Convert your bank points to KrisFlyer miles during a 15% bonus only if you already have a flight in mind and your points convert at a good ratio. The bonus is real free miles, but it is not a reason on its own. Converting moves your points from a flexible bank currency that often never expires into KrisFlyer miles that expire three years after they land, with only a single paid extension allowed. A 15% bonus on 10,000 miles is 1,500 extra miles, worth roughly S$22 if you redeem an economy saver award and S$30 or more on a premium cabin. That can be worth grabbing. It is not worth it if you will let the miles lapse, if you pay a S$27.25 conversion fee on a small block, or if your bank charges 2 points per mile and you are converting just to chase a percentage. Lock in the bonus when the destination is decided, the ratio is 1-to-1 or close, and the fee is small or waived.
Singapore Airlines runs a recurring KrisFlyer Bonus Miles Conversion Campaign. When it is live, you get 15% more KrisFlyer miles on the base miles you convert from a participating bank's reward currency. Convert enough points for 10,000 miles and you land 11,500 miles instead. There is no cap on the bonus miles you can earn in a single campaign, and over 40 banks worldwide take part, including DBS, Citibank, OCBC, UOB, HSBC, American Express and Standard Chartered.
The percentage is not always 15%. Selected banks in Brunei, Hong Kong and Indonesia get 20%. Singapore Airlines also runs sharper one-off promotions, though watch the direction of travel: from 16 to 27 February 2026 it ran a 28% bonus for converting KrisFlyer miles into yuu Points, which is a cash-out at roughly 0.85 cents per mile, not a juiced version of the points-to-miles deal. The headline number shifts and so does what it applies to. The mechanics of the bank-rewards campaign do not change: you are getting extra miles on top of whatever your bank's normal points-to-miles ratio gives you.
Two things matter more than the bonus itself: your bank's base conversion ratio, and what you will eventually do with the miles. A 15% bonus on a bad ratio is still a bad deal, and a 15% bonus on miles you let expire is worth zero.
Banks do not all convert points to miles at the same rate. Two cards earning the same dollar value of rewards can give you very different KrisFlyer balances. Before you get excited about a 15% bonus, check what your points convert at.
Citi Miles, OCBC 90N Miles and OCBC VOYAGE Miles convert at 1-to-1: one point becomes one KrisFlyer mile. DBS Points and UOB UNI$ convert at 2 miles per point, but you earn far fewer of them per dollar spent, so the effective rate per dollar is what counts, not the headline ratio. The table below is the base rate before any bonus.
| Bank currency | Base ratio to KrisFlyer | Minimum conversion block | Standard fee (inc GST) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citi Miles | 1 point = 1 mile | 10,000 Citi Miles (10,000 miles) | S$27.25 |
| OCBC 90N Miles | 1 mile = 1 mile | 1,000 (1,000 miles) | S$25 |
| OCBC VOYAGE Miles | 1 mile = 1 mile | 1 (1 mile) | free for VOYAGE cardholders |
| DBS Points | 1 point = 2 miles | 5,000 DBS Points (10,000 miles) | S$27.25 |
| UOB UNI$ | 1 UNI$ = 2 miles | 5,000 UNI$ (10,000 miles) | S$27 |
| HSBC Points | block-based | 30,000 (10,000 miles) | free on most cards |
| Amex Membership Rewards | block-based | from ~500 points (250 miles) | free |
| Standard Chartered 360 Rewards | block-based | 25,000-34,500 (10,000 miles) | S$27.25 |
Most banks charge a conversion fee per request, and it does not scale with how many points you move. So a S$27.25 fee on a 10,000-mile block is 0.27 cents per mile of friction. On the smallest possible block at some banks, that same flat fee becomes a much bigger percentage of the value you are moving.
Here is the current fee landscape. American Express and HSBC convert for free on most cards. OCBC charges S$25. UOB charges S$27 from 15 December 2025. Citi, DBS, Maybank and Standard Chartered charge S$27.25. Bank of China is the most expensive at S$30.56. A handful of premium cards waive it entirely: UOB Visa Infinite, Visa Infinite Metal, Reserve and Reserve Diamond, DBS Insignia, and various Amex and HSBC cards.
Run the maths before you press convert. A 15% bonus on 10,000 base miles gives you 1,500 bonus miles. If your economy saver redemption values each mile at about 1.5 cents, those bonus miles are worth roughly S$22. Pay a S$27.25 fee and the bonus has already been swallowed by the fee. The bonus only pulls ahead if the fee is waived, or if you are converting a large block, or if you redeem the miles for premium-cabin value closer to 2 cents or more.
Read the campaign terms and one rule jumps out: the 15% only applies to a conversion of at least 10,000 KrisFlyer miles in a single transaction. Convert a 1,000-mile block from OCBC 90N or a few hundred points through Amex and you get the base miles, but no bonus on them. The bonus is calculated per qualifying transaction, and there is no cap on how much you can earn across the campaign.
The other catch people miss: you cannot stack small transfers from different banks to clear the 10,000 threshold. Sending 6,000 Citi Miles and 4,000 OCBC 90N Miles in two separate transactions earns no bonus on either, because neither one hit 10,000 on its own. Each transaction has to reach the minimum by itself. If you want the bonus on points spread across cards, you need 10,000 convertible miles sitting in one currency, or you do not qualify.
This reshapes the small-block worry from the fee section. A tiny conversion is not just fee-inefficient, it earns zero bonus, so there is no upside to rushing a small transfer in during a campaign. The 15% rewards people consolidating a meaningful block, not someone topping up 1,000 miles.
Bank points are a flexible currency. Most Singapore cards let you send the same points to more than one airline, so the moment you convert to KrisFlyer you give up the option to use them anywhere else. Citi rewards transfer to ten airline partners on the same ratio, OCBC reaches six airlines, and even DBS and UOB let you choose between KrisFlyer, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Qantas or AirAsia. Lock everything into KrisFlyer for a 15% bonus and you have closed every other door.
That matters because KrisFlyer is not always the best programme for a given route. Asia Miles can price a regional Cathay redemption more cheaply, and partner programmes sometimes open award space when Singapore Airlines has none. A chunk of unconverted bank points keeps that flexibility alive, which is worth more than 15% if it lets you book a seat that KrisFlyer simply does not have. Convert only the block you need for a specific KrisFlyer redemption and leave the rest as bank points until you know where they should go. If you are still picking a card to earn those points, our guide to the best travel credit cards compares earn rates and transfer partners side by side.
| Bank currency | Airline partners | Flexibility note |
|---|---|---|
| Citi Miles / ThankYou | About 10 airlines, all same ratio | Most flexible; KrisFlyer is one of many |
| OCBC 90N Miles | About 6 airlines | Some partners convert at a worse ratio than KrisFlyer |
| DBS Points | KrisFlyer, Asia Miles, Qantas, AirAsia | Asia Miles can beat KrisFlyer on some Cathay routes |
| UOB UNI$ | Mainly KrisFlyer and Asia Miles | Limited choice, so converting loses less optionality |
| HSBC / Amex / Standard Chartered | Multiple airline and hotel partners | Wide choice; converting to one programme forfeits the rest |
If you are converting because an award seat is in your basket, know that bank-app conversions are not immediate. Crediting runs from same-day to over a week depending on the bank, and the bonus miles follow the same schedule as your base miles. American Express, HSBC and DBS yuu Points credit close to instantly, OCBC and Maybank usually land within a day, and Citi, regular DBS Points, Standard Chartered and UOB take one to three working days.
Two timing traps catch people. First transfers take longer: DBS quotes up to 10 working days for an initial conversion and five working days after that. Bank of China is the slow outlier at two to three weeks, with a manual PDF form by email, a 100,000-mile cap per transfer and a S$30.56 fee. If a seat must be booked today, the only routes fast enough are the near-instant banks or the Kris+ app, and even then you are still trading away the better base ratio. Plan the conversion before the seat appears, not after.
This is the part the bonus headline never mentions. KrisFlyer miles expire three years after they are credited, at the end of that same calendar month. Singapore Airlines lets you extend expiring miles once for a fee of 1,200 miles or US$12 per 10,000 miles, buying 6 more months for ordinary members or 12 for Elite tiers, but only once, so it is a short reprieve rather than a reset. Once you convert, the clock starts and you cannot stop it.
Many bank reward currencies do not work that way. Citi Miles, OCBC 90N Miles, DBS Points on certain cards and UOB UNI$ have their own expiry rules, but several keep your points alive far longer or refresh them with activity. Converting early to grab a 15% bonus means you have traded a slower-burning currency for one with a hard three-year fuse.
If you convert 50,000 miles during a bonus and only fly two years later, you are fine. If those miles sit for over three years because the trip kept slipping, they vanish and the 15% bonus was a loss, not a gain. The rule of thumb: only convert when you can name the redemption and the rough travel window. Converting speculatively, just to bank the percentage, is how people lose miles. If you are building a longer-term miles habit, treat it the way you would any goal with a deadline and keep an emergency-fund separate from your travel ambitions so a cash crunch never forces you to dump miles you cannot use.
The bonus is a genuine win in a specific set of conditions. None of them is the bonus existing on its own.
Skip the bonus if any of these is true. The promotion is engineered to make you act, and acting at the wrong time costs you.
Do not convert if you have no concrete redemption plan, because the three-year expiry turns a speculative conversion into a slow loss. Do not convert a single small block while paying a S$27.25 fee, because the fee cancels most of the bonus. Do not convert from a bank with a weak base ratio just to chase the percentage, and do not convert if you are still carrying a credit card balance. Singapore card interest now runs around 28 percent a year on unpaid balances, with the major banks at roughly 27.8 to 27.9 percent and higher if you miss a minimum payment, which destroys far more value than any miles bonus creates, so clear the balance first and check your own numbers with a net worth calculator before you optimise rewards. Miles are a reward for spending you were already doing and paying off in full, never a reason to spend more.
If you bank with DBS or UOB in Singapore, you can skip the bank app and convert through the Kris+ app instead. Kris+ lets you convert DBS Points or UOB UNI$ to KrisFlyer miles instantly, and the same 15% bonus applies during the campaign window. The minimum is small: 100 DBS Points or 1,000 UNI$ per conversion, far below the 5,000-point blocks the bank apps demand.
There is a real catch beyond convenience: Kris+ converts DBS and UOB points at a poorer base ratio than the bank's own rewards portal. Converting DBS Points through Kris+ without a bonus carries roughly a 15% haircut versus a direct bank transfer (about 100 DBS Points to 170 miles instead of 200), so the headline conversion percentage matters less than the worse underlying rate. Instant crediting still matters when an award seat is sitting in your search and you need the miles in your account now to grab it, but weigh that against the haircut. You are also starting the three-year expiry clock, so the same discipline applies: convert what you need for the booking in front of you, not your entire points balance.
Some banks let you set up automatic conversion so your points flow to KrisFlyer on a schedule. DBS runs a KrisFlyer Miles Automatic Conversion Programme that does four quarterly conversions a year for a flat S$43.60. UOB's equivalent auto-conversion programme is being discontinued from 20 May 2026.
Auto-conversion is convenient if you fly enough to burn the miles every year. It is a trap if you do not, because it quietly converts points into expiry-dated miles on autopilot whether or not you have a trip planned. For most young working adults who fly occasionally, manual conversion when a bonus is live and a flight is booked gives you more control and avoids paying an annual programme fee for a service you barely use. If miles and travel rewards are part of a wider plan, it helps to see how the small recurring fees and forgone flexibility stack up over years rather than per transaction, the same way compounding turns small differences into large ones over time.
Only when you already plan to redeem the miles within three years and your conversion fee is free or spread across a large block. The 15% is real free miles, but on a single 10,000-mile block with a S$27.25 fee, the fee roughly cancels the bonus on economy redemptions. It is worth more on premium-cabin awards where each mile is worth closer to 2 cents.
Roughly 1.5 cents each on economy saver award flights, and 2 cents or more on business, first and Suite redemptions or premium partner awards. Cash plus Miles redemptions are pegged at 1 cent per mile since July 2025, which is poor value. The redemption you choose, not the conversion bonus, decides the real worth.
Yes. KrisFlyer miles expire three years after they are credited, at the end of that same calendar month. You can extend expiring miles once for a fee of 1,200 miles or US$12 per 10,000 miles, which buys 6 months for ordinary members or 12 for Elite tiers, but the extension is allowed only once. Many bank reward currencies last longer or refresh with activity, so converting early to grab a bonus starts a near-fixed three-year clock.
It varies by bank. American Express and HSBC are free on most cards. OCBC charges S$25, UOB S$27, and Citi, DBS, Maybank and Standard Chartered S$27.25. Bank of China is the most expensive at S$30.56. Several premium cards waive the fee entirely. The fee is flat per conversion request, so it hurts most on small blocks.
Citi Miles, OCBC 90N Miles and OCBC VOYAGE Miles convert 1-to-1 to KrisFlyer. DBS Points and UOB UNI$ convert at 2 miles per point, but you earn fewer of those per dollar, so the effective rate per dollar spent is what matters. HSBC, Amex and Standard Chartered use block-based conversions.
Yes, through the Kris+ app if you bank with DBS or UOB in Singapore. The minimum is 100 DBS Points or 1,000 UNI$ per conversion, and the same 15% bonus applies during the campaign. The catch is that Kris+ uses a poorer base ratio than the bank's own portal, roughly a 15% haircut for DBS Points, so weigh that against the instant, fee-free crediting, which is useful when you have an award seat to grab right away.
Only if you fly enough to burn the miles every year. DBS charges S$43.60 a year for four quarterly auto-conversions, and UOB is discontinuing its auto-conversion programme from 20 May 2026. For occasional flyers, manual conversion when a bonus is live and a flight is booked gives more control and avoids paying for a service you barely use.
Yes. The campaign terms require each conversion to be at least 10,000 KrisFlyer miles in a single transaction to earn the 15%. Smaller blocks still convert, but they earn only the base miles with no bonus. You also cannot combine separate transfers across banks to reach 10,000, so each transaction must hit the threshold on its own. There is no cap, so a single 50,000-mile conversion earns the full 7,500 bonus miles.
Often yes, until you convert. Citi points reach about ten airline partners on one ratio, OCBC reaches around six airlines, and DBS and UOB also offer Cathay Pacific Asia Miles among others. Converting to KrisFlyer for the 15% bonus gives up that choice for good, so keep some points unconverted if you might want Asia Miles or a partner programme that has award space KrisFlyer lacks.
It depends on the bank. American Express, HSBC and DBS yuu Points credit close to instantly, OCBC and Maybank usually within a day, and Citi, regular DBS Points, Standard Chartered and UOB take one to three working days. First-time DBS transfers can take up to 10 working days. Bank of China is the slowest at two to three weeks. Bonus miles credit on the same schedule, so do not leave a conversion to the last minute before booking an award seat.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.