DBS Altitude offering 28,000 miles or Samsonite luggage till October

Back in March 2025, DBS hiked its sign-up offer for the Altitude credit cards, allowing new-to-bank customers to earn up to 28,000 bonus miles by spending S$800 within the first 60 days of approval, and it has since rolled over into a fresh promotion period running until the end of October 2026.

New-to-bank customers can earn 28,000 bonus miles when applying between now and 31st October 2026, with a minimum spend of S$800. Additionally, those willing to pay the card’s S$196.20 annual fee can receive an extra 10,000 bonus miles, bringing the total to 38,000 miles.

A heads-up though: bonus miles can take up to seven months from card approval to be credited, so this isn’t a fast-track option for mileage accrual.

The Samsonite luggage alternative also returns, this time as a MINTER 80/30 trunk case worth S$680, for those who would rather forgo the miles.

Eligibility (new-to-bank)

To be eligible for the latest sign-up bonus for both DBS Altitude cards, you’ll need to meet the following criteria.

If you are a supplementary DBS/POSB cardholder, but not a primary cardholder on any such account in the last 12 months, you will qualify as a new customer.

Unfortunately there is still no sign-up bonus for existing DBS credit card customers applying for the Altitude Amex card, like there was back in 2023, so these deals are still strictly for new-to-bank applicants only.

There’s nothing to stop you applying for both the Amex and Visa versions of the card, but you’ll only receive the welcome gift once. The promotion is limited to a single gift per cardmember, however many Altitude cards you’re approved for.

New customer sign-up miles bonuses

New-to-bank customers are eligible for the following two options when signing up for the DBS Altitude cards.

DBS Altitude Visa or Amex Card
(new customers)

Bonus Miles
Promo Code: ALTSW28	Promo Code: ALTS38
↓	↓
• Spend: S$800 in 60 days + • Have a valid DBS PayLah! account by the end of the spend period (28,000 miles)
Fee waiver	Annual Fee: S$196.20 (10,000 miles)
↓	↓
Bonus Miles: 28,000	Bonus Miles: 38,000

As you can see, you’ll need to apply promo code ALTSW28 for the fee-free first year offer with 28,000 bonus miles for spending S$800, or ALTS38 for an additional 10,000 miles (38,000 miles in total), with payment of the S$196.20 fee.

This 28,000-mile bonus offer now applies to both the Visa and Amex versions of the Altitude card – in previous offers the bonus miles awarded have been different for each card.

Since September 2025 the bonus miles are now based on the requirement to have a valid DBS PayLah! account by the end of the spend period, which is easy enough to obtain and maintain via the smartphone app.

You don’t need a DBS or POSB deposit account to open one, which is worth knowing given that everyone eligible for this offer is by definition new to the bank.

Is it worth paying the annual fee?

On the face of it the ALTS38 option looks like the better deal, with 38,000 miles on offer instead of 28,000. But you’re paying S$196.20 for that extra 10,000 miles, which works out at 1.96 cents per mile.

That’s above our usual valuation for a KrisFlyer mile, so on our numbers the fee-free option comes out marginally ahead:

• ALTSW28: around 29,040 miles including base earn, nothing paid – worth roughly S$523
• ALTS38: around 39,040 miles including base earn, less the S$196.20 fee – worth roughly S$507 (1.8 cents per mile assumed)

It’s close, and if you value your miles above about 1.96 cents each the maths flips in favour of paying the fee.

Samsonite luggage alternative

For this sign-up period, DBS is also offering a miles alternative sign-up gift:

• Samsonite MINTER 80/30 Trunk Luggage (worth S$680)

If you wish to opt for this gift, you’ll need to enter promo code MINTER at the application stage.

The case comes in three colours – Cherry Blossom, Glossy Sage Green and Black – but you can’t reserve one. You’ll pick from whatever’s in stock when you turn up at the redemption centre, on a first-come-first-served basis, and Samsonite provides a three-year warranty from the date of redemption.

Worth noting is that DBS reserves the right to substitute the luggage with 28,000 miles if it isn’t available, so you shouldn’t end up empty-handed if stocks run dry.

The first-year card annual fee is automatically waived for this code (there is no option to pay it voluntarily for more miles), and gift award is also based on the requirement to spend S$800+ in the first 60 days, and have a DBS PayLah! account by the end of the spend period.

A reward notification letter will be sent to you within 3 – 6 months from meeting the minimum qualifying spend – which could be as late as July 2027!

Further details are available in the terms and conditions for this promotion.

Application process

Whichever card or option you choose, here’s how it works:

• Apply online via DBS digibank or Myinfo with Singpass using the relevant promo code by 31st October 2026.
• Have your card account approved by 14th November 2026.
• Charge at least S$800 of eligible spend to the card within 60 days of your approval date.
• Have a valid DBS PayLah! account by the end of the qualifying spend period.

  APPLY HERE

Supplementary cardholders can’t apply for the promotion in their own right, but spend charged to a supplementary card does count towards the principal cardholder’s S$800 minimum.

The qualifying spend can be online or in-person and can be charged in SGD or foreign currency, or any mixture of these.

Spend exclusions

DBS has retained its recently-updated series of excluded spend MCC codes in the terms and conditions for this promotion, when considering the qualifying spend for the S$800 minimum within 60 days to trigger the bonus miles.

Primary exclusions here are for education, insurance, utility bill and government-related spend.

Note that CardUp and ipaymy payments are specifically excluded from the eligible spend list to meet the S$800 minimum, even though they will earn miles through this card.

Prepaid top-ups are explicitly excluded too, with EZ-Link, GrabPay, YouTrip, ShopeePay, Singtel Dash, NETS FlashPay, Amaze and Razer Pay all named individually, as is anything crypto-related.

Less obviously, a string of food court and hawker payment operators are excluded by merchant name – including Kopitiam, Bagus, Cantine, Sedap, FavePay and Kashmi. If you were planning to chip away at the S$800 through daily lunches, those transactions won’t count towards it.

See section 7 of the T&Cs document for the complete list of spend exclusions for this welcome offer.

When are the bonus miles credited?

Unfortunately, not anytime soon!

Provided you fulfil the spend criteria, bonus miles totalling 28,000 will be credited to your card account within three to five months of meeting the minimum S$800 qualifying spend.

If you have opted to receive the annual fee bonus of 10,000 miles, it will be credited when the annual fee itself of S$196.20 is charged to your card, which also happens within three to five months of meeting the minimum S$800 qualifying spend.

For example if your card:

• Is approved on 15th August 2026
• You meet the S$800+ spend criteria by the last permissible date 60 days later – on 14th October 2026
• Bonus miles will be awarded by 14th March 2027
• The annual fee bonus (if applicable) will be awarded when the annual fee is charged (also by 14th March 2027 in this example)

In total you could be waiting for up to seven months from being approved for the card to actually seeing any of the bonus miles in your account. This is definitely not a quick way to recharge your miles balance.

Regular miles earning is in addition

The bonus miles outlined above are awarded in addition to the regular miles you will earn for making the S$800 minimum spend with the Altitude cards, at the following rates:

• 1.3 mpd for local spend (i.e. transacted in SGD), or
• 2.2 mpd for overseas spend (i.e. transacted in foreign currency)

In reality, you’ll probably be meeting the S$800 spend requirement in local currency, meaning S$800 x 1.3 mpd of additional earning – equivalent to 1,040 additional miles. These will be credited to your account alongside each eligible transaction.

If the whole S$800 happened to go through in foreign currency you’d earn 1,760 base miles instead.

However, do remember these miles are quite irrelevant – you should be earning at least 1.3 mpd for this local spend anyway year-round, and in some cases you may even be taking a hit by diverting spend away from 4 mpd cards to achieve the DBS Altitude spend threshold.

Which FFPs can you transfer into?

You can transfer DBS Points into Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles and Qantas Frequent Flyer Points.

You can also transfer your DBS Points to AirAsia Reward Points, here 500 DBS Points will transfer into 1,500 Points (a 3:1 ratio), though it won’t be much interest to our readers – AirAsia Points are worth only about $0.0034 each (0.34 cents), or about a fifth of the value of a KrisFlyer mile / Asia Mile.

Since AirAsia Points is effectively a cashback programme, this is even worse value than cashing out your DBS Points for shopping vouchers!

Whichever programme you choose, also factor in the cost of getting your points out.

Converting DBS Points to any frequent flyer programme has an administrative fee of S$27.25 per redemption, with a minimum transfer of 5,000 DBS Points (10,000 miles). Alternatively DBS offers automatic conversion to KrisFlyer for an annual participation fee of S$43.60.

Terms and conditions

Here are the full terms and conditions applicable to these sign-up offers.

 DBS Altitude Sign Up Promo T&C

Further details are also available at the bonus promotion page.

Our review

The DBS Altitude cards maintained more or less their ‘status quo’ in terms of miles earning, perks and benefits for many years, but that all changed from 1st August 2023.

Without advance notice (except a vague promise of “changes” – never a good sign), the card then:

• Axed 3 mpd earning for online flight and hotel bookings, up to S$5,000 per calendar month
• Increased the local spend earn rate from 1.2 mpd to 1.3 mpd
• Increased the FCY earn rate from 2 mpd to 2.2 mpd

DBS had to roll back on its no-notice removal of the 3 mpd earn rate for online flight and hotel bookings, extending this for transactions made by 31st August 2023, but it did then disappear from 1st September 2023.

Furthermore, from April 2024 DBS axed 10 mpd earning on Kaligo hotel bookings and 6 mpd earning for hotel bookings and selected flight bookings through Expedia.

These changes have relegated the DBS Altitude cards firmly back into the general spend bracket, with earn rates that are relatively easy to achieve with other cards on the market with similar income requirements, and very few other perks to speak of.

For further details, check out our recently updated full review of the Altitude cards, taking account of these changes.

DBS has renewed its sign-up bonus for the Altitude cards, with 28,000 miles available when spending S$800 in the first 60 days, for applications between now and 31st October 2026.

The Samsonite luggage alternative is back too, this time a MINTER 80/30 trunk case worth S$680, for those who’d rather opt for something other than miles.

Do be aware that a main draw of this card – up to S$5,000 monthly spend at 3 mpd for online flight and hotel bookings – was axed back in 2023.

Additionally, the card discontinued its 10 mpd earn rate for Kaligo hotel bookings and 6 mpd for hotel and selected flight bookings through Expedia in 2024, further diminishing its already limited list of perks.

(Cover Photo: EDITION Hotels)