Singapore Airlines is offering offering a 15% bonus on points transferred into KrisFlyer miles from credit card programs through December 27, 2020. Nearly all of their bank partners are eligible for the bonus, including Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citibank ThankYou Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards and Capital One miles that are trasnferrable to airline miles.
A handful of bank partners in Southeast Asia are eligible for 20% transfer bonuses, but none in the U.S. are. And there are some partners that are excluded – such as Diners Club in Australia and Singapore qualify, but not in the rest of the world.
Airlines are keen to offer transfer bonuses because it means generating cash – the bank program buys their miles – and because in all likelihood those points won’t be redeemed right away either.
Singapore Airlines is a Star Alliance member and has a few sweet spots for partner redemptions, though not nearly as many as they used to. Their miles are primarily useful for redeeming Singapore’s own premium cabin awards – which are rarely ever made available to partner frequent flyer programs on long flights.
Still I am not jumping at this offer. 15% isn’t enough to get me to give up the flexibility of having points in a bank currency where I get to choose later where to move my points, and because points in the KrisFlyer program expire 3 years after they’re earned (or received), with additional activity not extending the life of those miles.
(HT: Milelion)
@ Gary — This could be worthy of consideration if SQ would eliminate mileage expiration. Otherwise, transfers to SQ right now seem crazy.
I agree with both you Gary and Gene.
I’d move some points over with the if I had an immediate use for them. Or if the transfer extended the points I already have. Otherwise, a hard no.
I agree. I have a bunch of credit card miles that I may end up using on SingaporeAir but the expiration policy makes this offer a no-go.