KrisFlyer Spree, SIA’s ‘online mall’ allowing you to earn KrisFlyer miles when making purchases at a variety of worldwide brands including Apple, Guardian and iHerb, is repeating its KrisFlyer 21st birthday offer this month with 50% bonus miles on purchases made at selected merchants between now and 8th October 2020.
This isn’t as good as the double miles (100% bonus) offer KrisFlyer Spree ran for its own 6th birthday in July and August 2020, however it might still work out as a nice deal if you’re planning an upcoming purchase from one of the participating merchants.
If you’re new to KrisFlyer Spree, it’s rather like a cashback site but instead of earning cashback you’ll earn KrisFlyer miles instead for your purchases. You must be a KrisFlyer member to use the site.
You shop and pay for your purchases at the merchant’s website as you normally would, while KrisFlyer Spree tracks your purchases automatically and calculates how many miles you’ve earned.
Pro Tip: Make sure you’re getting a competitive deal when using KrisFlyer Spree compared to a cashback site like Shopback. We value KrisFlyer miles at 1.9 cents each, so that’s a good place to start when calculating the benefit.The offer
There are 12 merchants in Singapore participating in this 50% bonus offer, plus a wide range of overseas sites like Nike Malaysia and Adidas Australia. You can find a full list at the dedicated promotion page.
Selecting a merchant will show you the current KrisFlyer earn rate for your purchases. These may be temporary rates for the specific merchant that may change during the promotion period, however you will get a 50% bonus on top of the quoted rate applicable at the time of purchase.
For example the earn rate at Nike Singapore is currently increased to 34 miles per US$10 instead of 19 miles per US$10 until 29th September 2020.
This has nothing to do with the current 50% bonus offer.
Under this 50% deal you’ll therefore get 51 miles per US$10 until 29th September 2020 (34 x 1.5), then 28 miles per US$10 (19 x 1.5) between 30th September 2020 and 8th October 2020 (the end of the 50% miles promotion).
Finally after the promotion is finished you’ll be back at the 19 miles per US$10, assuming the Nike.com Singapore store is not offering another higher general bonus earn rate at KrisFlyer Spree.
| In other words, the 50% bonus is not reflected – you’ll have to calculate it yourself and apply it to the currently available rate for the merchant of your choice. |
Some of the highest earning merchants in Singapore include:
- HP Singapore:
5785 miles / 10 US$ - Decathlon Singapore:
5379 / 10 US$ - Mytheresa Singapore:
4669 / 10 US$ - Under Armour Singapore:
4060 / 10 US$ - Nike Singapore:
3451 miles / 10 US$ - iHerb Singapore:
3045 miles / 10 US$ - Sephora Singapore:
2334 miles / 10 US$ - Microsoft Singapore:
1928 miles / 10 US$
At current exchange rates US$10 is equivalent to approximately S$13.78, so you’re looking at anywhere between 2 mpd and 6 mpd for these merchants alone, in addition to your regular credit card miles.
Simply make your purchase through the KrisFlyer Spree link with your chosen merchant between now and 8th October 2020 to be eligible for the improved earn rate.
Note that for most merchants, miles are not calculated on postage / handling / delivery costs or associated purchase taxes in the specific region (this may include but is not limited to VAT, GST etc).
Remember that transactions at non-participating merchants will not earn the 50% miles bonus.
Which card to use
You will be subject to the Merchant Category Code (MCC) of the particular store you buy from when shopping through KrisFlyer Spree, though these should all be coded as online transactions.
That means you can tap into some 4 mpd earn rates with a variety of credit cards, subject to their monthly requirements and spending caps.
Here’s an example of those that should give you upwards of 4 mpd for many online shopping transactions, in addition to the KrisFlyer miles you’ll be earning down the line from KrisFlyer Spree itself.
| Card | Mpd | Monthly cap |
 Citi Rewards |
4.0 | S$1,000 |
 DBS WWMC |
4.0 | S$2,000 |
 HSBC Revo |
4.0 |
S$1,000 |
 UOB PPV |
4.0 | S$1,110 |
Remember in some cases depending on the merchant you may also wish to use a card giving bonus rates for overseas spend, as some KrisFlyer Spree stores charge in foreign currency (e.g. iHerb UK).
When are the miles credited?
KrisFlyer Spree isn’t a quick way to earn miles, but then again neither are most cashback sites quick ways to top up your bank balance.
Your transaction will initially be marked as ‘Pending’ in your KrisSpree account within 5 working days of purchase, but it will take a further 90 days for KrisFlyer Spree to acknowledge and validate transactions.
Your purchase will then switch to ‘Approved’, then the miles will be credited to your KrisFlyer account after a further 7 working days.
Overall that’s about 3.5 months from purchase to receiving the miles, by which stage you may well be scratching your head as to what they were for!
See also: KrisFlyer Spree: How it Works
Summary
Some attractive earn rates with this 50% bonus miles promotion, equivalent to around 2 mpd in many cases and up to 6 mpd at the top end.
The two main things to be aware of when shopping using KrisFlyer Spree are that you might get a better deal through a cashback site (do the maths first), plus you’ll be waiting quite a while to see the miles in your account.
If it works for you though, this is one of the better promotions we’ve seen offered. Remember to use a credit card with a high earn rate for online spend where possible (or FCY spend if applicable), to maximise your miles earning, in some cases adding an effective 4 mpd to the KrisFlyer Spree rate itself.