Amex KrisFlyer Ascend Credit Card Review (2026)

This is our review of the American Express Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Ascend Credit Card issued in Singapore. It forms part of our series of credit card reviews, which are all summarised on our dedicated Credit Cards page.

Dollar amounts refer to SGD, and ‘miles’ refer to KrisFlyer miles, except where stated. This review was updated on 5th October 2026.

The Amex KrisFlyer Ascend earns 1.2 mpd on almost everything, only a fraction more than its entry-level sibling, yet costs S$397.85 a year with no first year waiver.

What that fee really buys is a bundle of perks rather than additional earning power. A free night at a participating Hilton hotel each year, a one-off fast track to KrisFlyer Elite Gold, and miles vouchers that come with plenty of strings attached. That makes it a card worth holding for a year when the sign-up bonus is strong, but rarely one worth renewing.

Pros	Cons
Free Hilton night every year KrisFlyer Elite Gold fast track in year one Free transfers to KrisFlyer 15,000 miles per Member Invite Miles awarded from S$0.42 of spend Uncapped 2 mpd on SIA, Scoot, KrisShop and Pelago	S$400 annual fee, with no first year waiver Only 1.2 mpd on local and FCY spend Miles only transfer to KrisFlyer No lounge access Renewal and FCY “miles” are restrictive vouchers 3-year expiry clock starts almost immediately Narrower merchant acceptance than Visa / Mastercard Renewal perks lost if the fee is waived

American Express issues four Singapore Airlines co-brand credit cards in Singapore. This review covers the KrisFlyer Ascend, the step up from the entry-level KrisFlyer Credit Card, widely known as the KrisFlyer Blue, which we’ve reviewed separately.

Amex Singapore Airlines Co-brand credit cards
Card	Who can hold one?	Annual fee
Amex KrisFlyer Credit Card	Open to all	S$179.85 (first year free)
Amex KrisFlyer Ascend Card	Open to all	S$397.85 (no first year waiver)
Amex PPS Credit Card	PPS Club members	S$561.35 (first year free)
Amex Solitaire PPS Credit Card	Solitaire PPS Club members*	S$561.35 (first year free)

* Principal Solitaire PPS Club members only. Supplementary members are not eligible.

The two PPS cards are only available to members of Singapore Airlines’ top two status tiers, so for most readers the real decision is between this card and the Blue. We compare the two side by side towards the end of this review.

• Minimum Age (principal): 21
• Minimum Age (supplementary): 18
• Minimum Income: S$30,000

As with the Blue card, Amex no longer publishes an income requirement for the Ascend, stating only that applicants must meet the regulatory minimum and pass its own internal assessment.

The regulatory floor is S$30,000 per year, but don’t treat that as a guaranteed approval. When we last reviewed this card in 2020, Amex asked for S$50,000 from Singapore citizens and PRs and S$60,000 from foreigners, so an internal bar well above the legal minimum may still exist.

• Annual Fee (principal): S$397.85 (no first year waiver)
• Annual Fee (supplementary): S$81.75 (first two cards free in year one)
• Fee Waiver: hard to obtain, and may cost you the renewal perks

Unlike the other three Singapore Airlines Amex cards, the Ascend has no first year waiver, so the S$397.85 fee will appear on your first statement.

That’s up from S$337.05 when we reviewed the card in 2020. GST increases account for some of the difference, but most of it arrived in November 2024, when Amex raised the fee from S$343.35 as part of a wider refresh of the card.

Supplementary cards cost S$81.75 each, with the first two free in the year one.

From year two, don’t count on the easy waivers Blue cardholders tend to enjoy. The renewal voucher and Hilton night are only issued once Amex receives your fee payment, as is the current Elite Gold fast track offer, so a waived Ascend is little more than a Blue with a slightly higher earn rate. Most readers will either pay the fee or cancel, though Member Invites, covered below, keep paying out either way.

Other fees and interest rates for the card:

• EIR: 27.8%
• Interest-free period: 22 days (minimum)
• Minimum payment: 3% or S$50, whichever is greater
• Late payment fee: S$100 per month
• Cash advance fee: 5% handling fee, plus 26.9% p.a. from the withdrawal date

There is a current sign-up bonus for the Amex KrisFlyer Ascend, worth up to 45,000 bonus KrisFlyer miles for those new to American Express, for applications made by 31st January 2027:

• 5,000 bonus miles on your first charge, for first-time applicants of any Singapore Airlines Amex co-brand card
• 20,000 bonus miles for S$5,000 of eligible spend within six months of approval, provided you pay the first year’s annual fee
• 20,000 bonus miles for spending at least S$1 in the 15th month of card membership

Applications by 1st November 2026 also receive a S$100 eCapitaVoucher on payment of the first year’s fee.

Sign-up bonus (new to Amex)
	Miles
First charge bonus	5,000
S$5,000 spend within 6 months + first year fee paid	20,000
S$1 spend in month 15	20,000
Base miles (S$5,000 @ 1.2 mpd)	6,000
Total	51,000

Including base miles, that’s an effective 10.2 mpd on the qualifying spend. Net of the annual fee, you’re buying the bonus miles at 0.88 cents each.

The catch is in the timing. Almost half the bonus only arrives in month 15, by which point Amex will have billed your second annual fee.

To qualify, you must not have held any basic or supplementary Amex consumer card in the past 24 months. Existing Amex customers can earn up to 25,000 bonus miles instead.

Every calendar year, cardholders receive three Member Invites to refer friends to American Express, and this is one area where the Ascend outclasses the Blue.

Each approved referral earns you 15,000 KrisFlyer miles, so up to 45,000 miles a year, against just 4,000 per referral on the Blue. Amex boosts this from time to time, most recently to 20,000 miles per referral until 30th September 2026.

Even at the standard rate, a single successful invite is worth around S$270 at a typical miles valuation, recouping around two thirds of the annual fee on its own.

The person you invite must be new to American Express, meaning no basic or supplementary Amex consumer card in the past 24 months (so anyone who’s been your own supplementary cardholder is out). They’ll get Amex’s highest available welcome offer, and your reward is triggered when their application is approved, rather than when they meet any spend target.

So if your partner is new to Amex, it’s worth having them apply through your invite rather than directly.

The Amex KrisFlyer Ascend earns:

• 1.2 mpd for local spend, uncapped
• 1.2 mpd for FCY spend, uncapped

That’s 0.1 mpd more than the Blue card, which puts the Ascend level with the KrisFlyer UOB card at the foot of the general spend table, ahead of only its cheaper sibling.

Earn rates (general spend cards)
(Best to worst, October 2026)

Card	Local Spend	FCY Spend
BOC EM	1.4 mpd	2.8 mpd
UOB PRVI Miles	1.4 mpd	2.4 mpd
DBS Altitude	1.3 mpd	2.2 mpd
OCBC 90oN	1.3 mpd	2.1 mpd
HSBC T1	1.2 mpd	2.4 mpd
Citi PM	1.2 mpd	2.2 mpd
SC Journey	1.2 mpd	2 mpd
KF Ascend	1.2 mpd	1.2 mpd
KF UOB	1.2 mpd	1.2 mpd
KF Blue	1.1 mpd	1.1 mpd

If you spend S$1,500 a month in SGD and S$500 a month in FCY on this card over a year, you’ll finish up with 28,800 KrisFlyer miles.

The same spend on the BOC Elite Miles card earns 42,000 KrisFlyer miles.

That’s a gap of 13,200 miles, worth around S$238 a year, before you’ve even considered that you’re paying S$397.85 for the privilege of earning less.

Like the Blue card, the Ascend earns an uncapped 2 mpd on Singapore Airlines Group spend, covering:

• Singapore Airlines flight bookings made through singaporeair.com, the SingaporeAir app, or by phone
• Scoot bookings made through flyscoot.com or the Scoot app
• KrisShop purchases, both onboard and at krisshop.com
• Pelago bookings made at pelago.com or through the Pelago app

There’s no cap and no minimum spend, and the rate applies to the taxes and surcharges on award tickets as well as commercial fares.

Flights must originate in Singapore and be purchased in Singapore dollars, and in fact every category here requires payment in SGD. KrisShop and Pelago purchases made through the Kris+ app don’t qualify, and Pelago payments made using Apple Pay or Google Pay are excluded too.

When we reviewed this card in 2020, 2 mpd on Singapore Airlines spend was one of its main selling points, although even then we pointed out that it was bettered elsewhere. That’s more true than ever. The KrisFlyer UOB credit card pays an uncapped 3 mpd on the same merchants plus all Kris+ spend, and bonus category cards like the DBS WWMC, HSBC Revolution and Maybank XL Rewards will pay 4 mpd on airline tickets up to a monthly cap.

Grab Singapore transactions made through the Grab app earn 2 mpd on the first S$200 charged in each calendar month, covering Grab rides, GrabFood, GrabMart and Grab Express.

That’s the base 1.2 mpd plus a 0.8 mpd bonus, with the bonus awarded as 8 miles for every S$10 block of cumulative monthly Grab spend, credited at the end of each calendar month. Spend beyond S$200 reverts to 1.2 mpd, and GrabPay top-ups do not count.

When we reviewed this card in 2020 the Grab rate was 3.2 mpd, and it was cut to today’s level in November 2024. At 2 mpd, the most you can earn over and above the base rate is 1,920 bonus miles a year.

If you last looked at this card when we reviewed it in 2020, it’s barely recognisable.

American Express announced changes to all four Singapore Airlines co-brand cards in October 2024, effective 1st November 2024, and the Ascend came off worst. Here’s how today’s card compares with the one we reviewed in 2020:

Amex KrisFlyer Ascend: then and now
	Our 2020 review	Today
Annual fee	S$337.05	S$397.85
Supplementary fee	S$80.25	S$81.75
Local earn	1.2 mpd	1.2 mpd
FCY earn	1.2 mpd	1.2 mpd
FCY earn (Jun & Dec)	2 mpd	1.2 mpd
FCY fee	2.95%	3.25%
SIA Group earn	2 mpd (SIA, SilkAir, KrisShop)	2 mpd (SIA, Scoot, KrisShop, Pelago)
Grab	3.2 mpd (S$200/mth)	2 mpd (S$200/mth)
Daily essentials bonus	3.2 mpd (S$200/mth)	None
Lounge access	4 SATS / Plaza Premium passes per year	None
Double miles accrual voucher	Yes	None
Renewal voucher	None	10,000 miles
FCY spend voucher	None	18,000 miles
Hilton free night	Yes	Yes
KF Elite Gold fast track	S$15,000 at singaporeair.com	S$15,000 on SIA / Scoot flights
EIR	26.9%	27.8%

Scoot and Pelago joining the 2 mpd category and the two new miles vouchers aside, it was a story of cuts, with S$54.50 added to the fee for good measure. The four lounge passes are the loss most readers will feel, since in 2020 they were among the card’s more useful perks, particularly for families.

Alongside the usual exclusions for cash advances, fees, interest charges, balance transfers and instalment plans, the following earn no miles:

• Bill payments and all transactions via SingPost, including SAM kiosks, the mobile app and the online portal
• Payments to insurance companies, except insurance bought through Amex’s own authorised channels
• Payments at Singapore Petroleum Company (SPC) service stations
• Payments for public transit in Singapore, including trains and buses and anything bearing the merchant description “BUS/MRT”
• Stored value card purchases, loads and top-ups, and topping up digital wallets including GrabPay and ShopeePay, with effect from 30th September 2025
• Payments to utilities merchants
• Payments to public and restructured hospitals, polyclinics and other public healthcare institutions
• Education and other non-profit transactions, including charitable donations
• Any merchant excluded by American Express at its discretion and notified to you

The list is noticeably longer than when we last reviewed this card. SimplyGo journeys, utilities, public hospitals, education, charitable donations and digital wallet top-ups have all been added since 2020.

Anything not on the list still earns, including bills paid through CardUp and ipaymy, though Amex sets its own limits on which CardUp payments it allows. At 1.2 mpd, standard Amex fees of 2.9% at CardUp and 2.4% at ipaymy work out to 2.35 and 1.95 cents per mile respectively.

That’s not worth doing for the miles alone, but these platforms can help if your regular Amex spend falls short of the S$5,000 sign-up threshold or the S$15,000 Elite Gold promotion target.

The current spend exclusions can be found at go.amex/sgexclusions.

Yes. As a Singapore Airlines co-brand card, the Ascend credits the miles you earn straight into your linked KrisFlyer account each month, as shown on your monthly statement.

You’ll need a valid KrisFlyer membership in your own name linked to the card before you start spending, since miles won’t credit against wrong or incomplete details.

If your card account is cancelled for any reason, you stop earning from that point, but miles already earned up to the cancellation date are still credited. That’s more generous than the KrisFlyer UOB credit card, whose terms let UOB forfeit miles earned but not yet credited if you close the account.

There’s a catch, though. Each month’s miles start their three-year KrisFlyer countdown the moment they land, whereas DBS Points on the Altitude card, for example, never expire, so the KrisFlyer clock only starts when you choose to convert.

There isn’t one. Miles credit automatically each month, so there’s no conversion fee and no minimum transfer block.

That’s a nice advantage over non-co-brand cards, where fees of S$25 to S$30 per conversion are common, often with a 10,000 mile minimum.

Miles are transferred once a month, around the start of each new statement cycle, covering eligible spend posted in the one just ended. So if your statement period runs from 19th February to 18th March, expect those miles in your KrisFlyer account around 19th March.

There are no intermediate transfers, so if you’re hoping to top up your balance quickly for a redemption, you could be waiting over a month for the miles from a large purchase.

American Express also works on posting date, not transaction date. A charge made in the last day or two of a statement period can slip into the next one, which delays those miles, and can cost you a sign-up bonus if you’re cutting the deadline fine.

No. KrisFlyer is the only option, as you’d expect from a co-brand card.

That’s a drawback compared with most Singapore miles cards. Citi’s ThankYou Points transfer to ten frequent flyer programmes plus IHG, while almost every bank other than BOC offers Asia Miles, opening up redemptions across the Oneworld network.

On the other hand, when American Express devalued its Membership Rewards transfer ratios in January 2026, the Singapore Airlines co-brand cards were untouched, because they earn KrisFlyer miles directly rather than a transferable currency.

American Express calculates miles on the exact transaction amount, then rounds the result to the nearest whole mile. Fractions of 0.50 or more round up, and anything below rounds down.

• S$12.00 x 1.2 = 14.4 miles, rounded down to 14 miles
• S$14.00 x 1.2 = 16.8 miles, rounded up to 17 miles

There’s no rounding of the spend itself down to a whole dollar or a spend block first, which is what most issuers do.

The KrisFlyer UOB card makes a particularly neat comparison here, since it earns the same 1.2 mpd, but only per whole S$5 of spend:

KrisFlyer miles awarded
SGD Charge	KF Ascend (1.2 mpd)	KF UOB (1.2 mpd)
S$4.99	6 miles	0 miles
S$9.99	12 miles	6 miles
S$15.00	18 miles	18 miles
S$19.99	24 miles	18 miles

Because both cards earn 1.2 mpd, every difference in the table comes down to rounding alone, and the Ascend never comes off worse.

Because of that rounding policy, the minimum charge needed to earn a mile is very low:

• S$0.42 at the 1.2 mpd rate (0.504 miles, rounds up to 1)
• S$0.25 at the 2 mpd rate (0.5 miles, rounds up to 1)

For comparison, the KrisFlyer UOB credit card needs S$5.00, the DBS Altitude S$1.54, and the Citi PremierMiles S$1.00.

The card charges a foreign currency transaction fee of 3.25%, applied as a conversion commission on top of the American Express Exchange Rate. That’s up from 2.95% when we reviewed the card in 2020.

With a flat 1.2 mpd on overseas spend, that works out at 2.86 cents per mile, level with the KrisFlyer UOB card and ahead only of the Blue.

Cost per mile on overseas transactions (general spend cards) (Best to worst, October 2026)
Card	Fee	Mpd	Cost per mile
BOC EM	3%	2.8	1.14¢
Maybank HVS	3.25%	2.8*	1.22¢*
SCVI	3.5%	3.0**	1.22¢**
HSBC T1	3.25%	2.4	1.43¢
UOB PRVI Miles	3.25%	2.4	1.43¢
Citi PM	3.25%	2.2	1.56¢
DBS Altitude	3.25%	2.2	1.56¢
OCBC Voyage	3.25%	2.2	1.56¢
OCBC 90oN	3.25%	2.1	1.63¢
HSBC VI	3.25%	2.0	1.71¢
SC Journey	3.5%	2.0	1.83¢
KF UOB	3.25%	1.2	2.86¢
KF Ascend	3.25%	1.2	2.86¢
KF Blue	3.25%	1.1	3.12¢

* Maybank Horizon Visa Signature: minimum S$800 spend per calendar month required.
** Standard Chartered Visa Infinite: minimum S$2,000 spend per statement period required.

Cost per mile accounts for an additional 0.30% ‘spread’ over money changer currency rates, and reflects miles earned on the billed amount inclusive of the fee. This doesn’t apply to all banks and all foreign currencies, so it’s a worst-case scenario.

In 2020, the June and December bonus at least allowed the Ascend to be used overseas at a respectable 1.57 cents per mile for two months of the year. Now, it’s 2.86 cents per mile all year round.

The 2 mpd SIA Group rate won’t help either, since it only applies to purchases made in Singapore dollars. A Singapore Airlines, Scoot, KrisShop or Pelago charge billed in foreign currency earns 1.2 mpd, at the same 2.86 cents per mile cost.

The Foreign Spend voucher

There is one twist. Charge the equivalent of S$10,000 or more in foreign currency to the card within the qualifying period, currently 1st November 2025 to 31st October 2026, and you’ll receive an 18,000 miles Foreign Spend voucher.

Treating that voucher as if it were 18,000 regular miles, here’s what it does to the card’s overseas earning:

Effective FCY earn with the Foreign Spend voucher (Voucher valued at par, best case)
FCY spend (1 Nov – 31 Oct)	Base miles (1.2 mpd)	Voucher	Effective mpd	Cost per mile
S$9,999	11,999	–	1.2	2.86¢
S$10,000	12,000	18,000	3.0	1.14¢
S$15,000	18,000	18,000	2.4	1.43¢
S$20,000	24,000	18,000	2.1	1.63¢
S$30,000	36,000	18,000	1.8	1.91¢

At exactly S$10,000, the Ascend briefly matches the BOC Elite Miles card, the best in our cost per mile table. By S$15,000 it has slipped to the level of the UOB PRVI Miles and HSBC TravelOne cards, and by S$20,000 it’s on a par with the OCBC 90°N card. Beyond that it keeps falling, and at S$9,999 you get nothing extra at all.

Remember too that this assumes the voucher is worth the same as 18,000 regular miles, which, as we’ll explain below, it isn’t.

So the Foreign Spend voucher doesn’t turn the Ascend into a good overseas card. If you’re holding one anyway, the sensible approach is to put just over S$10,000 of FCY spend on it within the qualifying period, leaving yourself a margin for posting dates and refunds, then switch back to a better card for everything else.

Amex has run the qualifying period from 1st November to 31st October for the last two years, so we’d expect a new window to open on 1st November 2026, but check the latest terms before you start.

The Ascend offers two vouchers:

• Renewal voucher (10,000 miles): awarded around 10 to 12 weeks after Amex receives payment of your renewal annual fee, so from year two onwards
• Foreign Spend voucher (18,000 miles): awarded for S$10,000 of FCY spend within the qualifying period, as above

Despite the names, neither adds a single mile to your KrisFlyer balance. Instead, each voucher takes a fixed number of miles off the price of one award ticket or upgrade on a Singapore Airlines flight, and there’s a long list of conditions:

• It’s valid for 12 months from the date it’s awarded, and the booking and all flights must fall within that period, with no extensions
• Only Singapore Airlines-operated flights are eligible, with no HighFlyer bookings, and it can’t be used for upgrades at the airport or via mySQupgrade
• Only one voucher per booking, so you can’t combine the Renewal and Foreign Spend vouchers
• It applies to the first eligible passenger in a booking only, and any value that passenger doesn’t use is forfeited
• It can be used for your own travel or for one of your redemption nominees
• It can’t be combined with buying miles to complete a redemption
• If you change the booking and it costs more miles, you top up from your balance; if it costs fewer, nothing is refunded
• If the booking is fully refunded, the voucher is returned, provided it’s still valid

There’s also a minimum balance rule. At the time of booking, you must hold at least 50% of the award’s full price, and enough to cover whatever is left after the voucher is applied.

You don’t need the full price of the award in your account, so this is a genuine discount rather than a rebate. However, the 50% rule does mean you need a buffer on cheaper awards.

Using Amex’s own illustrations:

Using a Miles Redemption Voucher (Award prices as illustrated in Amex’s terms, based on the KrisFlyer chart from 1st November 2025)
Award (one-way)	Miles required	Voucher	Miles deducted	Minimum balance needed
SIN-HKG Economy Saver	15,500	10,000	5,500	7,750
SIN-PER Economy Saver	20,500	18,000	2,500	10,250
SIN-Japan Premium Economy Saver	39,500	18,000	21,500	21,500
SIN-PEK Business Advantage	75,000	10,000	65,000	65,000

In practice, the 50% rule only bites on awards costing less than double the voucher value, so under 20,000 miles for the Renewal voucher and under 36,000 miles for the Foreign Spend voucher. Above those levels, you’d need more than half the award price in your account to cover the balance anyway.

Choose the wrong award and you can lose value too. Use the 18,000 miles voucher on the 15,500 mile Hong Kong award instead, and 2,500 miles of it simply disappear.

These vouchers are worth having if you already hold the card, but they’re not miles, and we wouldn’t value them as highly.

Compare that with the renewal bonuses on most competing cards, which arrive as ordinary miles, giving you at least three years of validity, a choice of KrisFlyer’s airline partners, and as many passengers as your balance will stretch to. The Ascend’s vouchers give you one Singapore Airlines booking, for one traveller, flown within 12 months.

Plan the redemption before the voucher arrives, and aim it at an award large enough to absorb the full value.

New Ascend cardholders can be upgraded to KrisFlyer Elite Gold by spending S$15,000 on eligible Singapore Airlines and Scoot flight bookings within the first 12 months of card approval. Eligible bookings are:

• Singapore Airlines flights originating from Singapore, purchased in Singapore dollars directly through singaporeair.com (including via Pay Small) or the SingaporeAir app
• Scoot flights originating from Singapore, purchased in Singapore dollars through flyscoot.com or the Scoot app

Only flight bookings count towards the standard fast track, so KrisShop and Pelago spend doesn’t help here, even though both earn 2 mpd.

Award bookings count too, since you pay the taxes and surcharges directly on singaporeair.com or flyscoot.com, though for most readers they’ll only make a small dent in S$15,000.

You must be a KrisFlyer or KrisFlyer Elite Silver member when you hit the threshold, and the upgrade follows within six weeks. Status is valid for one year from the upgrade date, after which the standard requalification criteria apply (50,000 Elite miles in 12 months).

It’s also a one-time benefit. Once you’ve been upgraded through the Ascend, that’s it for good, and closing the card and applying again won’t reset it.

As we noted back in 2021, S$15,000 of flights in a year is a big ask, realistically only within reach of very frequent travellers or those booking for the whole family, since the tickets don’t have to be in your name. Hit the threshold and you’ll at least have earned 30,000 miles along the way at 2 mpd.

Limited-time: an easier route until 16th December 2026

Amex periodically relaxes these criteria, and there’s an offer running until 16th December 2026. New and existing cardholders who spend S$15,000 on eligible purchases from 17th June, including at least S$5,000 on Singapore Airlines and Scoot flights (with up to S$1,000 of KrisShop and Pelago spend also counting), will be upgraded by 28th February 2027.

You must have paid the card’s annual fee, so a waived fee rules you out, and the offer can’t be used to extend existing Elite Gold or PPS Club status.

Here’s how the fast track offers we’ve covered over the years compare:

Amex KrisFlyer Ascend Elite Gold fast track offers
Offer period	Total spend	Of which SIA Group	Extras
Mar – Jun 2019	S$12,000	S$3,000	–
Jan – Feb 2021	S$5,000	S$300	3,000 bonus miles
Feb – May 2024	S$12,500	S$2,500	S$125 CapitaVoucher or Samsonite luggage*
Feb – Jul 2025	S$16,000	S$6,000	S$150 CapitaVoucher or Samsonite luggage*
Jun – Dec 2026	S$15,000	S$5,000	Annual fee must be paid

* Limited to the first few hundred qualifying cardholders.

The 2021 offer, run at the height of COVID-19 travel restrictions, remains the easiest by some distance. Today’s offer is a modest improvement on 2025, but still asks for twice the SIA Group spend of the 2024 deal.

Is Elite Gold worth chasing?

KrisFlyer Elite Gold brings lounge access when flying Singapore Airlines or Star Alliance carriers in any cabin, an extra 20kg of checked baggage, and priority check-in, boarding and baggage handling, among other perks. See our complete guide to KrisFlyer Elite Gold for the full list.

It’s useful for regular Singapore Airlines and Star Alliance travellers, but only for one year, so it’s rarely worth diverting significant spend to a 1.2 mpd card if you only fly a couple of times a year.

Principal cardholders receive a voucher each membership year for one free night in a standard room at a participating Hilton hotel in Asia Pacific, for up to two adults, including taxes and service charge.

The 2026 list runs to 184 properties across 20 countries and territories, 69 of them in mainland China. Which of these you pick decides almost all of the voucher’s value.

Highlights for Singapore-based travellers include:

• Singapore: Conrad Singapore Marina Bay, Hilton Singapore Orchard, Hilton Garden Inn Singapore Serangoon
• Thailand: Waldorf Astoria Bangkok, Conrad Bangkok, Hilton Hua Hin Resort & Spa
• Indonesia: Conrad Bali, Hilton Bali Resort
• Elsewhere: Conrad Manila, Hilton Kuala Lumpur, SAii Lagoon Maldives (Curio Collection) and Hilton Auckland

In 2020, the Hilton Garden Inn Serangoon was the only option in Singapore itself, so a staycation at the Conrad or the Hilton on Orchard Road is a welcome improvement.

The key conditions are:

• The voucher is issued around 10 to 12 weeks after Amex receives your annual fee payment, so don’t expect it on day one
• It can only be booked at apac.hilton.com/amexkrisflyer, at least 14 days before arrival, on the special voucher rate, subject to availability and each hotel’s blackout dates
• The stay must be completed within the validity period printed on the voucher, and one voucher can be used per membership year
• Cancellations follow each hotel’s own policy, and if you cancel, you may need Amex to reissue the voucher before you can rebook
• The rate is room only, and Hilton Honors points and elite benefits don’t apply
• You must present a valid Ascend card at check-in, so don’t cancel the card before you’ve used the night
• Supplementary cardholders don’t receive a voucher

The participating hotel list is also published per calendar year, so if your voucher straddles December and January, check which list will apply on your stay dates.

New principal cardholders can enrol for complimentary Hilton Honors Silver status, via an invitation in the card’s welcome pack. Enrolment for the current offer must be completed by 31st December 2026.

Status lasts for the remainder of the calendar year in which you earn it and the following calendar year, after which you’ll need to requalify through Hilton’s normal criteria.

In practice, Silver adds little to a typical Hilton stay, with no breakfast, upgrade or lounge entitlement. Its one useful perk is a free fifth night on standard room reward stays, so it only really comes into its own if you’re redeeming Hilton points for a longer trip.

As noted above, your Silver status won’t apply to your Amex free night either.

As with the Blue card, Ascend cardholders receive Amex Offers, targeted statement credits and bonus miles deals that can be worth several hundred dollars a year if you check them regularly. See our Blue card review for more detail.

They’re not specific to the Ascend, though, and since the Blue card offers the same access for little or nothing each year, they’re no reason to pay for this one.

American Express offers Pay Small, its 0% interest instalment facility, on Singapore Airlines ticket purchases at singaporeair.com.

The following conditions apply:

• Six-month instalment option only
• Charge of S$250 or more
• Purchase must be made at singaporeair.com
• Travel must originate in Singapore, and payment must be in Singapore dollars
• You must select the Pay Small option at checkout
• Your card account must be paid in full each month

Tickets bought through Pay Small earn no KrisFlyer miles at all, a change since our 2020 review, when they still earned 0.5 mpd.

Pay Small bookings do count towards the Elite Gold fast track, both the standard version and the current promotion, so you could spread S$15,000 of tickets over six months interest-free and still qualify.

Just be aware of what that costs you. The same S$15,000 paid upfront would earn 30,000 miles at 2 mpd, worth around S$540, so only use Pay Small if the cash flow really matters to you.

The Ascend no longer includes any complimentary airport lounge access. No Priority Pass, no Dragon Pass, and since November 2024, none of the four SATS Premier / Plaza Premium passes it used to include each year.

Several cards with much lower annual fees do include lounge access:

• Citi PremierMiles: 2 Priority Pass visits per year
• DBS Altitude Visa: 2 Priority Pass visits per year
• Standard Chartered Journey: 2 Priority Pass visits per year
• HSBC TravelOne: 4 Dragon Pass visits per year
• UOB PRVI Miles: 4 Priority Pass visits per year

See our guide to cards with free airport lounge access for the full list of alternatives.

• Travel insurance: Charge your full fare to the card and you’ll be covered by a Chubb policy of up to S$1 million for accidental death or total disablement on public transport outside Singapore. Travel inconvenience cover pays up to S$200 per person for flight delays, missed connections and baggage delays, and a further S$500 for baggage delayed beyond 48 hours. Figures of S$400 and S$1,000 are sometimes quoted, but those are the per family maximums. There is no cover for medical expenses or emergency evacuation, so this is a top-up to a proper travel insurance policy, never a replacement for one.
• Hertz: Cardholders get Hertz Gold Plus Rewards membership, with up to 10% off rentals worldwide, a one car class upgrade subject to availability, and a free additional driver.

As with any American Express card, acceptance in Singapore is narrower than Visa and Mastercard, particularly at smaller independent merchants and some QR-code payment setups, though you’ll rarely have trouble at larger retailers, hotels, restaurant groups or online.

For a card you’re unlikely to use as your main spending card anyway, that’s a minor point, but it can make hitting the S$5,000 sign-up threshold a little harder than you’d expect.

The obvious question is whether the Ascend justifies costing so much more than its sibling, which is free in year one and usually free thereafter.

Amex KrisFlyer Ascend vs. KrisFlyer Credit Card
	Amex KF Ascend Card	Amex KF Credit Card
Annual fee	S$397.85 (no first year waiver)	S$179.85 (first year free)
Fee waiver (year 2+)	Harder to obtain, and forfeits renewal perks	Generally granted on request
Supplementary fee	S$81.75 (first 2 free in yr 1)	S$54.50 (first 2 free in yr 1)
General spend	1.2 mpd	1.1 mpd
FCY spend	1.2 mpd	1.1 mpd
SIA Group spend	2 mpd	2 mpd
Grab	2 mpd (S$200/mth)	2 mpd (S$200/mth)
Renewal bonus	10,000 miles voucher (year 2 onwards)	None
FCY spend bonus	18,000 miles voucher at S$10,000 FCY spend per year	None
KF Elite Gold fast track	Yes (S$15,000 SIA / Scoot flights in first 12 months)	No
Hilton free night	One per year (room only, Asia Pacific)	No
Hilton Honors status	Silver (new cardholders)	No
Travel accident cover	Up to S$1 million	S$350,000
Member Invites	15,000 miles each (45,000/yr)	4,000 miles each (12,000/yr)
Lounge access	None	None
S$150 SIA cashback	No	Yes (S$12,000 spend)

On earning alone, there’s very little in it. The Ascend’s extra 0.1 mpd on S$30,000 of annual spend is 3,000 miles, worth around S$54, nowhere near enough to cover the fee difference.

The case for the Ascend is its benefits – the annual Hilton night, the renewal voucher, the Elite Gold fast track, and much more generous Member Invites. The Blue’s own perks are the S$150 Singapore Airlines cashback and, crucially, an annual fee that’s reliably waived.

Year one is straightforward. A strong sign-up bonus, a Hilton night and, if your travel suits it, the Elite Gold fast track can comfortably outweigh the S$397.85 fee.

Year two onwards is harder. Your ongoing return for the fee is the renewal voucher and the Hilton night, plus whatever you earn through Member Invites:

Does the Ascend pay its way? (Year 2 onwards)
	Value
Annual fee	-S$397.85
10,000 miles renewal voucher (at 1.8¢, best case)	+S$180.00
Hilton night needed to break even	S$217.85

In other words, even valuing the renewal voucher as if it were 10,000 regular miles, your Hilton night needs to be worth around S$218 to you before the Ascend simply breaks even. After that, you’re holding a card that earns 1.2 mpd, which is hardly a reward in itself.

A well-chosen weekend at the Conrad Singapore Marina Bay or the Waldorf Astoria Bangkok can get there. A weeknight at an airport Hilton Garden Inn probably won’t.

The exception is if you can use Member Invites. A single approved referral each year, worth 15,000 miles, changes the calculation completely, but that relies on knowing someone new to Amex every year.

Here are links to the full terms and conditions applicable to this card.

• Card Member Agreement and Benefits TnCs
• Sign-Up Promotion TnCs
• KrisFlyer Elite Gold Fast Track Promotion TnCs
• Hilton Free Night TnCs and Participating Hotels
• Travel Insurance Policy Wording
• Excluded Transactions

The Amex KrisFlyer Ascend is easy to justify for a year, and much harder to justify after that.

As a card to spend on, it’s barely distinguishable from its free Blue sibling, and the November 2024 refresh stripped out most of what once set it apart.

What’s left is a benefits card: a cheap way to buy miles through the sign-up bonus, an Elite Gold fast track that suits households booking plenty of Singapore Airlines flights, a Hilton night that can cover a good chunk of the fee, and Member Invites worth nearly four times the Blue’s. Against that sit an non-waivable first year fee, renewal perks that vanish with a waiver, and miles vouchers we’d never value at par.

For most readers, that suggests a clear approach. Take the Ascend when the sign-up bonus is strong, use the Hilton night well, chase Elite Gold if it suits your travel, and put your everyday spend on something else.

At renewal, keep it only if you have a good use for the Hilton night and a redemption lined up for the voucher. Otherwise, the Blue card offers the same SIA Group earn rate and Amex Offers for a fraction of the cost.

Our Rating

2 / 5 among general spend cards

Amex KrisFlyer Ascend Card   APPLY HERE

How we rate credit cards Best in class: A must-have for the miles earner in Singapore Excellent: A leader in its category with few if any downsides Very good: Drawbacks largely outweighed by the positive aspects Good: Useful benefits despite some poor features vs. other cards Average: Worth considering but not an essential addition to your wallet Conflicted: Some benefits but much better cards exist in the same category Poor: Few benefits worth having Very poor: Almost no benefits, not recommended Awful: Not worth considering

(Cover Photo: Singapore Airlines)