There’s an opportunity right now to earn Star Alliance Gold status through Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer by transferring 250,000 points to the program. This is potentially an incredible deal. I first wrote about this promotion in April 2020 (when it became available), but wanted to recap it, since this offer only runs through the end of…
Continue reading: Transfer 250K Bank Points To Singapore KrisFlyer, Earn Star Alliance Gold
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I lost access to my account, so I have to resolve that one first… they haven’t picked up the phone or responded to me by email yet…
Lucky, you need to transfer 125k points to get Elite Silver first, then another 125k points after you have been upgraded to Silver.
If you transfer all 250k at one go, you'll only make Silver and not Gold.
As you note, once you transfer points, the three-year clock starts. Just before lock-down, I transferred points to Singapore for a planned trip. Now, I'm under the gun. While Singapore is doing extensions six months at a time, I still don't like its three-year clock. Because of it, I don't know that I will ever fly Singapore.
Precisely this. Even another transfer of points won't extend the validity. If you don't have a plan for using the points, you may find yourself losing them, paying cash to extend them, or redeeming them at a lousy value before the deadline.
Any economy plus seat selection benefits with United for star alliance silver or gold status? That's where status can save you hundreds per flight if traveling in group. Baggage n lounge access can often be covered with credit cards.
Economy Plus seat selection is included for MileagePlus Premier members but is not a Star Alliance Gold benefit (one of the only advantages of earning *G through UA over someone else imo). I've been an Asiana Club Diamond for many years, and while "preferred seats" (not economy plus seats, but standard seats that are closer to the front of the plane) have been available to me, I have never been able to select an E+ seat in advance. Every once in a blue moon I've been able to select one at check-in but it's very sporadic and I really can't discern a pattern there.
Experience would say otherwise, I transferred a little over 250k in one go last year and was gold shortly thereafter.
A little tricky if you have United Silver through Marriott and Star Alliance Gold through the Singapore promotion (which I received last week). Think I still want to credit to United to get access to the E+ seats 24 hours in advance (my batting average on that is close to 100%) and when I checked earlier I got a better baggage allowance crediting to United than Singapore. Priority baggage delivery (which never seems to do anything) and priority check-in are the same for both. Other than lounge access (which I am hoping that I can get without the lounge attendants changing my ff number), the only advantage I can think of for crediting to Singapore is a one-level increase in boarding position. Am I missing anything?
The only material benefits apart from increased baggage allowance between PPS Club/Solitaire and KF Gold are when flying SQ out of Singapore. The different lounges you mention (as well as first class check-in, etc.) are only at Changi
But will they truly give you status? I did a transfer, and was notified that I was silver elite. Two months later, they told me that it was a "mistake" and revoked status.
@Ben - One listed benefit is priority waitlist. Given that Singapore Saver level awards in first class often have to be waitlisted, do you think that the improved status would truly make a difference? I know that since you run an award booking service you'll have good insight here.
KF Gold gets you *G, which is quite valuable, IMHO. Access to any *A lounge worldwide, including United Clubs in the US, even when traveling domestically. Extra baggage allowance is always a big one. Priority check-in and boarding, etc...
That was my point -- not much difference between PPS Club/Solitaire and KF Gold once you're out of the SQ/SIN ecosystem
All of the award availability for FRA-JFK in Suites has dried out. Seeing only 86k waitlist or 140k for practically any date in the calendar. Was contemplating pulling the trigger on this transfer, but without any foreseeable redemption, I'm gonna pass.
Just reporting my negative experience with SQ/krisflyer. I booked an SQ flight to use miles that were soon to expire. There was a major NYC blizzard just prior to flight and I have already experienced SQ issues after a blizzard. (I really can't fathom how they got so messed up with equipment on the ground for 10 hours, LOL).
I contacted SQ and asked to rebook a day later. They claimed they would cancel my booking, return my miles and rebook me for the next flight. In reality they canceled my booking and swallowed my miles as expired. They mislead me, almost made me miss uber important meetings and responded to my complaints by phoning me at 2 AM consistently. I pointed out the time issue and they persisted.
SQ won, I gave up. I still warn others to be careful.
I transferred AMEX MR pts today to top off my account and was pleasantly surprised that they transferred instantly. Never had that happen with AMEX in the past.
So if I'm reading this right, i just need to transfer 250K points to my singapore krisflyer account and I can get Star Alliance Gold for 2 years....and I still have the 250K points to redeem within 36 months?
Even better - about 3 hours later I got an email from SQ titled "WELCOME TO KRISFLYER ELITE GOLD STATUS".
That was quick. Yay!
@ Donato
I also got caught out losing points when canceling and trying to rebook 2x FRA-SIN in Suites.
The points would have expired under the old rules but were supposed to have been extended due to the COVID policies of SQ.
Their system didn't appear to be reprogrammed to allow for the COVID extensions.
It took over 6 weeks to get them back, in which time all of the saver live; awards were gone....gggrrrrrr!
Numerous phone calls with extensive wait times. Promises of a call back from the award booking team that never happened.
The only way I managed to fix the issue was to post on their social media - somebody finally took notice.
Be very careful using batches of points about to expire - take screen grabs of account pages with mile expiration detail and COVID policies.
I do not "trust" SQ any more.
I would NOT transfer credit card points for status and end up with a pile of Krisflyer points on a speculative basis.
If you do need to change your award flights - be very careful - their online system wasn't working and the only way was to cancel and rebook.
My impression is that their back end systems hav not been updated to accommodate revised point expiry. Never expected such a cluster-beep from a quality airline.
"Abandon all hope ye who enter there"
I just transferred 77,000 points to Krisflyer which I redeemed for an upcoming flight in Business Class on the Singapore JFK to FRA route. I wonder if that would transfer would be offset against the needed 250K points for this promotion? (I would then have an immediate redemption opportunity to upgrade that flight to First Class for an additional 77,000.)
Same here, transferred 200K points today to get 2 business class award tickets to India. tickets booked, status achieved!
YES! Did this for my May RTW1.0 to skip HKG then rebook at saver level and got 41K miles back Then transferred for RTW22 3.0 to fly SYD-SIN-FRA-JFK- in new suites. Bingo SQ GOLD!
The fear of expiring miles and poor award availability in the past has me a no go!
Please please Amex, bring back the SQ transfer bonus before the end of the month.
My transfer was immediate, but that has been my experience with Amex MR transfers in general. It took, however, nearly 24 hours to get my congratulatory e-mail to make my Elite Gold status official. I also managed to get on the waitlist from Business to First/Suites on an upcoming flight, whereas a few days ago, I was deemed unworthy to even be listed.
It looks like you missed another angle here: SQ's website also indicates that hotel transfers count, so this could be a viable "dump" of (for example) Marriott points.
Can I transfer from UR, MR and TYP for a total of 250k points to achieve the status?
Thank you!