Singapore Airlines is regarded as one of the world’s best airline brands, and offers among my favorite first class and favorite business class products out there.
The Singapore KrisFlyer program is typically the best way to unlock premium cabin travel on Singapore Airlines, so in this post I want to take a closer look at how the program works, and where the most value is. The good news is that these miles are pretty easy to earn, Singapore Airlines has fairly good award availability, and there are even some interesting partner redemption opportunities.
In this post:
How to earn Singapore KrisFlyer miles
If you don’t currently have any Singapore KrisFlyer miles, don’t worry. For those of us in the United States with access to transferable points currencies, Singapore KrisFlyer miles are among the easiest currencies to rack up.
Singapore KrisFlyer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou, so any of those points give you access to KrisFlyer miles. Unfortunately it’s fairly rare to see transfer bonuses, so don’t expect that you’ll often get better than a 1:1 transfer ratio.
Basics of redeeming Singapore KrisFlyer miles
Before we talk about the best ways to redeem Singapore KrisFlyer miles, let me discuss some of the logistics and terms that come with redeeming, including mileage expiration policies, award types, award waitlisting, stopovers, and more.
Singapore KrisFlyer mileage expiration
Singapore KrisFlyer has one of the stricter mileage expiration policies out there. KrisFlyer miles expire 36 months after they’re earned, regardless of any account activity. The only exception is for PPS Club and Solitaire PPS Club members, as miles don’t expire for these members.
So you’ll want to be very careful when you transfer points to the program, since there’s no way to extend the expiration.
Singapore KrisFlyer Advantage vs. Saver awards
Singapore KrisFlyer has two award types — Advantage and Saver. Saver awards have the best pricing, but also have the most restrictive availability. Meanwhile Advantage awards have access to more availability, and are priced a bit higher, typically around 10-60% more (I know, that’s a huge range, but it really is market dependent).
Note that while Advantage awards offer improved availability, it’s nowhere close to last seat availability. Rather they’re a bit more expensive, and offer access to a bit more award space. When you go to Singapore Airlines’ website to book an award, you’ll be presented both award types, depending on whether they’re available.
Singapore KrisFlyer award waitlisting
Singapore KrisFlyer offers an award waitlisting program, whereby you can waitlist for an award ticket in either the Saver or Advantage award bucket. You have to waitlist awards at least three weeks before departure, and they’ll clear at least 14 days before departure.
That’s not to say that awards will definitely clear 14 days out if there are seats available, but rather it just means that they definitely won’t clear within 14 days, as the waitlist is canceled at that point.
Note that you need enough miles in your account for a particular ticket in order to waitlist, though you can then waitlist an unlimited number of flights. In other words, if you have enough miles for a particular type of ticket, you could then waitlist it for every day, if you wanted.
Singapore KrisFlyer stopover policy
If you want a stopover on an award ticket, KrisFlyer only allows stopovers on certain types of tickets, and only when traveling on Singapore Airlines:
- When booking a Saver award, you’re allowed one stopover on a roundtrip, but no stopovers on a one-way
- When booking an Advantage award, you’re allowed two stopovers on a roundtrip, or one stopover on a one-way
Note that your stopover can only be for up to 30 days, or else it will be considered two separate awards.
Singapore KrisFlyer change & cancelation fees
When it comes to the Singapore KrisFlyer policy on award ticket changes and cancelations, the fees differ depending on whether you’re booking a Saver or Advantage award:
- Changing a Saver award ticket costs $25-50, changing an Advantage award ticket costs $0-25
- Redepositing a Saver award ticket costs $75, redepositing an Advantage award ticket costs $50
Singapore KrisFlyer redemption nominees
Singapore KrisFlyer only lets you redeem miles for up to five redemption nominees. They don’t have to be related to you, but you have to keep them attached to your account for at least six months, and removing a nominee can cost up to $30. There are Asian frequent flyer programs with much worse restrictions than that.
Redeem KrisFlyer miles for Singapore first & business class
The way I view it, the single most valuable aspect of the KrisFlyer program is the ability to redeem for Singapore Airlines Suites class, first class, and business class. That’s because Singapore Airlines restricts a vast majority of its premium cabin award space to members of its own KrisFlyer program:
- Generally Suites Class and first class awards are fully restricted to KrisFlyer members
- Most Singapore Airlines partners only have access to some short and medium haul business class awards on Singapore Airlines
- Select Singapore Airlines partners, including Air Canada Aeroplan and Alaska Mileage Plan, sometimes have access to long haul premium cabin award space, though it’s ultimately a subset of what KrisFlyer members have access to.
As far as award pricing goes, you can find the Saver award chart below (one-way pricing is shown for economy, premium economy, business, and first).
You can find the Advantage award chart below (one-way pricing is shown for economy, business, and first — there are no premium economy redemptions).
Just to highlight a few of the most common business class award costs for travelers originating in the United States.
From the United States to Europe (New York to Frankfurt or Houston to Manchester) you’ll pay 81,000-87,500 KrisFlyer miles.
From the United States West Coast to North Asia (Los Angeles to Tokyo) you’ll pay 103,500-123,000 KrisFlyer miles.
From the United States West Coast to Singapore you’ll pay 107,000-128,500 KrisFlyer miles.
From the United States East Coast to Singapore you’ll pay 111,500-143,500 KrisFlyer miles.
Incrementally, longer flights really are a great deal. For example, I’d consider 111,500 miles for the world’s longest flight (from New York to Singapore) to be a better deal than 81,000 miles for New York to Frankfurt.
The great thing is that KrisFlyer generally has fairly good award availability in business class, especially if booking in advance. You can sometimes score an even better deal with the program’s monthly Spontaneous Escapes promotion, whereby select awards are available at a discount.
Suites Class and first class award availability can be tougher to come by, though you can read my guide to that here. The reason it’s tougher is because of how small the cabins are. Singapore Airlines’ A380 Suites Class has only six seats, while Singapore Airlines’ 777 first class has only four seats.
Redeem KrisFlyer miles for partner airlines
Singapore Airlines belongs to the Star Alliance, and also has some unique airline partners beyond that. So, are partner redemptions a good deal? I’ll highlight a few good redemptions below, but generally I wouldn’t recommend redeeming KrisFlyer miles this way:
- KrisFlyer redemption rates on Star Alliance partners aren’t particularly attractive, especially for long haul flights; you’ll usually get better value booking through programs like Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca LifeMiles
- KrisFlyer passes on carrier imposed surcharges for many partners, which can be really costly for long haul awards
So, what are partner award redemptions like? You can find the Star Alliance award chart below, with roundtrip pricing displayed (one-ways are available for half the cost of a roundtrip, and awards are available in economy, business, and first).
One potentially decent deal would be awards within North America (including Hawaii) on Air Canada or United, where you’ll pay 14,000 miles in economy or 26,000 miles in business class. The challenge is actually finding saver level award availability.
Singapore KrisFlyer also has a separate award chart for travel on Alaska Airlines, which you can find below. This shows one-way award pricing in economy and first.
The redemption rates here are quite good, though nothing to get too excited about, in my opinion:
- British Airways Executive Club often has better redemption rates on Alaska Airlines, and also has an easier online booking process
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles has better redemption rates on United Airlines in many markets
So I tend to think these redemption options are worth being aware of, but it’s not worth going out of your way to earn KrisFlyer miles just to redeem this way, given the alternatives.
Bottom line
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer is a useful frequent flyer program, and it’s one that I redeem through all the time. The biggest benefit of KrisFlyer is having access to the most Singapore Airlines award space, especially in Suites Class, first class, and business class. I’d say redemption rates are fair, especially given the great inflight product that Singapore Airlines offers.
Just be aware of the restrictions on KrisFlyer miles, like needing to create redemption nominees, miles expiring after 36 months, etc.
What has your experience been with redeeming Singapore KrisFlyer miles?
Has anyone ever redeemed Saver awards on medium-haul & long-haul First/Suites class? Given the 4-seats/6-suites per flight I'm guessing SQ has no real reason to release Saver awards.
Just noted that your report says you’re allowed a stopover on a return Saver award ticket. I understand that this is no longer the case (and not permitted) since the last devaluation of Krisflyer points. Please confirm…. hock (singapore)
I just went on their website and it allows you to book a stopover online.
Does anyone know how redeposits work with the expiration policy? I had almost 100k miles expiring at the end of November so I booked a FRA-JFK F award for the end of next year, although am not sure if that will fit in my plans. If i redeposit that award will the miles be gone since the original expiration date will have subsequently passed, or are they considered "new" miles?
The expiring miles will not redeposit they'll be gone according to the original expiration date.
You cannot redeposit after the expiration date. Perhaps you can only change the date.
The challenge with Krisflyer is that you can never find seats on certain Star Alliance partners. For example, there are *no* flights available for Krisflyer miles redemption on Air Canada for the next 300+ days on any routes flown on AC metal. None, whatsoever.
So while it may be useful when redeeming Singapore Airlines seats, best not to transfer and keep miles there.
Don't sleep on the Star Alliance "Around the World" award you can get with Singapore airlines. Travel around the world with award flights to seven cities of your dreams. All you need is 200,000 KrisFlyer miles in Economy Class, 280,000 KrisFlyer miles in Business Class and 405,000 KrisFlyer miles in First Class.
I did this in 2015/2016 and got like 7 cents a point in value from it.
https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/us/ppsclub-krisflyer/use-miles/redeem-miles/star-alliance-round-the-world-award/
Don't sleep on the Star Alliance "Around the World" award you can get with Singapore airlines. Travel around the world with award flights to seven cities of your dreams. All you need is 200,000 KrisFlyer miles in Economy Class, 280,000 KrisFlyer miles in Business Class and 405,000 KrisFlyer miles in First Class.
I did this in 2015/2016 and got like 7 cents a point in value from it.
https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/us/ppsclub-krisflyer/use-miles/redeem-miles/star-alliance-round-the-world-award/
Does anyone know if you can mix a saver and a advantage seat within one booking for two people. E.g if there is a single saver F available and a single advantage F on the same flight.
Why not just make it as two bookings / redemptions?
Redeem the saver award first for one person and then redeem the advantage aware for the second person as a second redemption.
I've done that a few times.
No thanks. Singapore is so incredibly stingy and sneaky (typical amongst the Asian carriers). It’s near impossible to get an award seat at saver levels abs their transfer times are long. Avoid this article
My wife and I have trip over the Christmas holiday USA to New Zealand via Singapore mostly in Business Class and all with Singapore Airlines. Our trip total was 744,000 SIA miles + $370.19 USD in taxes, which is way better than the $19,805 the itinerary would have cost in cash at the time of booking.
Me: JFK-SIN (biz 115.5k), SIN-CHC (pe 55k), AKL-SIN (econ 55k), SIN-(NRT)-LAX (107k)
Her: SFO-SIN (biz 128.5k), SIN-CHC (biz...
My wife and I have trip over the Christmas holiday USA to New Zealand via Singapore mostly in Business Class and all with Singapore Airlines. Our trip total was 744,000 SIA miles + $370.19 USD in taxes, which is way better than the $19,805 the itinerary would have cost in cash at the time of booking.
Me: JFK-SIN (biz 115.5k), SIN-CHC (pe 55k), AKL-SIN (econ 55k), SIN-(NRT)-LAX (107k)
Her: SFO-SIN (biz 128.5k), SIN-CHC (biz 90k), AKL-SIN (biz 90k), SIN-SEA (biz 107k)
That being said, I've found Singapore Airlines and Krisflyer to be incredibly annoying and difficult to deal with over the past 10-months.
1. Their award chart shows pricing for USA to Australia/New Zealand but they should remove at least New Zealand from that list. Back in 2020 and again this year I was not able to find a single award itinerary that would price out for travel from any SIA USA gateway to any of their New Zealand cities. When discussing this with multiple agents on the phone they said it is not possible and EVERY award price they quoted me was the combined prices of two separate award tickets USA-SIN and then SIN- New Zealand. It is impossible to book a SIA business class award USA to New Zealand for 135,500 or 145,500 miles.
2. When my and my wife's waitlisted business & premium economy class flights (SIN-New Zealand-SIN) cleared they would not move/change/apply our existing economy/premium economy flight/itinerary. They said the only way was to cancel the existing economy/premium economy itinerary, wait up to 6 weeks for the miles to redeposit and then apply them to the new business class itinerary. Back in 2016-ish they would just charge the difference in miles and issue a new ticket for the new class of service. They seemingly won't or can't do that now so I had to transfer new points to Krisflyer and then ended up with stranded points after the miles were redeposited.
3. I'm still waiting for some miles to deposit from making a change back in July.
4. Hold times are very long and phone agents' ability to help do almost anything seems to be lacking. Honestly, SIA seems to have the biggest gap between onboard service experience and phone service experience.
What F bookings are easier? Especially for A380 Suites?
SIN-HKG might be the best bet, albeit for a much shorter service.
I have redeemed SQ points for J class tickets from NY to AKL at the stated redemption rates. Got 3 tickets on the same flights, too. And in fact I did it twice - once pre-pandemic; the trip got canceled because it was in the middle of the pandemic. I then used the same miles to book the trip again.
The trick is to book far in advance - ideally shortly after the schedule opens....
I have redeemed SQ points for J class tickets from NY to AKL at the stated redemption rates. Got 3 tickets on the same flights, too. And in fact I did it twice - once pre-pandemic; the trip got canceled because it was in the middle of the pandemic. I then used the same miles to book the trip again.
The trick is to book far in advance - ideally shortly after the schedule opens. Not sure why you weren't seeing the tickets price out as a single ticket - maybe there were >24 hr layovers?
Well dang, that stinks for me that I wasn't able to do it (but good for you!) I was searching 355 days out so I'm not sure why I couldn't do it online or via the phone. Multiple phone agents told me it wasn't possible even after placing on hold to go talk to a supervisor. Guess I'll have to be smarter about it next time. Sure would love to be able to snag those stated USA to OZ/NZ as it's an incredible deal. Thanks snic!
It’s worth pointing out that transfers from Chase can take over 24 hours. Not sure about other transferable points.
I really fail to understand how their Business product is this high rated. All due respect to service and consistency, the beds (at least on the A380) are just horrible - hard, weirdly angled, I think it's the worst sleep I ever got on a long haul Biz flight.
Haven't been on the 380, but the 350 and 777 J beds are fine. The "convertible" seats get mixed reviews but I found them to be very comfortable, especially the bulkheads. And the onboard service is absolutely impeccable.
I'll be checking out the A359 in a couple of weeks (MEL-SIN), even managed to snag two bulkheads. I hope my mind is changed ♂️
Keep in mind the A359 can have different hard-product offerings, with SQ.
They typically put the shorthaul/regional A359s into Australia, and those have the 2018 seat. Smaller, but IMO much better, as you can control them electronically only. The seats closer to windows have a lateral headrest that can block your views though, if you care about that sorta thing.
The longhaul A359s have the 2013 seat, that requires you to get out of it...
Keep in mind the A359 can have different hard-product offerings, with SQ.
They typically put the shorthaul/regional A359s into Australia, and those have the 2018 seat. Smaller, but IMO much better, as you can control them electronically only. The seats closer to windows have a lateral headrest that can block your views though, if you care about that sorta thing.
The longhaul A359s have the 2013 seat, that requires you to get out of it and manually manipulate it, in order to convert to bed. It's larger and has fatter cushioning, but IMO, this is extremely annoying and makes it more difficult to get to sleep.
Thx. Based on the seat map, it's the longhaul variant (42 biz seats, with only the central two in row 18). We're in the middle bulkhead seats (row 11).
Wow, thank you for so promptly posting this Ben!
One big question. "Select Singapore Airlines partners, including Air Canada Aeroplan and Alaska Mileage Plan, sometimes have access to long haul premium cabin award space"
Would United or Turkish be among those, or are they restricted to short/medium haul premium cabin redemptions?
New York to Singapore for 115000 miles is phenomenal value. That's a fraction of what you would pay in Cash
One thing you fail to mention is if using Krisflyer points to book on United (say, for your Domestic Hawaii example) in J/F, they are almost impossible to find because United almost never releases any seats for partner booking.
Apparently Singapore’s expiration policy is 39 months after the month of your collection of the miles. And a regular KrisFlyer member can pay $12 or 1,200 miles to extend the expiration date by 6 months.
If I recall, though, that is only a single, one-time 6-month extension and after that they expire if not used.
$12 for every 10,000 miles, so $60 for 50,000
Curious if this restrictive expiration policy means a simple mileage transfer—say Chase UR to KrisFlyer—would not extend the expiration date of previously existing KrisFllyer miles?
That's correct, a transfer would have no effect. Every individual point has an expiration date of 36 months after it was created. What you do with other points has no effect on any individual other point. Obviously, the points nearest to expiration are used first when you redeem them.
How do mixed airline itineraries work? Can you fly AS to SFO and then SQ to SIN? My understanding is no. What about UA to SFO and then SQ to SIN? Would that require two separate tickets? Or would that force you into the star alliance chart or is it just not possible as a single award?
It's possible, but subject to all the legs having space available via the respective airlines. I've done JFK-FRA-FCO connecting on to Lufthansa a few times, but lately it's been extremely difficult to find any space on the Lufthansa leg.
Strange, when I contacted SQ support I wasn't able to do that. I wanted to book a DUB-FRA-JFK itinerary, both flights had saver space, but I was told the pricing was additive and I would have to pay an extra 15,000 to get the DUB-FRA tag flight on (although they said they could put it under a single reservation rather than as two separate tickets).
Ben