With 2025 winding down, Singapore Airlines sent out its “wrapped” emails yesterday, summarising KrisFlyer members’ earning and burning activity for the year.
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| ❓Where’s my report? |
| Look for an email with the subject header: Your KrisFlyer Story This Year. You will only receive it if you opted in for marketing communications. Unfortunately, if you haven’t opted in already, it’s too late for 2025. Opt in and see you next year! |
This is always a fun little recap, and contains some interesting tidbits. Members this year burned 82 billion KrisFlyer miles worldwide (2024: 80 billion), with the most popular redemptions being flights, experiences and shopping (unfortunately, experiences and shopping aren’t defined, so we don’t have much granularity there).
600,000 members earned or burned with at least two SIA Group entities (SIA, Scoot, Kris+, KrisShop, Pelago), and 800,000 miles were given away through social contests (come on, those are rookie numbers!).
Of course, far more interesting are the personalised stats, and here’s what 2025 looked like for me…
Where did I go in 2025?
Before I talk about KrisFlyer specifically, I thought I’d share a bit more about my 2025 travels in general.
If memory doesn’t fail, I clocked 106,226 air miles this year, 60% more than 2024. The highlight, without a doubt, was Banff National Park. We managed to catch the larches in fall, and it was breathtakingly beautiful (Jasper was great too, though much of it has been scarred by wildfires). I’ve heard the fall colours are even more stunning on the east coast at La Mauricie National Park, so that’s next on my bucket list.
In fact, I reckon Canada was more life-changing than Iceland, the other highlight of the year— though we went in early June when it was more greenland than iceland, which perhaps might explain why we didn’t like it as much.
It was also a more adventurous year in terms of airline variety, with 13 non-SQ carriers (2024: 10) on my docket.
| ✈️ Non-SIA carriers flown in 2025 |
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It’s hard to choose the standout here, as I was very impressed by STARLUX’s A350-900, Japan Airlines’ A350-1000, and Cathay Pacific’s new Aria Suites on the B777-300ER. These are all excellent next-generation Business Class seats, and Singapore Airlines will have its work cut out for it with its 2026 reveal.
Earned: 2,450,801 KrisFlyer miles
After burning close to 1.5 million miles in 2024, and a further 2 million this year (see below), I needed to replenish my account.
So this year I earned 2,450,801 miles, of which only 14,208 came from flying (since I hardly buy commercial tickets, I’m actually quite surprised I broke five digits).
The rest came from non-flight sources, namely credit cards of all kinds: American Express Membership Rewards points (before cancelling my AMEX Platinum Charge in October, I made a lump sum transfer to enjoy the preferential transfer ratio one last time), DBS Points, UNI$ etc. I’m also transferring chunks of expiring HighFlyer Points to KrisFlyer each month, earned in the heady days before the AMEX HighFlyer Card was hard nerfed.
The MileLion Community has been busy flexing providing their data points too, and for 2025, earning at least 407,840 miles would be enough to put you into the 1% bracket. But what’s perhaps surprising is that earning just 57,240 miles would put you into the top 10%, and 27,852 miles in the top 20% (which suggests a lot of inactive members?).
| 🛫 2025 KrisFlyer Year in Review: Earning | ||
| Percentile | Lowest Reported | Highest Reported |
| 1% | 407,840 | 9,451,749 |
| 5% | 128,002 | 400,302 |
| 10% | 57,240 | 122,677 |
| 20% | 27,852 | 52,127 |
2025 KrisFlyer: Earning Percentiles
🛫 2025 KrisFlyer: Earning Percentiles
Miles Earned
Percentile
9,451,749
1%
5,229,832
1%
4,393,029
1%
3,282,056
1%
3,129,493
1%
2,450,801
1%
2,421,638
1%
2,208,284
1%
2,073,260
1%
2,020,685
1%
1,983,509
1%
1,861,908
1%
1,613,727
1%
1,571,968
1%
1,365,291
1%
1,148,000
1%
1,044,079
1%
910,836
1%
870,978
1%
780,967
1%
779,533
1%
722,042
1%
716,805
1%
695,731
1%
675,652
1%
611,035
1%
596,610
1%
569,069
1%
561,185
1%
558,300
1%
545,929
1%
543,722
1%
539,573
1%
530,001
1%
508,235
1%
476,958
1%
475,499
1%
440,387
1%
416,117
1%
409,410
1%
409,289
1%
407,840
1%
400,302
5%
397,915
5%
397,461
5%
366,760
5%
350,454
5%
298,652
5%
292,306
5%
291,083
5%
286,005
5%
277,590
5%
271,984
5%
250,379
5%
232,980
5%
232,008
5%
223,088
5%
221,351
5%
212,878
5%
209,922
5%
206,324
5%
201,794
5%
195,568
5%
189,921
5%
188,196
5%
165,820
5%
154,833
5%
153,348
5%
152,568
5%
151,464
5%
147,397
5%
147,349
5%
142,119
5%
133,017
5%
128,002
5%
122,677
10%
117,243
10%
116,832
10%
115,492
10%
113,660
10%
113,333
10%
106,193
10%
61,077
10%
59,722
10%
58,033
10%
57,240
10%
52,127
20%
48,176
20%
44,395
20%
39,514
20%
35,550
20%
30,530
20%
27,852
20%
13,176
N/A
9,586
N/A
3,446
N/A
Burned: 2,015,800 KrisFlyer miles
In 2025, I burned a total of 2,015,800 miles on 23 Singapore Airlines and Scoot redemptions. Yes, that’s a lot of miles, but there’s two main reasons for it.
First, I was working through a large tranche of expiring miles that were transferred in 2022, just as the world started to open up again in earnest.
Second, and more importantly, 2025 was a devaluation year. On 1 November 2025, KrisFlyer revised its award charts, and while it wasn’t the Armageddon many were fearing, any devaluation inevitably triggers a stampede to lock in bookings and avoid the price increases. And even though I did caution against speculative bookings, my plans for 2026 were more or less firmed up.
I’ll be accompanying The MileLioness to Seattle three times next year for some courses, so that’s already a big chunk of miles right there. Then there’s a family trip to Sydney, a couple of bookings for my parents, and a trip to Melbourne for the Australian Open. That, together with all the trips I booked in 2025 for same-year travel, really added up.
But what’s really interesting here is that based on the data points in the MileLion Community, you’d need to burn at least 906,000 miles to be in the top 1%. Burning 877,245 miles — equivalent to four pre-devaluation round-trip Business Class flights to the USA — would only put you in the top 5%!
| 🛫 2025 KrisFlyer Year in Review: Burning | ||
| Percentile | Lowest Reported | Highest Reported |
| 1% | 906,000 | 4,379,800 |
| 5% | 381,000 | 877,245 |
| 10% | 249,500 | 374,000 |
| 20% | 129,000 | 237,000 |
2025 KrisFlyer: Burning Percentiles
🛫 2025 KrisFlyer Year in Review: Burning Percentiles
Miles Burned
Percentile
4,379,800
1%
2,612,908
1%
2,250,500
1%
2,015,800
1%
1,931,700
1%
1,857,850
1%
1,726,400
1%
1,619,950
1%
1,155,911
1%
1,126,100
1%
1,001,000
1%
906,000
1%
877,245
5%
868,200
5%
803,000
5%
788,800
5%
724,500
5%
688,000
5%
677,182
5%
670,518
5%
651,000
5%
597,250
5%
567,400
5%
535,000
5%
513,340
5%
511,800
5%
502,000
5%
484,000
5%
412,000
5%
408,000
5%
381,200
5%
381,000
5%
374,000
10%
369,000
10%
367,950
10%
354,000
10%
351,000
10%
350,000
10%
345,000
10%
340,500
10%
328,300
10%
319,950
10%
305,000
10%
275,800
10%
274,000
10%
269,200
10%
268,600
10%
267,750
10%
259,500
10%
250,800
10%
249,500
10%
237,000
20%
225,050
20%
207,000
20%
201,100
20%
198,850
20%
197,650
20%
177,000
20%
164,950
20%
148,100
20%
145,000
20%
129,000
20%
129,000
20%
115,900
N/A
106,500
N/A
104,000
N/A
97,200
N/A
81,038
N/A
58,500
N/A
57,900
N/A
57,600
N/A
48,500
N/A
47,200
N/A
29,410
N/A
20,600
N/A
3,000
N/A
In that sense, I’m a little surprised that the total miles redeemed across KrisFlyer in 2025 was only 2.5% more than 2024.
Conclusion
2025 was a bumper year for earning and burning, with the KrisFlyer devaluation no doubt leading to a surge in redemptions.
KrisFlyer will continue to be my primary frequent flyer programme in 2026, purely for convenience reasons, but I will need to start working through my stashes in Asia Miles, British Airways Club and Qatar Privilege Club (especially after this year’s bumper transfer bonus).
As always, it’s a good idea to focus on earning flexible rewards currencies with multiple transfer partners, like HSBC points or Max Miles. This diversification will provide more buffer against individual programme devaluations, and open up more sweet spots for redemptions.
How did your KrisFlyer 2025 Year in Review look? Can you help refine the bands any further?
2M miles. Got top 1% in accrual and spending miles
I’m pretty sure the top 1% earners are mostly from Indonesia 😀
Why? Easy to earn krisflyer miles with cards there?
They have platform called paper dot id which allows any bill (especially if enterpreneur) to be paid via credit card. So you are basically replenishing your commercial inventory via credit card
Another way is to collaborate between these entepreneurs…
you are absolutely right sir
Hi Aaron,
Thanks for sharing! Wondering if you would be interested to do a YoY series, i.e. miles earned/burned from 2022 to 2025? Also wondering if you consider miles “earned” when you transfer from credit card points to miles, or “earned” when earning those credit card points?
this year in review thing is new right? afaik it started in 2024.
re: the second question, on my personal “miles balance sheet” i combine both figures. so yes there’s some further points in reserve, as would be the case for most people
I would be interested to know a break-down of your 2.5m earn as to how much was “free miles” – that is just a consequence of spending on a card for example, and how much was miles you actually paid for – example the 90% Areoplan discount.
Yes i’d love to know this too, though I suppose he might not want to disclose his full spending. But a few tips would be great to know!
it’s a bit difficult because I don’t actually know the exact breakdown myself. But we’re talking about KrisFlyer miles specifically here, and the majority would be from spending and welcome offers. I have used CardUp and PayAll on occasion, but not in significant volume the way some people have.
Insta Post of someone who spent 11 million Miles in 2025: https://www.instagram.com/p/DSuiAVijA0z/?img_index=1
And this is how social media can lead to stress insecurity and depression. Pro surfer, 2 startup exits, family office. It’s too late for me but how does my child get to achieve this in Singapore? Esp if starting from a sports background instead of banking or business. AFAIK none of our pro/semipro athletes are anywhere near this level of financial achievement. Am I wrong?
I used to be a loyal member of Singapore Airlines and would buy business class tickets to travel long distance hauls from Southeast Asia to the US, Europe and even South Africa. I would even make an effort to fly into one of their entry airports in Europe such as Munich or Frankfurt eventhough my destination is not Germany. After covid and as time passed on, I realized SQ as an airlines does not recognize such efforts. It became so clear to me being part of Star Alliance because of SQ is not worth the effort, the time and the money invested.
My loyalty now is not with any airline but more with an alliance.
Domestically, I travel once a month in business class and due to that monthly flying, I have been a platinum elite member of Skyteam for several years. That privilege is so helpful across the the Skyteam alliance. I get access to club lounges and my luggage limit is upgrade to 32 kgs eventhough I would fly economy.
I have flown with Qatar Airways, Etihad and Emirates in business class and among the 3, Qatar is the best in terms of the seats, in-flight customer service and food. Singapore Airlines can’t beat that at all because I consume whole-foods that are plant-based and SQ menu is terrible and miss the mark compared to Qatar Airways variety of menu. Book the chef from SQ is a joke for vegetarians and vegans.
Although I am a member of Qatar Airways frequent flyer miles, I use my Alaska Airlines frequent flyer miles membership to book my flights. Why? I get more bang from my points in Alaska Airlines when I travel domestically in the US. Such thing hardly exists with SQ and star alliance.
I have never been upgraded by SQ in all the times that I have flown but Emirates have done so. SQ is stingy with upgrades.
Etihad airways isn’t ideal either because they aren’t part of any alliance but the points help with my skyteam membership because Etihad has an agreement with that particular skyteam airline.
The other sour point for me is finding redemption tickets through SQ website. It is unbelievable how unavailable finding available dates and finding available cities to visit. I might as well have my tooth extracted from a dentist rather than go through the pain of sitting down and wasting time searching through the app or the website.
Last but not the least, Singapore Airlines entry points in Europe is limited to Franfurt, Munich, Rome, Milan and Zurich, if I am not mistaken. US entry airports are New York JFK and Newark, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. The other 3 Arab airlines have more entry points in Europe and the US. It is a delight to just have 1 stop in the Middle East and fly into the preferred destination.
So to all SQ loyal members, may SQ continue to do for you what it has failed to do for me: retain my loyalty.
You’re obviously residing in USA or Europe. You’re absolutely right that SQ is not ideal for you. It is ideal for us since we live in Singapore. We have small children and a family member who is wheelchair-bound. Non-stop flights in a decent lie-flat seat are more important to us than vegan food. SQ has more non-stop flights out of Singapore than any other airline. Even without our handicapped family member, non-stop flights without refueling/ layovers / transfers are the most important consideration for us. We don’t plan to move out of Singapore so SQ has our loyalty. Along with that of a few million other SG residents.
I reside in Southeast Asia and I can see you are a loyal member of SQ which is fine by me. But I am entitled to my opinions just as you are. And you are obviously unobservant because I did mention in my previous comment that I traveled from Southeast Asia to the US and Europe.
Yes, it is great to have a national airline that has served you well. As you are Singaporean and loyal to SQ, good for you.
My comments against SQ was as a paying business customer, not as a citizen of any country. I do have high standards since I paid a lot for those standards. Tell me if you paid several thousand dollars to pay for good service and good food, would you not have high standards?
For you vegan food isn’t a big deal. Good for you. But it is to me since my health is important to me.
You seem to take personally my comments against SQ. Are you an SQ employee?
In addition, my comments were to show that SQ’s standards have gone down compared to days of old. That’s why they lost my loyalty. Why are you offended?
I travelled business class with Etihad and I also mentioned Etihad wasn’t ideal either. You didn’t take offense with that.
Since you seem to be a petty person, guess what? Do you speak for your other 4 million or so Singaporeans who are loyal to SQ? Because if that is the case, did your 4 million fellow Singaporeans put SQ on the top of the list of the best business class service? Last I checked SQ was top 5 but the top was Qatar Airways. What I did check is SQ came out on top on its first class service and I bet those high rolling money spenders weren’t Singaporeans only. I say this not to insult Singaporeans but to point the error of your thinking that you speak for your countrymen and that SQ does not need customers like me. Is that not the height of arrogance?
And I do hope you don’t move out of Singapore because you clearly don’t see the inconveniences for non Singaporeans. If your excuse is that SQ flights fly directly to the cities you want, well, does SQ fly directly to Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Washington DC, Athens, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dusserdof from Singapore? It is an inconvenience for the rest of Southeast Asia people to fly into Singapore and then fly into those cities because SQ does not have direct flights so that’s another layover for us.
So please be open-minded and see possibilities that eventhough SQ is a good airline, it has not lived up to its standard of business class service and its lack of entry points thus, a former loyal customer like me, don’t see SQ worth our money. And if you say, then don’t use SQ, well, I no longer do.
About 500 words to my 100. Including personal attacks like ‘petty’ and insinuating health is unimportant to me. Former vegans Miley Cyrus, Anne Hathaway and Bear Grylls might disagree, but this isn’t the forum on diet and human evolution. I do agree I’m entitled to my own opinion. I apologize for missing that you reside in SEA. Since you don’t reside in Singapore, the same applies: SQ is not ideal for you like it is for Singaporeans. SQ is inconvenient to non-Singaporeans, just like MH, TG and GA are inconvenient to Singaporeans. Fifth freedom flights are rare. Travelling for business, I fly UA, QR. CX. JL, NH to Atlanta or Chicago but the topic of the article and your reply centered on FFP membership. KF has my loyalty for non-stop SQ flights because of my family; young, elderly, and incapacitated. Interestingly, someone more enlightened than me (Mark Chua) has written something. If Aaron will permit, the article is: ‘The Ya Kun of the Miles Game: Why KrisFlyer Will Always Be Singapore’s Default’. I’m ok with stopovers myself but I surrender when traveling with an electric wheelchair and a stroller in the hold, Li-battery preauthorization (each airline), and elderly grandparents. So please be open-minded: We don’t plan to move out of Singapore so SQ has our loyalty. Along with that of a few million other SG residents. 227