Instant and quick ways to transfer miles to KrisFlyer

At one point or other, we’ve probably all been in the same situation. Staring at an available KrisFlyer Saver award flight on the laptop screen or mobile app – perfect dates, perfect timings, but just a painfully small amount more miles than you currently have in your account to lock it in for you or your travelling party.

Several transfer methods can recharge your KrisFlyer balance in the next few days or weeks, but what are the chances of those perfect award seats still being available then? Especially for near-term redemptions, it’s a big risk to take.

Thankfully there are some instant (yes, absolutely instant) and quick (within 24 hours) ways to top up your balance, and they might just save the day.

LinkPoints: Instant

Almost everyone in Singapore makes at least some of their regular spending at stores like NTUC FairPrice, Cheers, FairPrice online, Unity Pharmacy or Caltex petrol stations.

If you’re the same, you might well have an NTUC Link Plus! card. Swipe it every time you shop at one of those outlets and you’ll be accruing LinkPoints at a rate of 1 point per S$2 spent at most of these stores.

The two most important things for our readers to know is that:

• LinkPoints points transfer to KrisFlyer miles (at a ratio of 2:1, improving to 1.87:1 for larger transfers), and
• Transfers are instant

If you’ve been racking up your FairPrice, Cheers and Unity spend over the last few months to the tune of S$4,000, for example, and tapping your Plus! card each time, your 2,000 points accrued will give you an instant 1,070 KrisFlyer miles if you need them.

How it works

Head across to the the Link Rewards Exchange Page, log on to your Link account, then tap on the KrisFlyer ‘View More’ link.

If you haven’t done so already, you’ll need to link your KrisFlyer account to your LinkPoints account. Both accounts must be in your name for the transfer to be successful.

You’ll then be able to make a transfer in one of the five transfer blocks, depending on your LinkPoints balance. You can make multiple transfers if you wish.

Miles will reflect in your KrisFlyer account straight away.

Is it good value?

It’s not great but also not terrible value to use your LinkPoints this way. Take the above example where you have accrued 2,000 LinkPoints, exchangeable for 1,070 KrisFlyer miles. We value KrisFlyer miles at 1.9 cents each, so that’s worth at least S$20.33 against future flight redemptions.

The alternative is to use your LinkPoints for an instant redemption at the checkout when shopping at one of the eligible merchants, at a rate of 100 points = S$1 off. Your 2,000 LinkPoints will get you a discount of S$20.00 in this case.

Looking at it another way, if you opt for the KrisFlyer option you’re buying miles for 1.87 cents each (S$20.00 discount you could have had, divided by 1,070 miles you will have instead).

That’s relatively borderline in terms of value, but if you need a small KrisFlyer miles top-up this certainly isn’t a bad way to do it.

Bear in mind that for smaller LinkPoints to KrisFlyer transfers, you’re buying miles for 2 cents each due to the poorer transfer ratio.

KrisPay Miles: Instant

You’ll no doubt know that we definitely don’t suggest that you ever transfer KrisFlyer miles to KrisPay miles in order to spend them at merchants via the Kris+ app, due to the awful 0.67 cent per mile value they give you against future purchases.

You should however be using Kris+ to earn miles when making purchases at participating merchants, as these are on top of any miles you’ll also be earning using the right credit card for the same transaction.

Over 280 Kris+ partners across Singapore allow miles earning via Kris+, at 3 mpd, 6 mpd or 9 mpd rates.

Earning is instant at the time of transaction, and you can then instantly transfer the KrisPay miles accrued to your KrisFlyer account. This can be very useful for a small, quick top-up.

For example let’s say I’m looking at an available KrisFlyer redemption at 62,000 miles from Singapore to Brisbane in Business Class. I thought I had enough but I just realised I only have 61,802 miles in my account. 198 miles short!

Also, I don’t have any LinkPoints left to transfer, so that option is out. Here’s where Kris+ comes in.

I can walk down to my local Bottles & Bottles store and pick up this nice Shiraz:

When I pay in-app using Apple Pay or Google Pay, I’m credited with 198 KrisPay miles (S$33 x 6 mpd).

I can transfer these instantly into my KrisFlyer account, and now I have exactly the 62,000 miles I need for the award booking.

Is it good value?

Yes. Transferring miles earned at Kris+ merchants into your KrisFlyer account is the only good value thing you can do with them, and you should already be doing it, with up to 9 mpd at 280+ merchants.

DBS Points, UNI$ or Citi Points via Kris+: Instant

It’s unlikely that buying a bottle of wine is going to see you over a redemption threshold (even a case of wine probably won’t do it!). There is another method using Kris+ if you have:

• Citi Miles
• Citi ThankYou Points
• DBS Points
• UOB UNI$

• For every Citi Mile transferred you’ll get 0.85 KrisPay miles
• For every Citi ThankYou Point transferred you’ll get 0.34 KrisPay miles
• For every DBS Point transferred you’ll get 1.7 KrisPay miles
• For every UOB UNI$ transferred you’ll get 1.7 KrisPay miles

The process is instant, and the KrisPay miles can then be instantly transferred into your KrisFlyer account, as we outlined above for purchases via Kris+.

There is no fee for the transfer, but in each case the rate is 15% less than you’ll get for direct bank-to-KrisFlyer transfers.

Here are the minimum credit card points balances you’ll need to make a transfer:

• Citi Miles: 4,000
• Citi TYPs: 10,000
• DBS Points: 100
• UOB UNI$: 1,000

Blocks then transfer in identically-sized increments, which is quite flexible especially in the case of DBS Points.

Is it good value?

Not really, since in all cases you’re taking a 15% hit using this method compared to direct transfers. The problem with the regular transfer is that it typically takes 1 to 4 days with these banks, too long to be regarded as either ‘instant’ or ‘quick’ for the purposes of this article, with the exception of Citi which tends to transfer in 24 hours.

Virgin Australia Velocity Points: Instant

Do you have a Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer account? Like most of our readers in Singapore, the answer is probably no.

That’s because unless you have a mailing address in one of Virgin’s primary markets (e.g. Australia or New Zealand), you aren’t eligible for one.

If you do have one though, here’s another instant transfer option. You can move Velocity points to KrisFlyer at a 1.55:1 ratio provided you have at least 5,000 Velocity points (which would become 3,226 KrisFlyer miles).

Is it good value?

Almost certainly not. Velocity points are worth approximately 1.8 cents according to some reputable estimates, so you’re taking a value hit of over 30% by doing this, assuming you would use the points in the Velocity programme.

KrisShop.com: 24 hours

KrisShop is Singapore Airlines’ online retail store with a wide range of goods, some of which you’d expect to find in an on board duty free selection like cosmetics and fragrances, but over recent years expending to a number of other items including food and homewares.

You can pre-order for onboard collection or alternatively many items are available for home delivery.

KrisShop awards 1.5 KrisFlyer miles per S$1 net spend (i.e. excluding taxes and delivery charges), though enhanced earn rates are available if you are a KrisShopper member.

The bad news, according to KrisShop’s FAQs, is:

“Please allow up to 5 business days for miles to be credited to your KrisFlyer account after your transaction.”

The good news is that in reality, KrisFlyer miles are credited to your account within 24 hours of making your purchase. This even applies at weekends.