Singapore Airlines extended the validity of expiring KrisFlyer miles during the COVID-19 pandemic, six months at a time. But these generous extensions have now come to an end.
From this month, unused Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles will start to expire if they’ve been sitting in your account for more than three years. This marks the resumption of Singapore Airlines’ unpopular “time-stamping” policy whereby KrisFlyer miles are only valid for a fixed term three years, regardless of how much activity you have in your account.
You can check when your miles are due to expire by logging into your KrisFlyer account on the Singapore Airlines website. On your “Account Summary” page, scroll down to view the “expiring miles” section. If you happen to have miles within the next six months, they’ll be itemised here.
Note that when redeeming KrisFlyer miles, the oldest ones are always used first. So if you’re constantly earning and burning miles, you’ll probably be OK.
But if you have Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles that are due to expire soon, you need to take action to avoid losing them forever.
Unfortunately, unlike with Qantas points or Velocity points, simply maintaining a bit of activity on your account won’t extend the validity of your expiring KrisFlyer miles. You’ll need to either extend or use them. Here’s what you can do…
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Redeem your KrisFlyer miles
The obvious solution is to redeem your KrisFlyer miles for something of value. The best value redemption is award flights.
Book a flight
You could use your miles to book a flight with Singapore Airlines, Star Alliance or another partner airline such as Virgin Australia.
You can even redeem your miles to book a flight for someone else. You can nominate up to five “redemption nominees” on your KrisFlyer account (these can be any KrisFlyer members – they don’t necessarily have to be family members) and use your KrisFlyer miles to book flights for them.
Even if you only have a small amount of KrisFlyer miles, you could redeem as little as 12,000 KrisFlyer miles (plus taxes) for a one-way Virgin Australia domestic flight.
You can use your KrisFlyer miles to book an award flight that takes place after your miles expire. Singapore Airlines allows award bookings up to 355 days in advance. You would just need to book before the miles expire.
Please note that if you cancel a KrisFlyer award flight booking after the miles would have expired, you will not get a refund of the miles. However, changes to existing award bookings are possible.
Other redemption options
If you don’t have enough miles or simply don’t want to book a flight, there are also various ways to redeem KrisFlyer miles on the ground. For example, you could:
- Book a hotel or rental car via KrisFlyer vRooms,
- Use at least 1,000 miles to offset purchases on KrisShop.com (125 miles = SGD1),
- Convert to KrisPay miles (1:1 conversion rate) and redeem within six months on Kris+, or
- Donate miles to Make-A-Wish Singapore
Transfer your KrisFlyer miles to another loyalty program
If you’re a Velocity Frequent Flyer member, an easy solution is to simply transfer your expiring KrisFlyer miles into your Velocity account.
Your miles will lose some value in the process, as the conversion rate is 1.55 KrisFlyer miles = 1 Velocity point. However, once in your Velocity account, your Velocity points will be never expire as long as you continue to earn or redeem at least one Velocity point every two years.
You could also convert your KrisFlyer miles into one of the following hotel loyalty programs:
- Shangri-La Circle (12 KrisFlyer miles = 1 Shangri-La Circle point; minimum 20,000 KrisFlyer miles per conversion)
- Marriott Bonvoy (2 KrisFlyer miles = 1 Marriott Bonvoy point; minimum 3,000 KrisFlyer miles per conversion)
Converting KrisFlyer miles into hotel points is fairly poor value. But, as with any redemption, at least it’s better than losing the KrisFlyer miles entirely.
Pay to extend the miles
If you need more time to use them, Singapore Airlines does offer the option to extend the validity of your KrisFlyer miles for a fee.
You can extend the validity of expiring miles for another six months for a cost of 1,200 miles or USD12 per 10,000 miles (or part thereof). If you’re a KrisFlyer Elite Silver or Elite Gold member, including as a HSBC Star Alliance credit card holder, the same fee will extend your miles for another whole year.
Become a PPS Club member
There is a group of KrisFlyer members whose miles are not subject to the 3-year expiry rule: PPS Club and Solitaire PPS Club members.
If you have a large number of KrisFlyer miles due to expire, this is one way to avoid losing them. However, it is an extreme measure as to achieve PPS Club, you would need to spend at least SGD25,000 (excluding taxes) in one year on Singapore Airlines Business or First Class flights.
