Singapore Airlines Adds Garuda, Ends Virgin Atlantic Partnership

Singapore Airlines has launched a new partnership with SkyTeam member Garuda Indonesia. You can now earn and redeem Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles on Garuda flights… but only on selected routes, and there are no reciprocal status benefits (yet).

It comes as Singapore Airlines ends its partnership with Virgin Atlantic, another SkyTeam member.

Singapore Airlines’ limited new partnership with Garuda Indonesia

Under the new partnership, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer members can earn and redeem miles on three specific Garuda Indonesia routes between Singapore and Indonesia:

• Singapore-Jakarta
• Singapore-Denpasar/Bali
• Singapore-Surabaya

Singapore Airlines has published a Garuda award chart on its website. One-way redemptions on any of these routes will cost 13,500 KrisFlyer miles in Economy or 24,000 miles in Business, plus taxes.

While this could be useful if you want to fly between Singapore and Indonesia, unfortunately this partnership doesn’t go beyond that at this point. The award chart looks decidedly bare…

Also note that it’s not possible to combine Garuda flights with those on other airlines as part of the same KrisFlyer award ticket. With KrisFlyer, this is only possible with Star Alliance award tickets.

KrisFlyer miles earned from Garuda flights will not count towards elite status qualification.

Use another program to book Garuda flights to/from Australia

Garuda Indonesia flies from Sydney and Melbourne to both Bali and Jakarta, with wide-body aircraft featuring lie-flat Business Class seats. There is often good award availability on these flights, even in Business Class, which you could book using a SkyTeam frequent flyer program.

For example, you could buy Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points, or transfer Amex Membership Rewards points into Flying Club, and then redeem those for a Garuda flight.

KrisFlyer has a similar partnership with Malaysia Airlines

Last year, Singapore Airlines also launched a similarly limited partnership with Oneworld member Malaysia Airlines. Since February 2024, KrisFlyer members can earn and redeem miles on a selected handful of Malaysia Airlines routes:

• Kuala Lumpur-Singapore
• Kuala Lumpur-London
• Domestic routes within Malaysia

However, KrisFlyer redemptions on these Malaysia Airlines routes are only available in Economy Class. The award chart states that “MH Business Class award redemption will be made available on a later date”.

KrisFlyer ending partnership with Virgin Atlantic

In other news, KrisFlyer and Virgin Atlantic will end their partnership on 24 April 2025.

From this date, it will no longer be possible to earn or redeem KrisFlyer miles on Virgin Atlantic flights, and vice versa. The Singapore Airlines website has more details.

Virgin Atlantic, based in the UK, remains a partner of Virgin Australia.

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.