Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles expire after three years, so you need to use them or lose them.

It costs 21,500 KrisFlyer miles (plus taxes) for a one-way Singapore Airlines Economy Saver ticket from Perth or Darwin to Singapore. From other cities in Australia or New Zealand to Singapore, it’s 30,500 KrisFlyer miles plus taxes.

Or if you’d like to fly Singapore Airlines Business Class, you could book a one-way Business Saver Award from the east coast of Australia to Singapore for 68,500 KrisFlyer miles plus taxes.

But what if you only have a small balance of KrisFlyer miles that you need to use up?

Here are some of the best things Australians can do with 20,000 KrisFlyer miles…

Fly Air New Zealand to New Zealand or the Pacific Islands

Unfortunately, 20,000 KrisFlyer miles isn’t quite enough to book a Singapore Airlines flight from Australia to Singapore. However, as Singapore Airlines is part of Star Alliance, you can also redeem KrisFlyer miles for flights with other Star Alliance carriers.

It would cost 13,500 KrisFlyer miles (plus taxes) to book a one-way Air New Zealand flight anywhere within Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. For example, you could fly from Auckland to Melbourne for 13,500 KrisFlyer miles + NZD73.51.

To book a Star Alliance award flight on the Singapore Airlines website, you need to select “Show flights for Star Alliance” on the booking page (as shown above). Otherwise, when you view flight redemption options, the Singapore Airlines website, by default, will show only Singapore Airlines flights.

If you can find award availability, you could even book an Air New Zealand Economy Class itinerary from Perth to Tahiti via Auckland (for example) for just 13,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes.

Book a Virgin Australia domestic or trans-Tasman flight

Singapore Airlines also partners with Virgin Australia, which means you can redeem KrisFlyer miles to book flights with Virgin Australia.

According to the KrisFlyer award chart for Virgin Australia redemptions, you could book a one-way Virgin Australia flight on any of the following routes for under 20,000 KrisFlyer miles:

• Any route within Australia that doesn’t touch WA or NT (12,000 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)
• Any route within Northern Territory (12,000 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)
• Any route within Western Australia (16,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)
• Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane to/from Queenstown, New Zealand (19,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)

See our guide to redeeming KrisFlyer miles on Virgin Australia for more details.

Book a Singapore Airlines flight within Asia

If you happen to be travelling around Asia, you could use KrisFlyer miles to book a flight/s on Singapore Airlines. For 20,000 KrisFlyer miles or less, you could book the following trips in Singapore Airlines Economy Class:

• A round-trip ticket from Indonesia or Malaysia to Singapore (17,000 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)
• A one-way ticket from Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia or the Philippines to Singapore (13,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)
• A one-way ticket from Singapore to Hong Kong, Taipei, Shenzhen or Guangzhou (16,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)
• A one-way ticket between Singapore and India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives or Bangladesh (20,000 KrisFlyer miles + taxes)

You could also book a one-way Thai Airways flight within Southeast Asia for 13,500 KrisFlyer miles + taxes in Economy.

Wait for a KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes promotion

In the second half of every month, KrisFlyer releases new Spontaneous Escapes offers with 30% off selected award seats for travel in the following month.

When the Perth-Singapore and Darwin-Singapore routes are included in this promotion, you could book a one-way Economy promo award on either of those routes for 15,050 KrisFlyer miles + taxes. The same number of miles would also get you from Perth or Darwin to almost anywhere else in Southeast Asia (via Singapore).

Convert your KrisFlyer miles to Velocity Frequent Flyer points

A unique feature of the KrisFlyer program is the ability to transfer your miles to another frequent flyer program.

Specifically, you can convert KrisFlyer miles into Virgin Australia Velocity points at a rate of 1.55:1. This means that 20,000 KrisFlyer miles would be worth 12,903 Velocity points. That’s enough Velocity points to book a return Virgin Australia Economy reward seat from Sydney to Melbourne.

See our guide to redeeming 10,000 Velocity points for more ideas!

Book a hotel or rental car through vRooms

If you don’t want to fly anywhere, another way to spend KrisFlyer miles is by booking accommodation or hire cars through vRooms. You can use a mix of KrisFlyer miles and money, or pay for the whole booking with KrisFlyer miles if you prefer.

With 20,000 KrisFlyer miles, you could make a vRooms booking worth around AUD180.

Get $133 worth of KrisPay miles

Singapore Airlines recently launched its Kris+ App in Australia, in partnership with a range of retailers in Melbourne and Sydney. With Kris+, you can get various discounts (including 10% off the Melbourne Airport Skybus) and earn KrisPay miles when shopping with participating retailers.

Those KrisPay miles can be converted to KrisFlyer miles within 7 days, or otherwise used towards purchases with Kris+ partners within six months.

You can also convert your KrisFlyer miles into KrisPay miles at a 1:1 rate, if you wish.

150 KrisPay miles are worth AUD1. So, if you had 20,000 KrisFlyer miles, they would be worth around $133 worth of KrisPay miles.

How to top up your KrisFlyer miles

Need a few more KrisFlyer miles to get the reward you really want?

It is possible to buy KrisFlyer miles indirectly by buying Marriott Bonvoy points, then transferring those points from Marriott Bonvoy to KrisFlyer. Marriott Bonvoy points convert to KrisFlyer miles at a 3:1 rate, and you’ll get an extra 25% miles every time you transfer 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to KrisFlyer.

You can also transfer points into KrisFlyer from most Australian credit card reward programs, as well as from Velocity Frequent Flyer.

Note that it is not possible to transfer KrisFlyer miles to another person’s account. There is an exception to this rule for parents to transfer KrisFlyer miles out of their own children’s accounts for a fee. However, you can book redemption flights for up to five other people who are listed on your account as “redemption nominees”.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.