How You Can Still Fly Round the World with KrisFlyer Miles

On 1 May 2024, Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program discontinued its Star Alliance Round-the-World Award. Although this award had become increasingly difficult to book over the years, this was an unfortunate change because it was one of the best value uses of KrisFlyer miles.

With the now-defunct KrisFlyer Star Alliance RTW Award, you could have booked an itinerary with up to seven stopovers and 16 total flight segments. That kind of round-the-world itinerary is no longer possible to book on a single KrisFlyer award ticket. However, you can still use your KrisFlyer miles to fly around the world!

Booking a round-trip award to North America

The trick to flying round the world is to book a round-trip KrisFlyer award ticket from Australia (or New Zealand) to North America, using an eastbound or westbound routing in both directions. For example, you could fly via south-east Asia and Europe in one direction. You would then return via Asia – or on a direct trans-Pacific flight.

You could do this entire trip on Singapore Airlines, including in Business or First Class, taking advantage of Singapore Airlines’ fifth freedom routes. For example, you could fly Singapore Airlines from Perth to Houston, via Singapore and Manchester. You could then return from Los Angeles to Perth via Tokyo and Singapore.

Along the way, you could stop over for up to 30 days in both Manchester and Tokyo if booking this as an Advantage award. If booking a Saver award, you could choose to stopover in either Manchester or Tokyo.

It’s also possible to fly around the world on a mix of Star Alliance airlines. However, the limited number of stopovers allowed on KrisFlyer’s Star Alliance awards since 2022 would make this tricky.

KrisFlyer award routing rules

KrisFlyer’s award routing rules are quite specific. But they are also rather generous in terms of allowable routings between Australia and North America.

For example, it is possible to fly from Sydney to New York via Singapore and Frankfurt. When booking this is a KrisFlyer Advantage Award, you can even stop over in one or both cities along the way. (If stopping over in both cities on your outbound journey, you just wouldn’t get any included stopovers on the way home.)

Your stopovers would generally just need to be in Star Alliance hub airports (which Singapore and Frankfurt both are) because unnecessary backtracking isn’t permitted.

Here are the main routing rules to be aware of when booking a round-trip KrisFlyer award:

• One open-jaw (surface sector) is permitted at either the origin or destination on round-trip awards
• Open-jaws at the destination are permitted across multiple award zones, but the higher award level will apply
• The maximum number of stopovers depends on your award ticket type (Advantage awards get more stopovers than Saver awards)
• Stopovers can be for a maximum of 30 days
• Backtracking is not permitted, so travel must be via the most direct available route
• En-route surface sectors are not permitted.

In practice, the open-jaw rule means that you can fly into one North American city (as your “destination”) and then fly out of a different North American city (as the start of your “return” trip). If you choose to do this, you’ll need to make your own arrangements between those two cities.

There are also specific rules that apply to Star Alliance awards. You can read the full routing rules in sections I & J of the KrisFlyer terms & conditions.

While these rules may seem somewhat restrictive (and they are), you can still book some pretty incredible itineraries as round-trip awards to/from North America.

How many KrisFlyer miles would a round-trip to North America cost?

There are three ways to book such an award using KrisFlyer miles to fly ’round the world’. Each option costs a different number of miles, but also comes with different limitations.

Here are the KrisFlyer miles required for a round-trip KrisFlyer award from Australia to North America, depending on how it’s booked:

When booking a Singapore Airlines Saver or Advantage award, the exact number of miles depends on whether you’re flying from Perth/Darwin or another city in Australia or New Zealand, as well as whether you’re flying to the US west or east coast.

Flying from Perth or Darwin to the US west coast requires the least miles. But if you’re flying into a US west coast city and out of an east coast city (or Houston) on a round-trip award, you’ll pay the higher amount of miles for the whole trip.

In addition, you would need to pay any taxes and carrier charges applicable with your itinerary. You won’t pay any extra airline-imposed charges when redeeming KrisFlyer miles for Singapore Airlines flights, but might when booking certain Star Alliance partners.

Stopover limits and other restrictions

Let’s look in a bit more detail at what you can do with each of the three award types…

Singapore Airlines Advantage Awards

Singapore Airlines Advantage Awards are the most expensive, and you can only use Singapore Airlines flights. But you also get access to more award availability on Singapore Airlines, as well as a higher stopover allowance.

Unless you’re extremely flexible, this is the only realistic way to book one of these award tickets in First Class.

With a round-trip KrisFlyer Advantage award, you get two included stopovers of up to 30 days each. You can alternatively book a one-way Advantage award for half the amount of miles and get one stopover. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to pay for extra stopovers on KrisFlyer award tickets.

Singapore Airlines operates the following routes to/from the USA:

• Singapore-Los Angeles
• Singapore-San Francisco
• Singapore-Seattle
• Singapore-New York (JFK)
• Singapore-Newark (EWR)
• Singapore-Tokyo-Los Angeles
• Singapore-Frankfurt-New York (JFK)
• Singapore-Manchester-Houston

Singapore Airlines Saver Awards

If you can find Singapore Airlines Saver award availability, you can save KrisFlyer miles by booking one of these trips as a Saver award.

With this award, you can only use Singapore Airlines flights. Crucially, you also only get one included stopover on the entire round-trip itinerary. (Of course, you can also spend time at your destination, and use an open-jaw at the destination to visit another city.)

This is the only KrisFlyer award type that you can book in Premium Economy.

KrisFlyer Star Alliance Awards

With a KrisFlyer Star Alliance award, you can use a mixture of Singapore Airlines flights (there must be Saver availability) and Star Alliance flights. However, you also only get one stopover on the whole round-trip and there is a maximum of six flight segments per itinerary.

Here’s one example of an itinerary you could book as a Star Alliance award with KrisFlyer miles:

With the above itinerary, you’d fly from Sydney to San Francisco with United Airlines. After a destination open-jaw, you’d then return from New York to Sydney with a stopover in Frankfurt, flying Singapore Airlines (and/or Lufthansa). This itinerary would cost 132,000 KrisFlyer miles in Economy or 293,000 KrisFlyer miles in Business, plus taxes.

You could also book the following itinerary:

The above itinerary uses Thai Airways from Perth to Bangkok, then Lufthansa to Boston via Munich. After a destination open-jaw, the return trip is from Mexico City to Perth with ANA, via Tokyo. As you’d only get one stopover included, you could choose to take it in either Bangkok, Munich or Tokyo.

This award has an outbound journey from the “South West Pacific” to the “North America” zone in the KrisFlyer Star Alliance award chart. The return leg departs from the “Hawaii/Central America” zone. This is possible to book, and since the number of KrisFlyer miles from South West Pacific to both “North America” and “Hawaii/Central America” is the same, no additional miles are required.

How to book

You can book a Singapore Airlines Saver or Advantage award on the Singapore Airlines website, unless you wish to utilise an open-jaw at the origin or destination. When booking online, the Singapore Airlines website provides the option to add a stopover:

If you wish to use an open-jaw, you’ll need to call Singapore Airlines to make your award booking. However, if you’re booking an Advantage award and wish to add one stopover in each direction, you can simply book two one-way awards online. The price and conditions are the same.

To book a round-trip Star Alliance award, you’ll usually need to call Singapore Airlines. We’d suggest checking for award availability on the flights you wish to book before calling.

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Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.