Should you buy KrisFlyer miles on Carousell?

If you’ve ever found yourself short of KrisFlyer miles, you may have been tempted to fire up everyone’s favourite online marketplace Carousell and look for a solution.

A simple search for “KrisFlyer miles” returns more than 100 results, and unlike most Carouhell transactions, there’s no need for an in-person meetup at Tuas Industrial Park at 4 a.m by the light of the first harvest moon (only to be told at the last minute that the buyer now wants to meet at Changi Jetty instead plus a 50% discount).

The sellers sure make a good pitch: Instant transfers! Lowest price! Money-back guarantee! And the reviews, assuming they’re real, are pretty positive. There’s a lot of happy buyers out there who booked their dream holiday for less- why not you?

Well, spoiler alert: if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you should know by now what I think about miles brokers. While I don’t doubt that people have had genuine transactions where they didn’t get ripped off and flew First Class for pennies on the dollar with nary a peep from the airline, you’re rolling the dice every time you deal with one. 

That said, I know some people swear by them, and this article probably won’t change their minds. But if you’re on the fence, here’s why buying miles on Carousell might not be the smartest approach. 

How does buying KrisFlyer miles on Carousell work?

Generally speaking, there are two models that sellers of KrisFlyer miles on Carousell offer: 

1. Transferring miles directly to your KrisFlyer account
2. Redeeming award tickets on your behalf

(1) is pretty self-explanatory- you pay the seller a fee, after which he/she transfers KrisFlyer miles into your own personal account. You then redeem them for whatever flights you want.

(2) involves the KrisFlyer redemption nominee system, which allows members to redeem award tickets on behalf of up to five individuals who can be “anyone at all”, per the FAQs. 

You provide the seller with your desired dates and flights, and the tickets are booked in your name using one of his/her redemption nominee slots.

Regardless of which option you choose, you’ll be expected to pay cash upfront, with most sellers requiring a purchase quantity of at least 10,000 miles.

What can go wrong?

Leaving aside the possibility that the seller takes your money and disappears, buying miles could get you in trouble.

I’m not talking legal trouble; miles brokers are always careful to emphasise that buying miles is not illegal, and they’re right. It’s not illegal to buy KrisFlyer miles. There’s a lot of things in your browsing history that will make the FBI kick down your door, but buying KrisFlyer miles is not one of them.

That said, the selling of KrisFlyer miles and award tickets is against the T&Cs of the KrisFlyer programme.

In other words, should you be found out, your KrisFlyer account can be closed, you can be banned from the programme, and the airline reserves the right to pursue damages incurred from your actions.

Now, I really have no idea how many people, over the years, have run afoul of these terms. I also have no idea how many were caught. All I know is that it might not be the smartest of ideas to test the waters, especially when there’s plenty of things that can go wrong.

Direct miles transfers

KrisFlyer’s systems are set up to flag any transfers where there’s a mismatch between the names on the KrisFlyer account and the partner account from where the points came.

If your transaction is flagged, you might receive an email like this:

In a best case scenario, the points will simply go into limbo, pending further verification. In a worse case scenario, your entire KrisFlyer account will be frozen in the interim, preventing you from using any of your miles (even those earned prior to the transfer). You can read numerous accounts on FlyerTalk of users sharing their headache with audits arising from name mismatches.

Now, some brokers have figured out workarounds for the name mismatch issue, mainly through points transfers from overseas American Express accounts (the details of which I won’t go into here).

Still, you have no idea how exactly the seller in question goes about doing it, and even though some Carousell listings brazenly advertise “no audit risk!”,  there’s no way they can guarantee that.

At least one guy was upfront about the matter…

Redemption nominees

Compared to direct transfers of miles, this could be seen as the “safer” way of going about things, since there’s no possibility of a name mismatch. The seller simply redeems a ticket on your behalf, using one of his/her extra redemption nominee slots. And since redemption nominees can be anybody, it’s pretty much a don’t ask don’t tell situation, right?

But there’s still things that can go wrong.

In a best case scenario, the seller is someone using his/her own KrisFlyer account and  extra redemption nominee slots to generate a bit of extra money.

In a worse case scenario, the seller could be a scammer using hijacked KrisFlyer accounts to redeem tickets. You might recall a high-profile incident back in 2018, where a KrisFlyer member had her account emptied out by hackers.

The hackers redeemed her miles for intra-Europe Economy Class tickets, which they presumably sold for cheap to unknowing third-parties (I’m assuming they were unknowing because it seems rather dumb to have your full name visible under someone’s list of redemption nominees otherwise!). 

Singapore Airlines has since added 2FA for high-risk transactions like adding redemption nominees and other safeguards, like the inability to redeem a ticket for a new redemption nominee for any departure within 72 hours. Still, it’s impossible to rule out a compromised account being used by a miles broker nonetheless.

Should that be the case, your award ticket could be cancelled once the rightful accountholder discovers what’s going on. Or worse, you might show up at the airport and have some very awkward questions to answer.

We haven’t even talked about the potential complications that could arise should you need to reschedule your flight (sellers will be weary of buyers contacting KrisFlyer membership services directly, since it creates the possibility of newbies spilling the beans- “this ticket can’t be extended further sir”/ “that’s not what the guy who sold it to me said!”), or if you need to cancel (as you can imagine, most sellers have a strictly no refunds policy).

Why would you even do it?

Given the risks involved, my question is why you’d even want to buy miles on Carousell when they’re available legitimately at much lower prices.

From what I can see, the lowest price you’ll find on Carousell is S$16-17 per 1,000 miles, or 1.6-1.7 cents apiece (in general, the redemption nominee option is cheaper than direct transfers)

Granted, that’s less than what Singapore Airlines would charge (US$40 per 1,000 miles), but you could buy miles elsewhere for cheaper: 

• Citi cardholders could buy miles at 1 cent apiece for paying income tax, rent, insurance premiums, MCST fees, education expenses, utilities bills and more during the recent Citi PayAll promotion
• CardUp users can buy miles from as little as 0.98 cents apiece, depending on type of payment, card and ongoing promotion
• StanChart’s income tax payment facility for Visa Infinite cardholders sells miles at 1.14 cents apiece
• SC EasyBill lets you pay income tax, education, insurance premiums and rent with a 1.9% fee, which means prices starting from 1.36 cents apiece depending on card
• There’s always a rich crop of sign-up bonuses every month, and assuming you can meet the minimum spend, the miles are either free (where the first year fee is waived) or range from 0.5-1 cents apiece (where the annual fee needs to be paid)

Of course, there are drawbacks:

• The abovementioned methods won’t be instant; points take time to be transferred, sign-up bonuses take time to be credited, and in some cases you’ll be waiting months to receive the full allotment of miles
• Some of the abovementioned methods won’t be available to everyone. For example, StanChart Visa Infinite has a minimum income requirement of S$150,000, and most sign-up bonuses require you to be new-to-bank
• The number of miles you can purchase through each of these methods may be capped. For example, you can only pay your annual fee once, and you can’t overpay your tax bill to generate more miles

In that sense, Carousell would offer immediacy and no caps on the number of miles you can buy, but it comes at a higher cost- both financially, and in terms of what could go wrong.

Conclusion

Carousell has become fertile ground for selling KrisFlyer miles, but you should be fully aware of the risks you take when dealing with miles brokers. There’s many ways the transaction can go sour, and the last thing you want is to show up at the airport and be denied boarding.

Moreover, if you’re able to do some advance planning, there are many ways to acquire miles legitimately at lower prices than what the Carousell sellers are asking. Cheaper miles, and peace of mind? I know which one I’d pick.