Kris+ offering largest-ever 45% milesback offer

To mark Black Friday/Cyber Monday, Kris+ is offering a 45% milesback promotion from 26-30 November 2020– its largest-ever. 

This is valid at all 141 KrisPay merchants, and may be particularly interesting to those attending Inside Singapore Airlines this weekend looking to do some retail therapy. Remember, a whole range of KrisShop and inflight service items are available for sale, including bar carts from the B747/777 aircraft- washed and cleaned, of course. 

Kris+ 45% milesback promotion

From 26-30 November 2020, Kris+ is offering 45% milesback (T&C here) at all merchants, with no cap on the maximum milesback you can receive. For example, if you spend 15,000 KrisPay miles you’ll receive a rebate of 6,000 KrisPay miles. 

This yields a value of 1.21 cents per mile, significantly better than the usual 0.67 cents per mile rate. Do note, however, that miles earned under this promotion cannot be transferred back into KrisFlyer, so to realise that full 1.21 cents, you’ll need to make a few transactions during the promotion period. 

Take the example in the table above:

• You transfer 15,000 miles to Kris+ and spend them for S$100
• You’ll receive 6,750 in milesback
• Suppose you only spend this after 30 November 2020, when the rate reverts to the usual 0.67 cents/mile. Your milesback will be worth about S$45, which means your total value for 15,000 miles was S$100 + S$45, or 0.97 cents per mile

So it’s an iterative process, and it takes about four transactions to get close enough to the 1.21 cents/mile figure. That said, you could also choose to hold on to the miles and wait for Kris+ to run another milesback promotion, although it’s usually 30-40%.

How does this compare to other options?

A 1.21 cents/mile figure isn’t the worst thing you can do with your miles, assuming you’re unable to redeem them for flights. Here’s how it compares to other options for spending KrisFlyer miles:

The Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble may have been put on hold, but Singapore Airlines has been diligently extending expiring miles so I’d say there’s no rush to redeem them. They’ve recently added a 15% bonus when you transfer points from any bank in Singapore (or selected overseas ones), so you might even be considering adding to your stash right now. 

Ultimately this all boils down to how much you value a mile. If your valuation is below 1.2 cents, then this Kris+ promotion can make sense. Otherwise, keep the faith and wait for travel to resume.

Conclusion

As I’ve said from day one: Kris+ is a good way of earning miles, and a poor way of burning them. However, if you have a large, and I mean really large, balance of KrisFlyer miles, perhaps you might want to buy a fully-loaded bar cart this weekend for 82,500 miles or so?

It’s better than bubble tea.