Ask anyone what their favourite things to do in life are, and most will come back with the quintessential Singaporean answer: travel the world. For some reason, living in our city translates to a never-ending need to squeeze in as many far-flung holidays and weekend getaways as possible.
But these flight tickets and hotel bookings are taking a toll on our finances. The secret trick to landing free flights? It’s by collecting as many KrisFlyer miles as humanly possible. To give you some insight into what you can do with your miles, here’s a rough gauge of the number of miles you need for flight redemption:
Tip: Look at the conversion rate between miles to cash value to find out the most value-for-money redemption, but generally, it’s most recommended to redeem a Business Class ticket. You can also use your miles to help offset or upgrade from a cash-bought Economy ticket to Business Class, but the conversion is not as worth it.
Whether it’s choosing the correct credit card or making restaurant bookings, here are 7 easy ways to earn KrisFlyer miles:
When it comes to credit cards, there’s typically a divide between finance-savvy folks in terms of their preferred benefits: 1. Cashback or 2. Airline miles. It all depends on what your personal preferences are but globetrotters will find the latter far more thrilling since you can redeem a round trip flight entirely for free.
Some cards to consider include the DBS Altitude Card, UOB KrisFlyer Card, and OCBC 90°N Card. But there’s a vast array of cards out there, all claiming to be the best for racking in miles. Between a high overseas earn rate and free hotel stays, it can be confusing to settle on a card that ties in best with your lifestyle.
Take some time to muse over the benefits and requirements of each card but otherwise, you can refer to the dollar-to-mile rate for a good gauge.
Anything above 1.1 miles per $1 is considered decent!
Some even have attractive bonuses like welcome offers or friend referrals – which can easily get you an additional 10k or so miles.
Taking a Grab has become a way of life – there’s no need to lug your groceries home or brave the blazing hot sun. Because of this, we would’ve collected a mighty amount of GrabPoints over time. Those wanting to propel their miles journey will be more than pleased to know that Grab offers an option to convert GrabPoints directly into miles.
Simply click on “GrabRewards” before scrolling through the Travel category. You’ll see that you can convert 1,400 GrabPoints into 160 KrisFlyer miles.
Online shopping can be a serious addiction – it’s hard to ignore all the sales and promo codes going on. Since we’re bound to dip into our savings, it’s worth checking out through KrisFlyer Spree to earn extra miles.
KrisFlyer Spree pairs up with merchants – think household names like ASOS, ezbuy, and Klook – so we can earn up additional miles on every dollar we spend. For instance, ASOS Singapore offers an extra 19 KrisFlyer miles for every USD10 (~$S13.70) spent.
It takes a while for the miles to get credited to your account, but hey, it’s certainly no skin off your nose to simply click through.
Grocery shopping is a monthly expense – it’s worth signing up for a PAssion Card ($10 for 5 years) to score even more miles. You’ll get TapForMore Points simply by tapping your card with each purchase.
Each dollar spent at stores like Cold Storage, Market Place, Jasons, Giant, and Guardian gets you 1 TapForMore Point, which can be converted into 0.43 miles or $0.06 rebate. Our advice? Go ahead and convert them into miles – a $100 spend will get you 43 miles, which is more worth-it than a paltry $0.60 cash rebate.
Each reservation gets you 100 Chope Dollars
Many use restaurant booking platform Chope to chope certain timings – you can score up to 50% off the total bill that way – but few people know that you can also exchange your Chope Dollars for more miles. You can earn Chope Dollars simply by making restaurant reservations or buying dining vouchers.
Since 1,200 Chope Dollars is worth 1,000 KrisFlyer miles, it’s an easy way to score extra miles without doing much.
For those of us used to bunking up in a hostel overseas will be pleased to know that there’s now a valid excuse to book a hotel. With KrisFlyer’s partner hotels, your hotel booking will help earn miles – with bonuses like 500 miles for each stay or even up to 12 miles per $1 spent. You can choose from the likes of hotels like Hilton, InterContinental, and Shangri-La.
Phone bills are an inevitable monthly burden but with M1’s SunPerks points, paying your bills doubles up as an easy way to earn more miles. The conversion scale works like this: every $1 spent gets you 1 point, and every 1,700 points will get you 750 KrisFlyer miles – not bad, since you’ll be paying off your phone bills regularly anyway.
Travelling the world is our ultimate goal but a flight to Europe already takes up 100k KrisFlyer miles or so – reaching that many seems near impossible. But you don’t need to be a frequent flier to rack up those miles. From shopping online through KrisFlyer Spree or making restaurant reservations with Chope, you’ll be one step closer to redeeming a free flight with your miles.
After scoring your free flight, here are several travel hacks that’ll be useful for your next holiday:
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