Singapore Airlines extends KrisFlyer miles until at least 31 July 2021

With travel still on indefinite hiatus (albeit with some glimmers of hope), KrisFlyer members are understandably concerned about what will happen to their miles. 

Fortunately, Singapore Airlines has been periodically extending expiring KrisFlyer miles. I’ve already written about three separate extensions granted in April, June, and October 2020. As per the most recent article, KrisFlyer miles were going to expire on 30 April 2021 at the earliest. But with that date fast approaching and borders still closed, what’s the plan now?

KrisFlyer miles have been extended again

The good news is that Singapore Airlines has granted yet another KrisFlyer miles extension. With the latest extensions, expiring KrisFlyer miles have now been extended by a total of 6-18 months, and the earliest that any KrisFlyer miles will expire is 31 July 2021.

There’s been some confusion about this, no doubt because of how the information has been presented on the Singapore Airlines website. On the Renewal Support page, you’ll find this table under the “Extension of Expiring KrisFlyer Miles” section:

Notice how April, May, and June 2020 are missing from the table. What’s going on is that even though SIA has further extended these miles, they’ve decided to lump them in with the KrisFlyer miles expiring in April, May and June 2021 respectively. 

I suppose that kind of makes sense, given how April 2020 miles had already been extended to April 2021. However, it’s not a great way of presenting the information, and no doubt panicked a few KrisFlyer members who thought their April, May and June 2020 miles had gone bye-bye (PPS Club members, your miles don’t expire, lucky you).

It also doesn’t help that the SIA still hasn’t updated the blurb in the “Miles Validity” section of the KrisFlyer member area, which only reflects the very first extension of six months for miles expiring between April and December 2020.  

How are expiring miles extended?

As always, do note that any extension of KrisFlyer miles will only reflect at the end of the original expiry month. For example, if you have miles expiring on 30 April 2021, you will be able to see that the miles have been extended and are valid till 31 October 2021 in May 2021. 

At the end of each month, you will see two transactions in your account statement. The first transaction will show expiring miles being debited from your account with the description “Singapore Airlines SR (Adjustment) 6 months mileage extension”. The second transaction will show the same number of expiring miles being credited back into your account with the description “Singapore Airlines SR 6 months mileage extension”.

An example is shown below:

Before you get your hopes up, these adjustment credits won’t give you any Elite miles or PPS Value under the existing “earn on the ground” campaign (if only life were that easy). 

Why not just switch to activity-based expiry?

I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but seriously, why doesn’t Singapore Airlines just follow Cathay Pacific’s lead and adopt an activity-based expiry system for KrisFlyer? 

Fixed expiry dates are so passé, and while everyone appreciates the extensions, they get hard to keep track of after a while. Moreover, activity-based expiry systems encourage interaction with a program’s ecosystem, for reasons I’ve elaborated here. I’m more likely to use Kris+, buy from KrisShop, use a co-brand card or convert credit card points if I knew that doing so could extend the validity of my entire balance. 

Come on, you know it makes sense…

Conclusion

Singapore Airlines is no doubt monitoring the travel situation, and I don’t think they’ll hesitate to roll out another extension should borders still be shut when July draws near. The main question I have is what they’ll do if some travel becomes possible- will extensions still be granted, or will the expectation be that everyone should be burning their miles on that handful of routes?

We’ll have to see, but in the meantime, the earliest anyone’s KrisFlyer miles will expire is 31 July 2021. For the latest information on the extension of miles and status, refer to this link.