Exercise for miles: AIA Vitality adds KrisFlyer partnership

When AIA unceremoniously nuked the Vitality program last year, one of the supposed silver linings was a new conversion partnership with KrisFlyer. Members were promised that their newly-minted Vitality coins could soon be exchanged for Singapore Airlines’ prized currency. 

“Soon” turned out to be relative, as it took more than a year for the scheme to materialize. But it’s finally here, and man, how underwhelming it is. 

Per an update on the AIA Vitality portal:

Redeem KrisFlyer miles with Vitality coins

350 coins	⇒	500 miles (1,000 miles for the first 1,000 redemptions by 30 Sept 21*)
*500 miles will be credited initially, with the remaining 500 miles credited by 30 Nov 2021

Effective immediately, 350 Vitality coins can be exchanged for 500 KrisFlyer miles via the AIA Marketplace. The first 1,000 redemptions made by 30 September 2021 will receive an additional 500 miles, or 1,000 KrisFlyer miles in total. 

AIA uses a fixed value of 1 coin = 5 cents, and I value 1 KrisFlyer mile at approximately 1.8 cents. Therefore, trading 350 Vitality coins for 500 KrisFlyer miles is like exchanging S$17.50 for S$9.

It’s absolutely dismal, unless perhaps you happen to be among the first 1,000 redemptions- and remember that’s a limited-time promotion only. Simply put, outside of this limited-time transfer bonus, there’s absolutely no reason why you should ever exchange Vitality coins for KrisFlyer miles. 

How do I earn Vitality coins?

AIA Vitality is now a confusing mess of points, spins and coins. Basically, you accumulate points to earn spins to earn coins to redeem vouchers. 

Points–>Spins–> Coins–>Vouchers

Members earn spins by completing their Weekly Fitness Challenge. Each member has their own personalized goal that ranges from 200 to 400 points per week (by the way the goal increases as you get fitter, so you’re basically a victim of your own success).

A maximum of 100 points per day can be earned through exercise:

Met your Weekly Fitness Challenge goal? Great, you get a spin of the Vitality wheel. Yup, AIA changed the guaranteed S$5 reward into a lottery system, where the expected payout averages S$3.50.

Let’s do some quick math. 350 Vitality Coins= 500 miles, so 1 coin is worth about 1.4 miles. Your expected payoff per spin is 70 coins, or 100 miles. Is that a good return for a week of exercise?

Well, assuming your weekly target is 300 points, that works out to 60,000 steps. 60,000 steps is a distance of 30 miles. So you walk 30 miles to earn 100 miles. It’s certainly better than what Mileslife Health offered back in the day (10,000 steps= 8 miles),  but you’d still be better off redeeming other rewards.

Conclusion

AIA Vitality Coins can now be converted to KrisFlyer miles, but the conversion rate is so dire (outside the limited-time launch promotion) the option might as well not exist. 

Truth be told, Vitality as a rewards program has been living on life support ever since its July 2020 gutting, and I only sign up when I’m booking a Royal Caribbean cruise. Even as a Bronze member you can save 10% off the fare, and it’s well worth paying an S$8 fee for just one month.