Singapore Airlines, KPMG in Singapore and Microsoft have all joined forces to work together in order to develop the first airline loyalty program "digital wallet" to be based on blockchain technology.
The airline has announced the launch of the new KrisPay digital wallet following a successful proof-of-concept development in February 2018.
With KrisPay, SIA's KrisFlyer members can instantly convert KrisFlyer miles into KrisPay tokens that can be spent with participating merchants. The digital wallet not only makes it easier for SIA customers to use miles in their KrisFlyer account, it allows SIA to onboard new partners and reconcile payments using blockchain technology.
"With the blockchain-based digital wallet, it is a straightforward process for participating merchants to connect with the program and for customers to make purchases with their tokenized miles," said Jan Reinmueller, Head of KPMG's Digital Village in Singapore. "The blockchain provides a distributed ledger that time-stamps every customer transaction in real-time, which provides significant cost and time efficiencies." 
Andres Ortola, Enterprise Commercial Director, Microsoft, Singapore said, "KrisPay showcases how blockchain can create new experiences for customers and partners alike. Microsoft's blockchain technology and Microsoft Azure, together with KPMG's innovation and experience, helped to accelerate deployment, and drive significant customer value."
