What to do with your expiring miles?
If you have miles that are due to expire from 31 January 2023 onwards, don’t panic. There’s still time to redeem them for a trip, even if you don’t intend to travel during the year-end break. In a worst-case scenario, you can still get some value by spending them on the ground, although I wouldn’t exactly call that a best practice.
The first-best solution is to redeem your miles for a flight, where you can get up to 5 cents per mile of value, depending on cabin and route.
Remember: just because your miles are expiring on a particular date does not mean you need to travel by that particular date. Miles can be used to book an award flight up to 355 days in advance on Singapore Airlines or any of its Star Alliance/other airline partners.
For example, if I have miles expiring on 31 January 2023, I could, on 30 January 2023, book an award flight departing up to 20 January 2024 (+355 days). In other words, miles expiry refers to the date they need to be redeemed by, not necessarily the date you need to travel by.
The only caveat I would add is that award tickets are valid for one year from date of issuance, so in our example above, the maximum I could push this flight out would be 29 January 2024.
Also, if I subsequently decide to cancel this ticket, I may not get a refund of my miles if the expiry date has passed. That’s because miles have a “memory”, and cancelling an award does not give them fresh validity. If I cancel my ticket after 31 January 2023, I will not get any miles back!
If finding award space is difficult, you can always spend your miles like cash for Singapore Airlines or Scoot tickets at a rate of 0.95 cents per mile. This allows you to select any seat available for sale, with the caveat that your value per mile will be much lower than redeeming an award ticket.
For those who don’t want to fly, you can spend your KrisFlyer miles on KrisFlyer vRooms and KrisShop at 0.8 cents each.
KrisFlyer vRooms is a portal that allows members to use their miles to book rental cars and hotels, while KrisShop is the airline’s online shopping portal. The main thing to highlight is the need to compare shops and ensure the prices quoted to you are competitive - if they’re inflated compared to other channels, then your real value will be lower than 0.8 cents per mile.
KrisFlyer members can spend their miles on Kris+ at a rate of 150 miles= S$1 (0.67 cents per mile). Kris+ has more than 300 dining, lifestyle and wellness merchants across Singapore, including chains like Challenger, Harvey Norman, Bottles & Bottles, Cedele and The Paradise Group.
If you’re determined to go down this path, I’d highly advise waiting for one of Kris+’s frequent miles-back promotions, which refunds part of the miles you use to pay. With a 40% miles-back offer, for example, your value per mile will be boosted to 1.11 cents apiece, a much more palatable scenario.
There are other things you can do with your KrisFlyer miles too, like spending them on activities booking platform Pelago or converting them into Linkpoints and Esso Smiles. However, the value you’ll get is rather poor, and it’s my belief that the ultimate “basement” for your cash out should be Kris+.
Remember: if you accept too low a valuation for your miles, you might as well have earned cashback in the first place!
Read these next:
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Best ways of earning KF miles
For those looking to rake in the miles in 2023, which cards should you turn to? It all depends on what you’re spending on. Just as there’s no one tool for every household chore, there’s no such thing as a “best card”.
Here’s what I’d advise:
Contactless spending (every time you can tap to pay)
- UOB Preferred Platinum Visa: 4 mpd on the first S$1,110 per month, must use mobile payments
- UOB Visa Signature: 4 mpd on the first S$2,000 per statement month, with a min. spend of S$1,000 per statement month, can tap card or use mobile payments
Dining
- HSBC Revolution: 4 mpd on the first S$1,000 per month, either online or contactless
- UOB Lady’s Card: 4 mpd on the first S$1,000 per month, provided dining is chosen as your bonus category
- UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card: 4 mpd on the first S$3,000 per month, provided dining is chosen as your bonus category
Shopping
- HSBC Revolution: 4 mpd on the first S$1,000 per month, either online or contactless
- Citi Rewards Card: 4 mpd on the first S$1,000 per statement month, either online or offline
- OCBC Titanium Rewards: 4 mpd on the first S$13,335 per membership year, either offline or online
Petrol
- Maybank World Mastercard: 4 mpd, no caps or minimum spend
- UOB Lady’s Card: 4 mpd on the first S$1,000 per month, provided transport is chosen as your bonus category
- UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card: 4 mpd on the first S$3,000 per month, provided transport is chosen as your bonus category
Read our best petrol credit cards here.
General online transactions (e.g. Grab, Deliveroo, movie tickets)
- Citi Rewards Card: 4 mpd on the first S$1,000 per statement month spent online, except travel (e.g. airlines and hotels)
- DBS Woman’s World Card: 4 mpd on the first S$2,000 per month spent online
As always, be sure to read the individual card’s T&Cs to understand the definition of each category, and what Merchant Category Codes are included. Do also take note of the caps, which may either be based on the calendar month or statement month.
Conclusion
Singapore Airlines has signalled an end to its pandemic-era miles extension policy, which means that KrisFlyer miles will begin expiring again from 31 January 2023 onwards. This would be a good time to check your statement and see whether you have any miles affected, and if so, start to plan ways of using them.
To the extent possible, I would strongly advise you to use your miles for flights. This is simply the best way of getting value out of them, even if it does require some advance planning. Spending your miles on the ground will always be a second-best solution, and only to be considered if all else fails.
Read more:
- UOB PRVI Miles Credit Card Review: Entry-level Pick For Privy Travellers
- 7 Top Travel Mistakes Singaporeans Make (and How to Avoid Them)
- Cheapest Flights from Singapore to Popular Travel Destinations (Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Etc.)
- How To Prevent Travel Inflation From Ruining Your Trip
- Surviving “Summergeddon”: How To Protect Yourself From Overseas Travel Meltdowns
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