Enhanced: Redeem KrisFlyer miles at 1 cent each across SIA, Scoot, Pelago, Kris+ and KrisShop

In addition to redeeming award flights, KrisFlyer members can also spend their miles like cash to pay for Singapore Airlines and Scoot tickets, KrisShop purchases, Pelago experiences and Kris+ transactions. However, the value per mile can vary widely across these options, often causing confusion. 

But this will soon be a thing of the past, as Singapore Airlines will introduce a standardised redemption rate of 100 KrisFlyer miles = S$1 across all platforms on 1 July 2025— boosting the value per mile by 5-50%, depending on the use case.

“These enhancements to the KrisFlyer redemption rates deliver more value to members, while making miles redemption more intuitive and consistent. Members will get more from every mile when booking flights, dining out, shopping, or enjoying travel experiences. This is all part of our commitment to rewarding loyalty with meaningful benefits that truly enhance the KrisFlyer experience”

-Bryan Koh, DVP Loyalty Marketing, SIA

KrisFlyer to standardise redemption rates

	Until 30 Jun 2025	From 1 July 2025
Miles & Cash (SIA and Scoot)	105 miles = S$1 0.95¢/mile	100 miles = S$1 1¢/mile
Kris+	150 miles = S$1 0.67¢/mile
KrisShop	125 miles = S$1 0.80¢/mile
Pelago*	150 miles = S$1 0.67¢/mile
*Only full payment with miles allowed

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer members can use their miles to pay for:

• Commercial tickets with Singapore Airlines and Scoot
• Purchases at Kris+ merchants 
• Purchases on KrisShop 
• Experience bookings with Pelago 

Members can mix miles and cash in whatever proportion they wish, with the exception of Pelago, where only full payments with miles are permitted.

The current redemption rate ranges between 105-150 KrisFlyer miles = S$1, or 0.67 to 0.95 cents per mile. Honestly speaking, there’s very little logic behind this— unless perhaps the goal is to incentivise some types of redemptions over others (or maybe you believe that KrisShop prices are naturally inflated, so a higher valuation is in order!).

From 1 July 2025, the redemption rate across the entire KrisFlyer ecosystem will be harmonised to 100 KrisFlyer miles = S$1, or 1 cent per mile, with the following minimum redemption amounts:

• Miles & Cash with Singapore Airlines and Scoot: 1,000 miles (S$10)
• Kris+: 10 miles (S$0.10)
• KrisShop: 1,000 miles (S$10)
• Pelago: 1,000 miles (S$10)

This is actually great news if you have miles that are stuck in Kris+, either because you forgot to transfer them to KrisFlyer or because they can’t be transferred (such as miles earned from referrals). By simply waiting a week, their value will appreciate by 50%!

And if you happened to take advantage of the recent 35% transfer bonus between KrisFlyer and Kris+ (or any transfer bonus in the past six months), your faith is going to be rewarded. For example, if you transferred 10,000 KrisFlyer miles into 13,500 KrisPay miles (35% bonus), that stash will soon be worth S$13.50, a very decent 1.35 cents per mile.

However, you might remember that prior to August 2021, the rate offered for Miles & Cash for Singapore Airlines flights was 980 miles = S$10, so even with the change we’re still slightly worse off than “the good old days”, though frankly the difference is marginal.

Interestingly enough, it seems like KrisFlyer vRooms (remember that?), Singapore Airlines’ portal for rental car and hotel bookings, has been forgotten completely. 

It’s not addressed in the press release that Singapore Airlines sent out, so I can only surmise that the current value of 0.8 cents per mile will continue until further notice.

Is it worth spending miles this way?

It should be noted that even with the enhanced value, 1 cent per KrisFlyer mile is not exactly a great way of spending them.

Award flights continue to be the best way of using miles, with valuations of 4-5 cents easily achievable (it’s debatable whether you can really value a mile that high if you weren’t willing to pay for First or Business Class with cash, but that’s another topic for another time).

However, if you’re dealing with a small number of expiring KrisFlyer miles, and don’t have plans to travel, then getting some value would be better than no value at all

What to do with expiring KrisFlyer miles

What this does at least is to draw a clear distinction between spending KrisFlyer miles within the core ecosystem, and outside of it. 

In other words, from 1 July onwards there’s really no reason why you should even consider converting KrisFlyer miles into yuu Points, or Accor points, or CapitaStars, or any of the other options available, when you can easily get 1 cent per mile through Kris+ with a minimum spend of just 10 miles.

Conclusion

From 1 July 2025, Singapore Airlines will standardise the value of a KrisFlyer mile to 1 cent each, whether you’re paying for SIA and Scoot flights, or spending them via Pelago, Kris+ or KrisShop.

There’s very little to dislike about this, since it represents a 5-50% enhancement in value over the status quo. That said, I don’t want to sound like a Debbie Downer, but it’s always a little concerning when mileage programmes begin to standardise the value of a mile. We have seen other programmes do this as the precursor to revenue-based redemptions, where award charts are removed and the number of miles required for a redemption flight varies depending on the cash price. I’m not saying that will definitely happen here too, but perhaps a decade of miles collecting has made me paranoid!

What do you make of this development?