Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer loyalty program will increase the cost of award flights and upgrades across the board from next month. In further bad news, KrisFlyer has also announced a devaluation of its stopover benefit on award bookings.
It’s the third significant devaluation to the KrisFlyer program in five years, following previous increases to award pricing in 2017 and 2019.
KrisFlyer members were emailed last night about the changes, which come into effect from 5 July 2022. The Singapore Airlines website also contains information about the “revisions to redemption award and upgrade levels and stopover feature”, stating:
As part of our ongoing review of the KrisFlyer programme, we will be revising the miles required for flight redemptions and upgrades. These changes will apply to redemption bookings on Singapore Airlines and Star Alliance airlines, ticketed on or after 5 July 2022. Changes to the stopover feature for redemption bookings will apply to bookings ticketed on or after 1 August 2022.
We seek your understanding that these changes were made after very careful deliberation, taking into account higher costs, and are necessary to ensure the KrisFlyer programme remains sustainable. We are committed to providing our members with more ways to earn and redeem miles, both in the air and on the ground, and to providing greater value to your KrisFlyer membership, through regular enhancements to our programme offerings and benefits.
Singapore Airlines says that the average redemption cost is increasing by around 10%, but the cost increases are even higher on some routes to/from Australia. Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming KrisFlyer devaluation…
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Changes to KrisFlyer award pricing
The number of KrisFlyer miles required for all Singapore Airlines Saver Awards will increase from 5 July 2022. The cost of some Singapore Airlines Advantage Awards will also rise, but only slightly.
KrisFlyer Saver Awards require fewer miles overall than Advantage Awards, but Saver Awards are usually available on fewer flights.
Here are the links to the old and the new award charts:
- Current Singapore Airlines award chart (bookings until 4 July 2022)
- New Singapore Airlines award chart (bookings from 5 July 2022)
As an example of what’s changing, a round-trip Singapore Airlines Business Saver booking from Australia to Europe will increase from 232,000 to 261,000 KrisFlyer miles.
A one-way Singapore Airlines Economy Saver flight from Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide or Brisbane to Singapore will increase from 28,000 to 30,500 KrisFlyer miles. The same flight in Premium Economy will soon cost 51,000 instead of 47,000 miles, while Business Saver goes from 62,000 to 68,500 miles.
Singapore Airlines flights from Australia to Turkey are also increasing quite substantially. Instead of 172,000 KrisFlyer miles for a round-trip Business Saver award from Sydney to Istanbul, for example, you’ll soon need 198,000 miles.
Similar increases are coming to KrisFlyer Star Alliance awards, which include bookings containing a mix of flights on Singapore Airlines and other Star Alliance member airlines. Here are links to the old and new KrisFlyer Star Alliance award charts:
- Current Star Alliance award chart (bookings until 4 July 2022)
- New Star Alliance award chart (bookings from 5 July 2022)
Although Singapore Airlines didn’t originally say that it would also be increasing KrisFlyer Star Alliance Round the World prices, these have also increased as of 5 July 2022.
KrisFlyer also says that “upward revisions will be made to Award Levels for flights on [other] partner airlines and will be implemented progressively.”
This means the number of KrisFlyer miles required for flights on non-Star Alliance partners such as Virgin Australia, Virgin Atlantic, Vistara and Alaska Airlines will also increase in the near future – although we don’t yet know when this will happen, or what the damage will be.
Currently, redeeming KrisFlyer miles on Virgin Australia can be quite good value in some instances.
Changes to KrisFlyer upgrade pricing
KrisFlyer is also making “upward revisions” (as the loyalty program euphemistically describes them) to its Singapore Airlines and Star Alliance Upgrade Award charts.
Here are the old vs new Singapore Airlines upgrade pricing charts:
- Current Singapore Airlines upgrade award chart (upgrades requested until 4 July 2022)
- New Singapore Airlines upgrade award chart (upgrades requested from 5 July 2022)
And these charts show the number of KrisFlyer miles you’d need to pay to upgrade on other Star Alliance airlines before & after the changes:
- Current Star Alliance upgrade award chart (upgrades requested until 4 July 2022)
- New Star Alliance upgrade award chart (upgrades requested from 5 July 2022)
Changes to stopovers on KrisFlyer awards
From 1 August 2022, KrisFlyer is also negatively changing the stopover rules on award bookings.
Complimentary stopovers will still be available on certain types of KrisFlyer award bookings, but they will be limited to 30 days. This probably won’t make much difference to most Australian members of the KrisFlyer program, although some Singapore-based members could be unhappy.
Free stopovers are currently allowed on the following types of KrisFlyer award bookings, for travel on Singapore Airlines, as outlined in the KrisFlyer terms & conditions:
In addition to these complimentary stopovers, it’s currently possible to add an additional stopover to any Singapore Airlines award for a fee of USD100. This applies to all Saver Awards and Advantage Awards for travel on Singapore Airlines.
Up to one free stopover is also currently allowed on round-trip Star Alliance award bookings, although never on one-way Star Alliance awards. From 1 August 2022, one free stopover on round-trip Star Alliance awards will still be permitted, but only for up to 30 days – and it will no longer be possible to add up to three additional stopovers for an extra USD100 each.
Book now to access lower pricing & better stopover conditions
KrisFlyer has at least given some warning of the impending devaluation, so there’s still time to book KrisFlyer award tickets now at the lower existing rates. You’ll just need to make sure your award gets ticketed by 4 July 2022. Any KrisFlyer awards ticketed on or after 5 July 2022 will be subject to the pricing in the new award charts.
The higher prices will also apply to waitlisted award or upgrade bookings which are requested before 5 July but approved and/or ticketed after this date.
If you make a KrisFlyer award booking before 5 July, but make a change to the booking after this date, Singapore Airlines says the “revised award levels will apply”. So, if you need to change any upcoming bookings, make sure you do so soon.
There’s nothing positive in these announcements
Often when frequent flyer programs make such significant negative “enhancements”, they at least offer members something token in return. For example, when KrisFlyer raised the cost of Singapore Airlines award flights in 2017, it removed fuel surcharges to compensate for this. Qantas Frequent Flyer offered a similar concession in 2019, lowering carrier charges when it increased the number of points required for Classic Flight Rewards.
There is nothing positive to come from this devaluation to the KrisFlyer program. Award and upgrade prices are going up across the board, flexibility is being removed from the stopover feature, and nothing is being given back to KrisFlyer members in return.
This devaluation comes as many KrisFlyer members still have large mileage balances that they haven’t been able to use during the pandemic. Many of these miles will expire in early 2023 if not used by then.
KrisFlyer has temporarily extended the validity of miles during the pandemic by six months at a time, and will continue doing so until December 2022. But this won’t continue forever, and KrisFlyer still retains its policy of miles expiring after a fixed term of three years regardless of account activity (except for PPS Club members).
These changes are a real shame as KrisFlyer is otherwise a very good loyalty program in many respects. It often has good award availability to and from Australia, there are no fuel surcharges on Singapore Airlines flights and you can transfer points from all major Australian credit card reward programs to KrisFlyer.
This doesn’t spell the death of KrisFlyer – it will continue to have value beyond next month. But it does take off some of the edge that has made KrisFlyer a particularly attractive loyalty program for Australians.
At least Singapore Airlines did recently bring back Spontaneous Escapes, a monthly promotion offering 30% off the KrisFlyer miles on selected last-minute Saver Award bookings.
Finally, here’s a reminder of why hoarding frequent flyer points is generally a terrible idea. Consider that as recently as 2016, a round-trip Singapore Airlines Business Saver award from Melbourne to Rome booked online would have cost 136,000 KrisFlyer miles. An identical award will next month cost 261,000 KrisFlyer miles at the Business Saver level. That’s a 92% increase in the number of miles required in just six years – an effective annual inflation rate for KrisFlyer miles of more than 15%.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: KrisFlyer redemption rates increasing
You can also hear a full discussion about this in episode 88 of the AFF on Air podcast.
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