Singapore KrisFlyer Changes: Partner Award Devaluation + New Online Booking
Last night, Singapore Airline’s KrisFlyer program sent out an email (pictured below) informing us that starting December 7th, 2017, some changes will take effect. They have added the ability to book award flights on partner airlines online without having to call customer service. If you do call customer service for bookings available online you will incur a $25 or 2,500 Mile fee for the service. Also, a new (more expensive) award chart will go into effect for Star Alliance Award Redemptions on the same day.
Krisflyer had another devaluation in March of this year for travel exclusively on Singapore. Needless to say, this hasn’t been the best year for our Krisflyer miles.
Changes Effective December 7th
Ability to Book Online
You will be able to book partner award flights on Singaporeair.com or through the mobile app. This is a nice change to the current system which requires that you call in to book flights with miles. However, now you will incur a fee of $25 or 2,500 miles for award ticket bookings, changes or upgrades. The same fee is also incurred for “member services” that can be done online. For anything that cannot be done online, the fee will of course be waived.
Award Ticket Price Increases
Unfortunately, there are pretty significant changes in the North American area of the chart. As you can see from the pic below that looks like a first grader marked up- the upper class section of the award chart got hit pretty hard. Here are the charts:
Current Award Chart In Effect Until December 7th, 2017
Award Chart In Effect December 7, 2017
Major Changes for North America Flights
Effect on Popular Uses for KrisFlyer Miles
- Lufthansa First Class to Europe: Increasing 15,000 miles each way
- Flying United to Hawaii remains unchanged
- First class flights to South East Asia are increasing 50,000 miles round trip. OUCH
Conclusion
Price increases are never a good thing. Unfortunately, this devaluation was made likely because of the earlier devaluation on Singapore’s own award flights earlier this year. On a positive note, KrisFlyer miles are easy to come by because they are partners of ThankYou, Ultimate Rewards, SPG and Amex. It’s also great to be able to book online, though I’m not happy about the imposed fee. All in all, this is definitely not good news.
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