Singapore Airlines’ experiences platform Pelago has added hotels to its line-up, with over 200,000 properties across more than 200 countries now bookable alongside its attractions, tours, experiences and transport options.
It’s likely no coincidence that this comes just days after we reported that KrisFlyer is ending vRooms redemptions from 11th December.
The two aren’t quite like-for-like though. vRooms, which ran on Agoda’s platform, was mainly a way to spend your miles on hotel stays and car rentals, while Pelago’s hotel offering is geared more towards earning miles, with paying in miles a secondary (and less flexible) option. Still, it looks like SIA would rather keep hotel bookings on its own platform than run a separate portal through a third party.
Hotel bookings normally earn 1 KrisFlyer mile per S$1 spent when booked directly, but there are two ways to earn 8 mpd at the moment, plus discounts that suit smaller bookings, and up to 4 mpd from your credit card on top.
Earn 8 mpd with promo code HOTEL8MPD
From 12th November to 31st December 2026, hotel bookings made directly on the Pelago website or app earn a bonus 7 mpd on top of the usual 1 mpd when you apply promo code HOTEL8MPD at checkout, for 8 mpd in total.
The main conditions are:
- A minimum spend of S$100 per booking
- The code can be used twice per member
- Redemptions are limited overall, so the code may stop working before 31st December
- You need to be logged in with your KrisFlyer membership details
- The guest name on the booking must match your KrisFlyer account, so rooms booked for family or friends under their own names won’t earn miles
Pelago caps KrisFlyer earning at 50,000 miles per booking, including bonus miles, which at 8 mpd only kicks in on stays above S$6,250, so a S$1,000 stay would earn the full 8,000 KrisFlyer miles.
Only one promo code can be applied per booking, so HOTEL8MPD can’t be combined with any other vouchers or discounts sitting in your Pelago account. You can find the full terms and conditions here.
How it works
Here’s a two-night stay at the Harbour Plaza Metropolis in Hong Kong in December, priced at S$598. Without the code, it earns just 598 miles.
Select or enter HOTEL8MPD in the promo code box at checkout.
With the code applied, the same booking earns 4,784 miles.
For direct bookings, Pelago credits KrisFlyer miles up to a week after you complete your booked experience. For a hotel stay, that should mean within seven days of checkout.
Booking in November? Use Kris+ instead
Hotels can also be booked through Pelago via the Kris+ app, and they’re covered by Kris+’s current 8 mpd Pelago offer, which runs until 30th November 2026.
Booking via Kris+ needs no promo code, and as far as we can see it has no S$100 minimum spend and no two-booking limit, so for stays booked this month it’s the more flexible way to earn 8 mpd. Your miles arrive faster too, one day after your stay instead of up to a week, though that’s probably a marginal consideration.
Kris+ says Pelago bookings will revert to its standard 3 mpd from 1st December, but we wouldn’t read too much into that. It says the same thing every month, yet Kris+ has run a bonus Pelago offer every month for nearly two years. December’s offer could easily be just as good, or even better.
There’s no need to rush any bookings into November. Since HOTEL8MPD offers nothing extra over Kris+ this month, it does make sense to keep your two uses in reserve until December. If Kris+ is offering less than 8 mpd by then, use HOTEL8MPD on your biggest stays of S$100 or more.
Promo codes can’t be used on Pelago via Kris+, so the two offers can’t be stacked (but in November, they don’t need to be).
Just remember that miles earned via Kris+ land as KrisPay miles, which must be transferred to your KrisFlyer account within 21 days of being credited. For a hotel booking, that clock starts when the miles arrive the day after your stay, not when you book.
Miss that window and they’re stuck as KrisPay miles, which expire after six months and can only be spent at a poor rate of 100 KrisPay miles to S$1.
Since your stay could be months away, the safest option is to switch on ‘Auto-transfer to KrisFlyer’ in the Kris+ app, under Wallet > Transfer to KrisFlyer. Your miles will then move across automatically as soon as they’re credited.
Discounts for smaller bookings
There’s also a second launch offer. Until 30th November 2026, KrisFlyer members can claim S$20 off Pelago bookings of S$50 or more, up to twice, from the Rewards section of their Pelago account.
If you’ve earned 1,000 Elite miles this calendar year, you may also have the 40% Pelago discount from KrisFlyer Milestone Rewards. It also works on hotel bookings, but the discount is capped at S$20, so on most stays it’s worth the same as the launch voucher. It has no minimum spend though, and it’s valid for three months from issue, so it may still be usable in December.
Both discounts only work on direct bookings, and can’t be combined with each other or with HOTEL8MPD
Your booking will only earn the base 1 mpd on the reduced price.
For smaller stays, a S$20 discount is worth more than the miles. On a S$150 booking, Kris+ would earn 1,200 miles, compared with 130 miles booking directly with S$20 off. Valuing KrisFlyer miles at 1.8 cents each, that difference is worth around S$19.
That makes a S$20 discount the better deal on bookings under about S$150, while Kris+ is better for anything more expensive.
Neither discount is hotel-only, so if you’re also planning a Pelago activity booking, you may prefer to use them there.
Here’s the best way to book a Pelago hotel this month, depending on how much you’re spending:
| Pelago hotels – Best option Until 30 Nov 2026 |
||
| Booking value | Best option | You get |
| Under S$50 | 40% Milestone Reward* (otherwise Kris+) |
40% off + 1 mpd (or 8 mpd) |
| S$50 – S$150 | S$20 off voucher or 40% Milestone Reward* |
S$20 off + 1 mpd |
| Over S$150 | Kris+ | 8 mpd |
* If you’ve unlocked it. The S$20 voucher and Milestone Reward each have limited uses, after which Kris+ is the better option.
Up to 12 mpd with the right credit card
Hotel payments are processed under the same Merchant Category Code (MCC) as other Pelago bookings, whether you book direct or via Kris+:
MCC 4722 Travel Agencies and Tour Operators
Pelago bookings also qualify as online transactions, so you can add up to 4 mpd from a bonus miles-earning card, for up to 12 mpd in total, subject to your card’s monthly cap.
Credit card accrual for Pelago bookings
| Card | Earn Rate |
Notes |
 UOB Lady’s(see our review) |
4 mpd | Capped at S$1,000 per calendar month, provided Travel is selected as one of your bonus earn categories. |
 UOB Lady’s Solitaire(see our review) |
4 mpd | Capped at S$750 per calendar month, provided Travel is selected as one of your bonus earn categories. |
 DBS WWMC(see our review) |
4 mpd | For online spend, capped at S$1,000 per calendar month. |
 Maybank XL Rewards(see our review) |
4 mpd | For Travel spend including MCC 4722capped at S$1,000 per calendar month, subject to min. S$500 total card spend the same month. |
 KF UOB Credit Card(see our review) |
3 mpd | For all Pelago and Kris+ spend, with no upper cap. |
The KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card is worth a mention for bigger stays. At 3 mpd with no upper cap, it gives you 11 mpd on bookings that would blow through the S$1,000 monthly caps on most 4 mpd cards.
Don’t use your Citi Rewards card for Pelago bookings, since MCC 4722 falls under the travel category, which is specifically excluded from earning the 4 mpd rate for online spend with that card. It will only earn 0.4 mpd, so you’re better off using your best general spend card if you don’t hold one of the cards above, or have already hit their monthly bonus caps.
Do note that the HSBC Revolution card has not awarded bonus points for MCC 4722 transactions since 2024, so avoid that one too.
Here’s what our S$598 Hong Kong example earns with a 4 mpd card:
| Pelago Hotels S$598 booking |
||
| Earning | Without code | With HOTEL8MPD |
| Pelago | 598 miles (1 mpd) |
4,784 miles (8 mpd) |
| 4 mpd credit card* | 2,392 miles | 2,392 miles |
| Total | 2,990 miles (5 mpd) |
7,176 miles (12 mpd) |
| Value (1.8¢/mile) |
S$54 | S$129 |
| Elite miles | 598 | 598 |
| PPS Value | 199 | 199 |
* Within your card’s monthly bonus cap
With the code and the right card, that’s over 21% of the room rate back in miles, valuing KrisFlyer miles at 1.8 cents each. Booking the same stay via Kris+ in November would earn exactly the same.
Earn KrisFlyer status credits too
Pelago hotel bookings also count towards SIA’s year-round non-flight status credits scheme, whether you book directly or via Kris+. KrisFlyer members earn 1 Elite mile per S$1, while PPS Club members earn 1 PPS Value per S$3, towards status qualification or renewal.
Promotional bonus miles don’t earn extra Elite miles or PPS Value, but that doesn’t matter here. Status credits are calculated on the amount you spend, regardless of how many miles you earn.
As with all non-flight earning, there are caps on how much counts each membership year, depending on your current tier:
- KrisFlyer and Elite Silver: up to 5,000 Elite miles
- Elite Gold: up to 10,000 Elite miles
- PPS Club: up to 2,500 PPS Value
- Solitaire PPS Club: up to 5,000 PPS Value
These caps are shared with your other non-flight earning, such as Kris+, KrisShop and Pelago experiences, so hotel stays only help if you haven’t already maxed them out. Status credits post up to a month after the miles themselves.
Paying with miles: 1 cent each, all or nothing
You can also pay for Pelago hotel stays with KrisFlyer miles, at 100 miles per S$1. Our S$598 Hong Kong stay would cost 59,800 miles.
That’s 1 cent per mile, the same rate KrisFlyer has applied to SIA and Scoot fare offsets, Kris+, KrisShop and Pelago experiences since July 2025. It’s well below the value you’ll typically get from a Saver award flight, so it’s nothing to get excited about. A stay paid for with miles won’t earn any status credits either.
Unfortunately there’s another catch – you have to pay for the whole stay in miles, with no option to part-pay in miles and the rest in cash.
That makes it a poor fit for using up a small batch of expiring miles, where KrisShop or a transfer to Kris+ lets you use exactly the miles you have. It only really works if you have enough expiring miles to cover an entire stay and no award flight to put them towards.
It’s still better value than vRooms, which typically valued your miles at around 0.8 cents. However, vRooms did let you pay with as few as 1,500 miles, a minimum-miles tactic that could occasionally unlock up to 2 cents per mile at the right property.
Things to watch out for
Pelago is a third-party booking site, so the usual online travel agency catches apply. At chain hotels, Pelago itself warns that your booking may not earn hotel points or status nights, and your membership benefits may not apply.
“May not” is generous here – they almost certainly won’t apply.
In theory that makes Pelago best suited to independent hotels, or chains you don’t collect points with anyway. As we’ll see below, though, independent hotels may also be where Pelago’s prices are least competitive.
A few other points are worth knowing before you book:
- You pay the full amount upfront, with no pay-later or pay-at-hotel option.
- Some local taxes and fees, such as city taxes or resort fees, may still be payable at the hotel. These are listed under “What’s excluded?” before you book, and of course won’t earn miles.
- Cancellation terms depend on the rate you choose. Even on non-refundable rates, Pelago will consider a refund for disruption to your SIA or Scoot flight, such as a cancellation or schedule change.
Check the price first
Most importantly, compare Pelago’s rate with the cheapest price you can find elsewhere. If Pelago is more expensive, you’re effectively buying the miles, so it becomes a cost-per-mile calculation.
Early signs suggest Pelago is often the pricier option. We checked two independent hotels in Hong Kong for a December weekend. One was significantly more expensive on Pelago than booking direct, while the other was the same price, within a dollar or two.
A broader price check by Suitesmile in Bali and Bangkok found many independent hotels priced higher on Pelago than on Agoda, though a few chain hotels came in cheaper.
Pelago may still come out on top sometimes, but it’s certainly not a given.
When comparing, make sure the room type and rate conditions match, such as whether the rate is refundable or includes breakfast. Check other booking sites as well as the hotel’s own website, since booking direct isn’t always the cheapest option (some OTAs can be cheaper).
At 8 mpd, and valuing KrisFlyer miles at 1.8 cents each, Pelago can be up to around 17% more expensive than the cheapest rate elsewhere before you’re paying more for those miles than they’re worth.
For example, say our S$598 stay was available for S$560 elsewhere. You’d be paying S$38 extra for 4,784 KrisFlyer miles, or under 0.8 cents each, which is a great deal in our book.
If it was S$520 elsewhere, though, that’s S$78 for the same miles, or 1.6 cents each. At that point it’s much harder to justify, especially if booking elsewhere would earn you hotel points or status benefits too.
Summary
Pelago has added hotels to its repertoire just as KrisFlyer vRooms redemptions are set to end on 11th December, though it’s more of an earning opportunity than a direct replacement for spending your miles on hotel stays.
In November, book via Kris+ for 8 mpd with no code, no minimum spend and, as far as we can see, no booking limit. For bookings under about S$150, a direct booking with the S$20 KrisFlyer discount, or a 40% Milestone Reward voucher, is worth more.
Hold your two HOTEL8MPD uses until December. Kris+ says Pelago earning will drop back to 3 mpd from 1st December, but it has run a bonus offer every month for the past two years. If December’s Kris+ rate falls short of 8 mpd, use HOTEL8MPD on your biggest stays of S$100 or more. Either way, add up to 4 mpd from the right credit card for up to 12 mpd in total.
Hotel stays also earn Elite miles and PPS Value, within the usual non-flight caps.
Paying with miles at 1 cent each is poor value compared to award flights, and having to cover the whole stay in miles limits its usefulness for expiring balances – avoid.
Do note that Pelago’s rates are often higher than elsewhere, which means you’re effectively buying those bonus miles. Work out what you’re paying per mile before you book – if it’s more than they’re worth to you, booking elsewhere is the better option.
(Cover Photo: UNICO Hotel)