KrisFlyer miles are very popular, offering great-value reward seats on Singapore Airlines and some partner airlines, including Star Alliance carriers. It’s easy to boost your balance by transferring miles into your KrisFlyer account.
Aside from flying, the main way to earn KrisFlyer miles in Australia is through bank reward programs, such as American Express Membership Rewards and ANZ Rewards.
Transfer promotions to KrisFlyer happen once in a blue moon, so it’s definitely worth thinking about transferring your points over when a deal is on.
How to earn KrisFlyer Elite status without flying!
| Expiry: Have your points converted by 11:59 pm AWST, 28 February 2022 |
Until 28 February 2022, you’ll be able to earn extra Elite miles when you transfer bank points. Elite miles are like Status Credits – earn enough and you could unlock KrisFlyer Elite Silver or Gold status without actually flying!
You just need to transfer at least 10,000 KrisFlyer miles to start earning Elite miles. You’ll earn one Elite mile for every five KrisFlyer miles converted.
Here’s what it takes to unlock KrisFlyer Elite Silver or Gold status from scratch:
KrisFlyer Elite Silver: 25,000 Elite miles (transfer over 125,000 KrisFlyer miles)
KrisFlyer Elite Gold: 50,000 Elite miles (transfer over 250,000 KrisFlyer miles)
Better yet, this offer stacks with a bonus 12-month status extension! So if you transfer 500,000 American Express Membership Rewards points over to KrisFlyer, you could pocket 250,000 spendable miles and a free upgrade to KrisFlyer Elite Gold!
As a best-case scenario, if your new KrisFlyer Elite Gold membership end date is February 2023, you’ll then be eligible for a further 12-month extension to February 2024. (If it’s earlier, then you’ll get 12 months from that earlier date instead).
With KrisFlyer Elite Gold, you gain access to Singapore Airlines and Star Alliance lounges before eligible flights. You can also access Virgin Australia domestic lounges with one guest when flying Virgin Australia within Australia! Add to that priority airport processing including priority check-in, boarding and luggage.
Summing up
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer has many sweet spots for Australian travellers, such as the popular Perth-Singapore-South East Asia flights for just 36,500 KrisFlyer miles one-way in Business Class. From the eastern states, these flights become 62,000 miles one-way for Business Class.
Taxes and surcharges are generally low with Singapore Airlines redemptions, so you won’t need to fork out too much extra cash for your ticket. Finally, check out the best ways to use KrisFlyer miles so you can start planning your 2022 holiday sooner. Keep in mind that KrisFlyer miles usually expire after a few years.
How often do these promos occur with Singapore Airlines? Wish this was on now as about to transfer 650k amex points to krisflyer for some flight redemptions
Hi Matt, this was a one-off promotion during the height of the lockdowns. We don’t expect it to return soon.
Quick question – Does the 250k miles trf need to be in 1 chunk of 250k or can be in multiples.
Hi Umang, you needed to end up with 250,000 KF miles in your account to get Elite Gold. Sounds like you transferred 250,000 bank points, but didn’t end up with 250,000 KF miles. For example, you needed to transfer 500,000 American Express MR points in Australia to get the 250K KF miles. Unfortunately, the promotion is finished so there’s nothing more you can do apart from flying.
Hi Brandon just to clarify, I had transferred 270k KF points and not bank points.
Also if you could kindly advise what was the period the campaign ran from/to.
Thx
Hi Brandon, great informative article mate. Quick question i have transferred over 250k miles to KF from my credit cards since 1 Jan 2022, but my status is still sitting on Elite Silver. For Gold its showing need another 20k+ elite miles. I called SA call center about it and they said there is no such promo and they not heard about it, to achieve Gold by transferring miles and only way to get Gold is to fly and collect miles.
Am i missing somethin here as i read few others here have got Gold by transferring 250k miles.
Would appreciate your input. Cheers
I got the gold status by transferring points and it says until 28th Feb 2023. I am confused by the comments will it get extended or not?
Worst luck I wasn’t planing on traveling till after Feb so I was hoping the extra 1 year was going to happen.
Thx.
Hi,
I transferred a bunch of Marriott points into KrisFlyer two weeks ago, which amounted to over 25,000 Elite Miles. However, my KrisFlyer was not upgraded to Silver.
I emailed and phoned KrisFlyer, but only received a bunch of ‘call centre nonsense’ (they hadn’t heard of the promotion and then didn’t read my email concern correctly…)
What can I do to chase Sing for my Siver owed!??
I was actually intending to transfer more to reach gold, but now I’m wondering if the promotion can be trusted.
Definitely not the customer service experience expected of Singapore Airlines.
Brandon I joined Krisflyer, just transferred 500k Amex points and got 250k Krisflyer points and 50k elite miles but Silver status not Gold. Do you need “over” 250k to qualify or has something gone amiss?
Hi Rod, it appears you have met the requirements. If you still haven’t ticked over to Gold in the next few days, then you should contact KrisFlyer to see what’s going on.
Thanks Brandon – yes it has now changed to Gold a day later. The Elite miles is reset to zero – and it says 50,000 required by 23 Feb 2023. Will the ‘2024’ thing just happen automatically?
Hi Rod, great to hear! Yes, the extension should be applied automatically towards the end of your membership.
Hi Brandon, great article. I am KrisFlyer silver and require 3600 points to get gold by august 2022. I am flying with Thai on 27 Feb 2022 Syd – Phuket in business which will earn over 3600 credited to KrisFlyer. There may be an admin delay with the points from Thai until after Feb 2022, does this mean I will miss out on the 2 year extension to feb 2024 or will the points count because I’ve earned them by the end of Feb 22?
Hi Stuart, I’m not sure on this technicality. Best to wait and see what happens and follow up with KrisFlyer if it doesn’t work out.
Hi, I took advantage of this promotion and got promoted to Gold member.
Just wondering if I travel with my wife and my 2 y.o can they enjoy the benefit as well?
Thank you
Hi Ron, best to check with each airline for lounge access rules. In general, Star Alliance Gold members can bring in one guest. Each lounge may have its own policy on whether kids count as a guest or not. But I suspect in most cases, your 2 y.o. will be fine.
Thanks Brandon,
I’m currently holding Silver status. Do I only need to transfer 125,000 to get Gold status from Silver?
Thank you
Hi Ron, to earn Elite Gold you need to accumulate 50,000 elite miles within 12 months. If you already have 25,000 elite miles within the last 12 months, then yes, you only need another 25,000 to reach Gold. But if your Silver status was extended previously and you haven’t earned any elite miles yet, you’ll need the full 50,000 to reach Gold.
Then I just need to transfer 125,000 Krislfyer Miles from Amex to get Gold Status?
If you already have 25,000 valid elite miles in your balance, then yes, transferring 125,000 KF from Amex should do it.
Hi Brandon, your article is incorrect. If you transfer the points, to upgrade to KF Gold, you get a 12 month extension from your KF membership renewal month, not from Feb 22, as you have stated:
“And since your membership end date will be February 2023, you’ll then be eligible for a further 12-month extension to February 2024.”
My renewal month is May 22, so my new KF Gold status will be rolled/extended for 12 months from them and so only extends to end of May 23, not Feb 24 – which is only 15 months – nine months, or 2/3rds less than the 24 months your article seemed to suggest. 🙁
You might want to update your article, to make this clear.
Hi Angus, did you already have KrisFlyer Elite status before upgrading to Gold? The KrisFlyer webpage indicates that when you first achieve Gold status, your membership is valid until the end of the 12th month after getting it. Other media outlets are reporting the same outcome. Anyway, thanks for bringing this my attention and I will adjust the article to cover more scenarios.
Hi, does KrisFlyer silver or gold give you any increased availability of reward seats? (E.g similar to Qantas Gold?)
Hi Wil, we’re not aware of Singapore Airlines providing additional reward availability to KrisFlyer elite members.
Hi there can I transfer QFPoints. I’m done with QF anyway and am getting an ANZ rewards card instead which will accrue Kris points. QF have been completely hopeless during covid travel and SQ got me and many other punters back to Australia recently from HKG when QF couldn’t even be bothered communicating with me.
No, you can’t transfer between them.
QFF and KrisFlyer are two completely separate programs that don’t even have a partnership so you can’t transfer between the two or use miles from one on the others airline. As far as I know, there are no programs that you can transfer QFF miles to so you’re stuck with them.
Agree with you Paddy. After having our flights cancelled several times with no reason given, the rebooking page then not working, and no way to get though to the contact centre without many hours on hold – I decided it’s all too hard at this time and booked a cash flight with another airline. I have sympathy for businesses suffering from the pandemic, but how much of this comes down to Qantas management not using the last few years to prepare for this time?
Any idea whether I could transfer my Velocity point to KrisFlyer point and still qualify for this?
Looking for a confirmation on this as well please. Thanks
Hi Dks, please see my reply to Ivan.
Hi, we are also looking to transfer Velocity over, great to know if that would qualify for this offer
Thanks
Hi Ivan, perhaps you could in theory. However, Velocity to KrisFlyer transfers are still blocked with no indication on when it’ll come back.
Does this include cards in which Krisflyer points are automatically earned and “transferred” to your KF account? Like the American Express ® Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Credit Card?
Hi Andrew, see the Singapore Airlines webpage for further details. It appears you can earn 1 Elite mile for every 5 KrisFlyer miles earned with co-brand cards. https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/sg/plan-travel/promotions/global/kf/kf-promo/unlock-status-credits/
Great find here, thank you. I just transferred 172.000 miles and already see 34.400 elite miles, so my account says “To qualify you need 15.600 by 31 Jan 2023”. So far, so good.
So am I getting this right: If I’m going to earn 15.600 more elite miles by any possible way (already got an active booking on TAP which should take me about 10.000 elite miles closer), does this mean that I’m getting Krisflyer Gold membership which lasts from let’s say April 2022 (assuming I’ve got all needed elite miles by then) until the end of January 2024(!)? Or am I getting something wrong?
Once again thanks for your great ideas here!!
Hi Tobias, sounds like you’re on the right track! Yes, you can earn the remaining Elite miles through any other eligible way. In theory, if you get Elite Gold status with an expiry of Feb 2023, you should get an extension to Feb 2024 based on the recently released extension.
Alright, that indeed sounds like a great deal then. Once again thanks for your tips and keep up the good work, Brandon!
You need to qualify for gold by end of Feb 2022 in order for the extra year extension. If you qualify in April 2022, then you won’t get the extension, it will only go through to April 2023. So do whatever you need to do to qualify by end of Feb 2022.
I thought this office had been extended till early 2022.
Hi Brandon,
Thanks for the update/article. Hope you are going well/keeping well.
Can I please check if one transfers points into the KrisFlyer program, is there an ability to transfer back into the original program e.g. Velocity etc? ( subject to when this option is made available online that is)?
Regards,
Param
Hi Param, with the previous KrisFlyer-Velocity transfer arrangement, you couldn’t transfer your points back to the original program without losing some due to the exchange rate (previously 1.55 to 1 in either direction). So if you transferred 155,000 Velocity Points to 100,000 KrisFlyer miles and want to transfer back to Velocity again, you’d only end up with 64,516 points.
Does this definitely include AMEX? AMEX isn’t really a bank and on the AMEX they have a ‘bonus’ tag on Velocity transfers but no such tag on Krisflyer.
Can you reach the 250k and get gold by including the 15% bonus points in that 250k? Or is the 15% bonus points excluded?
Hi Ed, I can’t find anything about this on the T&Cs. If you’re able to, I’d still suggest transferring the whole amount to be safe. Otherwise, you might trigger Elite Silver but not Elite Gold.
Do you know if to receive the Elite Status via transfers if it has to be in a block? That is if you transfer 500,000 (2:1) but from two different cards.
Also, booked for Europe next year not sure of an issue. Was looking at the 7 day rolling average of cases a day or 2 ago and Australia was higher than Italy and a few others.
Sorry – realised the comment about Europe was from Nov. 2020.
I miscalculated and am now in limbo, wonder if you can advise of best option!!
I’m Velocity Plat but don’t think that counts anyhow with Singapore, this will expire by the time travel is up properly again.
I have to fly to UK next week, given caps I splashed out on first with singapore. Wanted to maximise this e.g. get 25% bonus from Krisflyer silver.
I transferred 54000 worth of Krisflyer from Westpac card. Last years Business class flights booked on Krisflyer points – that I had transferred from Velocity specially for this – so didn’t get any elite flyer miles for them. Just refunded those points thinking they would count towards Krisflyer silver but they don’t – and now means they are more likely to expire before I can use them! Wish I had waited until next March when the rebooked cancelled flight would have expired.
Have applied for ANZ Black and if this comes through could get their 180,000 points translating to 60,000 Krisflyer- this would be after outbound journey though. still not enough to get sufficient elite miles but should be when combined with outbound real miles.
Do you have any other suggestions?
thanks!
Does AMEX really take 15 days to transfer points to Krisflyer?
No, mine took 24 hours
Brandon, any sort of transfer bonus to SQ is enormous news. Krisflyer is simply the best program ever!
But I’m just wondering what’s your take on whether we are going to actually able to use KFF points (assuming they get the virus under control) to Europe anytime soon.
I’m just nervous about transferring them over and then being caught by the 3 year rule …
Unfortunately Europe and US are two continents where it’ll take longer to get the virus under control, if current trends continue. It also hinges on the effectiveness of a vaccine and whether people will take it or not.
I personally wouldn’t transfer over KrisFlyer miles solely for a Europe trip just yet, but if you could have a back-up plan to go to Asia when there are travel bubbles, it could be safer.
Who knows, maybe KrisFlyer will have another promotion in a year’s time!
Can we still transfer Velocity points to Krisflyer?
Hi Martin & Helga, unfortunately the ability to transfer Velocity Points to KrisFlyer is not yet back.