Amex KrisFlyer Review (2026): A Good First Card, Not A Last One

Amex KrisFlyerTruffle's Take

🤔Situational

The cheapest way into KrisFlyer, and the slowest way to fill it

This is the entry point to Singapore Airlines' own card range, and it is priced like one: S$179.85, waived the first year, and waivers afterwards that Amex is reportedly happy to grant without a published spending minimum. In practice a lot of holders never pay for it.

What you get for that is not a rate. 1.1 mpd is the second-lowest base in this lineup, and the 2 mpd on Singapore Airlines spending is fine rather than special. What you get is a KrisFlyer balance that maintains itself: no conversion step, no S$27 fee, no 10,000-mile block to save toward.

That is a real thing to want, especially early on. The most common way people lose miles in Singapore is not a bad rate, it is a bank-points balance that expired below the transfer minimum. This card cannot do that to you.

Annual Fee

S$179.85, waived the first year for both principal and supplementary cards, and readily waived after that.

No published threshold to clear is unusual and works in your favour, but it also means nothing is guaranteed in writing. Call and ask each year rather than assuming, and do it before the fee posts.

Unlike Ascend, there is no renewal voucher here, so paying the fee buys you nothing extra. On this card the waiver genuinely is the better outcome.

Welcome Bonus

American Express Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Credit Card

Apply with American Express

Welcome bonus

• ✈️16,000 miles Bonus KrisFlyer milesTransferable to airlines

Spend S$2,000 within the first 3 months of card approval.

Apply→

Offer ends 2027-01-31

Sign-up rewards change often, so confirm the current offer before you apply. New customers only, meaning no card from American Express in about the last 12 months.

How many miles do I earn?

1.1 miles per dollar generally and 2 on Singapore Airlines spend, straight into KrisFlyer.

1.1 mpd is genuinely low. A free HSBC Revolution pays 4 mpd on online, dining and transport, and a Citi PremierMiles pays 1.2 on everything with an uncapped 2.2 overseas. Do not hold this expecting the rate to compete, because it does not.

Blue Or Ascend?

The only real decision with this card is whether to take it or its more expensive sibling, and the answer turns almost entirely on how much foreign currency you spend.

So Ascend costs S$218 more and can return 28,000 miles in vouchers. If you will genuinely clear S$10,000 of foreign spend inside its window, Ascend wins comfortably and it is not close. If you will not, this card does the same job for a fee you probably will not pay.

The base rate difference of 0.1 mpd is noise. It takes S$100,000 of spending to amount to 10,000 miles, so ignore it entirely when choosing.

Transfer Partners

One, and that is the entire point of the card.

Miles are credited directly to your KrisFlyer account, batched around statement close. No transfer fee, no minimum block, nothing to remember. For someone new to miles this removes the single most common way to lose them.

The card earns Singapore Airlines miles directly, so there is no alternative destination. Correct as of 8 July 2026.

Programme	Where the miles go
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer	Direct

The cost is the usual one for direct earning: no optionality, and a three-year expiry clock that starts the month you spend rather than the month you choose to transfer. With a 1.1 mpd rate, building a meaningful balance inside three years takes real volume.

How to use it. It works as a starter card rather than a keeper. It is a clean way to watch a KrisFlyer balance grow without learning the transfer mechanics, and once those are familiar, a 4 mpd card feeding a flexible-points balance will outperform it several times over.

Before any redemption, always check the route you want is actually available. The worst thing you can do is diversify into another mileage programme with no redemption in mind.

What should I pair it with?

Only Grab is capped, at S$200 a month, and on a 1.1 mpd card a cap was never going to be the constraint anyway. The real one is acceptance: every merchant that declines Amex is a transaction earning nothing at all, and in Singapore that is still a meaningful share of hawker stalls and smaller shops.

Almost anything, because 1.1 mpd needs help across the board.

This card covers Singapore Airlines spending and the convenience of automatic crediting. Everything else in your life wants a better card.

Build your miles card stack

One card never covers everything. Put in what you actually spend and see which cards to hold together, and what to put on each.

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The verdict, restated

A fine first miles card and a poor only one. The fee is effectively optional, the miles look after themselves, and nothing about it can trap a balance below a transfer minimum, which is genuinely the most common beginner mistake. But 1.1 mpd is half what a free HSBC Revolution pays on the categories most people spend in, so treat this as the card that teaches you the hobby rather than the one you finish with. If you spend seriously in foreign currency, take Ascend instead.

Sources

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Credit Card product page and T&Cs, checked 8 July 2026. Earn rates, the S$179.85 fee, the first-year waiver for principal and supplementary cards and the direct KrisFlyer crediting correct as of that date. Subsequent-year fee waivers are reported as readily granted with no minimum officially stipulated, which means they are not guaranteed in writing, so ask each year. American Express does not publish a current minimum income threshold for this card, and the S$30,000 figure is the last documented value from secondary sources. KrisFlyer miles expire three years from the month earned under the programme’s own rules. This guide shares my own experience for education, it is not financial advice, and card terms change: always verify with the bank before applying.