KrisFlyer for Families: Transfer your child’s KrisFlyer miles to a parent’s account

While the Young Explorer program is ancient history, kids as young as two can still earn KrisFlyer miles in their own name. If you have rugrats of your own, you’re probably familiar with this already.

The problem is: it’s very hard for kids to accrue a critical mass of miles for redemption- it’s not like they have access to credit cards, after all. Unless your kids are mini-road warriors, they’re liable to end up with orphan miles (very poor choice of words), which you might have to cash out at sub-optimal value. 

At long last, there’s a solution. KrisFlyer has introduced a new feature called KrisFlyer for Families, which allows parents to transfer up to 50,000 KrisFlyer miles a year from their kid’s account to their own (for a nominal fee).

For the month of August, parents can also earn an easy 500 KrisFlyer miles just for making a linkage. 

What is KrisFlyer for Families?

Currently, KrisFlyer accounts are strictly individual. Unlike other programs such as Aeroplan or British Airways Executive Club, there’s no option for families to pool miles together. Remember: the person whose name is on the ticket earns the miles; not the person who pays!

With KrisFlyer for Families, children (up to age 16) with KrisFlyer accounts can transfer a maximum of 50,000 miles per calendar year to a nominated parent. 

In order to transfer miles, you’ll need to set up a Parental Link, which can be done by logging into your child’s KrisFlyer account and turning on Parental Link via the Profile → Personal Details section.

Once that’s done, miles can be transferred via Miles → Transfer Child’s Miles.

🧒 Child	⇒	🧑  Parent
Fee: US$5/500 miles per 5,000 miles transferred

A fee of US$5/500 miles per 5,000 miles transferred applies. The fee is charged per block, so transferring 5,001 miles will cost the same as 10,000 miles. Given a value of 1.8 cents per mile, it makes more sense to pay the fee than sacrifice the miles. 

Unlike other Singapore Airlines service fees, this isn’t waived for elite members, so don’t bother asking.

Each child’s KrisFlyer account can only be linked to one parent’s KrisFlyer account (good time to see which parent they prefer), but one parent account can be linked to up to five children’s accounts. 

Here’s a few thing others to note:

• Transfers are one-way only; you won’t be able to transfer miles to your child’s account
• Your child’s account must have at least one mileage accrual from a flight in the last 36 months, and no miles accrued from credit card transfers/co-brand card spend in the last 36 months
• Accounts will be linked until the child turns 16

How many miles do children earn?

Even though children (at least those aged 2-11) pay a discounted fare compared to adults, they still earn the same number of miles as adults- it all depends on the fare class. 

Should you transfer, or just use the redemption nominee feature?

As KrisFlyer members will know, it’s already possible to redeem miles for someone else using the redemption nominee system. I’ve laid out the details in this post, in case you’re unfamiliar.

Therefore, if you control your child’s KrisFlyer account you can already use their miles for yourself/any other nominee. So why would you want to incur the transfer fees?

It all boils down to what I talked about at the start- since children can only really earn miles from flying, it may be difficult to accumulate the critical mass needed for a redemption. For example, flying Economy Class from Singapore to San Francisco would earn only 8,440 miles in  a Lite/Value bucket; barely enough for a one-way Economy Class redemption to Bali. 

Therefore, it may make more sense to pool the child’s miles with an adult (who can further bolster their account with miles from credit cards etc.), who then makes the redemption. In that sense, the 50,000 mile annual transfer limit shouldn’t be that big a deal- if the child has more than that in his/her account, you’re better off using the redemption nominee function. 

Think of it as paying a US$50 fee to gain access to your kid’s 50,000 miles.  

Earn 500 miles for linking accounts

From 16-31 August 2021, the first 5,000 parents/guardians who link their child’s account will receive 500 KrisFlyer miles. For avoidance of doubt, the maximum miles a parent can receive is 500, regardless of how many children’s accounts are linked. 

Your child’s KrisFlyer account must have been created on or before 15 August 2021, so unfortunately any newly-created accounts will not qualify. 

The miles will be credited to the parent’s KrisFlyer account within 4-6 weeks from 31 August 2021, and will be valid for 12 months from the date of crediting (unlike regular KrisFlyer miles, which are valid for three years).

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

Conclusion

While it’s not quite the family pooling feature I was hoping for, at least KrisFlyer is finally adding a way for parents to access their children’s miles. 

There’s a fee involved, but depending on how many miles your child has, it could still be worth paying. Assuming he/she is fairly well-stocked, it may still be better to use the traditional redemption nominee system.