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Singapore Airlines is one of the most well-known carriers in the world. The Singapore-based airline is known for its outstanding service, particularly in its premium cabins. The airline operates a wide route network to every continent except South America. Its routes include some fascinating fifth-freedom options — including routes between New York and Frankfurt and between Los Angeles and Tokyo.
Singapore Airlines' loyalty program is called KrisFlyer. Unfortunately, its points expiration policy does not match its outstanding service. Here is all you need to know about when Singapore KrisFlyer miles expire.
Do Singapore Miles Expire?
Most Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles expire at the end of the month after 36 months from the month of their accrual. Per Singapore Airlines terms and conditions page:
A member’s KrisFlyer miles will expire after three years (or one year for KrisFlyer miles received from contests) at 23:59 hours Singapore time (GMT +08:00 hours) on the last day of the equivalent month in which they were earned. For example, KrisFlyer miles credited to a member’s KrisFlyer account in July 2017 will expire at 23:59 hours Singapore time (GMT +08:00 hours) on 31 July 2020.
The above policy only applies to regular KrisFlyer members. If you are a PPS Club Member or a Solitaire PPS Club member, your miles will never expire. However, if you fail to renew your PPS Club status, your miles will revert to the 36-month expiration policy.
Even worse, your KrisFlyer account will expire 45 months after the last date you earn miles — or 24 months after enrollment if you don't make a qualifying transaction. Here's how Singapore Airlines puts it:
Your KrisFlyer account will remain valid for 45 months from the end of the month of your last earning transaction. Your account will also expire if you don’t make a qualifying transaction within 24 months of your enrolment as a KrisFlyer member.
Track your points and miles expiration for 630+ loyalty programs and get email alerts before your miles expire by signing up for a free AwardWallet account.
Extending Your Singapore Miles Validity
If your miles are about to expire, you can pay to extend their validity. KrisFlyer members can pay $12 or 1,200 miles to extend their mileage expiration for six months. KrisFlyer Elite Silver and Gold elites receive a 12-month extension for the same $12 / 1,200 miles.
Historically, you could book an award with your miles, change the date, and then cancel and redeposit your miles for a fee to reset the clock on those miles. This avenue is no longer available, however. Any miles that would have expired will be lost and would not be redeposited.
Earning Singapore KrisFlyer Miles
Earning Singapore KrisFlyer miles is relatively straightforward. You can earn miles in any of the following ways:
- Fly with Singapore or any of its Star Alliance members, including Lufthansa and Avianca. You can also earn miles when flying Scoot, JetBlue, Alaska Airlines, and more.
- Stay at hotels, including IHG, Accor, and Hilton.
- Rent a car from Avis, Budget, or other partners.
- Shop around the world, including at the Bicester Village Shopping Collection.
If you are based in Asia, there is a much more comprehensive range of options for you to earn KrisFlyer miles, including multiple co-branded credit cards in various countries.
Boosting Your KrisFlyer Miles Account
You have plenty of options if you are a few points shy of a redemption. Fortunately, Singapore KrisFlyer is a transfer partner of numerous points programs:
This flexibility makes Singapore KrisFlyer an ideal program to consolidate small point balances into one big balance for your next redemption.
Track Your Singapore KrisFlyer Miles Through AwardWallet
Although three years is a generous timeframe, it can go by in a flash. That is why staying on top of your KrisFlyer mileage expiration using AwardWallet will mean you will always receive a timely reminder to take action and prevent your miles from expiring.
To track your Singapore KrisFlyer balance, simply log into your account and link your Singapore account to your AwardWallet account. You'll get expiration reminder emails well in advance so you can take action to redeem your Singapore miles before they expire
Our Take
A fixed expiration policy is a big downside to the Singapore program, although 36 months is relatively generous. On the bright side, there are many point transfer partners, plus you can pay to extend the validity of your KrisFlyer miles. With proper planning, it's quite simple to stay on top of your balance and always ensure that you use your miles before they expire.
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I have 30k points that are set to expire in Dec 2024 and 130k in Feb 2025. If I book award tickets (for Sep 2025) now, will those 160k points remain visible to me on SQ’s miles validity chart, even though the miles have been applied to a ticket? Or will those miles disappear from the validity table once I “buy” award tickets with them? If they would disappear from the table, then it seems to me that I must pay to extend their validity before I book the award tickets. Otherwise, if I don’t extend them first, and I cancel my award after Dec 2024 or Feb 2025, the points will have expired and will no longer be usable.
I don’t have direct experience with expiring SQ miles. But typically loyalty programs will withdraw redeemed miles from your account when you book a future award flight. And those miles won’t expire unless you cancel the award (and the miles are redeposited into your account with the original expiration date). So, if you’re sure that you’ll take the Sept 2025 trip, you should be fine. If you’re afraid you might cancel that trip, it may be worth paying to extend your miles.
Hopefully someone else with experience can chime in.
I have miles expiring Aug 31st. As long as I book a trip by that date I’m good, or does the travel have to be by Aug 31?
From what we understand, you only need to redeem miles by August 31 — not travel by that date.
I personally feel It’s better to keep in Krisflyer vs transferring it to Kris+ which has a very short expiry of just 6 months.
I lost 23k miles as didn’t realise credit expires in 6 months ( & no extension for COVID!) Repeated request to reinstate the miles with Kris+ customer service ended up in vain.
Customer service team of Kris+ is very strict with rules. My credit expired on Feb’22 & I requested them to reinstate end Mar, but after multiple reminders to get their feedback, finally got turned down on in May’22. So only transfer if you are going to use it immediately, or you will end up losing it like me.
Has anyone visited the New Silver Krisflyer lounge in SIngapore? Opened 23 November, and was reputed to have a “rest” area with recliners? I’ve a 7 hour transit 31 Dec and tossing up whether to book a transit hotel.
I was just wondering if transfer points from credit cards will extend the life of Krisflyer miles
Thank you
That “brick wall” mileage expiration just means that one should be highly transactional with Singapore KF by transferring points for a specific redemption, and nothing more. The program caters to people who frequently earn and burn, and that’s fine as long as you understand the rules of the game.
I have 75000 expiring krisflyer miles last yr so I booked for a trip to Asia but then had to cancel d/t HK demonstrations plus the Covid lockdowns. Doesn’t seem like Asia travel will be possible before it expires again based on the charts. What are my options other than paying to extend for another 6 months? Think I can use it for domestic flights with United.
Unfortunately, Krisflyer is more stingy than most airlines in terms of options to extned miles. Beyond the pay option highlighted here, you’re really only left with trying to get some value out of them, by either tranfering them out to another program or redeeming them one of several ways. But, with 75000 miles you should be able to find some options. For example, at one point you could transfer them to Virgin Australia’s Velocity program.
3 years is still better than many programs that’s only 2 years and I think Hawaiian Air is only 1.5 years.
A very good reason not to earn miles in this programme.
For this reason I only transfer credit card points into KF when I know there is an award I want and see availability. Otherwise I just accumulate on it when flying SilkAir as they aren’t a *A partner.
Unfortunate that they expire but it’s good there are transfer partners.
Didn’t know about the extension. Thanks!
Would be awesome to see a credit card option added for US consumers, a-la Lufthansa, that would keep points alive past the 36 month window.
its a pity they have a hard cap of 3 years on the miles for non-elite members
A total deal breaker for me. I simply don’t accept programs with hard (non-extendable) mileage expiry. You end up getting pushed into booking things you don’t need/want, just to use up the miles.
Hate being forced to use miles before an expiration date so never signed up for a program that forces usage. The extra discount you get on some routes is not worth the risk of miles expiring IMHO.
A big downside to the program.
Thanks for the heads up!
Wow, that’s quite hefty price for extention! Better come up with something else, if miles are expiring.
Thank you the information and the backdoor flexible travel rewards method.
What is a PPS member?
A level of elite status within the program
I currently have frequent flyer accounts with AA, DL, and UA. I am wondering if I should expand to foreign carriers too? I usually only fly internationally once a year.
Ed, an important thing to keep in mind is that foreign carriers may charge less than the domestic carrier for the same seat on the domestic carrier.
For example, it’ll cost you less to use Singapore miles to fly to Hawaii on United versus using United miles to fly to Hawaii. I’d recommend you ensure you’re collecting flexible travel rewards (SPG, Amex MR, Chase UR, Citi TYP) and then of course have all of the foreign carriers loyalty accounts as well.
They definitely do and no extension on the miles unless you pay.
It’s almost always safe to assume miles expire. I will say, for those that don’t, such as Delta, it’s a nice touch. We can all find plenty to say about Delta, but at least that is a perk.
Thank you for the reminder.