Singapore Airlines are my favourite airline and one of the best in the world. In fact, they were ranked best airline in the world in my biased ranking I made in another post. This claim is also backed up by other outlets too, being no. 1 according to CNN and no. 2 according to Skytrax. Skytrax ranks it just behind Qatar Airways, who are undoubtedly a great airline. But lets not forget they have been known to purchase prestigious global badges (…FIFA), so I take that ranking with a pinch of salt. So please read my ultimate guide the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Rewards Program
Especially coming from Europe, where Ryanair and Easyjet rule, Singapore Airlines is a refreshing experience. Every aspect is world class. The service, seat, airport, food. You can even have a full lay-flat seat on a short 1 hour flight, something no airline in Europe offers.
It’s fitting therefore that Singapore Airlines also has a good rewards program. With their KrisFlyer reward program you can earn and redeem miles on Singapore Air flights, and flights on their budget subsidiary, Scoot. Even better, they are a member of the Star Alliance, allowing you to earn miles with all member airlines too. In this article I cover all aspects of the KrisFlyer reward program including membership benefits, earning miles, redeeming miles and potential competitors.
Benefits and Membership Tiers
KrisFlyer has three membership tiers: Basic, Elite Silver and Elite Gold. Basic simply means you have signed up and allows you to earn miles in the first place. It also includes 2 hours of free in-flight low speed WiFi on all flights which is a bonus. Elite Silver earns 25% bonus points and free seat selection, which is quite useful if, like me, you always choose the window seat. Still, at this tier the rewards are nothing special.
Elite Gold however is where you really start earning some worthwhile rewards. Lounge access with all Star Alliance airlines as well as priority check-in & boarding is definitely good. To get to gold you’ll need 50,000 Elite miles. This sounds like a lot, but using their calculator, it is surprisingly achievable. For reference a return flight in economy from London to Singapore will earn you anywhere from 6,762 to 13,522 miles. Whilst business class would be 16,904 to 20,284 miles. The exact amount you earn will depend on the fare type you choose.
So, if you regularly visit family or take regular holidays with Singapore Airlines you may only need to take a few long haul flights to earn Elite Gold status. Especially if you fly premium economy or business.
There are also some pretty good “milestone” rewards once you earn a certain amount of miles in a year. Most of these just help you earn miles a bit quicker. But some such as the Premium Economy upgrade are potentially worth £100s. Of course, you do have to spend a lot to meet these thresholds it’s only worth it if you’re travelling a lot.
Ways to Earn
Earn When You Fly
Singapore Airlines allows you to earn KrisFlyer miles through a massive range of flights from themselves, their subsidiary Scoot and partner airlines. You can fly all over the world (though admitedly with poor coverage of South America and parts of Africa). If you want to see the full list of partner airlines check out Singapore’s website, it’s also worth reading my guide of which airline alliance you should choose to fly with here.
The amount of miles you earn is dependant on the ticket type you purchase. The maximum amount of miles you can earn is equal to the distance of the flight. You’ll only earn 100% miles if you buy a flexible ticket (at much greater expense). Economy Lite/Value, their cheapest fare type, will only earn 50% miles whilst standard economy will earn 75%. To earn miles this way you simply need to open a KrisFlyer account and enter your membership number when booking the flight.
Convert Amex Membership Reward Points
Converting American Express Membership Reward (MR) Points is my preferred way to earn Singapore Airlines Miles. I don’t fly with Singapore enough to earn any significant miles that way, but I do rack up plenty of points on my Amex. You can convert to KrisFlyer miles here on the American Express website. It typically takes 2-3 weeks.
Now, it’s worth noting that Singapore Airlines doesn’t have a very preferential conversion rate. 3 MR points are worth 2 KrisFlyer miles. Compare this to 1 Avios per 1 MR points for British Airways and it might not look like you’re getting a very good deal. However, digging a bit deeper you can see that looks can be deceiving…
Using points costs I was quoted when looking to book a return flight from London to Singapore (explored in full here), you can estimate how valuable you’re Amex MR points could be. I found that flying economy, Avios were more valuable. But for business class, KrisFlyer miles were significantly better. Obviously this will vary with airline and route but it shows that you need to try a range of options to get the best value.
If you want to get an estimate of what your miles for pretty much all large airlines could be I recommend using The Points Guy’s estimate. It can be really variable whether you can actually redeem miles at this rate, but it is a good indication.
Earn through Shopping/Bonus Offers
Singapore Airlines also have a wide range of limited time bonus offers found here. Most of these offers are typical “spend X amount to earn X amount of miles”. For example, the Hard Rock Hotel Bali was running an offer to earn 3X miles with every booking made in November 2022. A lot of these offers are very specific, so I wouldn’t suggest going out of your way to redeem the offers unless you were already planning to go there in the first place.
There are also credit card offers for The American Express KrisFlyer Card, to earn 40,000 bonus points. Also Maybank Malaysia’s offer to earn 24,000 miles and more. Again though these are only relevant if you live in Malaysia or Singapore so not really relevant to me and other UK readers.
Ways to Spend
You can spend KrisFlyer miles in a wide range of ways, and you’re not limited to just being able to use on flights like some other airlines. But I would definitely recommend redeeming on flights if you want the most value…
Redeem on flights
With some airlines it can be hard to guess how many miles a certain flight will cost in miles. Luckily for Singapore Airlines they provide a helpful calculator which lets you see how many miles a flight could cost, or the cost of a class upgrade.
I’ve put together a table calculating the value per mile you could get with three different airlines. Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. These prices were quoted in November 2022 and may change depending on time and route.
It’s clear that you get significantly better redemption value flying business over economy. This is why I strongly recommend you save up your miles for as long as possible to afford a business class flight.
If you’ve already booked your flight you can also use miles to upgrade to a higher class. Savings here can be pretty good. Often premium economy prices are around 2 to 3 times more expensive than regular economy tickets. For the London to Singapore flight this actually results in a redemption rate of roughly 1.6p per mile which is nothing to scoff at.
Mix Miles With Cash
If you don’t have sufficient points for for a full flight or upgrade you can also mix miles with cash for a discount on your flight booking. Again, the redemption rates aren’t as competitive as using 100% points or upgrading. But if you don’t see yourself racking up enough points before they expire this is probably the most sensible option.
Donate Miles
If you don’t see yourself having a chance to redeem miles in any other way, or are in a charitable mood there is another option. You can use KrisFlyer miles to donate directly to Make-A-Wish to help grant the wish of children with life-threatening illnesses.
Other (Shangri-La, KrisShop & More)
Firstly, it turns out Singapore Airlines have their own department store called KrisShop. You can actually buy a surprising range of products from furniture and electronics to clothing and luxury watches. They offer worldwide delivery, but best of all you can order online for collection on your next Singapore Airlines or Scoot flight. Prices are relatively competitive, and you can even use Krisflyer miles to buy. Unfortunately though you don’t really get your money’s worth when redeeming miles in the KrisShop. You also earn KrisFlyer miles when buying from KrisShop too.
If I were to buy anything it would probably be this A350 diecast model. But at £56.28 or 11,125 miles you only get about 0.5p per mile. You could get much greater value from KrisFlyer miles redeeming on flights instead.
They do also sell a pretty wide range of Singapore Airlines branded clothing, accessories and giftsthough so if you’re a major fan it might be worth buying some.
Alternatives
You can of course earn miles with almost any large airline. I plan to release full guides on many more global airlines in the future, but that takes time… So for now here are my two top picks for alternatives to Singapore Airlines if you want to earn air miles.
British Airways
I wrote a comprehensive guide to the British Airways Executive Club here. But to cover it briefly, I think that for those based in the UK, British Airways is the best airline for earning miles and rewards.
There are many ways to earn Avios. First obviously is by flying British Airways (and other IAG airlines: Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling, and possibly Easyjet in the future?). You can also earn Avios through other Oneworld alliance airlines, see my post on the best alliances here.
I personally also earn Avios through both the Barclaycard Avios and my personal favourite, The American Express British Airways Card. By combining these methods I have been able to earn 100,000s of Avios. Most recently I redeemed 60,000 Avios for a return flight for 2 passengers from London to Geneva in Club Europe. For my full review of those flights click below:
- London to Geneva: Heathrow and British Airways made a mess of this one.
- Geneva to London: a very good experience, British Airways’ redemption arc.
Virgin Atlantic
I plan to release an “Ultimate Guide” post for Virgin Atlantic Flying Club in the future too. That way I’ll have a guide on my favourite airline reward program from each alliance. That is assuming Virgin Atlantic successfully join Skyteam in 2023 as previously announced.
The Virgin Atlantic Credit Card is a great way to earn miles with Virgin and obviously by flying Virgin and their partner airlines too. With their addition to Skyteam this will further increase the amount of eligible flights to earn on.
I actually found, on Upper Class flights at least, Virgin offers the best bang for your buck when redeeming miles. Per my working in the redemption section of this article I estimated that Virgin miles can be redeemed for up to 2.7p per point, far superior to other airlines I’ve looked at. That being said, it was only possible on a long-haul London to Los Angeles flight in business class. I was not able to find such good savings on economy flights.
More from me…
Please feel free to check out other related posts I’ve written:
- Best Airlines in the World – If you want to find out which airlines I think are better than British Airways, read this…
- Best Airline Alliances and why you should care– For a guide on how to decide between Oneworld, Star Alliance and Skyteam.
- Best Airline Reward Programs – What I think are the best airline reward programs from each alliance, for those based in the UK.
And if you fancy earning some fantastic rewards and Avios points through American Express, please use my referral links below:
- The Platinum Card – You Receive 35,000 Membership Reward points after spending £3,000 in the first 3 months: https://americanexpress.com/en-gb/referral/fREDEGgRA5?CPID=100493012
- British Airways Card: You Receive 12,000 Avios after spending £1,000 in the first 3 months: https://americanexpress.com/en-gb/referral/fREDEGuUeO?CPID=100493012
