on the Expedia website.

Bookings must be made by 31st May 2024, for stays completed by 31st December 2024 (ALT40) or 30th June 2025 (ALT80). However, redemptions are limited to five per customer per promo code, with an overall cap of 300 redemptions across all users (ALT80) or 800 redemptions across all users (ALT40).

Agoda promotion continues

In January this year, DBS launched a 3 mpd bonus earning offer for Agoda hotel bookings made through the bank’s own Travel & Leisure Marketplace Portal (TMP), which is valid for most of its miles-earning credit cards including the Altitude, WWMC and Vantage products.

The additional 3 mpd award is applicable for the first S$5,000 of monthly spend in this category per customer (not per card, sadly), though that’s still good for up to 15,000 bonus miles per month.

Reservations need to be made by 30th June 2024, and the stay must be concluded by 31st July 2024, in order to qualify.

Note that the TMP displays options from both Expedia and Agoda; be sure to select Agoda to receive the bonus. Additionally, stays must be fully prepaid at the time of booking.

To complete your booking via the TMP portal, you’ll have to log in to your DBS banking account.

You can then select which DBS card you wish to use to make payment, so be sure to select the one with the best base earn rate, which you’ll receive in addition to the 3 mpd bonus.

Initially, you will accrue miles at your card’s regular earn earn rate for these transactions.

The 3 mpd bonus will be awarded to your card account within 60 days after the transaction month, for example by 1st August 2024 for a May 2024 booking.

More details are available at the promotion landing page, and full terms and conditions for this promotion are provided here.

DBS TMP transactions are all in Singapore Dollars, and so will earn base miles at your eligible card’s local earn rate, before the 3 mpd bonus is applied.

Here’s how the total miles earning looks for this promotion, for the most popular miles-earning DBS credit cards.

Card	Base Earn Rate	Promo Earn Rate	Total Earn Rate
DBS WWMC	4 mpd*	3 mpd	7 mpd
DBS Vantage	1.5 mpd	3 mpd	4.5 mpd
DBS Altitude	1.3 mpd	3 mpd	4.3 mpd
DBS Treasures Black Elite	1.2 mpd	3 mpd	4.2 mpd

* Capped at S$1,500 total online spend per calendar month, thereafter 0.4 mpd

Agoda 18% off alternative

There’s an alternative Agoda promotion currently running for DBS cardholders, where you’ll get 18% off worldwide hotel stays capped at S$40 per booking, while still earning your card’s base miles rate.

Unlike the 3 mpd bonus miles TMP offer outlined above, this one is for bookings through a specific landing page at the Agoda site.

This may work out as a better deal, especially for cheaper hotel stays, but do note the restrictions:

• Booking period: Now to 31st May 2024
• Stay period: Now to 31st December 2024
• Prepaid room rates only at hotels with the “Promo Eligible” tag on the room types search results page.

Citi PremierMiles Agoda 7 mpd & Kaligo 10 mpd extended

If you have a Citi PremierMiles card, the bank has also extended its longstanding agreement with Kaligo (10 mpd) and Agoda (7 mpd) for 2024, both originally due to end on 31st December 2023.

These offers are now good for bookings made up to 31st December 2024 for stays until 30th June 2025 (Kaligo) or 30th April 2025 (Agoda). For the Kaligo 10 mpd deal Citi was always better than DBS Altitude anyway, since there is no monthly upper spend cap.

You can check the specific terms and conditions for Citi’s Kaligo deal here and its Agoda deal here.

DBS has axed its bonus earn rate of 10 mpd at Kaligo for Altitude cardholders, while also removing its 6 mpd bonus rate for hotel bookings and selected flight bookings at Expedia across its Altitude, Vantage and Insignia cards.

These promotions didn’t always offer the best deal since they often meant ‘buying’ miles, but it’s sad to see the options disappear.

The DBS Altitude cards in particular have taken a huge hit over the last year or so, and now with no bonus earn rates on offer above the standard 1.3 mpd local spend / 2.2 mpd FCY spend rates, it’s hard to see any value proposition at all.

Time to downgrade this one to 2.5/5, in our updated review.

(Cover Photo: EDITION Hotels)