Buy up to 250,000 KrisFlyer miles for 1.47 cents each with Amex cards

One thing most of our readers certainly aren’t short of at the moment is KrisFlyer miles. With international travel having been off the table for close to a year there have been some significant balances accruing, while we’ve all been continuing to earn through our credit card spend plus receive refunded miles for trips that sadly became impossible in 2020.

If you are still feeling in need of miles, however, American Express has an offer for its Platinum Charge Card and SIA KrisFlyer co-brand card members, allowing you to buy anywhere from 50,000 to 250,000 miles for a fairly competitive 1.47 – 1.48 cents each.

It’s targeted

Before you get too excited about the offer, do be aware that your account will have to be targeted in order for you to participate.

Eligible cardholders will receive an invitation directly from American Express via email and/or other official channels, to participate in this promotion.

The offer

In all cases you’ll have to spend a minimum of S$500 on your credit card between 1st February and 31st March 2021, which isn’t a huge ask over the next couple of months, assuming you wish to participate.

This will then allow you to buy a specific block of miles for payment of a one-time administrative fee, as shown in the following table.

Bonus KrisFlyer Miles Offer

Card	Fee	Bonus Miles	Cost per Mile (cents)
Amex Platinum Card + SIA PPS Cards	S$738	50,000	1.48
	S$1,622	110,000	1.47
	S$3,687	250,000
SIA KF cards	S$738	50,000	1.48
	S$1,622	110,000	1.47

As you can see the cost per mile is effectively the same for all miles purchase options, varying due to rounding between 1.47 and 1.48 cents per mile.

No miles are awarded for the paying the fee element itself.

Enrolment

If your account is eligible (targeted), you will first have to successfully enrol for the offer. The enrolment process depends on which credit card you hold.

Card	Enrolment process
Amex Platinum Card	Call The Platinum Concierge, Travel Option, at 1800 392 1177 (Option 1)
SIA co-brand cards	Email amexkf_enrolment@aexp.com, with the following details: Full name (as in Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Membership Account) Mobile number (Singapore-based) Your KrisFlyer membership number Interest of participation

In all cases you will have to specify which of the bonus miles offers applicable to your card you wish to participate in.

Once you have successfully enrolled for the promotion, you authorise American Express to charge the one-time fee to your card for your chosen bonus miles level. This cannot be reversed so you must make sure to then spend S$500 or more on your card by 31st March 2021 in order to receive the bonus miles.

Steps to earn the bonus miles

• Spend S$500 or more from 1st February – 31st March 2021
• Pay a one-time fee by 15th June 2021 (charge date 16th April 2021)
• Receive bonus KrisFlyer miles by 31st July 2021

Terms and conditions

Full terms and conditions for this promotion are as follows (expand to view).

 

The expiry clock starts ticking

One major concern for many of our readers, especially during these uncertain times for travel, will be the potential expiry of miles. Once these miles are automatically credited to your KrisFlyer account, they will expire three years later.

KrisFlyer Miles Expiry A member’s KrisFlyer miles will expire after three years at the end of the equivalent month in which they were earned. For example, miles credited to a member’s KrisFlyer account in March 2021 will expire on 31st March 2024.

Since the bonus miles from this offer will be credited into your KrisFlyer account by 31st July 2021, they will expire on 31st July 2024 at the latest.

If travel remains impossible or very limited for another year, let’s say, you’ll then only have two years of validity left for these miles.

Note that PPS Club members don’t need to worry about KrisFlyer miles expiry, since their miles never expire as long as they retain PPS Club status.

How does it compare?

The true comparison for an offer like this, where you can generate miles ‘no questions asked’ for an administrative fee, is the card payment facilities offered by a couple of other banks.

Method	Cost per Mile
Amex Bonus Miles offer	1.47 – 1.48
OCBC Voyage Payment Facility	1.90 – 1.95
UOB PRVI Pay	2.00

As you can see this Amex offer does compare favourably, though the bank payment facilities are more flexible allowing you to generate a specific miles amount rather than picking from one of two or three options, like you’ll have to do under this offer.

In addition, most of our readers will also be aware there are regular opportunities to buy miles at discounted rates through card payment companies like CardUp, ipaymy and Citi PayAll throughout the year, often at less than Amex is offering here, though in these cases you’ll need to produce a genuine bill or invoice.

On that note, income tax season will be with us again in the next few months, likely with new offers from the banks and card payment companies. Last year we saw some very competitive options for this large expense, with the ability to buy miles from just 1.07 cents each.

Fast track to KrisFlyer Elite Gold with the Amex Ascend card

This promotion is running alongside a fast track to KrisFlyer Elite Gold status offer for new and existing American Express SIA KrisFlyer Ascend cardholders, which launched last week and requires S$5,000 spending by 28th February 2021.

Summary

We won’t be jumping in with this offer, mostly because our KrisFlyer balances have become ridiculously high during the pandemic, so we simply don’t need extra miles right now.

That will also be the case for many of you, but if your balance is lower than you’d like for whatever reason, 1.47 cents per mile is a competitive rate to buy a good ‘chunk’ of miles in one shot, with no invoices to produce or significant spending to commit to.

If you are interested in participating but don’t find yourself targeted for the offer, contact American Express and check whether your account can be included.

(Cover Image: Zach Honig / The Points Guy)