What are the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer sweet spots?

You might think that the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer programme, which is part of Star Alliance and so accesses a different group of airlines to Avios, is irrelevant to you.

The KrisFlyer frequent flyer scheme has some interesting sweet spots in it, however.

As the scheme is an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner, albeit at 3:2 and not 1:1, I thought it was worth looking at some of the best options today. It is also a HSBC Premier and Marriott Bonvoy transfer partner.

If you want to learn more about the programmme I recommend the Mainly Miles website which is based in Singapore and is very similar to HfP in its content and tone.

How can you earn KrisFlyer miles?

The obvious route is transferring American Express Membership Rewards points.  As you can see here, it is a 3:2 airline partner from the UK scheme.

(Yes, 3:2. Singapore Airlines is one of two UK Amex airline partners where the transfer rate is not 1:1. The other outlier is Emirates which is 4:3.)

Here are the key Membership Rewards earning cards we cover:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

The American Express Rewards Credit Card

The only ‘free for life’ Amex card which earns Membership Rewards Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

Other options for earning KrisFlyer miles include transfers from Heathrow Rewards and moving points from hotel schemes. I would highlight Marriott Bonvoy as the best hotel transfer option, where the rate is 3:1 (3:1.25 if you move chunks of 60,000 points at a time).

Marriott Bonvoy points can be earned via the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card, which is offering 60,000 bonus points until 15th July:

Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card

60,000 points (to 15th July) and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

It is also a HSBC Premier credit card partner if you want a Visa / Mastercard option:

HSBC Premier Mastercard

Weak earn rate but a decent free choice for non-Avios airline miles Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A good package, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

You can also earn KrisFlyer miles via the Currensea debit card.

We wrote a full article on how to earn Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles from UK credit cards which you can find here.

What are the KrisFlyer sweet spots?

Why might you want to redeem KrisFlyer miles if you live in the UK?

Here (click) is the Singapore Airlines reward chart for partner airlines.

The best deal is travel from the UK to the Middle East

The slam dunk best deal is ‘Europe to Middle East’ for 67,000 KrisFlyer miles RETURN in business class.

Remember that British Airways charges 160,000 Avios (off-peak) or 180,000 Avios (peak) + £375 to fly to the Middle East in business class.

You can use just 67,000 KrisFlyer miles, most likely routed on Lufthansa via Frankfurt or SWISS via Zurich, instead.  Other fun routings include Turkish Airlines via Istanbul and Egyptair via Cairo.

Here are some other good options

Here are other sweet spots for UK residents:

• Europe to South East Asia, at 103,500 miles one-way in Business.  You can fly direct to Singapore on Singapore Airlines for the same 103,500 miles, but if you can’t find seats on your dates (not unlikely) then you should get something on partners such as Thai, Lufthansa, SWISS and Turkish Airlines.

• Europe to South Africa for 60,000 miles one-way in Business.   Your primary choices would be Lufthansa, SWISS, Ethiopian and Turkish, given that South African Airways is not currently flying to Europe.

• Europe to the Maldives is 61,500 miles one-way in Business.   Turkish Airlines is your likely carrier.  Sri Lanka and India are in the same pricing zone.

• Domestic USA / Canada flights.  14,000 miles one-way in Economy or 26,000 miles one-way in Business (domestic First in the USA is priced as Business, currently priced at 23,000 miles) can work out well, flying United. Obviously UK readers have the option of using Avios on American Airlines or Alaska Airlines instead.

And if you are prepared to start your trip in Turkey ….

Istanbul to Singapore is astonishingly cheap at 56,500 miles one-way in business class. Taxes are also exceptionally low – just US$27 from Istanbul to Singapore and S$65 in the other direction.

This is based on flying with Singapore Airlines itself, not a partner airlines, priced off the Singapore Airlines reward chart for Singapore Airlines flights.  You want Page 2 which covers ‘Saver Awards’ – look at Zone 1 to Zone 10 travel. OK, you need to position yourself in Istanbul first – but for a discount like this I think you could live with it.

You will need to find a day with ‘Saver’ availability though, which can be tricky.

You can no longer redeem on Virgin Atlantic

The partnership between Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic ended on 23rd April 2025. This article explains it in more detail.

Whilst great on paper, in reality it wasn’t a great loss. The two airlines had spent many years trying to find ways of stopping members redeeming on each other! The only value for Virgin Flying Club members was redeeming for short-haul flights around Asia via Singapore.

I hope this article has given you a few ideas for potential uses for the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer programme, especially if you are sitting on a large pot of American Express Membership Rewards points.