Joining a frequent flyer program allows you to redeem your accumulated reward points for flights, flight upgrades, and other travel rewards, which is what you can expect from Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer frequent flyer program.
Members earn miles when they fly with Singapore Airlines or any of its airline partners, as well as when they spend through any of its non-airline partners. Benefits and privileges vary in accordance to membership levels, which include basic, silver, and gold. As a KrisFlyer member, you also get access to a number of special offers from time to time.
American Express Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Credit Card Rewards Program credit cards
Overview of American Express Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Credit Card
The origins of Singapore Airlines date back to May 1947, when a Malayan Airways Limited Airspeed Consul took off from Singapore Kallang Airport and flew to Kuala Lumpur. In the late 1960s, its annual revenue touched the one billion dollar mark for the first time. Singapore Airlines, in 1989, became the first airline in the world to cross the Pacific on a B747-400 commercial flight.
In the late 1990s, this airline unveiled a range of new products and services worth around 500 million Singapore dollars. It launched KrisFlyer, its frequent flyer program, in 1999. Singapore Airlines strives to maintain a young fleet of aircrafts, and an average Singapore Airlines aircraft should be no more than around six and a half years old.
When you become a member of the KrisFlyer frequent flyer program you get to earn miles each time you fly with Singapore Airlines or any of its partner airlines, and when you shop with their non-airline partners. However, since this is not the only rewards program of its kind, comparing a few before enrolling is a good idea.
Which banks can transfer rewards points to Singapore KrisFlyer Miles?
American Express. Earn 1.1 KrisFlyer miles for every S$1 charged to your AMEX American Express Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Credit Card Credit Card and 1.2 Krisflyer miles for every S$1 charged to your AMEX Singapore Airlines Krsiflyer Ascend Credit Card.
DBS. Up to 3 DBS miles earned for every S$1 on eligible transactions charged to your DBS Altitude Card. DBS miles is awarded in the form of DBS points, which can be converted to Krisflyer miles at the rate of 1 DBS point to 2 Krisflyer miles.
Citi. Convert 1 KrisFlyer mile for every 1 Citi Mile point. You can earn 1.2 City Miles for every S$1 charged to your Citi PremierMiles Visa Card.
UOB. Earn 0.4 KrisFlyer mile for every S$1 charged to your KrisFlyer UOB Debit Card plus 1 KrisFlyer mile for every S$1 saved on your KrisFlyer UOB Account. Up to a maximum of 5.4 KrisFlyer miles earned per dollar. Terms and conditions apply.
KrisFlyer Rewards Program
The KrisFlyer rewards program gives you the ability to earn and redeem miles in various ways. Singapore Airlines is part of the Star Alliance network, so you stand to earn miles when you fly using any airline that is part of this network as well as some of the airline’s other flight partners. You can also earn miles through Singapore Airline’s non-airline partners, including credit card providers, hotel chains, car hire companies and more.
You can redeem your miles for flight rewards to over 1,000 destinations in more than 170 countries with Singapore Airlines and any of its partner airlines. You also have the option to convert your KrisFlyer miles to TapForMore Points, which you can use to get non-flight rewards.
Flying more often brings with it the possibility of moving to higher membership tiers that offer increased benefits.
Features of the KrisFlyer membership
When you sign up as a new KrisFlyer member, you’ll start off at the base level. Depending how often you fly and shop with non-airline partners, you can steadily move up to elite silver and elite gold level. The benefits you can expect will depend on your membership level:
KrisFlyer Basic. At this level, you can redeem your miles for flight tickets and flight upgrades, and you can save exclusive discounts on advance seat selection and pre-purchased additional baggage. You’ll also receive regular updates about the latest promotions.
KrisFlyer Elite Silver. You can get to the elite silver level if you earn 25,000 Elite miles within 12 consecutive months. When you get to this level, you also make it to the Star Alliance Silver status, which gives you access to priority reservation waitlist and priority airport standby services. You get 25% tier bonus on KrisFlyer miles, and you can look forward to reduced or waived KrisFlyer service fees.
KrisFlyer Elite Gold. Earning 50,000 Elite miles within 12 consecutive months gets you to the Elite Gold level. Here, you get Star Alliance Gold status, through which you can make use of priority reservation waitlist and priority airport standby services. This level offers the following benefits as well.
Access to Star Alliance Gold lounges
Priority check-in
Priority boarding
Priority baggage handling
Excess baggage allowance
Reduced or waived KrisFlyer service fees
Benefits of being a KrisFlyer member
As a KrisFlyer member you can look forward to a number of benefits, which include the following:
Earn and redeem miles. This, without doubt, is the primary benefit of this frequent flyer program. You can redeem your miles for flights and flight upgrades through Singapore Airlines and SilkAir, through Star Alliance partners, and through its other airline partners like TAM, Virgin, and Vistara. If you don’t have enough points to redeem for a particular flight reward, you can consider buying the required miles. If you don’t want flight rewards, you can convert your miles to TapForMore Points which you can redeem through your PAssion Card.
Online redemption discount. Aside from redeeming miles on flights, members also get an exclusive discount on advance seat selection and pre-purchased additional baggage.
PPS Club. Membership to this club is only open to people who frequently travel in First or Business Class on Singapore Airlines or SilkAir, or in the Singapore Airlines Suites onboard the Singapore Airlines A380. It requires that you earn a PPS value of at least SGD $25,000 in 12 consecutive months. Membership brings with it a 25% tier bonus on the actual miles flown, as well as a class bonus when flying Singapore Airlines or SilkAir. PPS members get Star Alliance Gold status automatically.
KrisFlyer points value
Just how many miles you earn depends on the class you’re flying, and this is where this frequent flyer program rates better than most others. As you can see, flying higher classes with Singapore Airlines brings with it considerably more miles:
Economy: 100% in B, E, H, L, M, W, and Y; 50% in N and Q; and 10% in K and V
Premium Economy: 110% in P, S, and T
Business Class: 125% in C, D, J, U, and Z
First Class: 150% in A and F
Suites: 300% in R, and 150% in F
The following applies when you fly using SilkAir:
Economy: 100% in B, E, H, L, M, W, and Y; 50% in N and Q; and 10% in K and V
Business Class: 125% in C, D, J, U, and Z
Changes to KrisFlyer flight rewards
In March 2017, KrisFlyer announced it would be updating its flight redemption details. As of 23 March 2017, the following changes will be rolled out for reward flights and upgrades:
No online booking discount. Previously, redeeming KrisFlyer Miles for reward flights and upgrades online attracted a booking discount of 15%. But this discount will not apply for redemptions made on or after 23 March 2017.
Reduced charges for Singapore Airlines and Silk Air reward flights. If you use your miles to redeem a flight operated by Singapore Air or Silk Air, you won’t have to pay any additional fuel charges or insurance charges. For a one-way economy flight from Singapore to Sydney, this change could save you around S$153 in additional charges. Note you may still have to pay airport taxes and fees.
Saver Award rate changes. KrisFlyer has revised mileage levels for economy, business and first class Saver Awards flights that cover Zone 7, 9, 11, 12 and 13. This increases the number of miles needed for most reward flights to and from Singapore. However, the change in fuel and insurance charges does help balance out the overall cost of redemptions.
KrisFlyer’s partners
Below are some of KrisFlyer’s partners that provide KrisFlyer members the opportunity to earn additional KrisFlyer miles:
Partner hotels
AccorHotels
Alila Hotels and Resorts
Anantara
Radisson
Hilton
Hyatt
InterContinental
Kempinski
Kerzner
Marriott
Okura
Park Regis
Shangri-La
Starwood
Taj
Other partners
AVIS
Europcar
Hertz
Rentalcars.com
Sixt
M1
Travelling Connect
Club 21
The Economist
Shell
TIME and FORTUNE magazines
Credit card partners
American Express
UOB (Singapore)
Westpac (Australia)
BOC (China)
JCB (Japan)
Mitsui Sumitomo (Japan)
BCA (Indonesia)
How to apply for KrisFlyer membership
You can enrol in the KrisFlyer program online, and to submit an online application, simply click on the ‘Go to Site’ button. Anyone over the age of two years can apply for membership unless the law in your country prohibits you from doing so. To apply, you have to provide the following information:
Your complete name, gender, date of birth, and nationality
Your email address
Name you want displayed on your KrisFlyer card
A six-digit PIN
Your correspondence address
Pros and cons of the KrisFlyer membership
Earn miles. This, without doubt, is the biggest benefit of the KrisFlyer frequent flyer program, and you get to earn more points if you spend at partner merchants.
Multiple partner airlines. The long list of partner airlines not only helps you earn miles easily, but this network is useful when it comes to redeeming your points as well. Some of the popular names on this list include Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, South African Airways, Thai Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia, and Vistara.
Added travel benefits. As you move up membership tiers, you can look forward to additional benefits like priority check-in, priority boarding, priority baggage handling, excess baggage allowance, priority reservation waitlist, and priority airport standby.
Expiry of miles. Your KrisFlyer miles expire in three years, so you have to make sure you keep using your points or they could end up going waste.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. KrisFlyer members can nominate up to five individuals for whom they can redeem miles for rewards. They can give such nominees the authority to collect tickets for flight rewards on their behalf.
Yes, but you can increase your miles using cash only if you have at least half of the miles needed to redeem any given flight reward. You can, in such a scenario, buy blocks of additional miles at the rate of US$40 per 1,000 miles.
You have to start by purchasing a commercial ticket in an eligible booking class. When flying Singapore airlines, you can use your miles to upgrade from economy to business class or from business class to first class/suites. When flying SilkAir, you can upgrade from economy to business class. You can also get upgrades to the next cabin class onboard select Star Alliance partners.
Jeremy is finder's Global Head of Publishing & Editorial. Jeremy has been with finder since the very beginning and is part of the founding team working closely with Fred and Frank to build finder.com into the comparison network it is today.
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