One of the downsides of the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer programme is that miles expire three years after they are earned, regardless of account activity. That’s in contrast to many other frequent flyer schemes, which adopt an activity-based policy, allowing your miles to live on indefinitely, so long as you remain an active member.
As a result, we regularly hear from KrisFlyer members whose miles are approaching expiry, asking what they can do to either prevent the loss entirely, or at least extract some value before their hard-earned balance disappears.
While there was a reprieve for members during the COVID-19 pandemic, with automatic extensions granted between April 2020 and June 2023, that grace period is now firmly behind us, and mileage expiry has once again been in full effect since July 2023.
Even if your miles aren’t expiring just yet, it’s worth planning ahead. Knowing your options early and having a clear strategy in place can save you from scrambling to redeem at the last minute – or worse, watching your balance disappear.
(Photo: MainlyMiles)
In a nutshell there are three principal options:
- If you can still use your miles for a flight, do that – it’s the best value.
- If you can’t, consider extending them for a small fee or cashing them out at ~1 cent per mile.
- If all else fails, you can ‘recycle’ some value via partner transfers – but at a steep haircut.
Which option is best for you will depend on your upcoming travel plans, the number of miles you have expiring and the number of miles you have in total.
How KrisFlyer miles expiry works
First a quick rundown on how your KrisFlyer miles may end up expiring. In common with many airlines (but to be fair not in common with many others!), Singapore Airlines applies a fixed validity period on your KrisFlyer miles.
No matter how you earn your KrisFlyer miles (from revenue flights to credit card spend, from Kris+ earning to Quandoo restaurant bookings) they will expire on the last day of the month 36 months following the month in which they were first credited to your account.
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 July 2025 will expire on 31st July 2028.Expiry happens at 23:59 Singapore Time on the last day of the calendar month of validity. For our international readers, here’s the current local time and date in Singapore for reference.
🇸🇬 Singapore Date and Time
The ‘oldest’ miles in your account are used up first when you make any kind of redemption. For most of us that means there’s no need to worry about miles expiry. We churn through what we earn more frequently than once every three years.
Your KrisFlyer account page on the SIA website or mobile app will show you how many miles you have expiring in the next six months (listed by month).
Your KrisFlyer account statement, which should arrive by email each month, also shows these details:
If you thought you could circumvent the miles expiry issue by making a flight redemption several months into the future with miles that are just about to expire, then later cancel the ticket and redeposit the miles, that won’t work unfortunately.
Every KrisFlyer mile in your account has a ‘memory’ – it knows exactly when it was earned, including miles redeemed for a flight you haven’t travelled on yet.
For example, if 10,000 of your KrisFlyer miles are expiring on 31st July, then in June you redeem a total of 52,000 KrisFlyer miles for a Saver Business Class award from Singapore to Tokyo, for a flight departing in September:
- If you cancel the award flight on 25th July, 52,000 KrisFlyer miles will be refunded to your account, but 10,000 of them will still expire on 31st July, just six days later.
- If you cancel the award flight on 15th August, only 42,000 KrisFlyer miles will be refunded to your account. The 10,000 that expired on 31st July are history.
PPS Club
There’s one bit of good news – if you’re a PPS Club or Solitaire PPS Club member, you can stop reading this article.
Your KrisFlyer miles never expire.
Any KrisFlyer miles in your account stop having a ‘memory’ expiration countdown once you become a PPS Club member (sadly this does not extend to Solitaire PPS Club supplementary cardholders, unless they already hold their own PPS Club status).
If you fail to re-qualify for PPS Club in future, all the KrisFlyer miles in your account are reset with a full three-year validity period from the month you drop back into a KrisFlyer tier.
For example, if you drop from PPS Club to being a KrisFlyer Elite Gold member on 1st December 2025, all the KrisFlyer miles in your account at that time will now expire at 23:59 hours Singapore time on 31st December 2028.
Check out our full guide to all PPS Club and Solitaire PPS Club benefits, if you’re interested in the other perks of these exclusive status tiers.
Expiring miles: Your options
Before we get into the details, here’s a summary of the options for your expiring KrisFlyer miles from best to worst value by our reckoning (your personal valuations may differ).
Where necessary, we’re assuming a redemption value for your miles for a Singapore Airlines flight at 1.9 cents, so you may have to adjust the value per mile for some of these options to your own valuation if different.
| Option | Min. Expiring Miles |
Value per mile |
|
| ① | Redeem an SIA, Scoot or partner award flight | 1,500 | 1.90¢+ |
| ② | Extend your miles for a fee | 1^ | 1.74¢ |
| ③ | Transfer to Velocity points | 5,000 | 1.05¢ |
| ④ | Offset an SIA or Scoot cash fare | 1,000 | 1.00¢ |
| ⑤ | Transfer to Kris+ | 10 | 1.00¢ |
| ⑥ | Offset a KrisShop purchase | 1,000 | 1.00¢ |
| ⑦ | Redeem a Pelago experience | 1,000 | 1.00¢ |
| ⑧ | Redeem a vRooms hotel stay | 1,500 | 0.80¢* |
| ⑨ | Transfer to Velocity points then back to KrisFlyer | 7,750 | 0.79¢ |
| ⑩ | Transfer to Shangri-La points | 20,000 | 0.72¢ |
| ⑪ | Transfer to CapitaStar | 3,000 | 0.70¢ |
| ⑫ | Transfer to yuu Rewards then back to KrisFlyer | 2,000 | 0.70¢ |
| ⑬ | Transfer to Accor Live Limitless | 4,500 | 0.67¢ |
| ⑭ | Transfer to yuu Rewards | 2,000 | 0.66¢ |
| ⑮ | Transfer to LinkPoints | 3,000 | 0.59¢ |
| ⑯ | Transfer to LinkPoints then back to KrisFlyer | 3,000 | 0.56¢ |
| ⑰ | Transfer to Esso Smiles | 3,000 | 0.46¢ to 0.67¢ |
| ⑱ | 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
Here are all the options in more detail.
| ① | Redeem an SIA, Scoot or partner award flight | ||
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| Value: | 1.90¢+ per mile | ||
| Minimum expiring miles: |
1,500 | ||
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
This one might seem a bit obvious to include, after all if you could have used your expiring miles to book a redemption ticket surely you would have done so by now?
However, what many people don’t always appreciate is just how far in advance you can lock in an award ticket using KrisFlyer miles, and the breadth of Star Alliance and partner airline award options out there, now also including Scoot, which might help you use them.
Fresh availability of KrisFlyer award seats on Singapore Airlines flights is loaded at 8am, 1pm or 4pm SGT each day (GMT+8), depending on the origin city for your booking.
Here’s our article outlining how it works, including a handy calculator to let you see exactly what date and time award space should appear for your preferred route and date.
This is often a great time to jump on a pair of Business Class Saver awards a year out, assuming you have relatively firm travel plans. For example if your miles are expiring at 23.59h SGT on 30th November 2025, you’ll be able to lock in an award flight departing as late as 20th November 2026!
We’ve also spoken to people who think you must redeem and have travelled on an award flight before your miles expire – that’s not the case. You must have booked the award ticket, but as mentioned above it can be locked in close to a year in advance.
The fact you’ll be travelling on a flight using miles which would have expired up to a year before doesn’t matter, only that the ticket was issued while the miles were still ‘alive’.
With this option you’re looking at trying to lock in a redemption ticket or upgrade (where permitted):
- On a Singapore Airlines flight.
- On a Scoot flight.
- On a Star Alliance member airline flight (most are now searchable and bookable online through KrisFlyer).
- On a partner airline flight, like Virgin Australia or Juneyao Airlines.
(Photo: PriestmanGoode)
Since these options represent by far the best value you can extract from KrisFlyer miles, you should absolutely exhaust them first in our opinion, before moving on to any of the following steps in this article.
Here are some important things to consider:
- Date changes are still possible, up to one year from your booking date (e.g. booked 1st July, you can push the flight out to 30th June the following year, provided there is award space)
- If you cancel your award ticket, any miles that would have expired on the cancellation date will not be re-credited to your account
- Routing and cabin class changes will not be possible for bookings using expiring miles, if those changes are made after the miles expiry date
| ② | Extend your miles for a fee |
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| Value: | 1.74¢ per mile* |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
1^ |
| Pros | Cons |
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* Assuming you pay cash to extend your miles, then redeem the extended miles for a flight award and achieve 1.9 cents per mile in value.
^ Or the miles quantity you have expiring in a single calendar month, if greater
More details
You can extend the validity of your expiring KrisFlyer miles by six months, at a cost of US$12 (~S$16) per 10,000 miles, or by forfeiting 1,200 miles per 10,000-mile block instead.
KrisFlyer Elite Silver and Elite Gold members benefit from a 12-month extension for the same fee or miles deduction, while PPS Club members’ miles never expire.
If you’re considering this option, it’s generally better value to pay cash rather than miles for the extension.
After all, the goal is to keep all your miles intact – and since each mile should ideally be redeemed for at least 1.9 Singapore cents of value, forfeiting 1,200 miles (worth around S$23) costs more than paying the S$16 fee.
That said, only pay to extend your miles if you’re confident you’ll actually use them – the extension can only be applied once to any given batch of expiring miles.
| ③ | Transfer to Velocity Points |
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| Value: | 1.05¢ per mile* |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
5,000 |
| Pros | Cons |
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* Based on the approximate value of a Velocity point at 1.9 Australian cents when used to redeem domestic flights on Virgin Australia, as assessed by Point Hacks (= 1.62 Singapore Cents per mile), then the 1.55:1 transfer ratio is accounted for.
More details
If you’re a member of Virgin Australia’s Velocity frequent flyer program there are two ways you can extend the life of your KrisFlyer miles. This is the first one, a simple transfer to Velocity with the intention to use your miles in that scheme instead of KrisFlyer.
Before we get into the details you’ll have to be a member of the Velocity scheme and that’s unfortunately not open to everyone. To be eligible you need to have a residential address in one of their key markets – basically in Australia or New Zealand (some Pacific Ocean islands are also included).
For most of our readers in Singapore that’s not possible, however there’s always the option of registering your Velocity account at the address of a friend or family member in one of those countries.
If you’re eligible none of your Velocity points will expire provided you transact in the scheme at least once every 24 months, so even if transferring miles from KrisFlyer is the only activity you make in the scheme those points will still be good to use for another two years.
Points can be used to redeem Virgin Australia flights and upgrades or Singapore Airlines tickets, plus flights with a number of other partner airlines, including Qatar Airways (click here for the current list).
Unlike the points you might hold in other Star Alliance airline frequent flyer schemes (e.g. Lifemiles), Velocity points can be used to redeem long-haul Business Class and First Class seats on Singapore Airlines flights, though the required number of miles is quite a bit higher than using KrisFlyer.
In our valuation we’ve assumed you’d use your Velocity points to book domestic Economy Class redemptions with Virgin Australia. There are more and less valuable ways to use them, and bear in mind a small volume probably won’t help you much here.
Velocity points can also be used against hotel bookings directly with selected hotel partners portal, offsetting hotel costs by using as few as 2,000 points, however you will get much poorer value per point compared to a flight redemption or upgrade.
| ④ | Offset an SIA or Scoot cash fare | |
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| Value: | 1.00¢ per mile | |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
1,000 | |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
Another option for your expiring KrisFlyer miles is to use them as a form of cashback when booking any Singapore Airlines or Scoot flight, at a fixed value of 1 cent per mile.
This method offers great flexibility – you don’t need award seat availability for your preferred flight, and you’ll still earn miles and status credits as usual, based on the fare type.
That said, this approach only represents real value if you’re redeeming against a flight you would have paid cash for anyway.
For instance, if you’re planning a quick getaway to Bali or Phuket, there are usually far cheaper alternatives available – think AirAsia in Economy or even KLM in Business – so using your miles to bring down the cost of a higher-priced SIA ticket might not actually be saving you anything in practical terms.
In some cases, it’s actually the lower-cost Scoot fares that can yield better value here, though Scoot’s new fixed-price award chart can be even more rewarding in some cases, if you’re willing to book a full redemption instead.
When offsetting a Singapore Airlines or Scoot ticket, you can apply as few as 1,000 miles, right up to the total amount needed to cover the entire fare (including taxes and fees), with no cash payment required.
That makes it easy to use up just your expiring miles this way, while paying the remainder in cash.
| ⑤ | Transfer to Kris+ |
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| Value: | 1.00¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
10 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
Transferring your KrisFlyer miles to KrisPay miles in the Kris+ app then offers redemption options at over 500 merchants across Singapore at exactly 1 cent per mile.
You can transfer as little as 10 KrisFlyer mile to 10 KrisPay mile.
You can also redeem at over 200 merchants in Melbourne and Sydney, if you’re based in Australia or taking a trip there, but here you’ll get 1 Australian cent off your purchase per mile, which is around 0.85 Singapore cents at current exchange rates, so try to redeem in Singapore if possible.
Note that once you’ve transferred your KrisFlyer miles into KrisPay miles they are stuck there forever, you can’t then transfer them back and renew their validity (that would be too easy!), or even send them back and retain their previous validity in KrisFlyer. Don’t experiment with this!
| ⑥ | Offset a KrisShop purchase |
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| Value: | 1.00¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
1,000 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
You can use your KrisFlyer miles to pay for KrisShop purchases at a fixed rate of 1 cent per mile.
However, aside from this relatively low return, KrisShop pricing isn’t always the most competitive, meaning your miles may be effectively worth even less compared to buying the same item elsewhere.
For example, a 60ml Montblanc Explorer EDT retails for S$98.38 or 9,838 miles on KrisShop (value of exactly 1 cent per mile, including taxes and delivery), but sells for S$79.00 on Fragrance.sg with free delivery.
In that case, your KrisFlyer miles are effectively returning only 0.8 cents each.
That’s not to say all KrisShop items are overpriced – price-controlled products like Apple devices must match retail prices elsewhere – but even then, 1 cent per mile is about the best value you’ll get, and sometimes less.
Also note that GST is added at checkout for home delivery purchases, since KrisShop is a duty-free retailer. Prices shown in search results exclude GST, so don’t be misled by lower initial figures.
When offsetting a KrisShop purchase, you can apply as few as 1,000 miles, or enough to cover the entire order(including taxes and delivery), with no cash payment required.
That makes it easy to use up just your expiring miles, while paying the remainder in cash.
| ⑦ | Redeem a Pelago experience |
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| Value: | 1.00¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
1,000 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
Pelago is Singapore Airlines’ experiences platform, like Klook and KKday.
Since May 2021 it’s been possible to redeem KrisFlyer miles for Pelago experience bookings (earning was always an option – and the only one you should usually stick to).
Year-round, you’ll pay 100 KrisFlyer miles to offset every S$1 spend (minimum 1,000 KrisFlyer miles), which makes the rate 1.00 cent per mile, but Pelago occasionally offers an enhanced redemption rate – we’ve seen a value of 1.25 cents per mile offered earlier this year.
Unfortunately you can only redeem in full for an experience with KrisFlyer miles – there is no part miles / part cash option, so you may not be able to cover your expiring miles precisely with a Pelago redemption.
| ⑧ | Redeem a vRooms hotel stay |
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| Value: | 0.80¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
1,500 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
We examined KrisFlyer’s vRooms when it launched in May 2018. On the face of it this was just another poor value redemption, valuing your miles at 0.8 cents each, which is less than half what you should be aiming to achieve.
With closer examination though we found it was possible to get outsized value from your KrisFlyer miles on a vRooms redemption by using the minimum miles level to offset the cost of a hotel stay.
(Source: MainlyMiles)
It didn’t work for all hotels but we found some examples where you can achieve a value of 2 cents per mile by using a small number of KrisFlyer miles against a hotel stay.
Arguably if you can find something similar which works for you and you only have a small number of miles expiring, that could elevate this option to first or second best value on our list, so it’s probably worth checking before committing to any other method for your expiring miles.
You could even ‘cash out’ only some of your expiring miles this way, leaving the rest for another method, or use a small number of miles multiple times through vRooms if you have several hotel stays coming up.
As we mentioned in our vRooms article you won’t get any hotel loyalty points with these bookings and your status benefits may or may not be applied, depending on the hotel chain, so even if the miles rate makes sense for you these bookings work best with independent or small-scale hotel properties.
Note that vRooms also has a car hire option, however we’ve never been able to find value better than 0.7 to 0.8 cents per mile using this method during our searches.
| ⑨ | Transfer to Velocity points then back to KrisFlyer |
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| Value: | 0.79¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
7,750 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
The second Velocity option on the list might have crossed your mind while reading the first one!
This method is to transfer your miles to Velocity and then straight back to KrisFlyer again. This will reset their three-year expiry clock. If that sounds too good to be true – it is. The 1.55:1 conversion ratio from KrisFlyer miles to Velocity points works both ways. That’s right – you lose out in both directions!
That means if you have 10,000 KrisFlyer miles (worth ~S$190) expiring and follow this ‘out-in’ process you’ll only have 4,162 of them left (about 42%) once they are back in KrisFlyer. Considering a KrisFlyer mile is worth around 1.9 cents, you’ve lost 58% of their value here, as your 4,162 miles are now worth around S$79.
They will now last for three years though.
Remember although the minimum number of KrisFlyer miles you can transfer to Velocity is 5,000 (as outlined in option 3 above) you will need to have a minimum of 5,000 Velocity points in order to transfer back to KrisFlyer, so to successfully complete this process you must transfer at least 7,750 KrisFlyer miles.
If you transfer less than that you won’t be able to transfer back, assuming your Velocity account has a zero balance at the start of this process.
Example 7,750 KrisFlyer miles > 5,000 Velocity points > 3,226 KrisFlyer miles.
Note: This valuation assumes you will achieve at least 1.9 cents of value per mile when redeeming the miles you have transferred back to KrisFlyer (that are then valid for a fresh three years). If your usual redemption is poorer value than this – the value of this method is less in your case (and vice-versa if your personal redemption pattern always achieves a higher value than this).| ⑩ | Transfer to Shangri La Points |
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| Value: | 0.72¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
20,000 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
Transfers from KrisFlyer to Shangri-La Circle (SLC) points are subject to a minimum transfer quantity of 20,000 miles, the highest of all the options for your expiring miles.
If you do have enough expiring miles to warrant this option your KrisFlyer miles will transfer to SLGC points at a 12:1 ratio.
15 SLC points gives you US$1 off your hotel bill or dining bill (even when not staying overnight), subject to a minimum redemption of 500 points. That makes each SLC worth 6.66 US cents, which is 8.67 Singapore cents.
That means a transfer of 20,000 KrisFlyer miles into 1,666 SLC points will net you a saving of S$144, giving you a value per KrisFlyer mile of 0.72 cents.
Remember the value here assumes you would actually consider a Shangri-La stay, or will dine at one of the hotel chain’s restaurants, even without having to do so to use up your miles.
| ⑪ | Transfer to CapitaStar |
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| Value: | 0.70¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
3,000 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
Every KrisFlyer mile will net you 7 STAR$ (1:7 ratio), with a minimum transfer of 3,000 KrisFlyer miles enforced per conversion.
A maximum of 30,000 KrisFlyer miles can be transferred to STAR$ per calendar year.
10 STAR$ are worth 1 Singapore cent, so the 21,000 STAR$ accrued for a minimum conversion from 3,000 KrisFlyer miles will be worth S$21 against future spend, which is 0.7 cents per mile.
You can redeem STAR$ to offset payments at CapitaLand mall retailers, but do note that some merchants only accept payment in denominations of $5 (5,000 STAR$), which may be restrictive.
| ⑫ | Transfer to yuu Rewards then back to KrisFlyer |
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| Value: | 0.70¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
2,000 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
This method is to transfer your KrisFlyer miles to the yuu Rewards programme, and then straight back to KrisFlyer again. This will reset their three-year expiry clock.
Unfortunately if you have 10,000 KrisFlyer miles (worth ~S$190) expiring and follow this ‘out-in’ process you’ll only have 3,681 of them left (about 37%) once they are back in KrisFlyer. Considering a KrisFlyer mile is worth around 1.9 cents, you’ve lost 63% of their value here, as your 3,681 miles are now worth around S$70.
However, that is slightly better than leaving them in yuu Rewards, and then spending them there, which sees them worth 0.66 cents per KrisFlyer mile converted (around S$66 in the above example).
Example 2,000 KrisFlyer miles > 2,650 yuu Rewards points > 737 KrisFlyer miles.
Note: This valuation assumes you will achieve at least 1.9 cents of value per mile when redeeming the miles you have transferred back to KrisFlyer (that are then valid for a fresh three years). If your usual redemption is poorer value than this – the value of this method is less in your case (and vice-versa if your personal redemption pattern always achieves a higher value than this).| ⑬ | Transfer to Accor Live Limitless |
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| Value: | 0.67¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
4,500 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
You can convert a minimum of 4,500 KrisFlyer miles to Accor Live Limitless ALL points at a 9:2 ratio (so 4,500 miles becomes 1,000 points.
Accor Live Limitless ALL points have a fixed value, with redemption as a hotel credit at 2,000 points = €40 (around S$60).
That makes each point worth 3 Singapore cents at current exchange rates.
It means with a 9:2 transfer ratio you would be cashing out your KrisFlyer miles at 0.67 Singapore cents each, which is among the worst value you can get from them.
| ⑭ | Transfer to yuu Rewards |
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|
| Value: | 0.67¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
2,000 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
You can convert KrisFlyer miles to yuu Rewards points at a 2,000 : 2,650 ratio, with a minimum transfer of 2,000 KrisFlyer miles enforced per conversion.
yuu Rewards points are worth 0.5 cents each against future shopping at yuu merchants like Cold Storage, so that values each KrisFlyer mile converted at only 0.67 cents.
| ⑮ | Transfer to LinkPoints |
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| Value: | 0.59¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
3,000 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
You can convert KrisFlyer miles to NTUC LinkPoints at a 3,000 : 1,770 ratio, with a minimum transfer of 3,000 KrisFlyer miles enforced per conversion.
LinkPoints are worth 1 cent each against future shopping at NTUC merchants like FairPrice, so that values each KrisFlyer mile converted at only 0.59 cents – a very poor rate.
A maximum of 80,000 KrisFlyer miles can be transferred to LinkPoints per calendar year.
| ⑯ | Transfer to LinkPoints then back to KrisFlyer |
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| Value: | 0.56¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
3,000 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
Since April 2022, KrisFlyer has a two-way transfer partnership with NTUC LinkPoints, and for the most part this hasn’t become a particularly exciting way to redeem your KrisFlyer miles due to the usual low value on offer (0.59 cents per mile).
One option to avoid expiry of all your miles is to transfer into LinkPoints then straight back out to KrisFlyer again, retaining 30% of your miles in the process, which will then be valid for three years.
Example 3,000 KrisFlyer miles > 1,770 LinkPoints > 885 KrisFlyer miles.
This gives an implied value of 0.56 cents per expiring KrisFlyer mile following this process.
Note: This valuation assumes you will achieve at least 1.9 cents of value per mile when redeeming the miles you have transferred back to KrisFlyer (that are then valid for a fresh 3 years). If your usual redemption is poorer value than this – the value of this method is less in your case (and vice-versa if your personal redemption pattern always achieves a higher value than this).| ⑰ | Transfer to Esso Smiles |
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| Value: | 0.47¢ to 0.67¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
3,000 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
Transferring KrisFlyer miles to Esso Smiles points is a poor value way to redeem, yielding a value of between 0.47 and 0.67 cents per mile, based on “Instant Redemption” options using Esso Smiles points.
Even at the best rate here, you’d need to transfer 4,500 KrisFlyer Miles to achieve 750 Esso Smiles points, for a rebate of S$30, which is 0.67 cents per mile.
You can also redeem KrisPay miles via the Kris+ app at 1 cent each for petrol purchases at Esso, 50% higher than the top-end value you’ll get from a conversion to Esso Smiles points, so this is an irrelevant option in our book, especially given that Kris+ miles can be used more flexibly with this partner. Avoid.
| ⑱ | Transfer to Marriott Bonvoy |
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| Value: | 0.50¢ per mile |
| Minimum expiring miles: |
3,000 |
| Pros | Cons |
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More details
Finally we’ve hit rock bottom in value per mile terms – a transfer to Marriott Bonvoy.
Transfers from KrisFlyer to Bonvoy Points became available in January 2023, and based on general consensus on the value of Bonvoy Points the 2:1 transfer ratio from KrisFlyer means getting just 0.5 cents of value per mile once converted.
That’s half the value you’ll get from a transfer to KrisPay miles in the Kris+ app, for example.
That said, it is possible to get better value than this from Bonvoy points in some circumstances, so a conversion may still make sense for you if the return you can achieve is better than our basic valuation.
Other considerations
Note that the minimum number of expiring miles shown doesn’t have to be absolutely limiting.
At the start of the article we mentioned that your total balance also comes into play. There is nothing to stop you supplementing your expiring miles with those which aren’t expiring to ‘activate’ a better-value option (though this may adversely affect the average value itself).
For example, say you have 20,000 KrisFlyer miles in your account and 5,000 of them are expiring. You have found a vRooms hotel stay redemption where the minimum offset is 6,800 miles against the stay, but will yield a 1.7 cents per mile return based on your calculations.
There’s nothing stopping you from topping up using 1,800 of your non-expiring miles to achieve this option. It does erode the value per mile slightly (since those 1,800 should technically be worth 1.9+ cents if left where they are for future flight redemptions), but provided you’re comfortable with the calculation it’s an option to consider.
Tips to avoid expiry in future
While this article focuses on what to do if your KrisFlyer miles are expiring, the ideal scenario is to avoid that situation altogether. Here’s how to make sure it doesn’t happen – or at least, doesn’t happen again.
Keep points in credit card schemes as long as possible
The best way to prevent expiring miles is to delay transferring them into KrisFlyer until you actually need them.
That’s because once your miles hit your KrisFlyer account, the three-year validity clock starts ticking.
Banks in Singapore each have their own rules for credit card points expiry. For example:
- Citi PremierMiles – Citi Miles never expire, and can be transferred 1:1 to KrisFlyer or several other frequent flyer programmes.
- Standard Chartered Visa Infinite – points never expire.
- DBS Altitude – points also never expire.
Since these points remain valid indefinitely, there’s no rush to convert them, allowing you to keep your options open across multiple airline programmes.
Here are some other examples of credit card points expiry in Singapore:
- BOC Elite Miles: 1 to 2 years expiry
- DBS Altitude: No expiry
- DBS Vantage: 3 years expiry
- DBS WWMC: 1 year expiry
- HSBC Visa Infinite: 3 years expiry
- Maybank Horizon: 12-15 months expiry
- OCBC Voyage / 90°N: No expiry
- SCVI: No expiry
- UOB PRVI Miles: 2 years expiry
If you have one of the KrisFlyer co-brand cards, like the American Express Singapore Airlines or the KrisFlyer UOB Mastercard, one of the biggest downsides is that your miles will be accumulated and credited automatically into your KrisFlyer account each month, so you’re almost immediately exposed to the three-year expiry clock starting to tick down.
Consider the transfer fee too
Most banks charge a flat fee of around S$25 to S$30 per transfer to KrisFlyer, regardless of the number of miles moved.
That means it’s more efficient to wait until you’ve built up a decent balance before transferring, to avoid “diluting” the value of your miles with repeated small conversions.
Finally…
If you have at least 1,000 expiring KrisFlyer miles (up to 100,000 miles) but are not interested in any of the listed options to extract some value from them and simply intend to let them expire, please don’t do that.
Instead you can donate your miles to:
- KidSTART Singapore
A charity that aims to help young children and pregnant mothers from low-income families in Singapore by empowering them to build strong foundations for children and foster positive child development outcomes. The donated miles will be used to redeem flights for the beneficiaries of KidSTART Singapore and/or for redemptions via KrisFlyer’s non-airline partners. - Make-A-Wish Singapore
A charity which grants the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses. The donated miles will be used to redeem flights for the beneficiaries of Make-A-Wish Singapore in the fulfilment of wishes that require travel.
If you have a large quantity of miles to donate, you can make unlimited multiple donations (the cap of 100,000 miles is simply per donation).
In both cases your donated miles will then never expire, and the charities will not be made aware of your personal details.
Just because you didn’t get any use or value out of your miles, someone very deserving might well do.
Summary
While KrisFlyer flight redemptions still deliver the best returns, typically 1.9 cents per mile or more, the good news is that expiring miles for those with no travel plans don’t need to go to waste.
Thanks to a growing range of flexible redemption channels like Kris+, KrisShop, and the ability to offset cash fares on Singapore Airlines or Scoot, members now have several easy ways to extract a fixed 1 cent per mile of value.
That makes 1 cent per mile the practical floor value of KrisFlyer miles for most Singapore-based members, since almost everyone can make use of at least one of these options without any complicated workarounds or overseas transfers.
Lower-value conversions like Shangri-La, LinkPoints or Esso technically exist, but they’re not worth considering unless you’ve already exhausted the 1¢ routes, since they return only 0.5–0.8 cents per mile in most cases.
In short:
- Best case: ~1.9¢+ per mile – Singapore Airlines, Scoot or partner award flights
- Solid fallback: 1.0¢ per mile – Kris+, KrisShop, Scoot / SIA fare offsets
- Last resort: 0.5 – 0.8¢ per mile – partner or retail conversions
Even if you miss the chance to redeem for a flight, your KrisFlyer balance isn’t worthless. Between Kris+, KrisShop, and flight offsets, every mile should still hold at least a cent of real-world value for most members, a reassuring safety net for anyone with expiring miles.
If like us you earn a significant chunk of your KrisFlyer miles through credit card spending, you can try to avoid the KrisFlyer expiry issue in the first place by keeping your points at the bank side for as long as comfortably possible, until you’re likely to need them in KrisFlyer.
Many banks have no expiry at all for certain credit card points, and transfers to KrisFlyer usually take just a few days, if not instant.
(Cover Photo: TK Kurikawa / Shutterstock)
Hi Andrew,
Solitaire member with 51,641 reserve value expiring in Oct 2028. Is there any way to extend them. Thanks, US reader who enjoys your reports. Very well done !