Almost every airline loyalty program offered waivers to their mileage expiration policies because of COVID. I’ve kept a close eye on the US-based programs, which isn’t too difficult because most major programs have done away with mileage expirations, except for American.
International airlines are a different story. Their policies have always varied from those of the US, with differing rules about account activity and points expiring even if your account is still active.
For example, miles in the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program expire 36 months after they’re earned. This is important because back in February 2019, I transferred points from three different programs to KrisFlyer to book flights to Germany. I had to book an Advantage reward because there was no Saver space. In September, my waitlist for saver space cleared (which I signed up for before booking the more expensive award ticket) and I was able to cancel our more expensive tickets and receive a refund of 26,000 KrisFlyer points.
Singapore Airlines Business Class
I figured if I couldn’t use the points, I could let my dad use them for domestic United flights. Then we entered 2020 and 2021. I had nowhere to fly on Singapore Airlines or its Star Alliance partners. Eventually, I got the alert from AwardWallet that I knew was coming.
18,000 Singapore Airlines (KrisFlyer) miles expire on February 28, 2022
But then the strangest thing happened. The miles didn’t expire.
I searched the Singapore Airlines website and found a page about extensions to the KrisFlyer loyalty program status and points. I didn’t receive any notice about the extension because the Singapore KrisFlyer account is in my dad’s name and has his email on file.
If you have KrisFlyer miles expiring between January 2022 to December 2022, they are eligible for a 6-month extension. This extension will be processed automatically, and no action is required on your part. This means that no miles will expire in 2022, and extended miles will only begin expiring from January 2023.
The way this will work is unnecessarily confusing. If you have points expiring from January to June, they will receive a six-month extension.
Then all miles expiring from July to December will also receive a six-month extension (including all of the miles that were already extended from the first half of the year.
To make a long story short, no miles will expire in 2022.
Another question I had was if I needed to book a flight before the miles expire or do I need to book a flight that will happen before the miles expire.
I have miles that have been extended to expire in January 2023. As I would like to use the miles for a flight redemption, must my flight redemption also be completed by January 2023?
You will need to redeem your miles before they expire on the last day of the month at 23:59 (GMT +8hrs). Please ensure that the redemption booking is successfully ticketed on or before 31 January 2023. Your travel date may be after January 2023.
You only need to book the flight and have it ticketed by the end of the month when the miles will expire. Your flight can be anytime after that date.
This means I have at least another year to figure out how to use these miles. Thank You, Singapore Airlines.
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