Singapore Airlines has one of the best and most consistent hard and soft product out there in terms of premium travel. These premium cabins have largely been hard to come by on other Star Alliance partner carriers’ redemptions. So, one of the only way to get those premium cabins has been through SQ’s own loyalty program KrisFlyer.
Award chart changes in 3 weeks
SQ last revised the award charts in 2012, and now they will have a new chart in effect as of March 23, 2017. This change is only for SQ’s own redemptions and not on the Star Alliance members.For reference, here is the current chart, and here will be the new chart that goes into effect 3 weeks from now. The key regions affected are USA, Japan, Australasia & Europe. This impacts some of their headline flights from the USA such as the one hop in and out of Frankfurt. For those in India, if you are looking at booking through to USA, maybe a good idea to book in the next few weeks.
15% online discount going away
For the longest time, KrisFlyer has offered a 15% discount on the number of miles required for a redemption, if you booked the ticket online. This could mean substantial savings sometimes, to the tunes of 1000s of miles. Alas, as of March 23, alas, this discount is being pulled away and all tickets will be priced at the same number of miles.This is a massive impact in my view, but can’t be helped I guess.
Change Fees is being equalized
Right now, the change fee for an online change is USD 12, and for an offline change was at USD 20. As of March 23, every change will cost USD 20.
Fuel Surcharges going away!
Saved the best for the last, eh. Redeeming KrisFlyer miles came with its own issues, fuel surcharges being one of them. These fuel surcharges can be a few hundred dollars in premium cabins. They are going away as of this new change. This is something I consider a positive change since I remember how I paid USD 448 for a business class ticket from LA to Mumbai on SQ.
Bottomline
Overall, I think these changes are for the better and something has been taken away but something else given in return as well, so I won’t really mind. Others would consider it a devaluation, but I would say, if I am not out of cash, maybe I am better off sometimes. For example, here is a comparison of old versus new on Singapore London in Business Class.
I’ll be putting out a detailed analysis later of some of the routes which will be largely impacted and could be a place to start booking redemptions now. But overall, like you can see, it seems fair!
What is your take on the SQ changes. Looks bad to you or are you thinking it looks fair?
good. thanks for the update. Fuel surcharge has been a big issue for me. I had once paid over 60K for 1st class redemption as I wanted to try the suites.