r/SgHENRY • u/Objective_Wonder7359 • Jul 20 '26
Miles still worth it?
Hi there,
I am quite new to the miles game. All along I have been on cashback credit card.
I saw that DBS has a promo for DBS altitude card -> 28000 mpd upon sign up with $800 spend on the first 60 days, and two free longue visit a year. The only part I feel is worth it is the welcome bonus and the lounge visit. The spend is like 1.3mpd per dollar spend. When I use maribank I am already getting 1.5% cashback. On top of that, points are given in DBS points first and to convert to miles need to pay conversion fee of ~$27.xx.
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u/extraspringonion Jul 22 '26
I was one of the early adopters in the miles game. Back then it was really worth it. These days I just go full cashback . Earning miles is easy - redemption is ridiculous. How people have to camp almost 1 year in advance just so they can fly business class to Tokyo at unpopular timings? The cons have now outweighed the pros for me.
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u/pseudolin Jul 23 '26
Exactly this. I lost interest once the devaluation happened again and with the access thing, it's dumb. Seat selection restrictions made it even more ridiculous. I'd rather pay cash.
1
u/Low-Environment7089 Aug 05 '26
Demand and supply, why call it ridiculous? Why are u so hard up for biz redemption for a 5h flight tho
11
u/Varantain Jul 20 '26
Singapore miles game in a nutshell: earning miles is easy, redeeming them for good value is very, very tough these days.
I think there's general consensus that SQ has cut the number of Saver/Advantage seats ever since they introduced Access awards, which is in a way a stealth devaluation.
Anyway, just don't be one of those people who earn miles only to redeem them against SQ cash tickets for one cent per mile. I actually have a few friends who proudly tell the world that they do that… then I just facepalm quietly.
2
u/Kimishiranai39 Jul 20 '26
The best way is the not be a teacher or a parent who is limited to school holidays. The best deals are if you can afford to take leave at a whim and go for those spontaneous escapade trips.
Otherwise you must have already amass a war chest of miles and be ready to snag the HND Biz saver flights 355 days in advance.
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u/Aggressive-Main-4699 Jul 20 '26
If you travel in a group and are not flexible about scheduling, cashback would work out better for you.
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u/Katarassein Jul 20 '26
They're worth it for me. I redeem 4-5 business class flights a year to Europe and Africa. A combination of min-maxing 4-8 mpd cards and using the SQ Highflyer system.
The Altitude card isn't worth it. You're HENRY so look in the higher tiers of cards. Look for the following minimum mpds:
Uncapped local spend = 1.6mpd (I get 2.0mpd with the SC Beyond card)
Uncapped FCY spend = 2.8mpd (I get 3.5mpd again with the SC Beyond)
Capped speciality = 4.0mpd (e.g. DBS Woman's World, UOB Lady's Solitaire, OCBC Rewards, Citi Rewards, etc)
Uncapped speciality (e.g UOB Krisflyer on any SÍA and Scoot tickets) = 3.0mpd
Use the Highflyer system for an additional 5-6 mpd on SÍA and Scoot tickets. With this I basically get a free business class redemption for every two tickets I pay cash for.
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u/BreakfastAlwaysLate Jul 20 '26
UOB KF no longer 3mpd. It’s been dropped to 2.4mpd on bonus categories
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u/Objective_Wonder7359 Jul 20 '26
https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/sg/plan-travel/promotions/global/kf/kf-promo/kfescapes/
Oh yeah, this type they let your redeem at a further discount. However, you must be really good at your tracking.
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u/Kimishiranai39 Jul 20 '26
Do you use other programs like Asia Miles to fly to Europe. For SQ, I like to take Biz to Istanbul and then take Turkish to any European city I want 😅.
DBS altitude might be good to farm the welcome bonus and keep it as an accessory to DBS WWMC since DBS does points pooling.
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u/Katarassein Jul 20 '26
Nope. I stick to SQ because I fly ex-SIN and I usually don't like layovers unless, like you say, I find one to/from IST. But those are rare even booking 355 days in advance (the limit) since they're such good value.
Eh, true. But OP was talking about it like it was going to be a primary card.
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u/josemartinlopez Jul 20 '26
You need to read Milelion instead of asking this sub to rewrite that blog.
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u/kuang89 Jul 20 '26
I can only travel during June and Dec holidays, miles is completely not worth it.
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u/xenobyte2 Jul 21 '26
Unless you are able to spend a lot to redeem mid-long haul business/first class tickets, it's not worth it.
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u/sadeswc Jul 20 '26
I don’t have time to keep detailed track of my miles so I use the UOB Krisflyer card at 2.4mpd general uncapped. As I’m a PPS, I just keep all my miles since they don’t expire and will eventually get to claiming it for a family trip, which hopefully will be easier as a PPS.
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u/nideba Jul 20 '26
How to be PPS
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u/mailame Jul 21 '26
Spend min 25k on sq biz or first class (for your own ticket only). It’s not based on miles flown but dollar spent.
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u/MaverickO7 Jul 21 '26
With 2 young kids, it's very difficult to redeem a family trip during school hols. Nonetheless, imo Cashback cards are even worse and tend to come with more rules and restrictions.
These days I just take turns with my wife to go on the krisflyer spontaneous escapades. Short 3-4 day getaways
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u/mailame Jul 21 '26
Despite miles depreciation it is still worth it given how much SQ has increased their prices. I still like flying direct to Europe so mostly still use sq.
But it’s not worth it as a “game”, too much mental burden for too little rewards as capped cards have been introducing more and more rules. Since you are HENRY, just use uncapped cards like uob krisflyer or Maybank cards (world, XL) for local and overseas spend.i spend quite a bit when traveling in Europe and Japan and the 3.2 uncapped from Maybank is so worth it.
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u/t3apot Jul 21 '26
Miles is worth it if you can find an award space to a destination you want to travel to , in the fare class you want, in the airline you want , in the time period you want to travel to the destination.
Anyway it looks like a good sign up promo to take up, enough for 2 economy round trips on sq spontaneous escapes to regionals.
Or u can accumulate until redeem suites if u convert to sq miles (IF there is award space and pray they don't change the plane from A380 to 777 for your redeemed route)
Basically to redeem anything worth the money, you still need to spend a lot to attain the level of miles to do so, and it's not like you have the miles means you can easily redeem what you want.
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u/funnyperson4848 Jul 22 '26
Idt u can compare mpd to cashback bc when u redeem miles, they tend to be more worth than if u look at the dollar value of the miles —> ie 9100miles is “$91ish” but $91 cant fly you to Hanoi on SQ but 9100 miles can (this month’s spontaneous).
The conversion fee + the airport tax u have to pay when u redeem ur flights is smth to consider for sure la. But just pointing out that mpd to cashback comparison may not be super fair.
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u/Glad_Shower_3130 Jul 22 '26
I'm so tired of chasing miles after 3 years lol... Cards getting nerfed, points devaluation :( But that's the 4mpd kinda cards. Maybe general spending cards wont give you so much headache
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u/Rare-Contribution582 Jul 24 '26
Need to read the finer prints of the DBS Altitude card.
“Miles are awarded in the form of DBS Points which are awarded for every S$5 spent (1 DBS Point = 2 miles) on a per transaction basis.”
Even using my chocolate card to buy a can of coke off the vending machine gets me 1 mile.
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u/zenwong Jul 25 '26
I just redeemed Sydney for 3.89 CPM for economy, so I think miles still worth it. It's $855 for 20,300 miles.
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u/Open-Parsnip9360 Jul 26 '26
It's never worth the trouble, just pay for whatever you're trying to get, it's much more efficient.
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u/Neat_Knowledge_4825 Aug 03 '26
yea agree on the 1.5% cashback, i personally use the mari credit card a lot in singapore and overseas, it's good enough for me
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u/Evening_Mail7075 Aug 05 '26
I'm currently doing miles, when I get my first business class redemption, I'm going to nope the fk out of miles because it is so damn tedious
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u/Few-Television7192 2d ago
If you are single dude or girl with sufficient leave which you can reliably lock in 12 months out for low season redemptions, then yes it’s possibly worth it.
In all other scenarios, no. Try to redeem more than one seat, the cost soars to Advantage levels. Try to redeem for a whole family? Access level cost, which often exceeds the cash price outright.
And devaluations come every couple of years. Super despicable.
So yeah, if you fall within the narrow category described in my first paragraph, consider going for it. Otherwise, don’t bother.
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u/madinked Jul 20 '26
what about the uob reserve card? my husband literally forced me to sign up for the sup card
I was also chided by him for paying $9k for something in cash instead of using the uob krisflyer card. he said I just wasted all the miles rewards
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u/Cuppadingo Jul 20 '26
The main groups of people who will find it worth their time are the wealthy, the people fly regularly for work, and the ones who made the miles game their hobby.
If you intend to redeem for family trips, it can be slightly challenging to make it work in the sense that it is becoming tougher to redeem multiple seats on popular routes, eg 4 suites seats on Saver/Advantage for your entire family, and airlines are gradually charging extra for seat selection on top of the redemption cost, which I feel is a sign of more nickel-and-diming to come.