Singapore Airlines is one of the world’s most beloved airlines. The iconic uniforms of Singapore Airlines flight attendants symbolize the airline’s exemplary customer service.
As a member of Star Alliance, Singapore Airlines has an extensive network of partners, in addition to its ownership of Silk Air for Asia regional flights.
Singapore Changi Airport is lauded as one of the best airports in the world, and it is a 24-hour destination in its own right. Many travelers deliberately book long layovers in Singapore to explore, shop, play, and most of all eat!
From the U.S. West Coast, Singapore Airlines flies from Los Angeles to Tokyo, continuing onward to Singapore. Additionally, Singapore Airlines flies non-stop from Los Angeles to Singapore.
Singapore Airlines expanded its operations with a new nonstop that joined the existing flight to Hong Kong. You can now either fly to Singapore via Hong Kong or nonstop to Hong Kong!
Heading the other direction, those in the know fly Singapore Airlines to Europe: New York (JFK) to Frankfurt and Houston to Manchester, UK. Both flights continue onward to Singapore.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles can be earned many ways, and KrisFlyer is one of the most versatile frequent flyer programs for smart travelers. Let’s learn the best ways to use KrisFlyer miles for awesome travel around the world!
Best Ways to Earn KrisFlyer Miles
KrisFlyer miles can be transferred from American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi Thank You Rewards (all at a rate of 1:1), from Capital One at a 2:1 rate, or from Marriott at a transfer rate of 3:1.
Recommended Amex Cards (Personal)
Recommended Chase Cards (Personal)
If you’re a business owner, see our article about the best Chase business cards.
Recommended Capital One Cards That Earn Miles (Personal)
Marriott Transfers
You can earn Marriott points and transfer those to KrisFlyer at a transfer rate of 3:1. Plus, for every 60,000 Marriott points that you transfer, you’ll receive a bonus of 5,000 KrisFlyer miles.
The 17 Best Ways to Use Your Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles
1. Fly Singapore Suites Class on the A380
Singapore First Class Suite. Image Credit: Alex Miller / Upgraded PointsAmong the top ways to use Singapore miles is with Singapore Suites: one of the world’s premier airline experiences. With a companion, this is the mile-high double bed!
Only the A380 has Singapore Suites Class. Not that first class on other aircraft is shabby — but make sure you know what you are getting before you book!
Here are some fun options:
- New York to Frankfurt: 86,000 miles
- New York to Singapore (via Frankfurt): 132,000 miles
- New York to Sydney (via Frankfurt and Singapore): 167,000 miles
Need help booking? See our step-by-step guide for booking Singapore Suites Class using points.
Hot Tip: If you are connecting, having a card like The Platinum Card® from American Express can be useful for offering lounge access while you wait!
2. Singapore Airlines First Class From Los Angeles to Tokyo
Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 First Class – Turndown Service. Image Credit: Greg StoneFly first class from Los Angeles to Tokyo or Seoul for 107,000 bonus miles one-way. It’s not Suites Class, but it should certainly do!
Need help booking? See our step-by-step guide for booking Singapore Airlines first class, and see Greg’s review of their 777 product in First Class.
3. Singapore Airlines Business Class From San Francisco to Hong Kong or Singapore
Singapore Airlines Airbus A350 Business Class – Mood Lighting. Image Credit: Greg StoneFrom San Francisco, your options on Singapore Airlines are Hong Kong and Singapore. In business class, that’s 89,000 miles for Hong Kong or 95,000 miles for Singapore.
The SFO – SIN route actually makes the list of the longest nonstop flights in the world!
Hot Tip: For a complete list of SQ routes to/from the United States, check out our article: The Definitive Guide to Singapore Airlines U.S. Routes [Plane Types & Seat Options].
4. United Domestic Business or First Class
KrisFlyer is a better value for U.S. transcontinental flights on United than United’s own MileagePlus program.
Business class one-way is 23,000 KrisFlyer miles, and first class is 34,500. United MileagePlus charges 25,000 and 40,000!
5. United Airlines to Hawaii
Hawaii is ever-popular. Flying United, you can get there in economy for 17,500, business for 34,500, or first class for 46,000 KrisFlyer frequent flyer program miles,.
United MileagePlus charges more, coming in at 22,500 miles, 40,000 miles, and 50,000 miles, respectively.
Use your Citi ThankYou points to travel to Hawaii for vacation! Options are available in economy, business, and first class if you transfer your points to KrisFlyer. Image Credit: Shutterstock.com
6. U.S. West Coast on Alaska Airlines
The KrisFlyer Alaska Airlines award chart has some sweet spots. One-way flights within the U.S. West Coast in economy are only 7,500 miles.
7. U.S. West Coast to Costa Rica, Cuba, and Mexico on Alaska Airlines
Flying for 12,000 miles one-way from U.S. to Mexico is cheap compared to major U.S. airlines. There are often cheap cash fares, though, so be sure to shop around.
8. Fly Singapore Airlines From the U.S. to Europe
Want to fly to Europe on a carrier with service that puts U.S. carriers to shame? Yep, that’ll work!
The 2 routes are:
- New York (JFK) – Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
- Houston (IAH) – Manchester, England (MAN)
One-way Saver Award prices for each are:
- Economy – 22,500 miles
- Premium Economy – 47,000 miles
- Business – 72,000 miles
- First – 86,000 miles
If Saver Awards are not available, the more expensive Advantage Awards are 40,000 in economy, 85,000 in business, and 140,000 in first (not offered in premium economy).
Need help booking? See our step-by-step guide for booking Singapore business class.
9. Star Alliance Flights to Europe
KrisFlyer charges 27,500 miles in economy class from U.S. to Europe on United and other Star Alliance carriers. The major U.S. carriers start at 30,000 miles in their programs. Fuel surcharges on some partners (including United) are either not assessed or modest.
Use Star Alliance partners with your Singapore miles to get great value redemptions, such as traveling to Frankfurt, Germany (pictured). Take a look at this beautiful architecture in person! Image Credit: Shutterstock.com10. Star Alliance Flights to the Middle East or North Africa
Like going from the U.S. to Europe, using your KrisFlyer member miles from the U.S. to the Middle East and North Africa is a solid value at 45,000 miles in economy class, 76,500 miles in business, and 99,000 miles in first.
Surcharges vary by airline and route.
Middle seats provide direct aisle access in Lufthansa business class. Image Credit: Lufthansa11. Star Alliance Business Class to Central or South Africa
Getting to Central and South Africa is expensive, especially in premium cabins. A one-way ticket in economy is 52,000 miles, business class is 96,500 miles, and first class is 145,000 miles.
Star Alliance has the most extensive Africa network with EgyptAir, Ethiopian, and South African all having flights from the U.S. This is one award where with the increase in KrisFlyer award prices should take extra time to shop around with other Star Alliance programs for their rates.
Star Alliance carriers in Europe (and Turkish in particular) have many Africa routes that often mirror former colonial ties. Example: TAP Portugal flies to Angola or São Tome and Principe.
It’s going to be easy to wake up from a good night’s sleep after flying Ethiopian’s business class to Africa! Image Credit: ethiopianairlines.com.12. Fly Virgin Atlantic Upper Class to Europe
The KrisFlyer award chart for Virgin Atlantic requires round-trip travel. Party in Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class for only 100,000 miles round-trip. On a Star Alliance carrier, business to Europe would be 130,000 miles.
The catch? About $410 in surcharges each way. If you want to conserve cash instead of miles, use Delta SkyMiles to book Virgin Atlantic instead.
Need Help Booking? Check out our step-by-step guide to booking Virgin Atlantic Upper Class.
Image Credit: Virgin Atlantic13. Lufthansa First Class to Europe
Seats 2K and 3K. Image Credit: Cherag DubashLufthansa first class is another luxury travel dream: 107,500 KrisFlyer miles gets you from the U.S. to Europe one-way.
Make sure to book a long connection in Frankfurt to check out the First Class Terminal…the lounge experience of a lifetime! And note that the fuel surcharge is around $425.
Need help booking? See our step-by-step Lufthansa first class booking guide.
14. South Pacific Island Hopping on Star Alliance
If you have an extended Pacific trip planned, KrisFlyer has a fantastic offer. Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific encompass a huge geographic region.
For just 12,500/31,000/42,500 miles each way in economy/business/first class, you can fly within the Pacific. A round-trip flight can add a stopover, and up to 3 additional stopovers are available for $100 each.
To compare, in the same region United MileagePlus charges 12,500/30,000/40,000 miles each way in economy/business/first.
Availability can be tough to find for many of these routes, but Air New Zealand domestic and Australia flights have decent award availability. Pacific flights are tough or nonexistent for islands with no other service, such as Niue and Norfolk.
HT: Travel is Free
15. South Pacific Island Hopping on Virgin Australia
With separate Star Alliance and Virgin Australia award charts, you can’t mix Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia on the same award. The good news is Virgin Australia can do it alone with excellent award availability on many routes.
Of the options to book awards on Virgin Australia (Delta SkyMiles, Etihad Guest, Virgin Atlantic), KrisFlyer and Etihad Guest rival each other for the best value on short flights. KrisFlyer’s free stopover on a round-trip gives it an edge.
Booking up to 3 additional stopovers at $100 each is tempting! Unlike Star Alliance awards, the stopover can be wholly within 1 country.
Australia 1 (Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria) to Papua New Guinea & the Pacific Islands (Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu) is only 20,000 miles one-way. These flights could easily cost you hundreds of dollars!
16. Australia Domestic Flights on Virgin Australia
Australia 1 includes Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and many of Australia’s premier tourist attractions, from Cairns and Hamilton Island for the Great Barrier Reef down to Tasmania. All of those are only 11,000 miles in economy class or 21,000 in business.
Virgin Australia domestic business is a great experience with dedicated valet and check-in, and international-level airport lounges. At 21,000 miles, it may be worth the splurge to order a flat white and press your own breakfast melt!
17. Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands
These Australian islands in the Indian Ocean are some of the most isolated inhabited islands in the world. Famed for the annual red crab migration on Christmas Island, magnificent beaches, diving, and hiking, these are dream islands you can visit before word spreads.
Virgin Australia is the only regular airline service to both with twice-weekly flights from Perth.
Amazingly, they all sit in Australia 3, meaning you’ll use just 15,000 miles in economy and 29,000 in business. These flights often top $700!
Note: Singapore KrisFlyer award space on Virgin Australia is inconsistent and not always as good as other partners of Virgin Australia. As alternates, try booking with Delta SkyMiles or Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
Because the flights are operated by Virgin Australia Regional, Etihad is unable to book awards on this route.
Details for the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Program
The great values of KrisFlyer come from 3 features:
- Access to Singapore Airlines premium cabin awards. These are rarely made available to partner airlines.
- Star Alliance network of airlines (the largest airline alliance). Awards are competitively priced for travel around the world.
- Distinctive airline partners. Airlines such as Silk Air and Virgin Australia that are not part of an airline alliance have fewer options for travelers to book awards on their flights.
Hot Tip: Singapore Airlines uses a practice called “journey control” on its own flights. This means the same flight segments may or may not be available depending on your origin and destination. For instance, New York-Singapore may not be available, but New York-Kuala Lumpur connecting through Singapore on the same flights may be available. Be flexible in your searches!
Singapore Airlines Suites Class
The dream award for many travelers is Singapore Airlines Suites Class. You’ll only get it with KrisFlyer miles, not partner miles.
Flights from North America can be tough to snag, but searching Europe to Singapore is much better for award availability. Our advice is to waitlist a bunch of awards and hope to get lucky!
Star Alliance Partners
KrisFlyer can be used to book awards on all Star Alliance member airlines:
| Airline | Home Country
|
| United | United States |
| Air Canada | Canada |
| Copa | Panama |
| Avianca | Colombia |
| TAP Portugal | Portugal |
| Brussels Airlines | Belgium |
| Lufthansa | Germany |
| Austrian | Austria |
| Swiss | Switzerland |
| LOT | Poland |
| SAS | Sweden |
| Adria | Slovenia |
| Croatia Airlines | Croatia |
| Aegean | Greece |
| Turkish | Turkey |
| EgyptAir | Egypt |
| Ethiopian | Ethiopia |
| South African Airways | South Africa |
| Air India | India |
| Air China | China |
| Shenzhen Airlines | China |
| EVA Air | Taiwan (China) |
| Asiana | South Korea |
| ANA Japan | Japan |
| Thai | Thailand |
| Air New Zealand | New Zealand |
You can search for awards for most of these airlines on the websites of United, Air Canada, or ANA. The Singapore Airlines website only searches Singapore Airlines and Silk Air flights.
Additional Airline Partners
KrisFlyer partners with the following regional and budget carriers. Silk Air can be searched on the Singapore Airlines website. For the other airlines, you’ll need to call KrisFlyer to search award space and book:
- Scoot, based in Singapore
- Tigerair, based in Singapore
- Juneyao, based in China
- Vistara, based in India
Krisflyer also partners with both Virgin airlines. Virgin Australia is especially useful because their own program is only open to members in Australia and certain other Pacific countries:
- Virgin Atlantic
- Virgin Australia
For Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia, you can check availability on the Delta website.
Virgin America has now been absorbed by Alaska Airlines; KrisFlyer rolled out a comparable award chart for travel on Alaska Airlines.
How Much Do KrisFlyer Awards Cost?
You can book economy class, premium economy, business, and first class awards with KrisFlyer. Economy and business class generally offer competitive value.
Premium economy usually only costs slightly less than business, so if you have sufficient miles, business class is often the better value.
First class awards are priced high, so save them for the most spectacular redemptions such as Singapore Suites. You cannot redeem for Swiss first class.
The award charts are here:
There is also a handy online Redemption Calculator.
New Online Search, New Offline Fees
KrisFlyer is progressively rolling out improved online award booking, including partner booking.
For any ticket that can be booked, changed, or canceled online, there is a now a offline fee of US$25 or 2,5000 miles if calling KrisFlyer to process the transaction. It if cannot be done online, make sure to ask that the fee be waived.
Routing and Stopovers
Singapore is among a dwindling number of airlines that still allow stopovers on awards. You can stop as long as you want within the 1-year validity of the ticket, and can have a maximum of 6 segments:
- Saver awards: No stopovers on one-ways, 1 stopover on round-trips
- Standard and Full awards: 1 stopover on one-ways, 2 on round-trips
- Star Alliance awards: 1 stopover on round-trips
Hot Tip: While you need to fly the most direct routing on awards, when flying Singapore Airlines, that most direct routing can mean backtracking through Singapore…perfect if you have that Suites Class ticket and want to maximize your flying time!
There are some exceptions:
- No stopovers in country of departure
- No stopovers on a ticket entirely in 1 country or intra-Europe tickets
- No stopovers on U.S.-Puerto Rico-U.S. Virgin Islands-Canada tickets
A single itinerary can have a maximum of 6 segments.
Hot Tip: Up to 3 additional stopovers may be purchased for $100 each on Singapore, Silk Air, and Star Alliance round-trip awards. This can be a huge savings over multiple award tickets!
Award Surcharges
KrisFlyer levies high cash surcharges on many awards, but they have recently done away with surcharges for flights on Singapore Airlines.
Compared to other Star Alliance programs, the KrisFlyer miles price may be lower than the cash price.
The following airlines have no or low surcharges:
- United (in the Americas)
- Alaska Airlines (in the Americas)
- Air Canada (in the Americas)
- Avianca
- Copa
- Air New Zealand (but taxes can be high)
- Virgin Australia (but taxes can be high)
Hot Tip: Use a card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® to get some of your surcharges refunded with the travel/airline credits offered.
Award Holds and Waitlist
Officially, there are no award holds on KrisFlyer. Over the phone, you may get lucky and be given up to 3 days, but don’t count on it.
If an award you want on Singapore Airlines or Silk Air is not available, you can waitlist it as long as you have the necessary amount of miles in your account. You can waitlist multiple flights too, as long as you have enough miles for the most expensive flight you are waitlisting.
Once your award becomes available, you are notified with 24 hours to book (though you are not obligated to book).
Round the World Awards
Round the world awards are an endangered breed. With KrisFlyer, you can book a trip to 7 cities for 180,000 miles in economy class, 240,000 miles in business, or 360,000 miles in first.
Assembling such a trip is a major research undertaking to find all the necessary award availability on Singapore Airlines and its partners, and you have to call to book.
Booking Class Upgrades
Upgrade awards from paid tickets are available on Singapore Airlines, Silk Air, and Star Alliance.
You can only upgrade 1 class of service. From economy to premium economy, only expensive Y, B, and E fares may be upgraded; this will generally be a poor award value.
The upgrade award charts are here:
Hot Tip: Singapore Airlines premium economy cash fares can often be significantly less than business, and can then be upgraded to business class at a reasonable miles price.
Miles and Cash
The KrisFlyer miles and cash option is almost always a poor value. A mile is valued at 0.7 cents/point, much lower than booking cash tickets using credit card points (which are usually 1 cent/point at minimum).
Transfer and Family Booking
An area where KrisFlyer lags behind its competition is offering household accounts to pool miles…or even options that allow you to transfer miles for free.
You also cannot book award tickets for just anybody; you must nominate up to 5 people to book awards for.
To take someone off this list, they must have been on your account for 6 months. Then, the change costs 3,000 miles and $30 online, or 5,000 miles and $50 by telephone.
Elite members receive discount or waivers, depending on status. Big families beware!
Changes and Cancellation
KrisFlyer’s change and cancellation fees are among the lowest in the world. These are attractive to people with unpredictable travel schedules who seek to lock in awards when available. Date changes Singapore Airlines and Silk Air flights are free.
Other changes to awards are only USD$20 to change online. Changes by telephone will incur an additional fee of USD$25 or 2,500 miles (only if the task can be completed online). Changes within 24 hours of departure or no-shows incur a fee of $75.
The cancellation (mile redeposit) fee is only $30, and Singapore Airlines elites pay $15. Again, among the lowest in the world!
Miles Expiration
KrisFlyer miles expire 3 years after they’re earned, regardless of account activity. So don’t hoard miles! If you are transferring from credit cards, don’t transfer to KrisFlyer until you are ready to book an award and have confirmed it is available.
Reviving expired miles for 6 months costs 1,200 miles and $12 per 10,000 miles. Elite members receive discount or waivers, depending on status.
Final Thoughts
You won’t have a problem finding a way to use your Singapore Krisflyer miles anytime soon! There are nearly unlimited ways to use them; those listed here just happen to be some of our favorites. The best ways to use Singapore miles will be up to you and your travel desires.
From economy class all the way up to Singapore Suites, Singapore Airlines is a great airline to fly.
