Amex KrisFlyer Ascend offering 45,000 miles sign-up bonus

American Express launched a 45,000 miles sign-up bonus offer for its KrisFlyer Ascend card back in June this year, but asked for S$8,000 of spending within six months to unlock it, up from just S$1,000 under the deal it replaced.

From 1st October, that spend threshold has been cut to S$5,000, with the rest of the offer unchanged.

Apply by 1st November 2026 and you’ll also receive a S$100 eCapitaVoucher, for paying the first year’s fee.

In our full review of the card, we generally conclude that the Ascend is worth holding for a year when the sign-up bonus is strong, but is rarely worth renewing. This offer complicates that, since almost half the miles only arrive in your 15th month as a cardholder, after Amex has already billed your second annual fee.

45,000 miles sign-up bonus

If you’re new to American Express, the bonus comes in three parts:

• 5,000 bonus miles for your first charge of any amount, provided you’ve never held any Singapore Airlines co-brand Amex card
• 20,000 bonus miles for spending S$5,000 within six months of approval, provided you pay the first year’s S$397.85 fee in full on your first statement
• 20,000 bonus miles for spending at least S$1 in your 15th month of card membership

You’ll also earn the card’s usual 1.2 mpd on the S$5,000, so the full picture looks like this:

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

That’s an effective 10.2 mpd on the qualifying spend. Against the first year’s fee alone, you’re paying 0.88 cents per bonus mile, or 0.66 cents with the eCapitaVoucher, but that ignores the second year’s fee, which we’ll come to below.

  APPLY HERE

S$100 eCapitaVoucher until 1st November

As part of its October ‘Member Bonanza’, Amex is adding a S$100 eCapitaVoucher for Ascend applications made from 1st October to 1st November 2026, inclusive.

There’s no extra spend attached. You simply need to be approved under the sign-up offer and pay the first year’s fee in full on your first statement, and it’s open to existing Amex customers too.

The voucher comes as a redemption letter, sent by email or post around 12 weeks after you’ve paid the fee. It must be redeemed by the date on the letter, with no extensions.

That effectively brings your first year’s fee down to S$297.85.

Amex’s product page says the offer is valid until 1st November 2026, but that date only applies to the eCapitaVoucher. The terms run the miles offer itself until 31st January 2027.

What’s changed?

The spend requirement is the only lasting change. The bonus amounts, the six-month window, the month 15 tranche and the 24-month look-back are all exactly as they were in June.

Amex KrisFlyer Ascend sign-up offers (new to Amex, 2026)
Applications	Bonus miles	Spend required	Bonus miles per S$1	Annual fees billed*
Until 16 Jun 2026	29,800	S$1,000 in 60 days	29.8	1
17 Jun to 30 Sep 2026	45,000	S$8,000 in 6 months, plus S$1 in month 15	5.6	2
1 Oct 2026 to 31 Jan 2027	45,000	S$5,000 in 6 months, plus S$1 in month 15	9.0	2

* Annual fees billed by the time the last of the bonus miles is earned. Bonus miles include the 5,000 miles first charge bonus, but exclude base miles.

Cutting the target by S$3,000 lifts the payout from 5.6 to 9 bonus miles per dollar of qualifying spend.

It’s still a long way from the offer that ran until June, though. That paid 29,800 bonus miles for S$1,000 of spend, within a few months and for a single annual fee, or 1.34 cents per bonus mile. Today’s offer pays more miles overall, but asks you to spend five times as much and keep the card for well over a year to collect them.

Bear in mind that the June terms were also due to run until 31st January 2027 before Amex rewrote them, so this version could change again before then.

Who qualifies?

To count as new to Amex, you must not currently hold any basic or supplementary consumer card issued by American Express, and must not have held one that was cancelled in the 24 months before you apply.

That covers every personal card Amex issues itself in Singapore, from the KrisFlyer Blue to the Platinum Card. Amex-branded cards issued by banks, like the DBS Altitude and UOB PRVI Miles American Express cards, don’t count, and nor does the Amex Singapore Airlines Business Credit Card.

Supplementary cards count. If you carry a supplementary card on your partner’s Amex account, you’re not new to Amex, and cancelling it now only starts a fresh 24-month clock.

The 5,000 miles first charge bonus is once per lifetime. It’s set out in the card’s own terms, and withheld from anyone who has ever held a Singapore Airlines co-brand Amex card. If that’s you, the most you can earn as a new-to-Amex applicant is 40,000 bonus miles.

Existing Amex customers

If you already hold an Amex card, you can still earn up to 25,000 bonus miles, provided you haven’t cancelled a basic Ascend in the past 24 months:

• 5,000 miles for your first charge, if you’ve never held a co-brand card
• 10,000 miles for S$5,000 of spend within six months, with the first year’s fee paid
• 10,000 miles for S$1 of spend in month 15

That’s much harder to justify. A current KrisFlyer Blue cardholder misses out on the first charge bonus, so year one brings just 10,000 bonus miles for the S$397.85 fee, almost 4 cents per mile before the Hilton night. Even with the eCapitaVoucher, it’s close to 3 cents.

If you applied between 17th June and 30th September, unfortunately you’re still on the June terms and need to spend S$8,000. The terms rule out applying for the card under more than one promotion, so there’s no switching to this one.

How it works

Provided you’re eligible, you need to:

1. Apply by 31st January 2027 (or by 1st November 2026 for the eCapitaVoucher), and be approved within 45 days
2. Pay the S$397.85 annual fee in full on your first statement
3. Make a first charge of any amount, which triggers the 5,000 miles if you qualify for them
4. Spend S$5,000 on eligible purchases within six months of approval
5. Spend at least S$1 on an eligible purchase in your 15th month of card membership

Spend on supplementary cards counts towards both targets.

Amex goes by the date a transaction posts, not the date you make it, and both targets must post within their windows. Leave yourself a week or so to spare at the end of the six months, and make your month 15 purchase early in that month rather than towards the end.

The 5,000 miles first charge bonus is credited after your first monthly statement showing a transaction. The first 20,000 miles arrive around 12 weeks after you’ve hit S$5,000 and paid the fee, and the second 20,000 around 12 weeks after your month 15 spend. Amex won’t entertain requests to speed either up.

Amex can claw the bonus back if you cancel the card within six months of approval, if refunds or reversals take your spend back under S$5,000, if your first year’s fee is reversed, or if it later finds you weren’t eligible. Your account also has to be open and in good standing for each tranche to be awarded.

Working out month 15

Amex doesn’t count card membership in calendar months. Each ‘month’ is 30 days from your approval date, so month 15 begins 420 days after approval, almost a week earlier than a calendar count would suggest.

Here’s how that plays out for a few sample approval dates:

Working out month 15
Approved	S$5,000 posted by*	Month 15	Final 20,000 miles (approx.)
15 Oct 2026	12 Apr 2027	9 Dec 2027 – 7 Jan 2028	Mar 2028
1 Nov 2026	29 Apr 2027	26 Dec 2027 – 24 Jan 2028	Mar 2028
15 Dec 2026	12 Jun 2027	8 Feb – 8 Mar 2028	May 2028
31 Jan 2027	29 Jul 2027	26 Mar – 24 Apr 2028	Jun 2028

* Treating six months as 180 days, to be safe. The terms don’t define this window in 30-day months, but nor do they confirm calendar months.

Whenever you’re approved, the final 20,000 miles land around 16 to 17 months later, so it’s worth setting yourself a reminder for month 15 as soon as the card arrives.

The second annual fee

To collect all 45,000 miles, you’ll need to keep the card open into month 15, and Amex bills the second year’s S$397.85 fee at your first card anniversary, a couple of months before that.

Strictly, the terms only ask for S$1 of spend in month 15 with the account open and in good standing, and say nothing about paying the second fee. In practice, Ascend fee waivers are hard to come by, and the renewal voucher and Hilton night both depend on that payment, so it’s safest to assume you’ll pay it.

Split by card year, the bonus looks like this:

Amex KrisFlyer Ascend sign-up bonus by card year (new to Amex)
	Year 1	Year 2	Total
Annual fee	S$397.85	S$397.85	S$795.70
Bonus miles	25,000	20,000	45,000
Cost per bonus mile	1.59¢	1.99¢	1.77¢
Also included	Hilton night	Hilton night, 10,000 miles voucher	2 Hilton nights, 1 voucher

Assumes you’re new to Amex and a first-time Singapore Airlines co-brand applicant.

In year one, 25,000 miles and a Hilton night cost you 1.59 cents per mile, or 1.19 cents with the eCapitaVoucher. That’s below a typical 1.8 cent valuation, so it could be a good deal on its own.

Year two is the important decision – here another S$397.85 buys 20,000 miles arguably worth around S$360, plus a 10,000 miles renewal voucher and a second Hilton night. Use the voucher well, and it’s worth up to S$180, bringing those 20,000 miles down to 1.09 cents each.

So if you’ll make good use of both the voucher and the Hilton night, paying the second fee makes sense. If you won’t, those 20,000 miles cost almost 2 cents each, above that 1.8 cent valuation, and you’d be better off cancelling before the second fee is billed (just not within six months of approval, or Amex can take back what you’ve earned).

Taken over the full 15 months, you’re paying 1.77 cents per bonus mile, or 1.37 cents with the renewal voucher valued at par, with two Hilton nights on top. Apply by 1st November, and the eCapitaVoucher brings that down to 1.15 cents.

Total earning can be up to 55,000 miles

While the bonus itself is fixed at 45,000 miles, you can boost the base miles you earn on the S$5,000 spend.

The Ascend earns an uncapped 2 mpd on Singapore Airlines Group spend, so putting your qualifying spend towards Singapore Airlines or Scoot flights lifts the base miles from 6,000 to 10,000:

• 10,000 miles (S$5,000 x 2 mpd)
• + 5,000 miles (first charge bonus)
• + 20,000 miles (S$5,000 spend bonus)
• + 20,000 miles (month 15 bonus)
• = 55,000 miles in total

That’s 11 mpd on the S$5,000. The usual conditions apply – flights must originate in Singapore and be paid for in Singapore dollars directly with the airline, and KrisShop and Pelago purchases don’t qualify through the Kris+ app. Avoid Pay Small too, since it earns no miles at all on this card.

Singapore Airlines and Scoot flight bookings also count towards the card’s KrisFlyer Elite Gold fast track, which upgrades you once you’ve spent S$15,000 on them in your first 12 months. Our full review has the details, including Amex’s current limited-time version of the offer.

Spend exclusions

The S$5,000 must come from eligible purchases. Alongside the usual exclusions for cash advances, fees, interest and instalment plans, Amex rules out:

• Bill payments through SingPost, including SAM kiosks, the app and the online portal
• Insurance premiums, except policies bought through Amex
• Payments at SPC service stations
• Public transport in Singapore, including bus and MRT fares
• Stored value and e-wallet top-ups, including GrabPay and ShopeePay
• Utilities
• Public hospitals, polyclinics and other public healthcare institutions
• Education, charitable donations and other non-profit payments

The current list is at go.amex/sgexclusions, and Amex describes it as non-exhaustive.

If you’re falling short, payments through CardUp and ipaymy aren’t on the list. At ipaymy’s 2.4% Amex fee, putting the full S$5,000 through it would cost around S$120, or 0.6 cents for each of the 20,000 miles it unlocks. Check the platform’s own terms first, as Amex limits which types of CardUp payment it allows.

Ascend or Blue?

The Ascend’s sister card, the KrisFlyer Blue, is offering new-to-Amex applicants 16,000 bonus miles for S$2,000 of spend until the same date, with no annual fee in year one.

Both use the same 24-month test, so whichever you apply for first uses up your new-to-Amex status:

• Ascend first: 45,000 bonus miles, but nothing on the Blue afterwards, since it has no offer for existing Amex customers
• Blue first: 16,000 bonus miles, then no more than 20,000 on the Ascend as an existing customer, so 36,000 in total

If you can see yourself holding the Ascend within the next couple of years, apply for it first. If you’d never pay close to S$400 a year for a card, take the Blue, whose bonus costs you nothing.

Applying through a Member Invite

If someone you know holds an Amex KrisFlyer card, ask them for a Member Invite before you apply. Amex says invited friends receive the highest offer available to them, so it shouldn’t cost you any of your bonus.

It’s particularly worthwhile if they hold the Ascend, since each approved referral earns them 15,000 miles, against 4,000 on the Blue. For a couple where one partner already holds the Ascend and the other is new to Amex, that’s 60,000 bonus miles between them.

Just remember that a supplementary card on their account means you won’t count as new to Amex, even with an invite.

Earn rates

Once you’ve hit S$5,000, there’s little reason to keep spending on the Ascend. It earns:

• 1.2 mpd on local and foreign currency spend, near the bottom of our general spend table
• 2 mpd on Singapore Airlines, Scoot, KrisShop and Pelago, uncapped, on SGD purchases made directly
• 2 mpd on Grab Singapore, on the first S$200 each calendar month

With a 3.25% foreign currency fee, each mile earned overseas costs 2.86 cents, so there are much better cards to use overseas.

Instead, the reasons to keep it are its benefits – an annual Hilton night in Asia Pacific, a one-off fast track to KrisFlyer Elite Gold, the renewal voucher and Member Invites worth 15,000 miles each. Miles credit straight into your KrisFlyer account each month with no conversion fee, though that also starts their three-year expiry clock immediately.

For the full picture, see our comprehensive review, where we rated it 2/5 among general spend cards.

Terms and conditions

Full terms and conditions for the Amex KrisFlyer Ascend 45,000 miles sign-up bonus are available here:

• Sign-Up Promotion T&Cs (including the eCapitaVoucher offer)
• Card Member Agreement and Benefits T&Cs
• Excluded Transactions

Amex’s 45,000 miles sign-up bonus on the KrisFlyer Ascend is open to new-to-Amex applicants until 31st January 2027, and since 1st October it needs S$5,000 of spend rather than S$8,000.

That makes it far more attainable than the June version. Apply by 1st November, and the S$100 eCapitaVoucher also takes the edge off a card with no first year fee waiver.

However, almost half the bonus still arrives after your 15th month, so you’ll have paid a second S$397.85 fee by the time you see all of it. That’s worth it if you’ll use the renewal voucher and a second Hilton night, but not if you won’t.

If you can commit to 15 months, and you’d rather spend your new-to-Amex status on the Ascend than the Blue, this is a good time to apply. Just don’t make it your everyday spending card once you’ve hit the S$5,000 target.

  APPLY HERE

(Cover Photo: Shutterstock)

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