The increases in the cost of travel, particularly for flight tickets, has been fast and furious since the global economy emerged from the pandemic. In Singapore, individuals haven’t been spared as the price of flights on the city-state’s flagship carrier – Singapore Airlines – never seem to be cheap.
It’s even worse for parents of children just over two years of age, as they have to factor in the cost of a child’s flight, which costs 90% of an adult fare once children are two years old and above. The days of paying just 10% of an adult fare for infants (i.e those below two years of age) will feel like a distant memory.
However, one thing many travellers may not be aware of is that once your child hits two years old, you can actually get them a KrisFlyer account – the Frequent Flyer Programme (FFP) of Singapore Airlines. Under the KrisFlyer for Families programme, they can start earning miles on revenue tickets and then you can link your own KrisFlyer account to theirs in order to transfer KrisFlyer miles.
Here’s what you need to know about the ouKrisFlyer for Families programme, how you set your kids up with a KrisFlyer account, and how to transfer the miles they earn to your own KrisFlyer account.
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Setting Up A Child’s KrisFlyer Account
It’s simple, and you can do it within a few minutes. Once any traveller on Singapore Airlines reaches their 2nd birthday, they’re eligible to have their own KrisFlyer account. This allows them to earn KrisFlyer miles, just like any adult would, on paid revenue tickets with the airline.
First off, parents should use a separate e-mail address to their own – which, of course, you have access to – in order to register your child for a KrisFlyer account. If you have more than one child, you will need a dedicated e-mail addresses for each of them.
While you can set up a random e-mail address to use for their official registration, this is obviously also a great time to create an email account that you can handover to them in the future – so don’t make it too random. There will be verification messages/codes sent to it (for the linking of accounts) along with monthly KrisFlyer balance statements.
Link Your KrisFlyer Accounts
After this is complete, you can then link your child’s newly-created KrisFlyer account to your own KrisFlyer account.
Linkage can be between only one parent/guardian and Singapore Airlines does not allow it to be altered (once decided) so ensure you take the time to think about which parent’s KrisFlyer account would benefit the most from having miles transferred to them.
You can link your child’s KrisFlyer account to yours by logging into their account and turning on the “Parental Link” via the personal details page on the user dashboard. As the listed parent/guardian, you’ll then be given an invitation to link accounts via e-mail.
This linkage between accounts will last until the child in question is 16 years of age.
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Transfer Miles Between KrisFlyer Accounts
Of course, one of the main reasons for this linkage is so that parents can earn KrisFlyer miles they wouldn’t otherwise thought would be attainable.
Once your child starts earning KrisFlyer miles for paid flights on Singapore Airlines, parents can transfer their child’s miles by logging into their own KrisFlyer account and navigating to “Miles” before heading to “Transfer Miles” on the dashboard.
There, they’ll be able to view how many miles they can transfer. There is a catch when transferring though; a transfer fee. It’s not expenseive per se but parents will have to pay a transfer fee of US$5 per 5,000 KrisFlyer miles transferred.
Also, this fee is calculated for every 5,000 miles (or part thereof). So, say you transfer 10,000 KrisFlyer miles to your account, that will cost US$10. But if you happen to transfer 10,500 KrisFlyer miles that will cost US$15. Therefore, if possible, it makes sense to stick strictly to transferring in 5,000 KrisFlyer mile blocks – for the best value with regards to the transfer fee.
There is a transfer limit of 50,000 KrisFlyer miles per child, per calendar year but for most people that limit likely won’t be breached.
Remember That KrisFlyer Miles Expire
One final thing to keep in mind is that KrisFlyer miles have an expiry date of 36 months from the date they are earned – unless you’re a PPS member of KrisFlyer, where miles never expire.
So, do remember to keep track of your kids’ KrisFlyer accounts after they are created and ensure you transfer over their earned miles before they eventually expire.
Getting your children a KrisFlyer account once they turn two years old, though, will ensure that we are able to earn KrisFlyer miles for flights that you were already planning on paying for. By doing so, you can transfer their miles to your account and redeem them to help offset the costs of future flights for the family.
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