How to transfer Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles into Marriott Bonvoy points

Back in the olden days, it was relatively common for airlines to allow you to transfer your miles into hotel programmes. American Airlines was particularly keen.

Then, slowly but surely, a pyramid developed:

• car hire firms would allow transfers to hotels or airlines
• hotels would allow transfers to airlines
• airlines wouldn’t allow transfers to anyone

This is now unravelling. The leader has been Accor Live Limitless (Novotel, Ibis, Mercure, Fairmont etc) which has developed partnerships with large numbers of airlines to convert their miles into hotel points.

Accor doesn’t work with British Airways or Virgin Atlantic but you CAN convert Avios to Accor points by moving them to Qatar Airways Privilege Club and transferring from there.

(It’s a bad deal, of course, but you can do it.)

Other options include Virgin Atlantic (transfer to IHG and Hilton) and Finnair (transfer to various schemes including Accor and IHG). None represent great value compared to redeeming your miles for a flight, but that is hardly surprising – buying hotel points costs the airline real money.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer partners with Marriott Bonvoy

A little known option, which launched 18 months ago, is that you can transfer Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles into Marriott Bonvoy hotel points.

You had been able to transfer the other way for years at the standard ‘Marriott to airlines’ transfer rate of 3:1.

The transfer rate from KrisFlyer to Marriott Bonvoy is 2:1.

You need to transfer a minimum of 3,000 KrisFlyer miles to Marriott, getting you 1,500 Marriott Bonvoy points. The maximum number of Singapore Airlines miles you can transfer is 180,000 per calendar year.

The small print says that transfers could take up to EIGHT weeks to complete. This isn’t an option if you are desperate to book a hotel.

This is, clearly, awful

Let’s assume that a KrisFlyer mile is worth 1p for the sake of argument. Our value of a Marriott Bonvoy point is 0.5p. You are trading 2p of Singapore Airlines miles for 0.5p of Marriott Bonvoy points.

So why are we even mentioning this?

There are two reasons why this may be of some use.

First, KrisFlyer has a ‘hard expiry’ policy. Irrespective of what you do, your miles will expire after three years. Clearly something is better than nothing and if you have a handful heading towards expiry then this is a way to get some value.

Secondly, if you have a Star Alliance flight coming up and no interest in collecting Star Alliance miles, this is an option. As long as the flight would earn 3,000 Singapore Airlines miles, you could credit it to KrisFlyer and send the miles to Marriott Bonvoy. Again, it’s better than nothing.

Is there any arbitrage?

There is no arbitrage here as far as I can tell versus any other scheme. The loss of value is so huge that there is no merit in, for example, moving American Express Membership Rewards points to KrisFlyer instead of moving them directly to Marriott Bonvoy.

In my case, I have 1,100 orphaned KrisFlyer miles. There is no value in topping that up with Amex points to get to 3,000 because I could send the same number of Amex points directly to Bonvoy and get more. My KrisFlyer miles will keep sitting there until they expire or I can pick up another 1,900 to allow a transfer to Marriott.

There is also a status match and status challenge

Marriott Bonvoy and Singapore Airlines expanded their partnership in 2023 with a status match and status challenge.

You can find full details in this HfP article but in summary:

Got Marriott Bonvoy elite status?

Marriott Bonvoy Platinum, Titanium and Ambassador members receive a one-off status match to the KrisFlyer Elite Silver tier.

Marriott Bonvoy Gold members get nothing automatically but can take part in the status challenge.

Elite Silver does not get you lounge access, unfortunately.

Got Singapore Airlines elite status?

Solitaire PPS Club, PPS Club and KrisFlyer Elite Gold members receive a one-off status match to Marriott Bonvoy Gold. This isn’t worth a huge amount, to be honest, but does get you a 2pm check-out and bonus points on all Marriott stays.

KrisFlyer Elite Silver members get nothing automatically but can take part in the status challenge.

Find out more

You can find out more about the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer / Marriott Bonvoy partnership on this page of the Singapore Airlines website.

If you want to learn more about how Marriott Bonvoy works, our review is here.

If you want to learn how to earn Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles from UK credit card, take a look at this article.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

---

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (April 2025)

There are various ways of earning Marriott Bonvoy points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Marriott Bonvoy Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.

We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

• American Express Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Rewards Credit Card (10,000 bonus Amex points)

and for small business owners:

• American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Business Platinum (50,000 bonus Amex points)

The conversion rate from American Express to Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy points.