photo by andy mitchell
The Idea
- SQ has started offering the option to redeem Krisflyer miles for Tigerair and Scoot vouchers. 3,200, 5,300 and 10,500 miles are needed for S$30, S$50 and S$100 respectively
- These redemptions value a Krisflyer mile at ~0.95 cents, which is extremely poor value
- You should not redeem your miles for vouchers unless you have a very low mile balance which will soon expire
The Details
Krisflyer is generally one of the more restrictive mileage programs out there. Other FFPs give you the option of redeeming your miles for a whole variety of things, from car rentals to holiday stays to gadgets, watches etc (a very poor value). Krisflyer on the other hand, only allows you to redeem your miles for flights.
Singapore Airlines owns stakes in Tigerair and Scoot, and has recently announced a scheme allowing Krisflyer members to redeem Krisflyer miles for travel vouchers on these 2 airlines. As you might expect, the value offered is extremely poor. Below are the options
| KrisFlyer miles required for redemption | Value of voucher (SGD) | Implicit value of 1 KF mile (in Singapore cents) |
| 3,200 | 30 | 0.9375 |
| 5,300 | 50 | 0.9434 |
| 10,500 | 100 | 0.9524 |
Any way you look at it, this is a terrible use of your miles (recall the value of aย mile- covered here). Donโt get me wrong, itโs always good to have more options for using your miles. But the only scenario in which you should be considering this is when you have a small number of miles about to expire. Otherwise, stay well, well away. Budget airline tickets are so cheap anyway, thereโs no reason you should be using your hard earned miles for this.
