'People over policy': S’pore woman praises SIA for reinstating late mum’s expired miles after passing

Local content creator Audrey Yap, better known by her Instagram handle yourlobangsis, has praised Singapore Airlines (SIA) after the airline reinstated her late mother’s expired KrisFlyer miles following her passing.

SIA Suites flight booked with miles

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A post shared by Audrey Yap (@yourlobangsis)

In an Instagram post on May 1, Yap shared that she had lost her mother in Vietnam two months ago.

“I will not forget what Singapore Airlines did,” she wrote in the video.

In her post, Yap said she had booked a Singapore Airlines Suites first-class flight with miles nearly 10 months in advance, for June 2026.

A screenshot of the itinerary shared in her post showed a Singapore to Shanghai flight on Jun. 11, 2026, with the cabin class listed as First.

Following her mother’s passing, Yap reached out to SIA to process the refund.

“I didn’t care about the money,” she wrote.

“What I care is hassle free process and easy refund during my time of overwhelming grief. This was done easily via their call centre and email exchanges.

When asked how SIA responded to her request and how long the process took, Yap told Mothership that it took “a few weeks”.

Some miles had expired

However, Yap said that after the refund was approved, not all the miles could be returned, as some had already expired in her mother’s SIA account.

She then submitted a separate request for the expired miles to be reinstated.

A screenshot of her KrisFlyer activity showed 9,094 KrisFlyer miles being credited on Apr. 15, labelled as a “refund of miles”.

Speaking to Mothership, Yap said she was “pleasantly surprised” when she found out the miles had been reinstated.

“Even though they didn’t have to reinstate the miles, they did,” Yap wrote.

She added that the miles were worth S$113, which she described as “so inconsequential” compared to the number of flights she would buy in her lifetime.

“And trust me, I will pick Singapore Airlines moving forward, even if it’s more expensive,” she said.

“People over Policy”

Yap added that she decided to share the experience publicly because she thought it would be helpful information for others to know, based on her own personal experience.

She told Mothership that she was also “genuinely just proud” of the national carrier.

She wrote:

“For S$113, you won a loyal customer cos in the lowest moment of my life, in my time of need, you were willing to put in an exception.

“People over Policy. Now, take my money, Singapore Airlines.”

As her channel focuses on topics such as credit cards, miles and personal finance, Yap said she realised many people would probably assume expired miles were gone forever, which was an assumption she had made as well.

Since airlines typically do not reinstate expired miles without charging a fee, Yap wanted others to know that appealing might still be an option on compassionate grounds.

“Hopefully it helps someone else in their miles journey too."

Yap’s post also drew comments from others who said they had similar positive experiences with SIA, especially during difficult personal circumstances.

One Instagram user said SIA had refunded the full amount and miles deducted after they and a friend had to cancel a non-refundable flight due to the friend’s health crisis.

Another commenter shared a more personal account, saying that their father had passed away on an SIA flight while on the way to Singapore.

According to the commenter, their mother was alone at the time, and both SIA’s air and ground staff took care of her over the next few days.

Several commenters also said they would continue choosing SIA where possible, with one saying the service made them feel “at home” instead of as though they were “just being on another flight”.