Pelago, SIA’s own Klook-like “destination discovery platform”, has been around since late 2020 and offers a range of activities, experiences and attraction tickets both in Singapore and overseas in destinations like Bangkok, Sydney Phuket and London.
Activities and experiences available include include theme park admission, food and drink tours, wellness treatments and museum tickets, with over 10,000 packages currently available ranging from a few dollars to several thousand dollars, including over 580 here in Singapore itself.
The key draw is earning 3 mpd for Pelago bookings, though recently that was sadly capped at 5,000 miles per booking, but it does still apply on top of up to 4 mpd with the right payment card, for up to 7 mpd total earning.
Nonetheless, there’s also the option to redeem your miles via the platform too.
Redeeming with Pelago is usually poor value… but
As usual with these ‘cash out’ options for your KrisFlyer miles, “earn but don’t burn” has always been our advice – since Pelago only usually offers S$1 off your experience bookings per 150 KrisFlyer miles redeemed year-round (0.67 cents per mile value).
Pelago has now launched a new offer, with a 30% redemption discount, meaning only 105 KrisFlyer miles will get you S$1 off an experience booking (0.95 cents per mile value), between 16th April 2024 and 30th April 2024.
This is the best cash out value Pelago usually offers, with the same 30% deal also running last year, in August 2023.
Normally we wouldn’t be mentioning a relatively poor value way to redeem your hard-earned KrisFlyer miles like this one, but a recent issue is once again rearing its head for many members.
KrisFlyer miles started expiring again in July 2023, with monthly batches dropping out of affected accounts then and at the end of each subsequent month after that, including of course on 30th April 2024.
That means in the worst case some members will be waving goodbye to miles, or trying to cash them out at relatively poor value, in the very near future.
Assuming the best use of miles – a flight redemption with Singapore Airlines or a partner airline – isn’t one of your options, our recently-compiled list starts to look a little sad value-wise.
Redemption value for KrisFlyer miles
| Option | Min. Expiring Miles | Value per mile |
| Redeem an SIA or partner award flight | 8,500 | 1.90¢+ |
| Extend your miles for a fee | 1** | 1.74¢ |
| Transfer to Velocity points | 5,000 | 1.03¢ |
| Offset an SIA or Scoot cash fare | 1,050 | 0.95¢ |
| Redeem a Pelago experience | 1,050 | 0.95¢ |
| Redeem a vRooms hotel stay | 1,200 | 0.80¢* |
| Offset a KrisShop purchase | ~600 | 0.80¢ |
| Transfer to Velocity points then back to KrisFlyer | 7,750 | 0.79¢ |
| Transfer to Shangri-La points | 20,000 | 0.74¢ |
| Transfer to CapitaStar | 3,000 | 0.70¢ |
| Transfer to Kris+ | 1 | 0.67¢ |
| Transfer to LinkPoints then back to KrisFlyer | 3,390 | 0.60¢ |
| Transfer to LinkPoints | 3,000 | 0.59¢ |
| Transfer to Esso Smiles | 3,000 | 0.47¢ to 0.67¢ |
| Transfer to Marriott Bonvoy | 3,000 | 0.50¢ |
* Can be better value in some cases.
** Or the miles quantity you have expiring in a single calendar month, if greater
Where necessary in this table, a miles redemption value for a Singapore Airlines flight is assumed at 1.9 cents. You may have to adjust the value per mile for some of these options, if your own valuation is different.
However, as you can see a Pelago booking is currently one of the better “cash out” options between now and 30th April 2024, and with a wide range of experiences on offer both in Singapore and around the world there might just be a good activity to use any expiring miles on by booking before they expire, even for a future-dated event.
How it works
Unfortunately Pelago only allows full redemption for an activity or experience using KrisFlyer miles, unlike options such as KrisShop and vRooms which allow you to mix-and-match miles and cash, better optimising a redemption that uses up only your expiring miles.
With Pelago, you’ll therefore ideally want to be redeeming for an experience priced such that it uses up only expiring miles, or at least doesn’t stretch too far into your non-expiring balance.
For example, if you have 9,000 expiring KrisFlyer miles you could redeem this indoor skydiving experience in Singapore at iFly Sentosa.
As you can see the usual cost of S$89 is waived if you use 9,345 KrisFlyer miles instead (0.95 cents per mile). Only 345 of your non-expiring miles will be “wasted” with this redemption, which probably isn’t a dealbreaker.
Even if you’re logged on to your Pelago account, you’ll still be asked for your KrisFlyer account login details to complete the redemption.
You can redeem miles for a future-dated activity, provided you actually book before the miles expire. As always, KrisFlyer miles expiring first will automatically be redeemed first.
Things to note
Other points to note when redeeming miles with Pelago:
- KrisFlyer redemption on Pelago is subject to a minimum spend of 1,050 miles (which would offset a S$10 transaction under this deal). Activities cheaper than this don’t offer the KrisFlyer miles redemption option.
- Pelago bookings must be made under your name, or the name of one of your redemption nominees, to redeem miles.
- If you cancel your unused Pelago experience booking made by redeeming from KrisFlyer, your miles will be refunded back into your account within two weeks, but there is no cash refund alternative.
Do note that even though can cancel your Pelago experience booking and have the KrisFlyer miles redeemed refunded to your account within two weeks of cancellation, this does not circumvent the expiry issue.
In this case, the miles will be returned to your account with the same expiry date they had when redeemed. If any of them would have expired already when the refund is processed, those miles will not be refunded.
Full list of expiring miles alternatives
In case you missed it, we have a full guide on how you can get the best value from your expiring miles, from best to worst case, rather than letting them lapse.
Do take a read if any of your stash is affected this month or in the near future, since it’s best to plan as far ahead as you can.
Which credit card to use for Pelago bookings
If you prefer to use cash to make Pelago bookings and simply earn miles instead, which is always a better option, it’s good to know that the platform uses the following Merchant Category Code (MCC) when processing credit card payments:
MCC 4722: Travel Agencies and Tour Operators
Pelago bookings also classify as online transactions, giving you the following options to earn up to an additional 4 mpd through your credit card points for these transactions, for 7 mpd equivalent total year-round, provided you aren’t exceeding the 5,000 miles accrual cap on a per-booking basis from Pelago itself.
| Card | Earn Rate |
Notes |
 UOB Lady’sUOB Lady’s Solitaire |
4 mpd | Capped at S$1,000 per calendar month (Lady’s) or S$2,000 per month (Lady’s Solitaire), provided Travel is selected as one of your bonus earn categories. |
 DBS WWMC(see our review) |
4 mpd | For online spend, capped at S$1,500 per calendar month. |
Don’t use your Citi Rewards card for Pelago bookings, as MCC 4722 falls under the travel category, specifically excluded from earning the 4 mpd rate for online spend with that card.
It will therefore only earn 0.4 mpd, so it’s probably much better in that case to use your best general spend card, assuming you don’t have one of the above options, or have already hit your monthly bonus cap with these other cards.
The HSBC Revolution card also no longer awards bonus points for MCC 4722 transactions, since 1st January 2024.
Strangely, the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card, which earns 3 mpd for all “SIA Group” spend including at the KrisShop and more recently on Kris+, still does not award this higher rate for Pelago transactions, despite Pelago (under its official name Encounters Pte. Ltd.) being a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines.
It’s just the basic 1.2 mpd to look forward to in this case – so ideally pick another option from the table above, or failing that – a better general spend card!
Summary
Pelago has brought back a 30% discount for redeeming KrisFlyer miles on thousands of activities from now until 30th April 2024, so provided you book before then you’ll be able to cash out KrisFlyer miles at 0.95 cents each.
That’s not a great rate compared to most flight redemptions, of course, but it’s not as bad as many other options, like transferring to KrisPay miles in the Kris+ app, and actually matches the “cash back” rate for SIA and Scoot tickets without award space.
With miles expiry now in force again since July 2023 – don’t forget about this option, and remember there are many overseas activities on Pelago that could be of interest, like tours or museum tickets, if you have an upcoming overseas trip.
As always though, do try to lock in a flight redemption with your expiring miles if you can – it’s almost always the best value you’ll get.
(Cover Photo: Sentosa Development Corporation)