| ⚠️ Article Update |
| Singapore Airlines has granted a further extension till July 2023 at least, in a surprise reversal of its previous stance. Refer to this post for more details. |
Ever since COVID-19 began, Singapore Airlines has been periodically extending expiring KrisFlyer miles. Following the most recent extension in January 2022, the earliest any miles will expire is 31 January 2023.
However, with borders reopened and travel restrictions lifted, it was always a long shot that another extension was coming. Singapore Airlines has now confirmed that there will be no further complimentary KrisFlyer miles extensions, per a note sent to customers along with their latest eStatement:
“KrisFlyer miles expiring from January 2023 will no longer be eligible for complimentary extension as part of our COVID-19 membership support measures. Please be reminded to redeem your miles before they expire”
KrisFlyer miles will expire from 31 January 2023
Due to the pandemic, Singapore Airlines has offered various extensions for miles expiring from April 2020 onwards. The latest extension meant that the earliest any miles would expire is 31 January 2023, with some being extended all the way to 30 June 2023.
However, from 31 January 2023 Singapore Airlines will revert to its pre-pandemic expiry policy.
A member’s KrisFlyer miles will expire after three years (or one year for KrisFlyer miles received from contests) at 23:59 hours Singapore time (GMT +08:00 hours) on the last day of the equivalent month in which they were earned.
For example, KrisFlyer miles credited to a member’s KrisFlyer account in July 2017 will expire at 23:59 hours Singapore time (GMT +08:00 hours) on 31 July 2020.
-KrisFlyer T&Cs
Basically: any KrisFlyer miles will expire three years after they were earned, with the exception of miles won from contests, which expire after one year. All expiry takes place at the end of the month, e.g. miles earned from 1-31 July 2017 all expire on 31 July 2020.
| ❓ PPS Club member? |
|
KrisFlyer miles belonging to Solitaire PPS Club or PPS Club members never expire so long as they maintain their status. Should they subsequently fail to requalify, their KrisFlyer miles will expire three years from the last day of the month they failed to requalify. Do note that this benefit does not apply to supplementary Solitaire PPS Club members. |
You can see a summary of all miles due to expire in the next 12 months by logging in to your KrisFlyer account and clicking on Miles Validity.
What should you do?
KrisFlyer members have a one-time option of extending their miles by paying a fee of 1,200 miles or US$12 (~S$17) per 10,000 miles. This grants a 6-month or 12-month extension, depending on tier.
| KrisFlyer | Elite Silver | Elite Gold | |
| Fee per 10,000 miles | 1,200 miles or US$12 | ||
| Extension | 6 mo. | 12 mo. | 12 mo. |
Should you pay the extension fee in cash or miles? It boils down to how much you value a mile:
- If your value per mile is below 1.42 cents, pay with miles
- If your value per mile is more than 1.42 cents, pay with cash
Perhaps a better question is whether you should pay to extend miles in the first place, and I lean towards no. Quite frankly, I think you’d be much better off taking one of the options listed below.
| ✈️ Options for Expiring KrisFlyer Miles | ||
| Value Per Mile | Min. Required | |
| Redeem award flight | Up to 5 cents | 8,500 miles |
| Cash + Miles | 0.95 cents | 1,050 miles |
| Convert to Velocity points | 0.9 cents | 5,000 miles |
| Spend on KrisFlyer vRooms | 0.8 cents | 1,200 miles |
| Spend on KrisShop | 0.8 cents | 1,000 miles |
| Convert to Shangri-La Circle | 0.77 cents | 20,000 miles |
| Convert to CapitaStars | 0.7 cents | 3,000 miles |
| Spend on Kris+ | 0.67 cents | 150 miles |
| Spend on Pelago | 0.67 cents | 1,050 miles |
| Convert to LinkPoints | 0.65 cents | 3,000 miles |
| Convert to Esso Smiles | 0.33-0.67 cents | 3,000 miles |
When making a redemption, the KrisFlyer miles with the earliest expiry date are always used first.
The best use of miles is always to redeem them for flights, where you can get up to 5 cents per mile depending on the cabin redeemed (it’s debatable whether you should derive your valuation based on the cash price of the ticket, but that’s another topic for another time).
If you can’t travel before your miles expire, don’t sweat it. Just because your miles are expiring on 31 January 2023 doesn’t mean you need to travel by 31 January 2023.
Miles can be used to book an award flight or upgrade up to 355 days in advance on Singapore Airlines or any of its Star Alliance/other airline partners. For example:
- Today is 29 September 2022
- I have 30,000 miles expiring on 31 January 2023
- I can use these miles to book a flight departing up till 19 September 2023 (+355 days from 29 September 2022)
| ❓ How much further out can I push the flight? |
| Award tickets are valid for 1 year from the date of issuance (i.e. date you redeemed the miles). In our example above, you can push it out a maximum of 10 more days (355+10=365 days), i.e. 28 September 2023. |
In other words, your miles expiry refers to the date they need to be redeemed by, not necessarily the date you need to travel by. To better understand the difference, refer to the article below:
KrisFlyer miles validity versus award ticket validity- what’s the difference?
One caveat to take note of: should you subsequently decide to cancel your award ticket, you may not get a refund of miles if the expiry date has passed. Going back to our example above:
- If I cancel this award ticket on or before 31 January 2023, I will get my 30,000 miles back (with the same expiry date)
- If I cancel this award ticket from 1 February 2023, I will not get anything back
In other words, your miles have a “memory”, and cancelling an award does not give them fresh validity.
For more details, refer to the post below.
Conclusion
Singapore Airlines has confirmed that we’re back to business-as-usual, with KrisFlyer miles reverting to their usual expiry policy from 31 January 2023 onwards.
While I appreciate the COVID-era extensions, I do feel this was a missed opportunity to transition to an activity-based expiry policy, like what Cathay Pacific did at the end of 2019. Activity-based expiry builds engagement with a programme and would encourage members to use platforms like Kris+ more frequently, which can only be a good thing for SIA.
Be sure to check your expiring miles balance so that February 2023 doesn’t catch you unawares!
As u mentioned in an older article,
Airlines like time-based expiry policies because it enables them to reliably estimate their “breakage rate”, or the number of miles that expire without being redeemed. This all-important number affects the fair value of miles on the liability section of the balance sheet, and therefore other investor-relevant metrics like working capital.
Interesting if there was any benchmark done which airlines adopt activity based expiry and who are still on time based?
I think Aeroplan and Avianca don’t have mile expiration as long as you have done some activity(even purchasing more counts)
Best policy is EARN & BURN guys! With inflation creeping up and airlines trying to recoup losses from the past two years, they are gonna push hard on revenue generating tickets instead of redemptions. Airlines can suppress redemption availabilities for revenues and the worst outcome is a bad reputation for their FFP. Let’s face it, what the FFP reputation worth in front of revenue?
Any idea if PPS expires early 2023 will get extension again?
Anyone knows how to contact Krisflyer experiences? I redeemed 2 X passport holder workshop but only received one voucher via email. Tried calling the SIA hotline 62238888 twice but both also don’t know about Krisflyer Experiences. Appreciate any advice on how to contact the right people.
Hi, if I book a ticket with expiring miles, can I still change the dates/destination/class etc? What degree of flexibility do I have? I suspect it depends on whether a ticket needs to be reissue (when does a ticket need to be reissued?).
https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/us/ppsclub-krisflyer/latestnews/2020renewal-kf/
Policy updated again. Expiry of miles only start July 2023.