DBS Altitude selling miles at 2 cents each, but you can do better

Back in October 2018, DBS launched a “More miles to fly in style” promotion on the DBS Altitude card. Cardholders could pay an admin fee of 2.2% to earn a bonus 1 mpd on their DBS Altitude spending, which meant

• 1.2 2.2 mpd on local spending
• 2 3 mpd on overseas spending
• 3 4 mpd on online flight and hotel transactions

Under this scheme, you were basically buying miles at 2.2 cents each- a terrible price, given the myriad of ways to generate them at lower prices.

DBS has lowered the admin fee to 2%

“More miles to fly in style” has been extended till 31 December 2019, and this time round the admin fee has been reduced to 2%. The full T&Cs can be found here.

Here’s an illustration of how the math works with the reduced 2% fee:

The effective cost per mile is now 2 cents (7,000 bonus miles for S$140)- it’s better than before, but still way too steep given what we know about the value of a mile and the other ways of generating them.

Registration is required, and open to the first 10,000 registered card members. I wouldn’t sweat it though, because it’s not exactly something you should be clamoring to participate in.

How to buy miles for less than 2 cents each

Here’s a rundown of all the ways you can buy miles in Singapore.

[table id=4 /]

If you wanted to buy miles, you could easily do so by paying your tax bill through CardUp with their TAX199 code (must be used by 24 July). Depending on what card you use, you’d effectively be buying miles between 1.22 and 1.63 cents each. 

Alternatively, if you have a rental bill to pay, you could take advantage of the ongoing RentHero 1.85% admin fee for Milelion readers. This allows you to buy miles for 1.14 to 1.51 cents each. 

Otherwise, those with condo fees, electricity bills and education payments could use Citi’s PayAll service to buy miles from 1.25 to 1.67 cents each.

There’s also UOB’s PRVI Pay, which until 31 July 2019 will sell you as many miles as you want for 1.8 cents each. 

And finally, there’s the OCBC VOYAGE payment facility, which lets you buy as many miles as you want from 1.9 to 1.95 cents each.

Conclusion

Given all the ways you could easily buy miles for less than 2 cents, there’s really no reason to take advantage of this promotion.

I’d give this one a miss, unless you were really desperate for miles and couldn’t utilize any of the cheaper methods above.

Signing up for cards or making purchases through the links in this article may generate a referral commission that supports the running of The Milelion. Found this post useful? Subscribe to our Telegram Channel to get these posts pushed directly to your phone, or our newsletter (on the right of your screen) for the latest deals and hacks delivered to your inbox.