KrisShop offering 30% milesback for full miles redemptions

From now till 4 December 2022, KrisShop is offering 30% milesback on all purchases fully paid for with KrisFlyer miles, with no minimum spend or cap. 

While I normally wouldn’t recommend spending miles on KrisShop, it may be enticing enough for people with expiring miles, especially since Singapore Airlines is discontinuing KrisFlyer miles extensions from 31 January 2023 onwards. 

KrisShop 30% milesback offer

KrisShop 30% Milesback Offer

From 28 November to 4 December 2022, KrisShop is offering 30% milesback on all purchases paid entirely with miles. 

No minimum spend nor brand exclusions apply (except e-gift cards), and this offer can be stacked with ongoing promo codes, such as:

• OCBCNOV20: S$20 off min. spend of S$250
• AMEXNOV20: S$20 off min. spend of S$250

This offer is available for purchases made via KrisShop.com or KrisShop via Kris+.

Milesback will be credited within eight weeks after the end of the promotion period, i.e. by 29 January 2023. 

The catch

1 KrisFlyer mile is normally worth 0.8 cents on KrisShop, so you might think a 30% milesback offer would boost the value to 1.14 cents. 

Not quite. If you read the T&Cs, the 30% milesback is based on the subtotal, before shipping costs and taxes. 

Since you need to pay the entire amount (including shipping costs and taxes) with miles, your effective value is essentially less.

To illustrate, suppose I want to buy this worthless trinket for S$154.

Shipping is free, but I’ll need to add another S$10.78 for GST, which brings the total to S$164.78.

Since I need to pay the full amount with KrisFlyer miles to enjoy the 30% milesback, I need to pay 20,597 miles (S$164.78/0.008).

However, the 30% milesback will only apply to the pre-tax, pre-shipping amount of S$154 (19,250 miles). 

My rebate is therefore 5,775 miles (30% of 19,250), and the total spent is 14,822 miles (20,597-5,775). Hence, the value per mile is 1.11 cents- still better than the usual 0.8 cents per mile, but not quite 1.14 cents!

In this scenario we’ve enjoyed free shipping, but if you don’t qualify then your value per mile will further decline. That’s because it adds further weight to the taxes & shipping component, which has a marginal value of 0.8 cents. 

As a reminder, you’ll need to spend at least S$75 (pre-tax) to enjoy free shipping in Singapore. 

Is it a good deal?

KrisShop’s 30% milesback offer would make it one of the better options for redeeming miles on the ground, but still nowhere as good as redeeming an award flight. 

The utility of this promotion ultimately boils down to how much you value a mile, and your upcoming travel plans. If you see yourself booking an award flight soon, there’s really no reason to take advantage of this. But if you have a stash of expiring miles with no opportunity to use them, then this might be a decent exit strategy. 

For a detailed walkthrough of what you can do with expiring miles, refer to the article below.

What to do with expiring KrisFlyer miles

Conclusion

KrisShop is offering 30% milesback on purchases covered in full by miles, made by 4 December 2022. It’s not really the kind of thing I’d consider, but if you want to clear out expiring miles then this could be a way of doing so. 

Then again, since you need to cover the entire purchase with miles, we’re probably talking about a not insubstantial number. Award flights start from just 8,500 miles and can be booked a year in advance, so you’d do well to see whether it might be possible to redeem a flight instead.