Through February 2022 there’s a promotion where transferring points into 250,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles will earn Star Alliance Gold status for a year.
Singapore Airlines is extending all status that expires by March 2023 by a year. So gaining Star Alliance Gold through this promotion actually nets you 24 months of status. And Singapore is a transfer partner of Chase, American Express, Citibank, Capital One and Brex.
That’s really cool, and especially valuable for United Airlines domestic flyers who can access United Clubs with the status.
And Singapore Airlines generally restricts long haul business and first class award space on their own flights to their own members. You can’t book long haul premium cabin travel on Singapore Airlines using United miles in nearly all cases. But you can do so with Singapore’s miles. That’s how many readers scored Singapore’s new A380 suites out of New York recently.
There are several reasons not to do this.
- Transfers that are speculative – you don’t know how you’ll use the points or when – mean giving up the flexibility of being able to move the points somewhere else. There’s huge option value in transferable points you give up when you transfer.
- Singapore miles expire 3 years after being earned. It’s not 3 years of inactivity in an account – each mile has three years to be used.
- We’re in uncertain times and while it’s possible for some Americans to travel to Singapore, it currently depends on where you were vaccinated whether you can produce the required proof (80% of vaccinated Americans now can). Much of Asia is not yet open to Americans, though some places like Thailand are with hoops to jump through.
Anyone that’s already taken advantage of this – congrats you get 24 months of status. Anyone still considering it, you have a few more weeks and a greater incentive than before.
I had a trip planned and transferred points to Singapore just prior to booking. Guess what. COVID happened . . . and the clock has been ticking. Yes, Singapore is extending expiration six months at a time. But, its expiration policy is still a problem. Unless Singapore changes its policy, never again.
Agree with Reno Joe
Their expiration policy kills all my revenue business and desire to participate in their
program
It’s a horrible policy that destroys all trust as they make it so hard to redeem in the first place
@Gary: So Gold status for two years for about $4,500 (1.8 c /mile)?
You can buy several business class increments over coach for that. A very bad deal, it would appear.
@Gary – Does Singapore Gold help much in clearing waitlists? One listed benefit is priority waitlist and saver award seats in long haul first class are often waitlist only. If Gold status makes a real difference in getting those saver first class award seats, that’s could be a solid benefit.
To use this status on United and other Star Alliance flights, you’d have to credit each flight to your Singapore KrisFlyer account right? Are there ways around that? It’s not necessarily a deal-breaker for me, just trying to understand the limitations.
The extra year status, which SQ has promised in writing, is truly cool. I earned KF Gold through this SQ offer to earn status without flying when it was combinable with another SQ offered that awarded 15% redeemable and elite-qualifying bonus KF miles on transferred bank points. As a result, I ended up with a KF Gold status expiring on 12/31/2022 and 333K redeemable KF miles with a “hard” shelf life of 72 months (i.e., they could not be extended even through a request or by paying a fee, as the program allows for their regular miles).
Not only has SQ just extended the status one extra year to 12/31/2023, they have also “paused” the expiration of points in 2022, with all points slated to expire being extended in 6 months increments. That gives me breathing room to focus on redeeming almost exclusively in the foreseeable future, the pandemic allowing, the 333K KF miles, not only for free premium SQ awards, but also for other *A awards, leaving my UA miles, which do not expire!, in my MileagePlus account for future uses; and my transferable bank points untouched and growing.
Does the 250K need to be deposited all in one transaction? Can I transfer, say, 100K from Brex and 150K from Chase and get Star Alliance Gold status? Any reason to prefer transferring Chase over Brex or vice versa?
i just booked flights via united airlines. however i do not have any united miles. i do have plenty krisflyer miles. i have two questions hoping you can help:
a) how do i upgrade my united flights using krisflyer miles
b) should i accrue my upcoming united flight miles to united mileage plus or krisflyer?
thank you