American Express has launched a new targeted promotion for Centurion, Platinum Charge, and Singapore Airlines cobrand cardholders that allows them to buy up to 250,000 KrisFlyer miles at just 1.48 cents each.
This is subject to hitting a minimum spend of S$500 and paying a one-time administrative fee.
If you’re eligible, you’ll have received an eDM with more details.Â
Buy KrisFlyer miles at 1.48 cents each with AMEX cards
Eligible American Express members are required to register and spend at least S$500 during the spending period, as per the timelines below:
| Â | Register By | Spend Period |
| AMEX Platinum Charge/ AMEX Centurion | 17 July 2020 | 24 June- 31 July 2020 |
| All AMEX Singapore Airlines Credit Cards | 8 July 2020 | 24 June- 8 July 2020 |
The registration method varies depending on which card you hold:
- Platinum Charge/Centurion: Call The Platinum Concierge at 1800 392 1177 or your relationship manager
- AMEX Singapore Airlines Cards: Email details to amexkf_enrolment@aexp.com
| ⚠️ Registration requires your full name, mobile number, KrisFlyer membership number and confirmation of participation. I get that they’re trying to give the Platinum Charge/Centurion cardholders the personal touch, but I’d seriously prefer the simplicity of an email address |
After meeting the spending threshold, registered cardholders will be charged a one-time fee and receive the following miles in return:
| Card | One-time Fee | KrisFlyer Miles | Cost Per Mile |
 AMEX Centurion |
S$1,622 S$3,687 S$7,373 |
110,000 250,000 500,000 |
1.48 1.48 1.48 |
 AMEX Platinum Charge |
S$1,622 S$3,687 |
110,000 250,000 |
1.48 1.48 |
 AMEX Solitaire PPS Credit Card |
S$1,622 | 110,000 | 1.48 |
 AMEX PPS Credit Card |
S$1,622 | 110,000 | 1.48 |
 AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend |
S$1,512 | 102,500 | 1.48 |
 AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card |
S$738 | 50,000 | 1.48 |
| The above data points are sourced from the Milelion Community, and it’s possible there are other variants out there. If you have a different one, please sound out! |
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The one-time fee will be charged by 21 August for Platinum Charge/Centurion members, and 30 August for AMEX Singapore Airlines Credit Card members, with miles credited by 30 October.Â
If you fail to meet the minimum spend of S$500, you will not be charged the one-time fee.Â
Do note that unlike other “spend and buy miles” promotions we’ve seen from other banks, miles will be directly deposited into your KrisFlyer account. AMEX Platinum Charge and Centurion cardholders are therefore not buying Membership Rewards points; they’re buying miles. You won’t have the option to transfer these to any of the other 10 partners AMEX has.Â
Is it worth buying KrisFlyer miles at 1.48 cents?
1.48 cents is a fairly low threshold, but once again it all boils down to how much you value a mile.Â
For the sake of perspective, it’s possible to buy miles from as low as 1.07 cents each, provided you have the right cards and an income tax bill to pay. Alternatively, you could buy miles from 1.17 cents if you have a rental bill, or 1.38 cents if you have an insurance, MCST bill, electricity bill, or car loan.Â
If you don’t have any of those, or if you’ve exhausted the limits of your bills, then this can be a potentially lucrative option.Â
Conclusion
Despite the close relationship that AMEX has with Singapore Airlines, this is the first time I can think of them selling miles directly. This could be a potentially attractive opportunity for some people, but as with all miles purchase promotions during Covid-19, you need to know what you’re getting into.Â
If you received targeted offers other than the ones above, do sound out below!
1.48 is probably indicative of the miles devaluation coming soon once full-on travel resumes. No airline or hotel will announce a devaluation now – bad publicity, they won’t be able to sell points, and there’s no actual loss now since there are hardly any actual redemptions with the current travel restrictions.
But it’s certainly coming because of the hangover from the cashflow problems they are having at the moment. Miles and points are a captive currency.
One might argue the same about QE and the likelihood of USD devaluation/inflation vs gold but USD is probably unavoidable as the current de facto international trading currency. Miles on the other hand…..
Miles devaluation is the easiest way to preserve cash which has been raised at some expense (in the SQ case through rights and MCB which is 4-6% yield for the retail investor – rare for retail SGB bond from a GLC, and below usual $250K minimum lot size too). SIA will definitely devalue miles when normal travel resumes since every other airline will devalue as well. KF members can hardly complain when every FF program is devaluing…..
I expect most of those who bite on this offer will be KF AMEX rather than centurion – the latter have other options rather than bother with the inconvenience of redemption and impending devaluation.
i’d disagree. a miles devaluation is a non-cash generating event, and when there’s no pressure on seats, there’s no reason to devalue. devaluations happen when too many miles chase too few seats- what you typically see when flight loads are high and the opportunity cost of an award seat increases.
now, the thing about forecasting devaluations is there’s a kind of inevitability about it- you’ll eventually be proven right. But I don’t believe we will see it in the short term. I’d be very surprised if KF devalued its award chart in the next 12-18 months.
When many FF programs are selling miles and points eg at 150% bonus there will be a surfeit of miles in the wild – all with expiry dates at some point.If travellers are short of cash, they will try to use their miles for trips, especially personal trips, if possible.
Once miles are sold, airlines already have the money in hand. It’s simple to reduce redemption availability. More miles chasing fewer redemption seats. Why reduce redemption availability?
Firstly, there will be pressure on seats with fewer flights (see US flights which have been surprisingly full) as there may be flight limits/regulations/airport passenger handling capacity etc until an effective vaccine emerges.
Secondly, airlines are looking for cash right now and they will try to herd travellers to revenue flights rather than redemption flights. 3 easy ways to do this. Reduce revenue ticket price, raise redemption price & reduce redemption availability. Either way the miles are devalued. Triple whammy if all 3 are done. But it’s a lot cheaper to hit redemptions than reduce revenue prices.
At the risk of sounding insensitive, I get it that there will be inherent and maybe even subconscious bias in the point of view of a business owner who directly or indirectly depends on a lucrative ecosystem of miles and points transactions to generate interest in this corner of online literature. I apologize in advance for any offence, sorry. I probably have my own bias too. Hopefully offence is reduced by verbosity.
Since I’m sitting on almost 2 million miles not to mention hotel points, I personally hope that your viewpoint is accurate. Sadly I think I will be taking a loss on the value of those miles since I won’t be doing enough short or long redemption trips in the forseeable future to exhaust my balance before devaluations hit, even with validity extensions.
Personally I’d say 1.48 cpm is at least double of a value rate given the current situation and the situation in the next 18 months. Also balance against risk management (not SIA but certainly LM) and opportunity cost on the spending (considerable given investment opportunites at the moment). Personally I’m probably old school since I get most of my miles through spending so they’re in effect ‘free’ (not really) so that’s maybe my bias.
I agree more with Aaron here.
There is no reason to devalue redemptions at this time, it does not generate any cash for the airline to devalue the program. In fact, it is a good time for airlines to encourage redemptions; when travel is reduced, there is less opportunity cost to open seats up to redemptions than during peak seasons. More people spending their miles frees up liability on their balance sheets.
I’m not purchasing miles because I am in a similar situation where my spending habits are generating enough miles for me. But the miles you have are far from “free” even in this case. At minimum, there is a 1.5 cent opportunity cost had you used a general unlimited cashback card.
of course agree with bbron that miles are not ‘free’ – so i’m hoping there won’t be a devaluation.
i’d encash all my miles now at 1.8 cents if I could. like you, my miles are still coming in with spending, especially since it’s mostly online card spend recently instead of cash-only places we used to go to (dining, durians that sort of thing)
still think flight restrictions and the need to incentivise revenue tickets vs redemption tickets will lead to devaluation. It may not be an increase in miles required for redemption; a reduction in business class ticket prices achieves same thing and will probably happen since the corporate world has achieved cost savings on zoom/webex and will reduce executive travel.
First will probably be unaffected but I’m short enough and mostly sleep throughout so that might be a waste of miles for me too.
hope you’re right though – time will tell
no worries!
obviously no one knows with 100% certainty what will happen, but airlines don’t consciously look to piss off customers (hard to believe with united, i know, but still). in the case of SIA specifically, they’ve done their capital raise. there’s no sign that they’ll run aeroplan style promos, and i’m fairly confident we’ll see stable award prices for the short term at least.
you might want to watch this webinar i ran with Mark Mullinix (Head of Strategy & Partnerships, Ascenda) and Nik Laming (Director, Urban Leopard Loyalty). we discussed the possibility of devaluations, and their consensus is it’s unlikely. IATA has already said that traffic won’t rebound for at least 2, possibly 3 years. It means a lot of excess capacity, and fairly low cost (opportunity cost) redemption seats- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2nGDpiwLtk
Got the eDM. Was wondering if members can register for this offer multiple times – once with each different eligible AMEX card held. The only concern is if SQ and other Star Alliance members devalue miles in near future. Got to mull over it!
How does this compare to the UOB Visa Infinite Promotion Payment Facility with a one-time fee of 1.9% (for one-time payment)?
Already paid tax, rental, as well as register this promotion, however cannot get enough miles for travel. so sad. hope other banks will launch a similar promotion soon.
Sad that I did not receive the eDM (holding ascend card), do you think calling their CSO would be a good idea?
Wondering if just emailing the details will get auto registration for the KF AMEX card even though there is no eDM received?
Yes, I just dropped then an email and the day after it’s auto enrolled, you’ll receive email confirmation
Thanks. I sent email to them yesterday. No email confirmation at all. Checked spam email box and nothing from them. Not too sure if this is considered enrolled once you sent in.
I sent in an email too without receiving the edm, and got the confirmation email the next day
Hey Aaron, the minimum income for the Amex Platinum Charge card stated here (https://milelion.com/credit-cards/current-credit-card-sign-up-bonuses) looks incorrect. It’s $200k and not $150k, right?
Unofficially it is 150k. Officially it is 200k
This is awesome news.. thanks!
Pls be patient with me for a point of view from outside the ecosystem.
interestingly there’s a balance to this. it’s a bit like professional money selling before a crash while the hold-for-long-term-gain people ride the crash through patiently dollar-averaging their way onward. the difference is that the security markets eventually cycle up again in price (not necessarily value i know but still). Both strategies are valid for the correct group of people respectively. Wrong group and it’s a disaster.
But the dollar value of miles and points trend down with time and their intrinsic value is tied to the travel they can ‘buy’ .Of course miles aren’t investments but anyone holding lots of miles now, is going to have even more of them with card spend and nowhere to go. Miles don’t viably ‘buy’ anything other than travel. And unlike investments we can’t sell them nor can we (that’s me) stop getting/earning them. We become holders not by choice.
Smart money would get out to cash. We can’t. There’s no miles exchange marketplace where the bears can sell to the bulls. So I can put my miles/money where my mouth is. Maybe someone can with industry connections can set up an exchange. The Milleion Exchange?
Actually, come to think of it, airlines are ‘getting out’ to cash by selling miles. Difference is airlines are also ‘printing’ miles. It’s a bit like printing money since they determine the price of future redemptions as well as the the underlying value (revenue seat price) with no promises as to either at the point of sale of the miles.
If it was transparent, why wouldn’t airline allow us to sell the miles back to them again, at a lower but comparable value? paying with KF miles at checkout isn’t comparable value and it still requires travel as opposed to cashing out. As opposed to an example like maybe traveller’s cheques?
I don’t agree with your view and I don’t see any value in holding miles for long term gain. I accrue miles because they bring significant savings to me on the travel I would have made anyway.
The future value of miles is far too extensive a topic to discuss in a comments section. In the same vein, the value of cash also tends to trend down with time (50 cents could buy you a bowl of noodles, now you need $1 for 3 pcs of hacks candy).
You can stop earning them. Your refusal to use a different credit card such as a cashback card is by choice.
There are miles cards that allow you to “cash out”. For example, American Express members can exchange MR points for statement credit. OCBC members can redeem statement credit, or shopping vouchers, amongst many others.
Yes they are printing miles. Just as any other business with loyalty points. They have an awards chart for you to refer to, which is subject to change at their whim. They could devalue, or appreciate the miles at any time, however, they have a huge deterrence to devaluing: that being, if they’d devalue the miles to an extent it upset their frequent flyers, these customers could move on to another loyalty program.
If the loyalty program were no longer exciting to customers, then the whole purpose of having a loyalty program would be defeated. People would no longer be enticed to be loyal.
Airlines will not purchase miles back for many reasons. One of the main reasons you can consider is why jewelers will not purchase your super rare super perfect diamond back from you. They have marketed it in a way that puts high value on an item of low cost to them, and giving you a price for it breaks that illusion. Opportunity cost is the main cost an airline needs to consider when awarding flights. The operational cost of having 1 more person on the plane is next to nothing. No additional fuel needed, it really is 1 additional meal and 1 amenities kit.
Another angle
Say there’s lots of excess seat capacity, then business class revenue tickets will get priced lower to improve load factor and in competition with other carriers on the same route. So even without mile devaluations on the redemption sticker price, the net effect is the same in terms of the dollar value of the whole portfolio of miles a person might have. The underlying value of the miles, as pegged to the revenue price of actual travel, will be lower in dollar terms.
So if i could, i’d encash $36K of miles now and worry about paying for my flights later. I’m no Berkshire but they certainly cashed out of the airlines and took a hit – to preserve cash (even though they already have lots of cash). Smart money got out to cash.
Of course smarter money wouldn’t have bought airline stock. And maybe I should have just taken 1.5% cashbank cards instead? But no one saw the exact timing of covid coming like this. I think the difference is Buffet had a way out, even at a loss. We need a miles exchange, heh. There’s a buyer for every seller.
I did not receive the eDM even though I am a Platinum charge card holder. What gives?
just received the eDM this morning
Dear Fallacy,
I agree with you on almost everything. A few things I’d like to say:
Aaron usually has articles out whenever a devaluation (BOC?SQ on 1st My 2019?) or something comes up. It’d be nice to see an upvaluation article for a change.
Thanks for the insights.
A shout out for aaron’s excellent article on devaluations to KF over the years:
https://milelion.com/2019/05/01/tracking-15-years-of-krisflyer-devaluations-and-program-changes/
And another one on passages:
https://milelion.com/2018/02/08/til-singapore-airlines-cathay-mas-combined-ffp-called-passages/
Now I remember why I used to redeem for shopping vouchers in the 90’s!!! I think our local banks hadn’t gotten on board with points-to-miles conversions back then.
The devaluation’s going to happen. The only real debate is the timing of the devaluation. Hopefully after I’ve brought down my miles balance once my wife decides it’s safe for kids to travel (!)
It’s a pity that unlike cash where we only need to keep 6 months spending on hand, miles are not freely convertible to other assets (eg gold as the flavor-du-jour or securities or rental property). We can hedge inflation for cash but not inflation for miles.
Just realized that maybe some form of arbitrage is possible since amex is allowing statement credit at 1.536 cpm vs this purchase at 1.48 cpm.
Wonder if the will credit the miles before end-July if all conditions are met.
Still a little bit of the unknown for $56 per 100k miles.
Anyone has taken this offer and had the miles credited yet?
You will get miles directly credited in your KF account, they cannot be used to offset statement credit.
Right, Missed that. Thanks!
Dear Fallacy,
It’s always interesting to hear different points of view. Let’s try this:
Quote from Aaron:
” Unless the spigot of cheap miles flooding the market is somehow switched off (which I doubt), I think it’s inevitable that we’ll see more frequent devaluations in the future, perhaps at a 2-3 year cadence.
My constant fear is that we’ll start seeing revenue or demand-based pricing, which would destroy so much of the value in the KrisFlyer program. It’s started happening in the US, we’re seeing that with some carriers”
That was without covid. Miles are even easier and cheaper to buy now (150% bonus LF, 60% bonus A-MP). The last devaluation was 2019 so next one 2021?
Thanks for the advice and the opinions. It’s refreshing to get different points of view.
Well yes I can see your point of view but increased flexibility and access, such as Suites savers becoming available is an appreciation in value of the currency. On the extreme end, before Suites became available for redemption, someone whom flew exclusively First Class would value KF miles at 0 cents per mile, considering they would not be interested in whatever KF miles could give them. If they would use pay with points, it would be at best 1 cent as prescribed by SQ. When First/Suites became available, the value of a mile suddenly increases, to that person, to the value of the fare that he would’ve bought anyway.
Access is not always relevant to everyone, but in economic terms it is a fundamental value of currency. This is one of the main reason people pay money for traveler’s cheques. Why would people lose 1% of their money for American Express to print the value of that money on a piece of American Express paper? Because a 100 SGD note that is not accepted in Vietnam would be worth 0 dollars, while an American Express 70 USD Traveler’s Cheque that you bought for 101 SGD + fees is worth 70 USD while you are in Vietnam. (of course you can go to money changers etc. but I’m just demonstrating the basic principle here)
Cash acquisition is the lifeblood of any business, not just airlines. Undoubtedly profit would be the priority of airlines, as we speak, more and more reports of “exploding demand” for tourism are surfacing worldwide and prices will definitely adjust to reflect this demand. People, myself included, are itching to travel and will flood the systems once it is deemed safe to travel again.
Of course, some LCC will survive, and the travel industry might change and present new challenges and formats of travel. Already, some companies have turned their eye to chartered jets instead of commercial flights during this time. More privacy, innate safety distancing, and cost savings in terms of time. I would find it very exciting if an alliance of jet charter companies would have a loyalty program to compete with commercial carriers.
If you already have more miles than you can currently spend, and those miles would increase, why would you look at buying more miles? These miles will be credited directly to your KF account and you cannot use them for statement credit.
If you already have the amount in MR and would like to have that amount of miles at a cheaper rate than converting your MR, then yes it would make sense, and the time it takes before amex credits the miles would be inconsequential to you. Just buy the miles, and redeem the same amount of miles in MR towards statement credit.
Dear Fallacy,
My mistake, sorry. I thought that the 1.48cpm purchase offer was in MR points. It’s direct credit to KF so I certainly won’t be buying any. It makes sense for Amex to credit directly to KF and negate any chance for abitrage given their ongoing 1.536 cpm credit offer (although maybe it’s just coincidental rather than by design). I don’t want any extra miles for now.
I understand your position on availability of suite redemption as an enhancement of the FF program. OTOH anyone who flew F exclusively before KF Saver was available wouldn’t be too bothered with cpm value. Devaluation probably affects the bourgiosie more and the travel pattern in this group would typically be J with an occasional splash of F. I think it’s no coincidence that the devaluations that Aaron has charted affect J the most, F second and Y the least. Perhaps enhancement is a better word than appreciation. I like the burmeister stereo option but I don’t think it really affects the mileage or power of the car (ok, sorry not the best example but maybe you get my drift and I’m too sleepy to think of another, but to show I get your point, I did get the stereo and I did appreciate the F saver, but it didn’t make my remaining mile balance more valuable since I usually take J just to sleep comfortably and get comfort food like instant noodles washed down with cold sake)
To that end, I have been (probably subconsciously) considering the impact of devaluations on common folk like me who typically fly J (which IMHO is best with kids since I don’t really get to kick back in my fancy private F suite with caviar, Krug and John Wick before it’s either feeding time or toilet time or walking time or whatever, but J at least has more space, slightly bigger starboard loo on 773s, more FA attention & more flexible dining times with instant noodles on demand)
I wouldn’t know about traveller’s cheques. I routinely lug some USD – even to UK. But I understand access. That’s the reason for the Centurion and private travel organizers to exist in this connected age – although with young kids one’s need for that tends to diminish. Needless to say it is most relevant to a certain subset of humans. Wish I could say the same and devaluations wouldn’t register on my radar. Hopefully in my 60’s.
Access for miles and points is not exactly the same as for hard currency. Citi points > DBS points, yes but for the 90% (?) of Singaporeans it’s KF anyway. $SGD trumps every loyalty point. For me just the direct flight alone is worth KF but I get that opinions vary and more options are good..
I’m just speculating as to a devaluation – with luck I will be wrong. Let’s see what evolves. It should be interesting. I have plans for Kyoto next spring. Good night and thanks for the interesting thoughts.
Just spend $500 and pay a fee for miles.. No exclusions? Not bad a deal compared to new card sign ups
that’s right. Amex isn’t fond of exclusions, to the benefit of its members.
The Points are in!!!! 🙂