status krisflyer promo

Between now and next Saturday the 18th, I won’t be posting too often as I’m on vacation. And I really need a break.

But this is a big enough offer that I wanted to share.

Singapore Airline’s KrisFlyer emailed an offer wherein you can earn KrisFlyer Elite miles without flying, by transferring in your transferable bank points (or even hotel points).

The offer gives you the following ways to earn elite miles:

Ways to earn1 KrisFlyer members will earn2
KrisShop
Every SGD 1 spent3 on KrisShop purchases with credit or debit card
3 Elite miles for every SGD 14 spent
Kris+
Every SGD 1 spent5 at Kris+ partners where KrisPay miles are earned
3 Elite miles for every SGD 1 spent
Conversion of Bank Points to
KrisFlyer miles

Minimum of 10,000 KrisFlyer miles converted from reward points issued by any of our global bank partners (“Bank Points“)
1 Elite mile for every 5 KrisFlyer miles converted
Conversion of Bank Points to
KrisPay miles

KrisPay miles converted6 from Bank Points issued by bank partners on Kris+ app
1 Elite mile for every 5 KrisPay miles converted
Co-brand Cards
Minimum of 100 KrisFlyer miles earned on spend with a co-brand card
1 Elite mile for every 5 KrisFlyer miles earned
Spend or Conversion with Non-Air Partners7
Minimum of 500 KrisFlyer miles earned with our non-air partners or a conversion of a non-air partner’s loyalty points into a minimum of 500 KrisFlyer miles
1 Elite mile for every 5 KrisFlyer miles earned or converted

 

If you are interested in this, the sweet spot would be to transfer over 250,000 bank points from Chase, Citi, or Amex and that would equate to 50,000 Singapore KrisFlyer miles which would equal Star Alliance Gold.

Per the terms of the offer, which you should definitely read yourself before doing anything, it appears you would have the status for 12 months, but then they also launched a “rollover” campaign as follows:

Rolling over Elite miles earned to the next membership year (with membership start date from March 2021 – February 2022) [NEW]

  1. How will this initiative benefit me as a KrisFlyer Elite Silver or Elite Gold member? When will the rolled over Elite miles be available in my account in my new membership year?
    • Any Elite miles earned through air and non-air accruals during the qualification cycle will also be carried forward after your membership year has been extended
    • Your Elite miles will first be reset to zero upon membership extension and re-credited to you within two months from the start of your new membership cycle.
    • Each KrisFlyer Elite member will be eligible for a one-time re-crediting of Elite miles
    • Only Elite miles accrued within your membership year (with membership start date between March 2020 and February 2021) will be re-credited.
    • KrisFlyer Elite Silver members who are upgraded to KrisFlyer Elite Gold tier before their KrisFlyer Elite Silver membership end-date will also be eligible for a one-time re-credit of Elite miles within two months of the upgrade date.
    • Only Elite miles accrued within your membership year (with membership start date from March 2020 till February 2021) will be considered for the re-crediting.

So unless I’m missing anything (Hey, I could be – I’m on island time!) you’d get the status for 12 months but you’d re-earn the same qualifying status miles again next year, giving you two years of Star Alliance Gold.

Star Alliance Gold is most notable for giving you lounge access on all flights, so, for instance, if you were flying United domestically this status would grant you United Club or similar lounge access. If you were United Premier / Star Alliance Gold, you would NOT get this benefit.

MAJOR CAVEATS:

  • Singapore KrisFlyer used to have very competitive rates for Star Alliance bookings, but they’ve devalued over time and you get better value elsewhere most of the time.
  • The redeemable miles earned will expire in 36 months and cannot be extended.

Note that TAP had an arguably easier route to Star Alliance Gold status last year, though it involved a cash payment and required status elsewhere to match. This deal with Singapore requires no competing status.

I’m not sure I’d tie up 250k miles that can’t be extended, though if they’d revamp KrisFlyer to allow for activity to extend redeemable miles, I’d be much more onboard.

Thoughts?

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2 COMMENTS

  1. On the SA website, it says, “Singapore Airlines (SIA) is automatically extending all existing PPS Club and KrisFlyer Elite statuses, for memberships that will expire between March 2021 and February 2022, by another year.”

    The keywords being expiration between 3/21 and 2/22. So with this status promo, your SA Gold status would expire 4/22 (assuming you started it this month), which is outside of the 3/21 and 2/22 that they state.

    There’s a lot of terms and dates, so I could be wrong too, but that’s my interpretation.

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