Kris+ offering 1,200 bonus miles for bank rewards points conversions

If you’ve been following the development of Kris+ (formerly known as KrisPay), you’ll know that it’s been possible to convert bank points from DBS and UOB directly into KrisPay miles for a while now.  

Although this can be a way of instantly topping up your KrisFlyer account (DBS/UOB → Kris+ → KrisFlyer account), you’ll suffer a 15% haircut in terms of value, making the use cases marginal at best. 

However, Kris+ has just launched a new promotion that runs till 5 April 2021, offering users a flat 1,200 bonus KrisPay miles (worth S$8) when they top-up their KrisPay wallet using bank partner rewards points.

Let’s see how this changes the value preposition. 

Earn 1,200 bonus KrisPay miles for bank rewards points transfers

From 25 March to 5 April 2021, Kris+ users who convert the equivalent of at least 3,000 KrisPay miles using their DBS Points or UOB UNI$ will receive a flat bonus of 1,200 KrisPay miles. 

The bonus KrisPay miles should be received within 5 working days of conversion, and the full T&C can be found here. They cannot be transferred to a KrisFlyer account, and must be spent within KrisPay. 

As a reminder, here’s how DBS Points and UOB UNI$ map to KrisPay miles.

	Transfer Ratio
DBS Points	100 DBS Points: 170 KrisPay miles
UOB UNI$	1,000 UNI$: 1,700 KrisPay miles

You’ll notice that due to the transfer ratios, it’s impossible to transfer 3,000 KrisPay miles on the dot. Instead, the smallest number of points you can transfer to trigger the bonus will be

• 1,800 DBS Points
• 2,000 UOB UNI$ 

Assuming you transfer the minimum amount, you’ll end up with this:

Convert	Base	Bonus	Total
1.800 DBS Points	3,060 miles (S$20.40)	1,200 miles (S$8)	4,260 miles (S$28.40)
2,000 UOB UNI$	3,400 miles (S$22.67)	1,200 miles (S$8)	4,600 miles (S$30.67)

There’s very little point keeping the entire amount in KrisPay. 1,800 DBS Points and 2,000 UOB UNI$ could have been worth 3,600 and 4,000 KrisFlyer miles respectively, had you converted them through the banks’ rewards portal. Therefore, by going the Kris+ route, it’s like you’re trading them away at an average value of ~0.78 cents per mile, awful value. 

However, suppose you transferred the base component to KrisFlyer and spent the bonus component (remember- the 1,200 bonus KrisPay miles can’t be transferred to KrisFlyer). You’d essentially be trading 15% of your miles for S$8 of value. That’s up to 1.48 cents per mile, which is much closer to how much most people would value a mile. This assumes you transfer the bare minimum required to trigger the bonus, of course. Go beyond that, and your value per mile drops precipitously.

Convert	Lost Miles*	Bonus	Value per mile
1.800 DBS Points	540 miles	S$8	1.48 cents
2,000 UOB UNI$	600 miles	S$8	1.33 cents
*Based on number of miles you’d have received by transferring through bank rewards portal. For example, 1,800 DBS points should be worth 3,600 miles, but you received 3,060 miles instead. 3,600-3,060=540 miles

This leads to an interesting thought experiment: suppose you wanted to transfer a sizeable sum of DBS Points/UOB UNI$ to KrisFlyer. You could break it up into smaller quantities and make multiple transfers, and find some equilibrium point where the multiple S$8 bonuses and savings on the S$26.75 transfer fee outweigh the 15% miles haircut. 

To illustrate, suppose I transfer 28,800 DBS points in 16 batches of 1,800 points. I forfeit 8,640 miles (28,800 x 2 – 28,800/100*170), which are worth S$155.52 based on a value of 1.8 cents per mile. However, I receive 16 bonuses of S$8 and save S$26.75 on transfer fees for a total of S$154.75. This is roughly my “break-even” point, and for any transfers smaller than this, it may make sense to go via Kris+, at least during this promotional period. 

tl;dr: if you’re going to do this:

• Transfer the base component to KrisFlyer within 7 days (or else it’s stuck forever)
• Spend the bonus component in Kris+ within 6 months (validity of KrisPay miles)

Conclusion

This is an interesting little promotion by Kris+, and you depending on your valuation of a mile, you might even come out on top in certain situations. For those who need a small top-up of their KrisFlyer account but don’t want to incur a flat S$26.75 transfer fee by going through the bank, the S$8 bonus may make this a more palatable option.