Itโs safe to say that KrisPay hasnโt exactly been setting the world on fire since it launched back in July this year. Singapore Airlinesโ blockchain wallet is meant to let you spend KrisFlyer miles like money, but an abysmal cash-out rate and an anemic merchant list has led to a resounding โmehโ from most observers.

To recap the rules of KrisPay:
- KrisFlyer miles can be converted into KrisPay miles at a 1:1 ratio
- KrisFlyer miles that have been transferred to KrisPay cannot be transferred back into your KrisFlyer account
- 150 KrisPay miles are worth S$1 (0.66 cents per mile)
- KrisPay miles are valid for 6 months
KrisPay is still struggling to grow merchant acceptance, and the 18 merchants it first launched with has only increased by four (three, if you exclude the yet-to-be onboarded Presto Drycleaners) in the three months since launch. New additions include Escape Room venue Xcape Singapore and TCM provider Kin Teck Tong, and at this point Iโve given up trying to discern any semblance of a merchant curation strategy. Heck, even where KrisPay is accepted, you still need to be careful because some merchants list item exclusions (eg you can only use KrisPay at Esso to pay for petrol).
In any case, the KrisPay team must really be under some real pressure to show user growth, because theyโve just launched two new promotions:
First time KrisPay users get 500 free KrisPay miles
Were you an early adopter of KrisPay, or did you download the app just to play around with it when it first launched? If so, tough luck, because KrisPay is offering 500 free miles ($3.33 of value) to anyone who logs in for the first time in November.

All you need to do is download the KrisPay app and log in. Once youโve done that, youโll see a push notification crediting 500 KrisPay miles to your account.
Remember that KrisPay miles cannot be transferred back into your KrisFlyer account, so you wonโt be able to use these miles for flights. For the life of me I canโt think of anything at any of KrisPayโs current merchants that costs $3.33 or less, so youโre still going to have to transfer at least some KrisFlyer miles to KrisPay if you want to take advantage of this.
Speaking of transferring miles to KrisPayโฆ
KrisPay is matching your first KrisFlyer miles transfer in November
KrisPay will match your first top-up in November, up to a limit of 50,000 KrisPay miles. In other words, if on 3 November you transfer 5,000 miles (if you do, please disavow ever reading The Milelion) and on 5 November you transfer a further 6,000 miles (see previous point about disavowment), youโll only get a bonus of 5,000.
This effectively doubles the value you get out of KrisPay- so instead of 0.66 cents per mile, you now get 1.32 cents per mile. Is that good? No. Is that less bad? Yes, certainly.
Protip: Back, Sac and Crack waxing at Strip costs 16,212 KrisPay miles, but can be yours with this promotion for just 8,106. No one likes a Milelion with a messy mane. Go for it.
Should I take advantage of this promotion?
Iโm sticking to what I first said about KrisPay when it launched: the only time you should ever consider using it is if you have a small balance of miles that were about to expire, and you couldnโt use them for award flights, the pay-with-miles function on revenue flights, KrisFlyer vRooms, or KrisShop.
Itโs true that the 1 for 1 top-up matching in November boosts the value of KrisPay above some of your other alternatives. But remember this only applies to your first top-up, and subsequently youโre back to the terrible 0.66 cents per mile valuation. Maybe if you had way too many miles and needed a place to cash them outโฆbut how many of us fall into that category?
Conclusion: there are better ways of driving KrisPay adoption
As before, I really canโt understand what Singapore Airlinesโ strategy is with KrisPay. The majority of KrisFlyer members are just going to use the 500 KrisPay miles (with a small top-up) and never come back.
Look, I get what the team is trying to go for here: theyโre hoping that the top-up matching will persuade people to lock in a large number of miles in KrisPay, which theyโll then need to find ways to spend over the next six months. The hope is that this will โnormalizeโ KrisPay to users, such that it becomes part of their natural payment flow and when the miles are gone, theyโll top them up again at the regular rates.
Fat chance. If the goal is to drive KrisPay adoption, the way to do it is to add merchants. Mobile payments are all about network effects, and when 3 of your 24 merchants are personal groomers, youโre not achieving world domination any time soon. Or why not add an earn function (KrisPay is currently burn-only)? Or why not try and get merchant co-funding so the value of a mile can at least be somewhat less miserable at certain places(perhaps a less-popular merchant may agree to a co-funding arrangement where KrisPay miles are worth slightly more at shop, in order to attract customers)?
The way I see it, this promotion will end up costing KrisPay a whole lot with very little to show for it. So yeah, enjoy your Gong Cha, but how many of you will be using the app again in 6 months?
โProtip: Back, Sac and Crack waxing at Strip costs 16,212 KrisPay miles, but can be yours with this promotion for just 8,106. No one likes a Milelion with a messy mane. Go for it.โ
Someone please help me up from the floor!!!
ROTFL! ??????
Hanging out with Milelion not just taught me about mile-ing but also grooming down there. WIll this increase the chance of impressing chiobu?
no one in the right mind will burn precious miles this way
Sounds like a pathetic promo. Their marketing campaign needs a drastic revamp!
actually i disagree. from a customer POV itโs not bad. i mean who doesnโt want some free money. my point is i dont see what it does for krispay, long term (or even medium term). itโs not going to win over anyone who wasnโt won over before.
I can probably get a pastry from Cedele on thisโฆmaybe that place is more expensive than $3.33
mmmmmโฆ500 mile pastryโฆ
the last time i saw somebody using krispay at cedele, the entire queue was held up for 10mins โ all for one pastry. iโve not used krispay but this gave me the impression that the entire redemption process should be simplified โ there was a lot of to-and-fro between the staff and customer.