Singapore has just rolled out an interesting new redemption option for KrisFlyer members whereby miles can be redeemed towards the cash cost of a ticket. Now, the value isn’t very good in most cases, especially if wanting to redeem for premium itineraries, but new options (without taking anything away) are always a good thing, in my opinion.
Through this option each KrisFlyer mile can be redeemed for 0.0102SGD (~0.0081USD) towards the cost of a ticket. To take advantage of this, simply check the “Pay with KrisFlyer miles” box when making a booking.
After selecting flights and getting to the payment page you’ll be given the option to select for how much of the ticket you’d like to redeem KrisFlyer miles.
This isn’t a great way to redeem your KrisFlyer miles. In almost all cases you can get a better value by outright redeeming miles for an award ticket, especially if you’re redeeming for Suites, First, or Business class.
But at the same time if you have a smaller quantity of miles that are about to expire, this is a better use of them than just letting them expire. You have to redeem a minimum of 5,000 miles to use this payment option.
It’s also interesting to note that you can still earn miles for the portion of your fare you’re paying. So if you pay for 50% of your ticket with miles you’d still earn 50% of the miles you’d usually earn for the portion of the ticket you’re paying for in cash.
@ Mike S. -- You can, though I'd say in most cases purchasing miles at four cents each is a horrible value, unless you're *really* close to the number of miles needed.
@ ChasingThePoints -- That's simply the miles needed for the award and not the number of miles in my account. Thanks, though!
@ Yucci -- Whoops, you're absolutely right. Fixed, thanks!
If you have at least 50% of the miles you need for an award, won't they sell you the rest for 4cents/mile? Aeroplan does this, but its 3cents/mile
Dan is spot on, IMHO. This isn't necessarily a good thing.
Not sure why you consider new options like this a 'good thing'. Qantas did this some time ago, effectively valuing each point at some fractional cent amount. Over time, available awards at the 'normal' redemption rates dry up, and eventually they'll have done away with the thing airlines have hated since AA introduced the first FF program - rewards based on miles flown rather than $ spent.
Qantas model "points plus pay" except on QF you get the mileage and status for the entire trip.
Lucky, you blacked out the miles in the first screen shot, but it's there in the second on the sliding scale
'each KrisFlyer mile can be redeemed for 1.02SGD (~0.81USD)'
Shouldn't it be in cents, rather than dollars?
0.81USD would be a great value for 1 Krisflyer mile ;)