Best Uses of 20,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles

Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program went through some award chart changes in late 2025. This change increased the number of miles required for most award flights and upgrades, effective 1 November 2025.

It now costs 29,000 KrisFlyer miles plus taxes one-way in Economy Class from most East Coast cities in Australia or New Zealand to Singapore. Or if you’d like to fly Singapore Airlines Business Class, you could book a one-way Business Saver Award from the east coast of Australia to Singapore for 72,000 KrisFlyer miles plus taxes.

KrisFlyer miles expire after three years, so you need to use them or lose them. But what if you only have a small balance of KrisFlyer miles that you need to use up?

Here are some of the best things Australians can do with 20,000 KrisFlyer miles…

Fly Scoot from Australia to Singapore and beyond

Scoot is the low-cost arm of Singapore Airlines, and operates flights from Singapore to Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. In August 2025, Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program unveiled a new fixed-price award chart for Scoot redemptions. There is a separate award chart that sets the number of KrisFlyer miles required for Scoot redemptions, with prices starting from as low as 1,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes.

Scoot Redemptions need to be booked via Scoot’s redeem flights website. According to the award chart, you could (subject to Scoot Saver availability) book a one-way Scoot flight on any of the following routes for under 20,000 KrisFlyer miles:

• Any route from Perth to Singapore (6,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)
• Any route from Perth to Asia via Singapore (varies from 8,000 KrisFlyer miles + taxes onwards)
• Any route from Australia (excl. Perth) to Singapore (12,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)
• Any route from Singapore within Asia (varies from 1,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes onwards)

The catch is that these Scoot Saver redemptions offer about the same flexibility (none!) as the Basic cash fare. The Scoot Saver redemptions are non-refundable and only come with 10kg of cabin baggage! Scoot often has attractive prices on its Basic cash fares. So, it might be prudent to check these on the Scoot website first to weigh up if the redemption offers good value.

Fly Singapore Airlines from Perth or Darwin

In some good news, the award chart changes in 2025 had a positive impact on many Economy Saver redemptions. 20,000 KrisFlyer miles might be almost enough to book a one-way Singapore Airlines flight from Perth or Darwin to Singapore. It now costs 20,500 miles (down from 21,500 miles) plus taxes to book this route as a Saver Award in Economy Class.

Fly Air New Zealand to New Zealand or the Pacific Islands

As Singapore Airlines is part of Star Alliance, you can also redeem KrisFlyer miles for flights with other Star Alliance carriers.

It would cost 14,500 KrisFlyer miles (plus taxes) to book a one-way Air New Zealand flight anywhere within Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. For example, you could fly from Perth to Auckland for 14,500 KrisFlyer miles + AUD 149.70.

To book a Star Alliance award flight on the Singapore Airlines website, you need to select “Show flights for Star Alliance” on the booking page (as shown above). Otherwise, when you view flight redemption options, the Singapore Airlines website, by default, will show only Singapore Airlines flights.

If you can find award availability, you could even book an Air New Zealand Economy Class itinerary from Perth to Tahiti via Auckland (for example) for just 14,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes.

Book a Virgin Australia domestic flight

Singapore Airlines also partners with Virgin Australia, which means you can redeem KrisFlyer miles to book flights with Virgin Australia.

According to the updated KrisFlyer award chart for Virgin Australia redemptions, you could book a one-way Virgin Australia flight on any route that doesn’t touch WA or NT for 13,000 KrisFlyer miles + taxes.

Unfortunately, previous options such as Virgin Australia’s trans-Tasman flights to Queenstown have now increased to 20,500 Krisflyer miles + taxes (was 19,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)

See our guide to redeeming KrisFlyer miles on Virgin Australia for more details.

Book a Singapore Airlines flight within Asia

If you happen to be travelling around Asia, you could use KrisFlyer miles to book a flight/s on Singapore Airlines. For 20,000 KrisFlyer miles or fewer, you could book the following trips in Singapore Airlines Economy Class:

• A round-trip ticket from Indonesia or Malaysia to Singapore (16,000 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)
• A one-way ticket from Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia or the Philippines to Singapore (13,000 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)
• A one-way ticket from Singapore to Hong Kong, Taipei, Shenzhen or Guangzhou (15,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)
• A one-way ticket between Singapore and India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives or Bangladesh (19,000 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)

You could also book a one-way Thai Airways flight within Southeast Asia for 14,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes in Economy.

Fly Singapore Airlines or Star Alliance intra-Europe flights

Singapore Airlines operates a fifth freedom flight (SQ378) within Europe from Milan (MXP) to Barcelona (BCN). It would cost 11,500 KrisFlyer miles plus taxes one-way in Economy Class for this route.

Europe is the home of many Star Alliance airlines. As such, KrisFlyer miles can be redeemed for travel on several Star Alliance itineraries within the continent. Thankfully, all of these cap out at 15,000 miles + taxes in Economy Class regardless of the distance or number of sectors involved.

Wait for a KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes promotion

In the second half of every month, KrisFlyer releases new Spontaneous Escapes offers with 30% off selected award seats for travel in the following month. This unlocks many more options for travel with under 20,000 KrisFlyer miles.

When the Perth-Singapore and Darwin-Singapore routes are included in this promotion, you could book a one-way Economy promo award on either of those routes for 14,350 KrisFlyer miles + taxes. The same number of miles would also get you from Perth or Darwin to almost anywhere else in Southeast Asia (via Singapore).

Even Singapore Airlines routes from East Coast of Australia such as Sydney reduces to just over 20,000 KrisFlyer miles + taxes in economy.

Convert your KrisFlyer miles to Velocity Frequent Flyer points

A unique feature of the KrisFlyer program is the ability to transfer your miles to another frequent flyer program.

Specifically, you can convert KrisFlyer miles into Virgin Australia Velocity points at a rate of 1.55:1. This means that 20,000 KrisFlyer miles would be worth 12,903 Velocity points. That’s enough Velocity points to book a return Virgin Australia Economy reward seat from Sydney to Melbourne.

See our guide to redeeming 10,000 Velocity points for more ideas!

Book a hotel or rental car through vRooms

If you don’t want to fly anywhere, another way to spend KrisFlyer miles is by booking accommodation or hire cars through vRooms. You can use a mix of KrisFlyer miles and money, or pay for the whole booking with KrisFlyer miles if you prefer.

With 20,000 KrisFlyer miles, you could make a vRooms booking worth around AUD180.

Get $133 worth of KrisPay miles

Singapore Airlines launched its Kris+ App in Australia in 2023, in partnership with a range of retailers in Melbourne and Sydney. With Kris+, you can get various discounts and earn KrisPay miles when shopping with participating retailers.

Those KrisPay miles can be converted to KrisFlyer miles within 21 days, or otherwise used towards purchases with Kris+ partners within six months.

You can also convert your KrisFlyer miles into KrisPay miles at a 1:1 rate, if you wish.

150 KrisPay miles are worth AUD1. So, if you had 20,000 KrisFlyer miles, they would be worth around $133 worth of KrisPay miles.

How to top up your KrisFlyer miles

Need a few more KrisFlyer miles to get the reward you really want?

It is possible to buy KrisFlyer miles indirectly by buying Marriott Bonvoy points, then transferring those points from Marriott Bonvoy to KrisFlyer. Marriott Bonvoy points convert to KrisFlyer miles at a 3:1 rate, and you’ll get an extra 25% miles every time you transfer 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to KrisFlyer.

You can also transfer points into KrisFlyer from most Australian credit card reward programs, as well as from Velocity Frequent Flyer.

Note that it is not possible to transfer KrisFlyer miles to another person’s account. There is an exception to this rule for parents to transfer KrisFlyer miles out of their own children’s accounts for a fee. However, you can book redemption flights for up to five other people who are listed on your account as “redemption nominees”.