Sweet Spots: Best ways to redeem Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles in 2024

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer recently devalued its award charts but there is still great value to be found. Let’s have a look at the best routes to redeem your KrisFlyer miles for maximum value.

How to accumulate KrisFlyer miles

1) Credit cards

All credit cards in Singapore have KrisFlyer as a transfer partner. This makes KrisFlyer miles very easy to earn, if you are based in the country.

2) Flight credit

KrisFlyer members can credit their paid flights (on Star Alliance/Partner airlines too) to the Frequent Flyer Program (FFP) at fair accrual rates.

However, Elite members (Silver and above) only receive a flat 25% bonus miles.

3) Convert Marriott points to KrisFlyer miles

Marriott Bonvoy members can convert their Marriott points to KrisFlyer miles at a ratio of 3:1.

Convert in blocks of 60,000 Marriott points to receive 5,000 bonus miles; for a total of 25,000 KrisFlyer miles.

This method does not give you good value, as there are better ways to use Marriott Bonvoy points, but it is an easy way to top up on your miles balance, if required.

4) Book hotels through Rocketmiles or Kaligo

Kaligo and Rocketmiles reward you with miles when booking hotels through their websites.

Pros and Cons of KrisFlyer

Pros:

1. Miles/Points transferrable from all Singapore credit cards
2. Direct flights from Singapore to many destinations
3. No fuel surcharges on Singapore Airlines award flights
4. Good onboard service, meals and seats
5. Monthly Spontaneous Escapes deals for selected routes (30% award discount)
6. One of few FFPs with zone-based award chart (instead of distance-based)

Cons:

1. 3 years miles validity (can pay for one-time extension of 6/12 months)
2. Mostly older long haul Business Class seats (2013 edition)
3. Poor value award rates to/from popular destinations (North Asia/Europe/North America)
4. Poor value Star Alliance award chart
5. Fuel surcharges on partner/Star Alliance award flights
6. Weaker mileage accrual for (Business Class and above) paid flights on SQ (vs other FFPs)
7. Only 25% bonus miles for all Elite members (Silver, Gold, PPS)
8. Waitlisting feature can be frustrating
9. Mixed-cabin not allowed for multi-segment award bookings (e.g. Business + First Class)
10. Miles do not go on sale, unlike other airlines
11. No shopping portal to earn miles (KrisFlyer Spree discontinued)

KrisFlyer Award Redemption Charts

There are 3 award redemption charts to look at, when redeeming KrisFlyer miles:

1. Saver
2. Advantage
3. Star Alliance

In this article, I am only looking at Saver and Star Alliance award charts, simply because the “Advantage” award rates are plain awful and are probably there to take advantage (pun not intended) of desperate travellers.

Saver Award Chart

The Saver award chart tells you the amount of miles required for redemptions on Singapore Airlines flights only (not for star alliance/partner airlines).

Star Alliance Award Chart

The Saver award chart tells you the amount of miles required for redemptions on Star Alliance airlines flights only (not for non-alliance partners like Alaska and Virgin Australia).

Singapore Airlines Star Alliance award chart (pinch to zoom)

KrisFlyer Sweet Spots

These are the best ways to redeem your KrisFlyer miles.

Additional note: In most cases, flights to/from Southeast Asian cities (Zones 2, 3) costs the same amount of miles as flights to/from Singapore. In other words, flying from Hanoi to Istanbul (via Singapore) costs the same as flying from Singapore to Istanbul.

1) Zone 10: Istanbul, Dubai, South Africa

Flight duration: 7.5 to 11.5 hours

Miles required for one-way travel to/from Zone 10 cities:

Zone 10	Economy Class	Premium Economy	Business Class	First Class
Istanbul, Dubai, South Africa	29k	43k	56.5k	86.5k (N/A)
Spontaneous Escapes (if any)	20.3k	30.1k	39.55k	–

My favourite KrisFlyer sweet spot is Zone 10. Specifically, Istanbul, Turkey.

This is because, Istanbul is located right at the front door of Europe and requires about 45% less miles in Business Class! That’s 56.5k vs 103.5k.

From Istanbul, travellers can easily find cheap flights into a European city of choice.

Additional note: Economy Class flights to Dubai, Johannesburg and Cape Town can be very cheap. For better value, avoid redeeming miles for Economy Class to these destinations.

2) Zone 9: New Zealand, South/East Australia

Flight duration: 7 to 10 hours

Miles required for one-way travel to/from Zone 9 cities:

Zone 9	Economy Class	Premium Economy	Business Class	First Class
Auckland, Christchurch, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide	30.5k	51k	68.5k	93.5k
Spontaneous Escapes (if any)	21.35k	35.7k	47.95k	–

3) Zone 8: Perth, Darwin

Flight duration: 4.5 to 5 hours

Miles required for one-way travel to/from Zone 8 cities:

Zone 8	Economy Class	Business Class	First Class
Perth, Darwin	21.5k	40.5k	57.5k (N/A)
Spontaneous Escapes (if any)	15.05k	28.35k	–

4) Zone 6: South Asia

Flight duration: 4 to 6 hours

Miles required for one-way travel to/from Zone 6 cities:

Zone 6	Economy Class	Premium Economy	Business Class	First Class
Mumbai, New Delhi	20k	34.5k	43k	58.5k
Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Colombo, Male		N/A		N/A
Spontaneous Escapes (if any)	14k	24.15k	30.1k	–

Singapore Airlines flies its Airbus A380 to/from New Delhi and Mumbai and it is fairly easy to find Suites Class availability for 2 passengers, sometimes more!

Flights to this region are also regularly included in Spontaneous Escapes deals, making them even better redemptions.

5) Zone 11: Europe (Suites only)

Flight duration: 13 hours

Miles required for one-way travel to/from Zone 11 cities:

Zone 11	Economy Class	Premium Economy	Business Class	Suites Class
Frankfurt, London	42k	71k	103.5k	141k
Spontaneous Escapes (if any)	29.4k	49.7k	72.45k	–

Zone 11 probably offers the poorest value in KrisFlyer’s award chart (for Economy, Premium and Business). However, because of how unique Singapore Airlines Suites are, it is definitely a sweet spot!

Singapore Airlines flies its Airbus A380 to/from certain European cities (currently London and Frankfurt).

However, it is pretty much impossible to find Saver award availability without waitlisting, other than the rare opportunity last year. If another one comes along, you might want to jump on it!

Additional note: I get asked a lot if I would spend the “Advantage” rate of 225.5k miles for these routes. The answer is NO. While the Suites are beautiful and unique, the beds are hard and uncomfortable and definitely not worth 225.5k miles for a 13-hour flight. If you would like to experience it at least once in your life, consider the Zone 6 sweet spot for just 58.5k miles or Zone 9 sweet spot for 93.5k miles

Related: Review: Singapore Airlines Suites Frankfurt to Singapore

6) Fifth Freedom: Frankfurt – New York

Flight duration: 9 hours

Miles required for one-way travel between Frankfurt and New York:

Zones 11 & 13	Economy Class	Premium Economy	Business Class	First Class
Frankfurt, New York	25k	52k	81k	97k
Spontaneous Escapes (if any)	17.5k	36.4k	56.7k	–

Singapore Airlines flies fifth freedom flights between Frankfurt, Germany and New York, USA. Although spending 81k miles for Business Class on this route is not good value, the award rate for the other 3 classes are very good!

7) Star Alliance: South West Pacific

Flight duration: 1 to 12 hours

Miles required for one-way travel within South West Pacific cities:

South West Pacific	Economy Class	Business Class	First Class
Tahiti, Nadi, Rarotonga, Niue, Nouméa, Auckland, Sydney, Perth and more!	13.5k	34.5k	47k (N/A)

The South West Pacific region in Singapore Airlines’ Star Alliance award chart is 7 time zones wide. This gives you the opportunity of redeeming just 13.5k KrisFlyer miles for a total flying time of up to 12 hours for flights from Perth to Tahiti!

There’s a catch, though. Air New Zealand releases very few award seats to partner airlines (even in Economy Class).

Pre-pandemic, I could only find about 5 to 10 available dates in a year, for the dream flights from Perth to Tahiti.

On top of that, Air New Zealand is quite an uncooperative alliance member (like Singapore Airlines and Qantas) when it comes to releasing award seats for partner FFPs, thus, making it pretty much impossible to book Air NZ Business Class with KrisFlyer miles.

And of course, as mentioned earlier, you will need to pay fuel surcharges on partner award bookings with KrisFlyer miles. This works out to about S$100 for an Economy Class flight from Perth to Tahiti.

Summary

Here’s a quick summary of the sweet spots that I’ve shared above:

Region 1	Region 2	Class	Miles
Southeast Asia	Istanbul, Dubai, South Africa	Economy	29k
		Premium	43k
		Business	56.5k
	New Zealand, South/East Australia	Economy	30.5k
		Premium	51k
		Business	68.5k
		First	93.5k
	Perth, Darwin	Economy	21.5k
		Business	40.5k
	South Asia	Economy	20k
		Premium	34.5k
		Business	43k
		First	58.5k
	Europe	Suites	141k
Frankfurt	New York	Economy	25k
		Premium	52k
		First	97k
South West Pacific (Air New Zealand)		Economy	13.5k
		Business	34.5k

Bottom line

Post-devaluation, members can still receive great value out of KrisFlyer for flights to/from certain regions.

However, North Asia, Europe and North America remain as poor value regions to use KrisFlyer miles, especially when other FFPs require 40-60% fewer miles for the same routes.

As a Singapore-based traveller, these sweet spots are keeping me interested enough to continue accumulating KrisFlyer miles, in addition to others.