Get a 9% discount on Atome+ points transfers to KrisFlyer miles

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Back in August 2022, KrisFlyer launched a new partnership with local ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ merchant Atome, supporting transfers from its Atome+ points across to KrisFlyer miles, which frankly really isn’t a very good value way to redeem them.

Nonetheless it still provides a useful way to accrue miles when you fall just short of a redemption threshold.

Atome and KrisFlyer have now announced a repeat of the bonus transfer promotion offered during the launch of the tie-up, reducing the number of Atome+ points required to make a transfer to KrisFlyer between now and the end of April 2023.

9% off Atome+ to KrisFlyer conversions

From 10th April 2023 to 30th April 2023, the number of Atome+ points needed in each block transfer to KrisFlyer miles has been reduced by 9%, as shown below.

Atome+ to KrisFlyer conversion (9% discount)
points	miles
110 100	50
440 400	200
880 800	400
2,200 2,000	1,000

This switches the transfer ratio from 2.2:1 to a simple 2:1 during this period.

Miles will be credited into your KrisFlyer account within five working days upon successful redemption via the Atome app (a big improvement on Atome’s initial promise of 14 working days when the partnership first launched).

In our recent experience the actual transfer time was only four calendar days, which is even better.

You must credit Atome+ points to your own individual KrisFlyer account, otherwise the transfer will be rejected, so do ensure your personal details in both rewards programmes match if you’re planning to proceed with this.

How to redeem

If you’re an Atome customer, simply go to the Atome app homepage and click on the Atome+ Points ‘Discover and redeem our latest awards’ link at the top of the screen.

You can then see the new KrisFlyer partnership advertised, or scroll down and filter for ‘Travel’ awards to see the redemption options.

Alternatively, just hit the ‘Travel’ redemption category and the options will be included there.

Once you’ve selected your preferred redemption amount, which as you can see includes the current promotional discount, you’ll need to link your KrisFlyer account in order to redeem (an improvement on the previous system, which required you to copy a transfer reference code to an online form, along with your KrisFlyer account details).

Once your account is linked, you simply need to swipe to redeem.

Is it good value?

Atome+ points can currently be redeemed at 1 cent each against future Atome purchases (e.g. 500 Atome+ points = S$5 rebate), so you’re effectively paying a cost per mile when transferring to KrisFlyer by losing out on this cashback opportunity.

Normally it means transfers to KrisFlyer miles will cost you 2.2 cents per mile (e.g. S$1.10 ÷ 50 for the smallest transfer), since you could otherwise have used your Atome+ points to achieve that cash equivalent saving.

Under this 9% discount promo, you’re effectively ‘buying’ KrisFlyer miles at exactly 2 cents each, assuming Atome’s standard cashback redemption option, which is still above our upper threshold to buy miles.

The only exception might be if you only need a small miles top-up to achieve a redemption, or you wish to simply cash your points out of the Atome+ scheme and no longer use the programme, with no interest in the other options like vouchers or an NTUC LinkPoints transfer.

What is Atome?

Atome is a ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ (BNPL) provider in Singapore, partnering with a wide range of online and offline retailers in the fashion, beauty, lifestyle, fitness and homeware segments, including ALDO, ZALORA, KrisShop and Agoda.

This allows you to pay via the Atome app with selected merchants during the checkout process, either in-store or online, then spread the cost interest-free across three payments:

• 1/3 of the payment at the point of sale
• 1/3 of the payment 30 days after purchase
• 1/3 of the payment 60 days after purchase

Atome pays the merchant, then your payment card will be automatically charged with the upfront payment and later the two subsequent payments, allowing you to spread the cost of a purchase over three months without paying interest.

This can be handy for large purchases, or when you’re using a credit card earning bonus points for Atome purchases (see below for the list), whose monthly 4 mpd spend caps exceed the total transaction cost by up to three times (i.e. you can still benefit this way).

You’ll earn 1 Atome+ point in the merchant’s loyalty scheme for every S$2 spent.

Which credit card to use for Atome purchases

Remember you’ll be transacting with Atome, not the store you purchase from, when making your three payments through the platform.

Atome falls under Merchant Category Code (MCC) 5399: Miscellaneous and Specialty Retail Shops.

That means you should earn bonus points (4 mpd) for the three equal interest-free payments themselves using the following credit cards:

Card	Mpd	Monthly cap
Citi Rewards	4.0	S$1,000 per statement month
DBS WWMC	4.0	S$2,000 per calendar month
HSBC Revo	4.0	S$1,000 per calendar month
KrisFlyer UOB	3.0	No cap (min S$800 annual SIA Group spend required)

Of course, the Atome transactions will need to fall within the monthly cap to benefit fully from bonus miles in these cases, but here the BNPL model can work quite well – allowing you to split the cost of more expensive items and still achieve 4 mpd (e.g. with S$3,000 / 3 months, all payments can fall within the S$1,000 per month bonus limit on the HSBC Revo card).

In some sense this conversion option of Atome+ points to KrisFlyer allows you to ‘double dip’ miles, though it’s still probably a better value proposition to redeem the Atome+ points themselves for other options, unless you’re really short of a small number of KrisFlyer miles.

Transferring Atome+ points to KrisFlyer miles doesn’t make sense given their cashback value in the Atome programme and the transfer ratio on offer, and this 9% discount for the rest of April doesn’t really change that.

Nonetheless it’s an option to be aware of if you’re looking for a small relatively quick top-up, or you want to cash out of the Atome+ programme completely for some reason, in which case now’s the time to do it.

(Cover Photo: Atome)