Kris+ awarding 700 bonus miles with every 2,020 miles transferred

Kris+ has launched a Farewell, 2020! promotion that runs from now till 3 January 2021. For every 2,020 KrisPay miles (or more) transferred during this period, users will receive an additional 700 miles in their KrisPay wallet.

On the surface, this sounds like a great offer- 700 bonus miles for every 2,020 miles transferred? Why, that’s a 35% bonus– even better than the 15% transfer bonus that’s running with KrisFlyer! 

Well, not really.

Farewell, 2020! promotion

From 28 December 2020 to 3 January 2021, Kris+ will award a flat bonus of 700 KrisPay miles for every KrisPay wallet top-up of at least 2,020 miles. This top-up can be made through KrisFlyer miles, DBS Points or UOB UNI$. There is no limit to the number of times you can utilize this offer, provided the transfers are completed by 2359 on 3 January 2021. 

Like I said, it sounds good: 700/2,020= 35%, a significant bonus indeed. But if you’re hoping that this might be an easy way to print KrisFlyer miles, think again.

First, the 700 bonus miles cannot be transferred back into your KrisFlyer account. Second, thanks to the minimum transfer blocks at play, you won’t be able to hit the 2,020 minimum on the dot with DBS points or UOB UNI$, which brings down the actual bonus:

	Transfer Ratio*	Min. Possible Transfer	Actual Bonus (700 miles)
DBS Points	100 DBS Points: 170 196 KrisPay miles	1,100 DBS Points (2,156 KrisPay miles)	32%
UOB UNI$	1,000 UNI$: 1,700 1,955 KrisPay miles	2,000 UNI$ (3,910 KrisPay miles)	18%
*Reflects the current 15% transfer bonus that runs till 16 Jan 2021

Transfers from KrisFlyer can be made in increments of 1 mile, which means you can hit 2,020 miles on the dot. Post-bonus, you’d receive 2,720 miles, worth S$18.13. Your actual outlay was 2,020 miles, so it’s basically a value of ~0.9 cents per mile.

This is hardly amazing, and is roughly equivalent to a 25% milesback promotion in terms of value. Given that we’ve seen milesback offers of up to 45% in the past, I wouldn’t even bother. 

The full T&C of this offer can be found here. 

Conclusion

Don’t get confused: this isn’t a KrisFlyer miles offer. This is an offer for KrisPay miles, so it’s at best a way to accumulate more miles for spending (not flying). The 700 bonus miles cannot be transferred into KrisFlyer, and remember, if you’re transferring from KrisFlyer into KrisPay, the transfer is irreversible. 

I suppose the best use case would be for those who already intend to transfer DBS Points/UOB UNI$ into KrisFlyer via Kris+, in order to avoid the conversion fee imposed by banks. Your base points can be transferred, but not the bonus, so you’re picking up 700 KrisPay miles (S$4.67) with every transfer made. I still don’t think that’s worth the haircut in terms of miles though.