Singapore Airlines will increase the cost of KrisFlyer Star Alliance awards in Business and First Class from 16 April 2019.
When redeeming KrisFlyer miles, the Star Alliance award chart is used for any booking that includes travel on a Star Alliance partner airline/s. This covers bookings exclusively on a partner airline, such as Thai Airways or Air New Zealand. Bookings that contain a combination of Singapore Airlines flights and sectors on other Star Alliance partners also use this pricing chart.
KrisFlyer Star Alliance award prices for premium cabins are rising to all destinations. For example, round-trip Star Alliance Business class awards from Australia to Europe will increase from 210,000 to 235,000 KrisFlyer miles. First Class awards to Europe will rise from 296,000 to 326,000 KrisFlyer miles. Meanwhile, KrisFlyer awards from Australia to the Middle East in Business (a popular sweet spot) are going up from 156,000 to 176,000 KrisFlyer miles.
For easy comparison, we’ve superimposed the old and new KrisFlyer award charts for travel to or from the Southwest Pacific zone, which includes Australia and New Zealand. The below prices refer to the KrisFlyer miles required for a round-trip award booking between the Southwest Pacific and any other zone, in thousands of miles. One-way awards cost half the number of KrisFlyer miles.
It’s not just flights to or from Australia that are affected. For example, another popular KrisFlyer sweet spot – Europe to the Middle East in Business class – will increase from 25,000 to 29,000 KrisFlyer miles. You can view both Star Alliance award charts in full on the Singapore Airlines website.
Luckily, Star Alliance awards in Economy class and the popular Star Alliance Round The World Awards are not affected by the 16 April 2019 devaluation. Following the upcoming changes, it will be cheaper to book a round-the-world award than a round-trip ticket from Australia to North America in Business class using KrisFlyer miles.
The latest devaluation to the KrisFlyer frequent flyer program is not entirely unexpected. Back in January 2019, KrisFlyer already increased the price of award flights on Singapore Airlines and regional subsidiary SilkAir. This created a strange situation where KrisFlyer award flights on partner airlines are currently cheaper than flights on Singapore Airlines itself.
It was only a matter of time before KrisFlyer corrected the anomaly, just as they did after the 2017 program devaluation. However, this is the first KrisFlyer program devaluation in a while where Singapore Airlines has offered nothing in return for the higher prices. When Singapore Airlines award prices increased earlier this year, the airline introduced a flexible date search function on its website. In November 2017, the last time that Star Alliance award prices were raised, the airline promised to bring partner award bookings online. (This still has only been partially implemented.) And in March 2017, Singapore Airlines removed fuel surcharges in exchange for charging higher amounts of KrisFlyer miles on awards.
Once again, Singapore Airlines has given less than a month of notice about the upcoming changes. (The KrisFlyer program terms and conditions do allow the airline to make changes to the program at any time.)
If you’ve been thinking about burning some KrisFlyer miles for a Star Alliance award, make sure you book and have all flights ticketed by 15 April 2019!
Partner airline awards, including Virgin Australia awards, as well as Star Alliance upgrade awards are also increasing in price.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Award tickets on Star Alliance change in 16 APR ?
