How do the AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend’s Miles Redemption Vouchers work?

In October 2024, American Express unveiled a major refresh of the AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend, which saw its earn rates reduced, lounge access removed, and the annual fee increased to almost S$400.

This was a big devaluation, obviously, but of course it was spun as an enhancement — and the feature that received a lot of press was the so-called Miles Redemption Vouchers (MRVs), described as “new benefits specifically for KrisFlyer redemption flights”.

In this post, we’ll look at how MRVs can be earned, how they work, and why, despite all the hype, they’re actually rather underwhelming.

How do you earn Miles Redemption Vouchers?

The AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend offers a Foreign Spend MRV and a Renewal MRV worth 18,000 miles and 10,000 miles respectively.

Foreign Spend MRV

Cardholders who spend at least S$10,000 in FCY between 1 November and 31 October of the following year will earn the Foreign Spend MRV.

The T&Cs do not specify how long it will take for the Foreign Spend MRV to be credited, but you will receive an email from American Express once your eligibility has been confirmed.

It’s somewhat unintuitive that the spending requirement isn’t tracked by membership year or calendar year, but this isn’t unusual for American Express. For example, the minimum spend for the First Class upgrade and 50,000 KrisFlyer miles discount for the AMEX Solitaire PPS Credit Card is tracked from July to June. I’m sure there’s a reason for it…but I don’t know what!

Renewal MRV

Cardholders who pay the S$397.85 annual fee will receive the Renewal MRV within 10-12 weeks.

For the avoidance of doubt, this MRV is not offered in the first membership year. As the name suggests, it’s for renewing your card.

How long are Miles Redemption Vouchers valid for?

All MRVs are valid for 12 months from the date of awarding, and all booking and travel dates must be within the validity period. For example, if my MRV is awarded on 1 December 2024, I must redeem it and travel by 30 November 2025.

MRVs are strictly non-extendable. 

How do Miles Redemption Vouchers work?

The most important thing to understand is that MRVs are not direct credits to your KrisFlyer account. For example, when you earn a Renewal MRV, your KrisFlyer balance does not increase by 10,000 miles.

Instead, MRVs are used to offset the cost of a redemption booking or redemption upgrade on flights operated by Singapore Airlines (you can’t use MRVs for awards or upgrades with Star Alliance partners, Garuda Indonesia, Malaysia Airlines, Juneyao Airlines or Virgin Australia).

In other words, you must fly to use it; you cannot spend those miles on KrisShop, Kris+, Pelago or other on-the-ground options — not that these are good uses of miles to begin with.

To redeem an MRV, your KrisFlyer account must have at least 50% of the KrisFlyer miles required to cover the full cost of the redemption booking or upgrade. For example, if you’re redeeming the Renewal MRV (10,000 miles):

This rule can lead to some strange scenarios, however, where you find yourself unable to use your MRV even though your current balance + MRV would be sufficient to cover the redemption.

For example, suppose you have 12,000 miles in your KrisFlyer account and a Foreign Spend MRV (18,000 miles). You want to redeem an award that costs 25,000 miles. Even though your total amount (30,000 miles) is sufficient on paper, you will not be able to redeem this award because you need at least 12,500 miles (50% of 25,000) before the MRV can come into play!

Why does the 50% rule exist? You may remember that the Singapore Airlines website allows members to purchase miles to complete a redemption, provided they have at least 50% of the requirement.

My theory is that this requirement is hardcoded somewhere on the website, which means it also applies to MRV redemptions. 

The other annoying thing about MRVs is that they can only be applied to the first eligible passenger in the booking or upgrade. Any unused amount is forfeited. 

For example, suppose you have a Foreign Spend MRV (18,000 miles), and want to redeem 2x one-way Economy Saver tickets to Bangkok. On aggregate, that’s 26,000 miles, but individually, the price is 13,000 miles per passenger. Therefore, instead of paying 8,000 miles, you will pay 13,000 miles (first passenger fully offset with 5,000 miles wasted, second passenger not offset).

I assume this is the result of some technical limitation, but it just goes to show how silly MRVs are as a concept — you could have avoided this problem altogether by just crediting miles to the cardholder’s account!

Here are the rest of the rules governing MRVs:

• MRVs can only be used for redemptions on the desktop or mobile website, not the SIA mobile app
• MRVs can be used by the principal KrisFlyer member or their redemption nominees
• A maximum of one MRV can be used per booking (so you can’t combine both the Renewal MRV and Foreign Spend MRV)
• MRVs cannot be used for upgrades at the airport or via mySQupgrade
• If you cancel a booking or upgrade, the MRV will be refunded to your account, provided it is still within the validity period

With regards to the last point, you can use MRVs for Spontaneous Escapes redemptions, but since these are non-refundable, you won’t be able to get your MRV back after redemption.

How valuable are Miles Redemption Vouchers?

Foreign Spend MRV

AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend Cardholders who achieve the S$10,000 FCY spend required for the Foreign Spend MRV will earn a total of 30,000 miles (18,000 miles from the MRV, 12,000 miles from the base earn rate of 1.2 mpd). This works out to a weighted average of 3 mpd.

It’s hard to see why you should bother earning this, when there are alternative cards which will earn you roughly the same or more miles on FCY spend, without all the nitpicky restrictions of the MRVs. While some cards also have minimum spends, none of them are close to the S$10,000 required by the Ascend.

Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
UOB Visa Signature Apply	4 mpd	Min. S$1K, max. S$1.2K spend per s. month Review
Maybank XL Rewards Card Apply	4 mpd	Min. S$500, max S$1K spend per c. month Review
StanChart Beyond Card Apply	3-4 mpd	3 mpd for regular, 3.5 mpd for Priority Banking, 4 mpd for Priority Private. No cap Review
Maybank World Mastercard Apply	3.2 mpd	Min. S$4K spend per c. month. 2.8 mpd with min. S$800 spend per c. month. No cap. Review
Maybank Visa Infinite Apply	3.2 mpd	Min. S$4K per c. month, or else 2 mpd. No cap. Review
StanChart Visa Infinite Apply	3 mpd	Min. S$2K spend per s. month. No cap. Review
BOC Elite Miles Card Apply	2.8 mpd	No min. spend or cap  Review
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Apply	2.8 mpd	Min. S$800 spend per c. month. No cap. Review

Renewal MRV

Even though a 10,000 miles renewal gift is fairly common amongst entry-level cards, you have to take a haircut on the value of the Renewal MRV because of the restrictions involved in using it.

💳 Miles with Annual Fee (S$30K income segment)
Card	Annual Fee	Miles	CPM
HSBC TravelOne Card Apply	S$196.20	12,000	1.63¢
OCBC 90°N MC Apply	S$196.20	10,000	1.96¢
OCBC 90°N Visa Apply	S$196.20	10,000	1.96¢
Citi PremierMiles Card Apply	S$196.20	10,000	1.96¢
DBS Altitude AMEX Apply	S$196.20	10,000	1.96¢
DBS Altitude Visa Apply	S$196.20	10,000	1.96¢
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card Apply	S$196.20	10,000	1.96¢
StanChart Journey Card Apply	S$196.20	10,000	1.96¢

For example, if I pay the annual fee on my KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card, I receive 10,000 bonus miles in my KrisFlyer account, plain and simple. There’s no need to worry about finding a redemption flight that meets all the conditions of an MRV; those miles are for me to use however I see fit.

In any case, you should also remember that the AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend’s annual fee of S$397.85 is significantly higher than the rest of the cards in the table, and while it’s true that it does have a complimentary Hilton free night voucher to soften the blow, those looking to buy extra miles would do much better with cheaper alternatives like CardUp or Citi PayAll. 

Conclusion

The AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend’s Miles Redemption Vouchers are of dubious value at best.

It’s hard to make the case for going out of your way to earn a Foreign Spend or Renewal MRV, given the restrictions on their use. It would be so much easier — though still not a good deal mind you — if the miles were simply credited to cardholders’ accounts, but I believe the point of making it this complicated is to incur some breakage through non-redemption!