Kris+ 3X miles – earn up to 19 mpd at 150 merchants, whether you pay in-app or not

Kris+ has a fantastic new bonus miles earning promotion running between now and 11th July 2021 at over 150 merchants across the city, including dining, wellness and retail outlets, with 3X the usual KrisPay miles rate on offer when you use in-app payment via Apple Pay or Google Pay.

In reality though you can pay however you want, including the old-fashioned way by the merchant scanning a QR code from your phone, then making card or cash payment directly, and still enjoy triple miles earning at these stores.

Enhanced earn rates with the 3X multiplier start at 1.5 mpd (for former 0.5 mpd outlets) but go right up to 15 mpd – which is worth up to 19 mpd in total when you use the right bonus miles earning credit card to pay.

Better still, you’ll also earn 3 Elite miles or 1 PPS Value per dollar spent at these merchants during the promotional period as part of KrisFlyer’s offer to unlock status credits without flying, to either retain or upgrade your membership tier for a year.

Two earn methods

Kris+ now has two distinct payment methods when you earn miles for purchases with a participating merchant.

The idea of this promotion is to encourage customers to use the new online method (i.e. via Apple Pay or Google Pay), with the terms and conditions document stating that only this earning method will be eligible for triple miles under the promotion.

To enable earning of KrisPay miles for the purposes of this Promotion, each Participant must first set up and enable Apple Pay (on iOS devices) or Google Pay (on Android devices) with a Visa or MasterCard debit or credit card linked as the primary card and must make payment for the Eligible In-App Payment Transaction via such card on Apple Pay or Google Pay only through the Kris+ App.

Kris+ 3X promo Terms and Conditions

It doesn’t actually matter how you pay!

Here’s the interesting thing about this promotion. It doesn’t seem to be necessary to make an in-app payment, or even have Apple Pay / Google Pay set up on your device, to get the 3X enhanced miles rate at these merchants.

This afternoon I went down to my local Cedele to test this, using the “offline method” to pay for my lunch (S$10) directly by credit card.

The server scanned the QR code on my iPhone, which doesn’t even have Apple Pay activated, and I also got 3 mpd (usual rate 1 mpd).

I transferred the miles immediately into KrisFlyer and they have already credited in full, along with the Elite miles too.

So while the promotion is designed to encourage the new (simpler) in-app payment method, and the terms and conditions state it as a requirement, the app isn’t actually enforcing this.

Why wouldn’t you pay in-app?

Surely if Apple Pay and Google Pay are simpler methods to earn KrisPay miles when making purchases at Kris+ merchants (which they are), there’s no reason not to do so?

Well there are two credit cards awarding bonus miles for contactless payment, for example, which exclude in-app payments made via Apple Pay and Google Pay from their bonus category, and that means earning 0.4 mpd, not 4 mpd, for the transaction.

In these cases you clearly want to be using the “offline method” to accrue the 3X miles, then tap your mobile device directly with the merchant (in the case of the PPV card) or tap either your mobile device or your physical card (in the case of the VS card), for the 4 mpd element from UOB.

Participating merchants

While most Kris+ merchants are participating in this 3X miles promotion, a whopping 153 in total, there are some notable exclusions from the list.

Examples include Harvey Norman and Simmons, since these merchants are not currently Kris+ Payment enabled, meaning only the “offline payment” method is available (not that this affects the earn rate, they just aren’t included in the promo).

We’ve split the participating merchants into five categories, then listed them best to worst in terms of promotional earn rate during this period.

The Merchant Category Code (MCC) is also shown, where known, to help you decide which credit card will offer bonus miles rates for the transaction itself, on top of the KrisPay miles.

  Dining