How does KrisFlyer’s redemption nominee system work?

Want to redeem KrisFlyer miles for friends and family? It's possible, but you'll need to add them as redemption nominees. Here's how it works.

The general rule of credit card points is that they can only be transferred to your own frequent flyer account.

For example, if Jack has 100,000 Citi Miles on his Citi PremierMiles Card, he can’t transfer those points to Jill’s frequent flyer account (even if Jill is his supplementary cardholder). Jack’s credit card points are for Jack’s frequent flyer account only, and banks and airlines conduct regular audits to ensure this rule is adhered to. Transfer points to an account that’s not in your name, and at best it’ll bounce; at worst you’ll be subject to an audit that could lead to the miles being confiscated and the account shut down.

But even if you’re the one who’s doing all the flying and spending, it’s still possible to share your miles with a family member or friend. With Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, that comes in the form of the redemption nominee system, which I’ll explain in this post. 

How does KrisFlyer’s redemption nominee system work?

Redeem your miles for up to five redemption nominees

Unlike other frequent flyer programmes like Avianca LifeMiles or Alaska Mileage Plan where you can redeem a ticket for anyone you like, KrisFlyer uses a more specific redemption nominee system.

KrisFlyer allows members to nominate a maximum of five redemption nominees, for whom the following award tickets and upgrades can be redeemed:

  • Singapore Airlines awards
  • Singapore Airlines upgrades
  • Star Alliance awards
  • Star Alliance upgrades
  • Non-alliance awards (Alaska, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia, Vistara, Juneyao Airlines, Malaysia Airlines)

In addition to this, if you’re planning to pay with KrisFlyer miles for Singapore Airlines, Scoot or Pelago bookings, you can only do so where you or your redemption nominees are the named travellers/participants.

Adult and child (aged 2 and older) nominees are treated the same, i.e. they each take up one of your five available slots. Infants (aged below 2) need not be named as one of your redemption nominees, because they do not occupy a seat. Instead, you’ll pay 10% of the best available fare for their ticket, which I’ve outlined in the post below.

Guide: Booking infant tickets with Singapore Airlines

There is no fee to add new redemption nominees, but there is a fee to replace or delete existing nominees. 

Tier
Change of Redemption Nominee
OnlineOffline
KrisFlyerUS$30 or 3,000 milesUS$55 or 5,500 miles
KrisFlyer Elite SilverUS$15 or 1,500 milesUS$40 or 4,000 miles
KrisFlyer Elite GoldWaivedUS$25 or 2,5000 miles
PPS Club & Solitaire PPS ClubWaivedWaived
Can only be done six months after a nominee is added

Once a nominee is added, he/she can only be replaced or deleted after six months. This rule exists because Singapore Airlines’ biggest concern is creating a resale market for award tickets. What they don’t want is people adding and deleting award nominees at will, then going on Carousell and offering discounted tickets for sale (though it still happens!).

How do I add a redemption nominee?

Adding a redemption nominee is a fairly straightforward process.

Login to your KrisFlyer account. Click on the circle with your initials at the top right > Profile

You’ll be prompted for an OTP, since this constitutes a high-risk transaction. On the next screen click on Redemption nominees.

Click Add nominee

Enter the details of the person you’d like to nominate.

There’s a field at the bottom labelled “Authorised nominee” that prompts you to select yes or no. This is how the KrisFlyer T&Cs describes an authorised nominee:

To protect membership privileges, the nominees you have authorised will be able to make and change bookings for themselves and on your behalf after necessary verification. If they have been so verified, Singapore Airlines will not inform the principal member nor be held liable for issuing redemption tickets to the authorised nominees.

This needs some explaining. It doesn’t mean that your nominee gets a login of their own that allows them to access your KrisFlyer account. What it does mean is that if you book a ticket on behalf of someone else, that person can make changes at will on their own.

I must admit I’m slightly confused about the ability of nominees to “make bookings” – in my experience, being added as a redemption nominee to someone else’s account doesn’t in any way let me access their miles through my own KrisFlyer account. The only way would be for that person to give their login details to me.

There’s another field at the bottom which asks what your relationship to this nominee is. There’s no reason to be concerned; KrisFlyer clearly states you can redeem miles for friends and family, so you can nominate pretty much anyone. This field is probably as much for demographic information as anything else.

How do I redeem a ticket for a redemption nominee?

Redeem KrisFlyer miles for redemption nominees on Singapore Airlines or any of its partners

Once a redemption nominee has been added, you can redeem any sort of award ticket for him or her, whether it’s with Singapore Airlines, Star Alliance, or any other KrisFlyer partner.

You’ll see the option to add the redemption nominee’s name to the ticket at the booking screen.

If you’re making a booking over the phone, simply inform the CSO which nominee you wish to redeem it for. The CSO will be able to view your full list of nominees and select one accordingly.

Redemption nominee FAQs

What if I subsequently remove a redemption nominee from my list?

Removing a redemption nominee from your list has no impact whatsoever on already issued tickets.

That’s to say, when the six-month timeout period has ended, you can remove nominee A and replace him/her with nominee B, notwithstanding the fact that nominee A has an outstanding unflown ticket issued in their name. 

What if my redemption nominee is <12 years old?

You can redeem KrisFlyer miles online for a redemption nominee <12 years old so long as he or she is accompanied.

If the nominee is unaccompanied, you’ll need to contact KrisFlyer Membership Services for assistance.

What if the KrisFlyer member is <12 years old?

It may surprise you to know that the minimum age to open a KrisFlyer account is 2 years.

However, a KrisFlyer member aged <12 cannot redeem KrisFlyer miles for award tickets online, unless a redemption nominee 18 years old or above is travelling with him/her on the same flight.

A KrisFlyer member aged 12-17 can redeem their KrisFlyer miles for award tickets online for themselves or redemption nominees 18 years old or above. However, they cannot do so for redemption nominees below 18 years of age.

You might also be interested in the KrisFlyer for Families feature, which allows you to transfer your child’s miles to you (but not the other way round) for a nominal fee.

KrisFlyer for Families: Transfer your child’s KrisFlyer miles to a parent’s account

Conclusion

KrisFlyer’s redemption nominee system is fairly straightforward, and while it limits you to five nominees, it’s unlikely you’ll bust the limit unless you travel with a large entourage. 

Since there is a six-month window before you can remove or change a nominee, don’t add them willy-nilly. Make sure it’s someone you could see yourself redeeming miles for (is this the new “let’s get BTO” question?).

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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Evan

Can I call up SQ to use the child’s miles to redeem his own ticket? And concurrently use my miles to redeem my own ticket (tag the reservations or something) so it wont be consideeed as an unaccompanied minor

Otherwise it’s hard to amass sufficient miles under child’s account redeem something for both him and me

Snark

Have you thought about actually calling and asking SQ the question? Or if you’re not so keen on talking to a human being (I’m not judging cos as a millennial, I’m not too), have you tried this new thing called Google? I’ve heard they’ve been around since (at least) 2004, and it will only take a second (rather than 10 hours (and counting)).

freedom

I did call krisflyer to redeem a ticket for my kid only and attach it to adult tickets booked separately. I made a mistake by redeeming the adult tickets 1st.

I guess that you can redeem a ticket for the child with the child’s krisflyer account. The only question is how to accumulate enough miles in child’s account. The child only gets miles by flying.

Kristina

Can I upgrade someone who is my redemption nominee to a business class ticket if I have miles available or is that not advisable? Also if they purchased the ticket themselves I do not see this on my awards page…?

Senn

Not sure if I understand this correctly but from the first part of the article, does it mean the miles can be credited to supp cardholder’s KF account as well? Or really everything can only credited to main cardholder’s KF? For Citi Primiermiles card.

[…] so that your loved ones can use your miles even after you’re gone. KrisFlyer allows you to nominate up to 5 individuals who can fly on tickets redeemed with miles from your account. Asia Miles has a very similar system, […]

J

If I book award flights on waitlist for me and my wife with her miles as a nominee, will that booking benefit from my PPS status? Ie. will the booking get priority in the waitlist? She is not PPS but I am.

Ken

Phone up PPS..

Guest

only if you’re traveling with her. If she is traveling alone your status means nothing.

Vincent

Would I be able to make an amendment on a booking for a nominee that I have subsequently deleted?

Rohit

If the ticket has been issued, I don’t see any issues in making a change.

kem

The T & Cs only mention transfer of KF miles from child to parent account. I would assume Elite miles cannot be transferred from child to parent acct?

May Wee

Hi, I have been trying to cancel 3 nominees from my existing list, via phone calls to your hotline and online, but nothing have been done. How can I go about doing that. Please assist on it. Thank you.

Barbara

Hi, do there is no way to transfer KrisFlyer miles from a family member other than a child to my own account correct ?

Thanks, Barbara

HST

I accidentally deleted a nominee (added in Aug 2023 which was more than 6 months ago) but he still have an active confirmed redemmed booking to his name.
Will the booking still be valid?

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