Singapore Airlines Miles Redeposit Takes How Long? It Costs How Much? Here’s a Trick I Learned.
I had a Singapore Airlines partner award booking coming up that I needed to change. Starting in the same city, I needed to change the destination city. Part of why I’d booked with Singapore is because the itinerary was likely to change. We recently covered change/cancelation fees, and Singapore is one of the better options in this situation. Here’s what I learned when I was waiting for the Singapore Airlines miles redeposit process to slowly eek by.
Singapore Airlines Change/Cancelation Policies
According to Singapore’s website, they say it’s $50 to change the routing or date of your partner award booking. I couldn’t do it online, so I called in. The phone agent told me for some reason my ticket couldn’t be changed, so she’d charge the same price but cancel the ticket then refund taxes & miles. Once the miles came back into my account, I could make my new booking. Normally, miles redeposit costs $75.
The agent said the taxes & fees would take “up to 4 weeks” to go back to my credit card. The miles would take “up to a week” to go back into my account.
How to Get Singapore Airlines Miles Back Even Faster
I checked my KrisFlyer account daily. On day 7, my miles weren’t back in my account. Since the flight leaves in 10 days, I was getting anxious. Also, I saw very little space when checking seat availability. I decided to call KrisFlyer and ask what the status of my miles was.
The phone agent told me “it takes a month”. The conversation went something like this:
“That’s not what the previous person told me.”
“Oh, that’s just for the taxes. The miles can take over a week, but I can send them now, if…”
I was all ears. Here’s the “if” condition:
Miles can be redeposited in less than 4 hours, initiated immediately, if you agree to have your taxes refunded in Singapore Dollars. You may lose money in the exchange or pay fees from your bank.
My card won’t charge me a foreign currency fee, and the rate of the day was nearly identical to my original booking time, so I agreed. I asked the agent if I’d get an email confirmation. “No, just keep refreshing until your miles show up.”
Final Thoughts on Express Singapore Airlines Miles Redeposit
I got my miles back in 2 hours. The taxes took 2 days. I lost 2 cents. Correct, 2 cents. I paid 2 cents to get my miles back in 2 hours, rather than continuing to wait.
After searching around on the internet, it seems like this “1 week” for miles redeposit is unpredictable at best. Waiting for miles to show up to make a new booking might mean losing the flights you want. If I was doing this again, I’d ask for this “immediate” process from the start.
It’s possible to make this happen with Singapore a lot faster than “policy”, if you’re willing to pay a small fee. Really small.
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Very good information. Thanks.
Nice. Useful article adding to knowledge bank.
Most other bloggers write about credit cards only.