You can now earn up to 2 miles per $1 with KrisPay

Singapore Airlines released a new feature to its KrisPay app today, allowing you to not only redeem KrisFlyer miles for purchases at selected merchants but now to also earn miles for your spend at partner outlets.

When KrisPay first launched in July last year as a way to redeem your miles, we derided the woeful credit Singapore Airlines was giving you for each mile used.

Moving your KrisFlyer miles into KrisPay is a one-way street, and the value is abysmal at 0.67 cents each. See our article here analysing the poor value you were (and still are) getting if you use your miles this way.

What’s changed?

What KrisPay has now added is a different proposition, the ability to earn KrisFlyer miles using the app when paying for goods or services at some participating stores.

You can earn miles whether you pay in cash, by debit card or credit card. Of course you should be using a good miles-earning credit card for all your purchases already to accrue maximum miles from your day to day spend.

27 of KrisPay’s partners now allow you to earn using the app when making a regular purchase or transaction. A small icon on the merchant logo in the KrisPay app will show you whether that merchant allows earning using KrisPay.

How it works

Firstly you’ll have to download the latest version of the KrisPay mobile app. The existing version should prompt you to do so when opened.

At a participating merchant, simply tap the ‘Earn’ button and enter the total amount paid by cash or card.

Pressing ‘Next’ will generate a QR code, simply pass it to the cashier to scan and approve and the miles will be awarded instantly.

The big benefit of earning miles using KrisPay is that you don’t need to keep the miles in your KrisPay account, they can instead be transferred into your KrisFlyer account at a 1:1 ratio within 7 days of accrual.

This is exactly what you’ll want to be doing with them, as KrisFlyer miles are worth far more than KrisPay miles.

Note the following regarding the transfer to KrisFlyer miles, and be careful to follow the process correctly:

‘Can I transfer my earned KrisPay miles to my KrisFlyer account?’

Yes, you can. Earned KrisPay miles can be transferred to your KrisFlyer account within 7 days of earning the miles. To do so, simply tap on the “Transfer to KrisFlyer” button which will be present in the miles earned confirmation screen or transaction details screen.

KrisPay miles earned per transaction can only be transferred to your account in its entirety. If you earned 100 KrisPay miles from a single transaction, the full 100 KrisPay miles will be transferred to your KrisFlyer account. If you have already spent some of your KrisPay miles earned, a partial transfer is not supported.

Full terms and conditions are available at www.krispay.com.

What’s the earn rate?

This varies by merchant, and is either:

• 2 miles per S$1 spent (2 mpd)
• 3 miles per S$2 spent (1.5 mpd)
• 1 mile per S$1 spent (1 mpd)
• 1 mile per S$2 spent (0.5 mpd)
• 1 mile per S$10 spent (0.1 mpd)

Remember you’ll earn miles through KrisPay regardless of the payment method, simply key in the total amount and the merchant will scan the QR code from your phone and approve the miles credit.

Note that KrisPay miles are rounded down to the nearest whole number. For example, if the applicable earn rate is 1 mile per S$2 spent, a spend amount of S$5 will result in an earn of 2 KrisPay miles (2.5 miles rounded down to 2).

That means for example a $100 meal at PizzaExpress paid using your BOC Elite Miles card (earning 1.5 miles per S$1 spent), which would normally net you 150 miles, will now earn an additional 200 miles (2 miles per S$1 spent via KrisPay, still using your BOC card for the payment itself).

In total you’ll earn 350 miles, that’s an equivalent of 3.5 miles per S$1.

Which merchants are signed up?

As we mentioned above, 27 partners are signed up to miles earning using KrisPay. Here’s the full list including the miles earning rate applicable for each one.

Notable exclusions, which would have been nice to see:

• Esso
• M1
• TWG Tea

Which card should I use?

You are paying the merchant directly when using a credit card, KrisPay does not handle the transaction in any way.

You should therefore be using the card which earns you the highest rate for the spend category applicable to the merchant.

For example, a card which gives you a higher rate for dining should be used at Pizza Express, one offering a higher rate for shoes should be used at Onitsuka Tiger, etc…

If you’re unsure, just stick with the card giving you the highest accrual rate for general spend in Singapore.

The card issuer does not know you also accrued KrisPay miles for the transaction, and KrisPay does not know which card you used for the transaction. Simple.

Get the app

Now that there’s a good reason to have the KrisPay app on your phone, here are the links to download it.

Summary

Finally something good comes from KrisPay. As a means of spending your KrisFlyer miles it remains a very poor method (even when they doubled the value for a while, it was bad).

This is a welcome addition. Despite a limited partner range, which will hopefully improve over time, some of these merchants will be useful to many of our readers. It will earn me a few more miles a year at Cedele and PizzaExpress if nothing else!

Most merchants are awarding at 1 mile per S$1 spent, which is quite a nice bonus in our opinion. Ok the Challenger rate is awful, at 0.1 mpd, but the others are much more respectable and at the end of the day, any extra miles are better than no extra miles.

With instant KrisPay accrual, and then instant transfer to KrisFlyer miles once you hit the right button, this may now be the easiest way to top up your KrisFlyer account by a small amount, for example if you fall just short of a redemption.

Remember to use your miles-earning credit card for the best local earn rate (or merchant category earn rate) to ‘double dip’ when earning miles using KrisPay, and of course remember to transfer the miles into KrisFlyer within 7 days, where they are worth much more.

(Cover Image: Singapore Airlines)