As Australia’s second-largest international carrier (after Emirates), Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer frequent flyer program is one of the more useful frequent flyer programs for travellers from our region.
In my mind, the relative value of KrisFlyer miles has increased given the upcoming introduction of a Carrier Charge by Velocity and the continuing imposition of high taxes and surcharges by Qantas.
However, the program is not without its downsides, so this guide aims to explore both the good and bad of KrisFlyer.
Excellent premium cabins
Singapore Airlines generally relases good availability to its own members in its excellent premium cabins.
Singapore Airlines A350/777-300ER Business Class
Whilst Velocity members can technically book these flights, fewer awards seats are made available to them.
The airline also has one of the most luxurious products flying in the sky on the Airbus A380 in Suites Class, which is available from Sydney to Singapore and onwards to a growing number of destinations.
Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class
Wide network in Australia
Singapore Airlines service all major airports in Australia, including the big ones of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra, as well as Cairns and Darwin via its regional subsidiary SilkAir.
They have some of their best products flying to and from Australia, including the updated regional Business Class seat on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for those in Perth.
Easy to earn
KrisFlyer miles are relatively easy to accrue in Australia, enjoying partnerships with most of the major Australian banks including:
- American Express Membership Rewards
- Amplify Rewards
- ANZ Rewards
- Citi Rewards
- NAB Rewards
- Westpac Altitude Rewards
Don’t forget that ability to transfer points from Velocity to KrisFlyer makes any Velocity-linked credit card a KrisFlyer-earning card too.
You can boost your balance by crediting your Virgin Australia and Star Alliance flights to KrisFlyer and doing your online shopping through the KrisFlyer Spree portal.
No fuel surcharges on Singapore Airlines flights
KrisFlyer no longer applies fuel surcharges to Singapore Airlines redemptions. To put that into perspective, before that change, I had to fork out US$260 in taxes for my one-way Business Class flight from San Francisco to Singapore—now that is down to US$5.60.
The same goes for flights on its subsidiary, SilkAir—no fuel surcharges. However, they are added to redemptions on Star Alliance partner airlines.
Ability to transfer to/from Velocity
Singapore Airlines releases more saver award space to its own members, so sometimes it is worthwhile to transfer your Velocity points to KrisFlyer.
Whether you use Velocity Points or KrisFlyer miles will depend on the specific Singapore Airlines redemption you have in mind.
There are very few cases where it would make sense to transfer the other way round, i.e. from KrisFlyer to Velocity, but if you find a good-value redemption opportunity, that certainly is a possibility.
Just note that the transfer rate between the programs has been devalued from 1 January 2019, reducing the attractiveness of this feature.
Free or cheap stopovers
One of the best ways to maximise an award redemption on KrisFlyer is to add stopovers—usually in Singapore but also available at some of Singapore Airlines’ appealing mid-point cities including Frankfurt, Manchester, Moscow, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
For example, a one-way Saver award from Sydney to Frankfurt via Singapore costs 116,000/163,000 KrisFlyer miles in Business/First Class.
If you redeemed Sydney to New York via Singapore and Frankfurt, it would cost you 129,000 miles in Business and 167,000 miles in First, which is only 13,000 and a meagre 4,000 miles more, respectively.
You have two great stopover opportunities here:
- If you redeem a one-way Saver award, you can buy a stopover for US$100. So you could fly to New York with a longer stopover of your choosing in Frankfurt, and use Frankfurt as your European launch pad for an extra 13,000 miles in Business! The difference is even less with a First Class round-trip award – only 4,000 miles! Not that I would pay it but a one-way First Class retail fare between Frankfurt and New York costs ~$6,000!
- Or, if you wanted to hit up even more cities, you could double that one-way Saver price to make it a roundtrip Saver award, which also allows you to do an open-jaw within the same region (US East Coast) and gives you one free stopover (with additional ones available for purchase at US$100 each). Singapore Airlines flies to New York and Houston (not really ‘East Coast’ but whatever), so you could fly from Sydney to New York via Singapore and Frankfurt, and then back from Houston to Sydney via Manchester and Singapore. That means you can visit Singapore (purchase stopover), Frankfurt (free stopover), New York, Houston and Manchester (purchase stopover) for 258,000/334,000 miles in Business/First Class + US$200 for the two additional stopovers, which is a pretty great deal in my opinion!
You can read more in our guides to including stopovers on Singapore Airlines-only and combination Singapore Airlines-Star Alliance flights.
Flexible change and cancellation policy
Singapore has one of the more generous policies when it comes to changing your travel plans.
It is only US$25 to change the date, route or cabin on a Singapore Airlines flight and US$75 if you need to cancel your award booking and want the miles re-credited to your KrisFlyer account. Compare that to Qantas’ 6,000-point cancellation fee.
Simple to book
KrisFlyer’s online booking system is quite easy-to-use compared to other frequent flyer programs (but it is not so comprehensive). Before you had to phone up to book an award on a partner airline but now you can do it online for the most part.
Two other benefits of the booking system are that there are no ‘close-in award booking fees’ for booking 21 days or less from departure, like with American and United, and you can waitlist awards, meaning you put your name down in case award space opens up in the future (which it often can) but you do need to have required amount miles already in your account to do so.
Part of the largest alliance in the world
Singapore Airlines is one of Star Alliance’s 27 members (compared to SkyTeam’s 20 and oneworld’s 13).
This means you have more diverse redemption opportunities on airlines like Lufthansa, SWISS, ANA, United and Turkish Airlines.
Last-minute travel discounts
Around the 17-19th of each month, KrisFlyer will usually run a 30% discount on selected routes that have seats open for travel during the following month and Australian airports tend to be included each month.
This promotion represents great value for those with flexibility with dates and KrisFlyer miles (or Velocity Points) to burn.
Downsides
It is definitely not all rosy as KrisFlyer is not without its downsides:
- Limited space: they do not release much space to partners, such as Velocity and United, instead reserving more availability for their own members
- Limited expiry: miles expire 36 months after accrual regardless of other activity, which is different to a lot of other airlines where you just need to earn more miles to extend the validity of all of them. If you want to extend their validity by six months, you’ll be up for a US$12 or 1,200-mile charge per 10,000 miles, (which is actually not a high charge in my opinion)
- Expensive award type: like most programs, KrisFlyer has two tiers of awards—Saver (cheaper) and Advantage (more expensive). If you want to try one of the newer cabins, chances are you will have to fork out more miles for an Advantage Award
- Frustrating call centre staff: KrisFlyer used to have a reputation for quite knowledgeable and helpful phone agents but recent reports from frequent flyers are to the contrary
Summing up
KrisFlyer is a program that is definitely engaged in the Australian market, with connections to most major Australian credit card issuers, which makes their miles easy to earn. Their unique partnership with Velocity means KrisFlyer miles can be indirectly accrued in many more ways too.
Singapore Airlines fly a number of high-quality products to many Australian airports and the lack of fuel surcharges increases the value proposition of redemptions on the airline.
Their flexible change and cancellation policy is one of the more generous that is around and the free/cheap stopover options mean you can do combination trips on the cheap.
Of course, do be aware that no frequent flyer program is perfect and KrisFlyer is no exception, with work to be done in improving their online interface and customer service on the phone, increasing Saver level award availability and loosening the restrictions around miles expiry.
What is your take on the KrisFlyer program? Do you get any use out of it for your travel needs?
Supplementary images courtesy Singapore Airlines.
Hi there,
Anyone know is there any special benefit of redeeming krisflyer point as a silver/gold status krisflyer?
My wife has gold status but 0 points whereas my krisflyer status is standard, but I got more points. I’m trying to transfer my velocity points to krisflyer, but just wondering if I will be better off transfering to my wife, or it doesnt really matter.
Thank you
Thanks for the reply Matt,
I have read it a few times now, and for the example they used, of Aus to Europe with a compulsory stopover, they did count it as a stop over, but they assumed you wanted to go to singapore or you could make a few days out of it
I believe that you cant add a free stopover for this route as both ways singapore is considered a stop over unless I am mistaken
for AUS to USA, it did suggest a stop over at frankfurt, which I assume there is no forced stop over in singapore for that route
unless I have got it all wrong
thanks
I cant seem to get a straight answer even out of the call centre
If I book from melb to london or any other european country, there is a automatic stopover in singapore. Doesnt this count as a stopover??
Also if you add in a stopover dont you pay 2x shorter trips in terms of points?
So how would you go abouts doing mel to greece to london?
What about something more extreme like mel to LA to london?
Thanks always
You may want to have a read of our comprehensive guide to stopovers with KrisFlyer—that will answer a lot of your questions.
Hi, given that KrisFlyer miles expire after 36 months couldn’t you just transfer them to your active Velocity account. Then transfer them back when necessary? or isn’t that possible
Question,
I am Velocity Platinum member and wondering If I would be better joining/transferring to Krisflyer?
I make a few domestic trips a year, my wife and I family pool, and We travel to Europe and probably asia once a year each also. We fly economy but enjoy the lounge option that Velocity allows us. We just had a child however and fear we will start getting knocked back at the lounge now we are 3?
Is it hard to get and maintain lounge access via Krisflyer? We manage to hold platinum annually on velocity thanks mainly to our international trips.
Regards Jack
If you’ve got Platinum with Velocity, then it sounds that your current strategy is working quite well. Perhaps you could consider status matching to a Star Alliance member’s program to access lounge benefits when flying Singapore Airlines.
How does nominee option work???
Hi Matt
I am new to krisflyer. I am going to book two return tickets from Sydney to Indian subcontinent. Other passenger is not a krisflyer member. Will I earn miles worth only my booking or both bookings if I am making bookings under my account?
How do I earn miles worth for two booking in my krisflyer?
Thanks
Hi Rushi, you’ll just earn the miles on your booking and your travelling partner can earn in their account.
Where is the best platform to search for available reward flights?
Hi Matt,
I believe one origin or destination open-jaw is permitted for a round-trip award. So the above example flying to New York and flying out of Huston can actually be booked as a round trip ticket, which would also allow one free stop over.
Yes, you’re right, Ted! So that would reduce the cost of the itinerary I mention above by $100 USD as one of the stopovers would be free. Have updated the guide to reflect so. Thank you for letting me know!
I’m a bit puzzled at the moment.
If I was wanting to redeem VFF points for say 2x 1st class CDG/SYD on SIA do I look at Krisflyer or can I do it via VFF call centre?
Or am I mixing up a J redemption for SIA?
Hi Andrew, answered your question in reply to your other comment on this article.
Matt got my answer about list of eligible stopovers from here:
https://www.pointhacks.com.au/maximising-krisflyer-redemptions-using-free-additional-stopovers/
Thanks Matt for your response.
I think I understand what you are suggesting I do. What im trying to understand is whats the best way if I wanted to visit both London and Frankfurt. I do not want to stopover Singapore, and just be on transit. Correct me if im wrong, as there is no SQ flight between Frankfurt and London so only logical solution is:
{SQ} Perth –> Sing* –> London with KFF
{Any airline} get a flight London to Frankfurt with $$$
{SQ} Frankfurt –> Sing* –> Perth with KFF
*if I decide to stop over, will cost $100USD.
Is there a list of eligible stopovers between Perth and London out there on the interweb? Thanks for the help Matt.
You got it! That sounds like the logical solution. No other stopovers between Perth and London on Singapore Airlines other than Singapore allowed.
Cheers Matt. one option that I could exercise however is Perth > Sing > Frankfurt > Manchester. There is a flight from Frankfurt to Manchester. 🙂
Thanks again for your help, your guide is very helpful.
Naz
Is that flight on Lufthansa? I can’t seem to find FRA-MAN on Singapore. If you mix carriers other than Singapore and SilkAir, KrisFlyer will charge you more on the Star Alliance award chart.
Does KrisFlyer make more award seats available to higher-tiered frequent flyers? For example, there is anecdotal evidence Velocity FF can request (not guaranteed, of course) award seats but I’m curious whether you have any knowledge of KF doing something similar.
The reason I ask is because as a Velocity FF, I’m debating whether I should switch to KF. My preference for redeeming points is long-haul international flights and given VA only has 2 destinations (Abu Dhabi and LA), the value proposition of Velocity is limited.
In response to your first question, I am not quite sure if KF releases more award space to higher-tiered frequent flyers. Would be interested to hear from anyone else that has knowledge of this.
As for choosing between Velocity and KF, remember that you can transfer your Velocity points to KF, so the ‘choice’ to make is not so stark. Also, Velocity usually charges less fuel surcharges than KF does, but that’s not always the rule.
A piece of advice, however, is that if you are booking a revenue ticket in the near or distant future, check out wheretocredit.com so you can see if you will earn more points with Velocity or KF.
No, But if you are higher tier members, they can help you to put through your waitlist seats.
Question about the Free or cheap stop over:
1.) Is the Free stop over, inclusive of both ways e.g. Perth (via Singapore) to Frankfurt (stopover) then to real destination London. And on the way back London > Frankfurt > Perth (via Singapore). is the stopover in Frankfurt counted 1x or 2x? Im assuming its 1x, hence why the article made mention will only cost an extra 12500? i understand 12500 is the extra for 1 leg.
What im basically asking is will it cost me:
107500 * 2 for a stop over.; Or
107500 + 95000
2.) Correct me if im wrong, you are unable to do multi city for Flight redemption? I looked and couldnt find the button. Im assuming people search for the flight via normal booking, taking notes of the saver ‘legs’ then calling up SQ helpline to actually book it?
Hi Naz, if I understand your first question correctly, there aren’t actually any Singapore Airlines flights between Frankfurt and London, only Frankfurt and New York, which is why I gave that example.
If you hypothetically wanted to, you could do Perth-Singapore-London-Singapore-Perth on a roundtrip saver ticket, meaning you could have a free stopover in Singapore.
Or you could do two one-ways, with Perth-Singapore-London, and then returning Frankfurt-Singapore-Perth, but as it isn’t a roundtrip ticket, but rather two one-ways, you would have to pay $100 USD for any stopover in Singapore.
In response to your second question, you are completely correct. You are best off searching the separate legs/segments of the flight, and then giving Singapore Airlines a call. Because you cannot book stopovers/multi-city redemptions online, they should honour the 15% online booking discount over the phone.
An earn points via online shopping
You forgot Citibank as a credit card partner
One of the Key things in favour of Krisflyer is the ability to redeem upto 3 (and sometimes 4) business saver awards. This is almost unheard of with other FF programs. If you have a family of 3, you can all fly in J saver OR family of 4 can travel with 3 J saver and 1 J standard on the same flight. This is a great convenience for families with kids.
Great point Rahul!