How does KrisFlyer’s redemption nominee system work?

When it comes to redeeming miles for other people, some frequent flyer programmes, such as Alaska Mileage Plan or Qatar Privilege Club, allow you to redeem award tickets for literally anyone. You could redeem an award ticket for the King of England, if you were so inclined.

However, other programmes have much more restrictive policies. ANA Mileage Club and Japan Airlines Mileage Bank only allow redemptions for relatives within two degrees of separation, while Korean Air SkyPass only lets you redeem miles for immediate family members — and requires notarised documentation to that effect!

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer falls somewhere in between with its redemption nominee system. On the one hand, there’s no restriction on who you can redeem miles for — family, friends, colleagues, potential love interests. On the other, its redemption nominee system caps you at just five names at any point in time, so you need to choose wisely.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the details of how the KrisFlyer redemption nominee system works, and answer some commonly asked questions.

Overview: KrisFlyer redemption nominee system

KrisFlyer members can have up to five redemption nominees at any point in time. This is a fixed limit that applies to all members, regardless of elite status.

Nominees can be anyone you wish, and it is not necessary to submit any supporting documentation.

 Anyone can be your redemption nominee – your family, friends, colleagues or neighbours.

-Singapore Airlines

Adult and child nominees (aged 2 and older) are treated the same, i.e. they each take up one of your five available slots

Infants (aged below 2) do not need to be named as redemption nominees. Because they do not occupy a seat, you won’t be redeeming miles for them anyway — instead, you’ll pay 10% of the adult cash fare for their ticket. However, if you want to redeem a separate seat for an infant nonetheless (keeping in mind you’ll be paying the full adult price), you can add them as a nominee. 

There is no fee to add new redemption nominees, but there may be a fee to replace or delete existing nominees, depending on your status. This is a flat fee that applies regardless of how many nominees you replace or delete. In other words, replacing one nominee costs the same as replacing all five.

Tier	🔁Change of Redemption Nominee
	Online	Offline
KrisFlyer	US$30 or 3,000 miles	US$50 or 5,000 miles
KrisFlyer Elite Silver	US$15 or 1,500 miles	US$25 or 2,500 miles
KrisFlyer Elite Gold	Waived	Waived
PPS Club & Solitaire PPS Club	Waived	Waived

Once a nominee is added, they can only be replaced or removed after six months. This rule is intended to limit the ability of members to add and remove nominees in quick succession to sell award tickets, though it obviously can’t stop the practice entirely.

As a security measure, you will only be able to redeem flights for a new, additional or replacement nominee that departs more than 72 hours after the nominee has been added. For example, if I add a nominee at 12 p.m on 15 April 2025, the earliest flight departure I can book for them would be 12 p.m on 18 April 2025. 

How do I add a redemption nominee?

Adding a redemption nominee is a fairly straightforward process.

(1) Log in to your KrisFlyer account. Click on the circle with your initials at the top right > Profile

(2) You’ll be prompted for an OTP. On the next screen, click on Redemption nominees.

(3) Click Add nominee.

(4) Enter the details of the person you’d like to nominate.

Most of the fields are self-explanatory, except for the one called “Authorised nominee”. This is how the KrisFlyer T&Cs describe it:

To protect membership privileges, the nominees you have authorised will be able to make and change bookings for themselves and on your behalf after necessary verification. If they have been so verified, Singapore Airlines will not inform the principal member nor be held liable for issuing redemption tickets to the authorised nominees.

Selecting ‘Yes’ means that the nominee can contact KrisFlyer membership services and make changes to the booking themselves, without having to get you involved. If you select ‘No’, no one will be able to make changes to the booking except for you (KrisFlyer will verify your identity over the phone).

I must admit I’m slightly confused about the “make bookings” part, because redemption nominees do not have the ability to make a completely new booking using the miles of the principal member. The only way for that to happen is if you gave your login details to the redemption nominee.

There’s another field at the bottom which asks what your relationship to this nominee is. You shouldn’t be concerned about this, because KrisFlyer clearly states you can redeem miles for friends and family. This is probably meant for demographic information more than anything else.

What can I redeem for redemption nominees?

Once you’ve added a redemption nominee, you can redeem awards and upgrades for them on Singapore Airlines, Scoot, Star Alliance and other partner airlines. For Singapore Airlines, this includes all four tiers of awards: Access, Advantage, Saver and Promo (otherwise known as Spontaneous Escapes).

You can also use your KrisFlyer miles to pay for the following bookings, provided the redemption nominee is the named traveller:

• Singapore Airlines commercial tickets
• Scoot commercial tickets
• Pelago

However, the value of a KrisFlyer mile is fixed at 1 cent each for these options, which is relatively poor compared to an award flight redemption. Therefore, you should avoid this unless you have a small number of expiring miles to burn.

How do I redeem a ticket for a redemption nominee?

When booking an award ticket online, you can select the redemption nominee as the named traveller. 

If you’re making a booking over the phone, simply inform the CSO which nominee you wish to redeem it for. The CSO will be able to view your full list of nominees and select one accordingly.

Likewise, the option to pay with miles will appear if a redemption nominee is part of the travelling party. However, if your party consists of both redemption nominees and non-redemption nominees, you will only be able to redeem KrisFlyer miles to cover the redemption nominee’s fare.

Redemption nominee FAQs

Must I travel with the redemption nominee?

No. There is no requirement that the nominee has to travel with you. You could book them a solo ticket if you want.

What happens if I subsequently remove a redemption nominee from my list?

Removing a redemption nominee from your list has no impact on tickets already issued.

In other words, when the six-month timeout period has ended, you can remove nominee A and replace them with nominee B, notwithstanding the fact that nominee A has an outstanding unflown ticket issued in their name.

What if my redemption nominee is <12 years old?

You can redeem KrisFlyer miles online for a redemption nominee <12 years old, so long as he or she is accompanied.

If the nominee is unaccompanied, you’ll need to contact KrisFlyer Membership Services for assistance to make the redemption, as the unaccompanied minors handling service is compulsory. 

As a reminder:

• Children aged below 5 cannot travel as an unaccompanied minor
• Children aged 5-12 can travel unaccompanied, with mandatory unaccompanied minors handling service 
• Children aged 12 to 18 can travel unaccompanied, and the unaccompanied minors handling service is optional in this case

What if the KrisFlyer account belongs to a member <12 years old?

The minimum age to open a KrisFlyer account is 2 years. However, a KrisFlyer member aged <12 cannot redeem their own KrisFlyer miles for award tickets online, unless a redemption nominee 18 years old or above is travelling with them on the same flight.

A KrisFlyer member aged 12-17 can redeem their KrisFlyer miles for award tickets online for themselves, or redemption nominees 18 years old or above. However, they cannot redeem tickets for redemption nominees below 18 years of age.

You might also be interested in the KrisFlyer for Families feature, which allows you to transfer your child’s miles to you (though not the other way round) for a nominal fee.

KrisFlyer for Families: Pool your miles with family members

Conclusion

KrisFlyer doesn’t give you the same latitude to redeem miles for anyone as some other programmes do, though it’s also not as punitive as programmes with “family-only” redemption policies. Instead, the redemption nominee system lets you redeem miles for your five favourite people, whoever they may be.

Since there is a six-month window before you can remove or change a nominee, take care when selecting your nominees. Remember, you don’t have to fill all five slots at one go!