One of the unfortunate aspects of most frequent flyer programs is that miles are tied to each individual. Transferring miles between loyalty program members, even within a household, is usually not on option. If transfers are allowed, they usually require a substantial fee.
I get that letting people transfer miles to anyone could open up loyalty programs to a lot of abuse. Yet it puzzles me why programs don’t at least allow family pooling of airline miles. Children often fly infrequently, and being able to pool their miles with a parent would be ideal, as you would be able to use them for an award far sooner. Wouldn’t this help drive loyalty?
One airline is making this positive change, though. Singapore KrisFlyer family pooling just launched, which allows members to pool children’s miles with a parent!
Singapore KrisFlyer Family Pooling
Singapore KrisFlyer family pooling allows program members to pool the miles earned in their children’s accounts into a parent’s account. As you might expect, there are some important details and fine print. Here is what you need to know:
- You can only link 5 child accounts to a given parent account.
- Kids must be at least two years old to be eligible for a KrisFlyer account.
- To be eligible to link, your child’s account must have at least one miles accrual from a flight in the last 36 months.
- To be eligible to link, your child’s account must not have miles accrued from credit card transfers or co-brand card spend in the last 36 months (this puzzles me, as this shouldn’t be possible).
- Once accounts are linked, they cannot be delinked. Keep this in mind.
- Delinking will automatically happen when the child turns 16.
- You can transfer a maximum of 50,000 KrisFlyer miles from your child’s account to yours every calendar year.
- For every 5,000 KrisFlyer miles (or part thereof) transferred from your child’s account, you will be charged a fee of $5 USD of 500 miles.
Singpore KrisFlyer is offering an initial bonus of 500 miles for linking a child account to a parent’s account.
- This applies to the first 5,000 parent/guardian accounts linked.
- The bonus is only available once for a given parent account, even if you have multiple children.
- The bonus is only available through August 31, 2021.
Nice Option, But It Could Be Nicer
There are two ways in which Singapore KrisFlyer family pooling could be even more useful. First, it would be awesome to allow pooling between spouses. Admittedly, this is a rare feature among airline programs. Sometimes you need all the miles in one place to have enough for an award, though.
The second if the annoying fee. Sure, you’re only paying $50 to transfer 50,000 miles, which could be well worth it. But it would be nice to be able to do this for free.
The rest of the details are reasonable enough. The number of children should only be an issue for the rarest of cases. I mean, for a husband and wife with 10 kids, you’re still able to link five kids to each parent account. The inability to delink is more annoying, as you won’t be able to switch the parent account miles can be transferred to.
Final Thoughts
Singapore KrisFlyer is a popular airline program for many award travel enthusiasts, as it is one of the only ways to book long-haul premium cabin award itineraries. Being able to pool miles from child accounts will certainly help you get to your awards faster. It could also potentially be a handy option when Singapore KrisFlyer offers more miles for a specific itinerary than a U.S.-based program like United MileagePlus. The Singapore KrisFlyer family pooling will prevent you from “stranding” miles in other programs. Sure, there is an unfortunate fee, but for those who love KrisFlyer, crediting your kids’ miles to the program and paying $5 per 5,000 miles will likely be a reasonable option.
What do you think of the new Singapore KrisFlyer family pooling?
