Transferring and Using Frequent Flyer Miles For Someone Else: KrisFlyer Miles, Asia Miles, & More

You may be wondering how flexible are the terms surrounding the air miles you earn. Can you use them for your family members and loved ones? Yes, you can, but there are limitations. Read this guide to find out how you can share your miles with others. 

Whether it’s a family vacation, a honeymoon treat, or flying a loved one back home, many people find themselves asking: can I use my miles for someone else? Accumulating credit card points or frequent flyer miles is rewarding, but what happens when you want to share the joy of premium travel with family members or friends?

If you are hoping to transfer KrisFlyer miles to someone else directly into their account, the short answer is that traditional direct account transfers are heavily restricted across almost all major frequent flyer programs. However, that does not mean sharing is impossible.

In this comprehensive guide, we explain exactly how you can use air miles for someone else, how the KrisFlyer redemption nominee system works, the guidelines for an Asia Miles transfer to family member, and how you can maximize your pooled credit card points before making the transfer to an airline program.

Table of contents

• 1. Can you transfer air miles to someone else?
• 2. Booking a flight for someone else using KrisFlyer miles
• 3. Booking a flight for someone else using Asia Miles
• 4. How to share credit card points before converting to miles
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Can you transfer air miles to someone else?

As a general rule, major airlines do not permit you to move points directly from your frequent flyer account to another person's individual frequent flyer account. If your spouse or friend is 10,000 miles short of a Business Class ticket, you cannot simply log in and select an option to "send" your miles to their membership number for free.

While some international airlines allow direct peer-to-peer mileage transfers, they almost always charge exorbitant processing fees that diminish the monetary value of the miles themselves.

The Singapore Airlines Exception: KrisFlyer for Families

However, Singapore Airlines offers a crucial exception tailored specifically for parents. Under the KrisFlyer for Families initiative, you can actually transfer miles from a child’s account directly to your own account.

• The Setup: A parent can link their personal KrisFlyer account to up to five children’s accounts (aged 2 to 16) via a Parental Link.
• The Benefit: You can transfer up to 50,000 KrisFlyer miles per calendar year from your child’s account to your own adult account.
• The Cost: This service incurs a processing fee of US$5 or 500 KrisFlyer miles for every block of 5,000 miles (or part thereof) transferred.
• The Condition: To prevent exploitation of the system, the child’s account must have recorded at least one mileage accrual from a commercial flight (on Singapore Airlines, Scoot, or a partner airline) within the last 36 months, and must have zero miles accrued from credit card conversions or co-brand card spending within that same period.

Aside from this specific family feature, you cannot reverse the flow (you cannot transfer miles from an adult to a child) or transfer miles to other adults. Instead, if you want to fly someone else using your hard-earned miles, you must use the airline's redemption nominee system.

2. Booking a flight for someone else using KrisFlyer miles

While you cannot perform a direct standard transfer, you absolutely can use your miles to book a ticket directly in someone else's name. They do not even need to be traveling with you. For Singapore Airlines, this is managed seamlessly through a KrisFlyer redemption nominee list.

You are permitted to nominate up to five individuals at any given time. These can be family members, relatives, friends, or coworkers—there is no requirement for a legal relationship.

Step-by-Step Guide to Adding a Nominee:

1. Log in to your Singapore Airlines account on the official website.
2. Click on your profile initials at the top right corner and navigate to Profile > Redemption Nominees.
3. Click on Add Nominee and enter their exact full name (matching their passport), date of birth, and contact information. You can optionally include their individual KrisFlyer number to streamline bookings.

Important Rules to Remember:

• The 72-Hour Security Lock: To combat unauthorized mileage brokering and fraud, Singapore Airlines enforces a strict security delay. For any new, additional, or replacement nominee added to your list, you can only book flight redemptions that depart more than 72 hours after the time of addition. Immediate emergency or same-day bookings are not available for newly added nominees.
• The 6-Month Lock-in: Once a nominee is added, you cannot remove or replace them for a mandatory lock-in period of six months.
• Partial Bookings: If an itinerary includes both redemption nominees and non-nominees, the Singapore Airlines system allows you to selectively use your miles to cover just the portion of the fare belonging to the verified redemption nominee.
• Expanded Utility (Scoot & Pelago): Beyond standard Singapore Airlines award charts, your miles can be used to offset cash ticket fares, taxes, and add-ons for your nominees on Scoot, or to book tours, experiences, and entry tickets on Pelago (SIA's travel experiences platform).

Service Fees for Changing a KrisFlyer Redemption Nominee

While adding a brand-new nominee into an empty slot on your list is completely free, deleting or replacing an existing nominee after the six-month lock-in period incurs a flat service fee per transaction (regardless of whether you swap one or multiple names at the same time). This fee is tiered according to your elite status and varies based on whether it is executed online or offline.

3. Booking a flight for someone else using Asia Miles

For those looking to secure an Asia Miles transfer to family member or friend via Cathay Pacific, a similar operational structure applies. Cathay Pacific utilizes a Redemption Group system instead of calling them nominees.

You are allowed to nominate up to five companions to your Redemption Group. You can use your personal pool of Asia Miles to redeem flight awards, upgrade awards, extra baggage allowances, and companion tickets for anyone registered in this group.

Rules and Fees for Asia Miles Redemption Groups:

• Nominee Changes: You are permitted to change or replace up to five nominees within your group per membership year entirely for free. If you exceed five changes within a single membership year, an additional modification fee of US$50 is charged for online updates, or US$75 for offline customer service channels. (Cathay Diamond elite members are granted six free changes per year before fees apply).
• Booking Fees for Nominees: It is critical to note that Cathay Pacific imposes a transaction service fee when you redeem an award ticket for a nominee. Booking an award flight for a group nominee costs US$90 when processed online and US$160 when managed through customer service hotlines or other offline channels.
• Minor to Guardian Transfers: Similar to KrisFlyer, Minor members (aged 2 to 17) who have an adult registered as their legal guardian can transfer their Asia Miles to the guardian’s account for free, provided the transfer is executed in blocks of 2,000 miles up to an aggregate cap of 120,000 miles per membership year. The minor’s account must have been active for at least one year with valid flight accrual history.

4. How to share credit card points before converting to miles

If you have not yet converted your bank credit card points into actual airline miles, you have an alternative way to optimize your pooling strategy. While you usually cannot transfer credit card points from your credit card account directly to someone else's credit card account, you can strategically bridge the gap during the commercial conversion phase.

The Supplementary Card Strategy

Many premium miles cards issued by banks in Singapore (such as Citi, DBS, UOB, or HSBC) permit a principal cardholder to link the bank's rewards portal to any frequent flyer account, provided the name matches.

Crucially, if you issue a supplementary card to your spouse or family member, the points earned via their supplementary card spending automatically pool directly into your principal cardholder rewards account. When you are ready to convert those accumulated bank points into miles, you can transfer them seamlessly out into your personal KrisFlyer account. From there, you can leverage the nominee framework to buy tickets for the whole family.

Conversion Fees and Regulations

When converting bank rewards points into airline miles in Singapore, banks typically charge a flat administrative processing fee ranging between S$25.00 to S$27.00 (plus prevailing GST) per individual transfer transaction.

Because this fee is flat regardless of the volume transferred, it is financially optimal to wait until you have accumulated a substantial lump sum of points before initiating a single conversion request into your frequent flyer account.

Summary Checklist for Travelers

When planning to manage airline points for your travel companions, keep this evergreen blueprint in mind:

1. Never buy miles transfer services blindly: Direct adult-to-adult airline mileage transfers are either barred or financially disadvantageous due to steep administrative markups.
2. Pre-populate your nominee lists early: Because of strict rules like Singapore Airlines’ 72-hour security lock and Cathay Pacific’s structural caps, save your loved ones' data into your profile months before peak holiday periods to avoid booking delays.
3. Keep passports aligned: Ensure that the legal names registered in your KrisFlyer redemption nominee list match their biometric passport data character-for-character to avoid voided tickets or complex identity validation over call centers.
4. Pool at the banking level: Focus on consolidating family expenditures onto a single principal credit card utilizing supplementary accounts so that rewards points are already unified before paying conversion fees.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

#1: Can I transfer flight tickets to someone else?

Most airlines do not allow flight tickets booked under person A to be transferred to person B, mainly for reasons of security. 

However, you can purchase a flight ticket for someone else using your air miles by nominating them as a redemption nominee. 

You can also pay for a flight ticket for another person, whether using a credit card online or via a travel operator. If you are not travelling on the flight, be aware that airlines may ask for the credit card used to book the ticket to be presented at check-in. If you cannot present yourself at the airport, you should check with your airline what you should do.

#2: Can I use my KrisFlyer number for someone else?

No, you may not transfer your KrisFlyer account to another person.

To use your KrisFlyer miles to purchase a ticket for someone else, you must add them as a redemption nominee first. After that, you may use your miles to pay for their flight tickets or seat upgrades or redeem flights on their behalf. 

You can add up to five redemption nominees to your KrisFlyer account and may do so at no charge. However, you cannot change nominees for at least six months, and removing a nominee may incur a fee, depending on your membership level. 

#3: Are there any fees or charges involved when transferring miles?

Since you may not transfer your miles, there are no fees or charges. 

You may have to pay a fee when converting your credit card points to air miles – this will depend on your card issuer and the credit card you are using.