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Covid-19: Airlines and hotels extend elite status for select members

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Several airlines frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programmes have announced membership extensions for affected members. Here are the details.

LAST UPDATED: 29 April 2020

With Covid-19 entering now heading into its fifth month soon and seeing no signs of easing, global travel has taken a severe beating. Airlines have made drastic cuts to their capacity, while hotels are reporting all-time low occupancy rates.

Moreover, China now makes up one of the most significant group of members that any airline or hotel will want, so I will imagine any loyalty programme manager will want to ensure that this group returns to the fold once the crisis is over.

Several programmes have announced expiry extensions for their elite members, almost most of them are targeted at members in Greater China. See below for details.

Frequent flyer programmes:
Singapore Airlines
Cathay Pacific
Qantas Frequent Flyer

Hotel loyalty programmes:
Marriott Bonvoy (Updated)
Hilton Honors
World of Hyatt
IHG Rewards Club
Accor Live Limitless
Global Hotel Alliance DISCOVERY (New)

Singapore Airlines

[Updated] Singapore Airlines have announced a one-year extension for all KrisFlyer Elite Silver, Elite Gold, PPS Club and Solitaire PPS Club membership which are expiring anytime this year till Feb 2021.

If you have already earned enough elite miles to renew your membership, note that you won’t get another free year (e.g. if your membership was going to expire in May 2020, and you have earned the pre-requisite 50,000 miles for Elite Gold for your next membership year of Jun 2020 to May 2021, you won’t get another free year till 2022).

Note that despite the one-year extension, your accrued elite miles and PPS value will still reset on your anniversary month, so you will have to earn them again in the new year.

All rewards (Elite Gold, PPS Rewards) that are expiring between July and Dec 2020 will also be extended until 31 Mar 2021.

Cathay Pacific

In an email sent to all members, Cathay Pacific informed Marco Polo Club members (separate from Asia Miles) of an extra Club Points credit given to every member, regardless of residency. It’s interesting that Cathay Pacific is not giving an automatic status extension, but instead be given three allotments of Club Points instead for the months of Feb, Mar and Apr 2020.

The number of club points given to each member for month differs by status, as follow:

  • Green: 10 club points
  • Silver: 30 club points
  • Gold: 65 club points
  • Diamond: 140 club points

All points will be credited by the end of each month. For those whose status expires in Feb, the points will be credited by end of Fen and the remaining points will be credited by the end of the subsequent months, depending on the new status qualified for.

Qantas Frequent Flyer

As Qantas grounds 90% of its international flights over the next two months, frequent flyers will be relieved to hear that Qantas will be extending all current elite members’ status for another year.

Qantas will provide a 12-month extension on your current membership tier for all current Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum One members, starting with members whose membership year ends in March. Those with statuses expiring in March 2020 would have them extended till March 2021, with the last batch of members whose statuses originally expiring in Feb 2021 now extended till Feb 2022.

Email confirming extension of QFF status

Marriott Bonvoy

Updated 29 Apr: Marriott Bonvoy announced on 8 Apr that it will (finally) be extending status earned in 2019 by 12 months.

The status will normally expire in Feb 2021, but it will now expire in Feb 2022 instead, giving you an extra year. This will apply at all elite levels (i.e. Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium, Ambassador). The extended year of status will count towards lifetime status in the Bonvoy program.

All points will not expire before Feb 2021, after which if it will only expire if there was no activity in the past 24 months (i.e. since 1 Mar 2019).

Suite Night Awards will be have their validity extended until end 2021, while any free night awards expiring in 2020 will be extended until Jan 2021.

Early in January, Marriott Bonvoy announced its extension policies on their Chinese social media platform WeChat on 22 Feb 2020. Members residing in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan as of 1 Feb 2020 will be given the following extensions:

  • Members who qualified for elite status in 2019 will have their status expire by 28 Feb 2022 instead of 28 Feb 2021.
  • Any associated rewards or privileges with status will also be extended to expire 31 Dec 2021, instead of 31 Dec 2020.
  • All points will not expire before 28 Feb 2021. From 28 Feb 2021, normal expiry rules will apply.

Read the Chinese article here. For an English translation, refer to Loyalty Lobby’s article here.

Hilton Honors

Hilton Honors announced their provisions through their Chinese social media platform WeChat on 19 Feb 2020.

Members whose residential address is listed in Mainland China, Macau, Hong Kong or Taiwan as of 19 Feb 2020 will be given effectively a year’s extension on their status.

For those whose status was going to be downgraded on 31 Mar 2020 will have it extended through Mar 2021. Those that qualified in 2019 will have it until Mar 2022.

World of Hyatt

World of Hyatt will extend the status of all members in Asia Pacific for a year.

Qualifying World of Hyatt Discoverist, Explorist and Globalist members with status expiring on 28 Feb 2020 will now be extended all the way to 28 Feb 2022, rather than a previously announced 28 Feb 2021.

All Suite Upgrade Awards, Club Access Awards and Free Night Awards that are expiring in 2020 for qualifying members will also be extended through 31 Dec 2021.

What is even better is that World of Hyatt is also working to evaluate tier and benefit extensions for members outside of Asia Pacific, but travels frequently to the Asia Pacific region. More information will be shared with qualifying members as it becomes available.

More details here.

IHG Rewards Club

IHG Rewards Club has announced an extension for its elite members. Members with status, and who are residing in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan as of 17 Feb 2020 will be extended by a year. Points expiry will also be extended by at least a year.

For those who have purchased the InterContinental Ambassador membership between 1 Jan and 30 Jun 2019, the membership validity and free weekend night voucher expiry has been pushed back by six months.

Accor Live Limitless

Accor announced 27 Feb 2020 status extensions for all members residing in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

All members with status expiring Dec 2020 will be extended through Dec 2021, while points expiring between 1 Feb 2020 and 31 Jan 2021 will be ‘halted’.

Platinum and Diamond members with suite upgrade vouchers will have their validity extended until Dec 2021.

GHA DISCOVERY

In an email sent by Pan Pacific Hotel Group last week, the hotel will be extending the status of all Platinum and Black members until 31 December 2021.

This appears to apply to all DISCOVERY members, regardless of which hotel chain they signed up with.

Specifically for Pan Pacific members, members will be able to enjoy savings of up to 25% across all participating restaurants and bars at properties under the Pan Pacific Hotels Group from 1 Jun 2020.

Singapore Airlines full schedule for April 2020

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Only 306 flights operating this month.

Singapore Airlines have published their schedule for the month of April, with its previously announced ‘greatly reduced’ capacity.

In this month, Singapore Airlines will only take off slightly over 300 times – and that includes a single weekly Silkair service to Chongqing.

In this month alone, SIA will only operate to 15 cities in 13 countries, including Los Angeles, Shanghai, Sydney, London, Zurich, Frankfurt and a handful of Southeast Asia capitals.

Full schedule below:

Southeast Asia – 123 flights

SectorFlight no.Days operatingDepArrDurationAircraft
Singapore – Kuala LumpurSQ104Mon, Wed, Fri083009301hA350-900
Kuala Lumpur – SingaporeSQ105Mon, Wed, Fri102511351h 10mA350-900
Singapore – BangkokSQ976Mon, Fri, Sun160017252h 25mB787-10
Bangkok – SingaporeSQ979Mon, Fri, Sun183021552h 25mB787-10
Singapore – JakartaSQ966Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sun183019201h 50mA350-900
Jakarta – SingaporeSQ967Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sun201523051h 50mA350-900
Singapore – ManilaSQ910Mon, Fri093013053h 35mA350-900
Manila – SingaporeSQ917Mon, Fri141517553h 40mA350-900
Hanoi – SingaporeSQ175Fri123517053h 30mB787-10
Ho Chi Minh City – SingaporeSQ177Mon, Thu123015302hB787-10

North Asia – 56 flights

SectorFlight no.Days operatingDepArrDurationAircraft
Singapore – SeoulSQ600Wed, Sat080015356h 35mA350-900
Seoul – SingaporeSQ609Wed, Sat164522006h 15mA350-900
Singapore – Tokyo NaritaSQ638Wed, Fri, Sat23550800(+1)7h 5mB787-10
Tokyo Narita – SingaporeSQ637Thu, Sat, Sun091015207h 10mB787-10
Singapore – ShanghaiSQ830Mon093015055h 35mB787-10
Shanghai – SingaporeSQ833Mon165022205h 30mB787-10
Singapore – ChongqingMI972Mon070011354h 35mB737-800
Chongqing – SingaporeMI971Mon123517304h 55mB737-800

Australia – 22 flights

SectorFlight no.Days operatingDepArrDurationAircraft
Singapore – SydneySQ211Tue, Fri, Sun093519157h 40mB777-300ER
Sydney SingaporeSQ232Wed, Sat, Mon110017307h 30mB777-300ER

Europe – 79 flights

SectorFlight no.Days operatingDepArrDurationAircraft
Singapore – LondonSQ3181 Apr23300555(+1)12h 25mA350-900
Singapore – LondonSQ322Mon, Thu, Sat23300555(+1)13h 25mA350-900
London – SingaporeSQ317Tue, Thu, Sat11250730(+1)13h 5mA350-900
Singapore – FrankfurtSQ326Wed, Fri, Sun1155184012h 45mB777-300ER
Frankfurt – SingaporeSQ325Mon, Thu, Sat20001425(+1)12h 25mB777-300ER
Singapore – ZurichSQ346Wed, Fri, Sun0125081512h 50mB777-300ER
Zurich – SingaporeSQ345Mon, Thu, Sat11450555(+1)12h 10mB777-300ER

USA – 26 flights

SectorFlight no.Days operatingDepArrDurationAircraft
Singapore – Los AngelesSQ38Wed, Fri, Sun1940203515h 55mA350-900
Los Angeles – SingaporeSQ37Mon, Thu, Sat00050815(+1)17h 10mA350-900

Get 40,000 miles when you sign up for Standard Chartered Bank X Card

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No minimum spend required, but you will need to fork out $695.50 for the annual fee (1.7 cents per mile)

SingSaver is currently running a sign-up promotion for SCB’s X Card, offering 40,000 miles as a sign-up gift if you pay the $695.50 annual fee, up from the usual 30,000 miles.

This offer effectively lowers the 2.3 cents per mile you would normal pay for to 1.74 cents per mile.

How to apply

The promotion mechanics are pretty straightforward: simply apply through SingSaver’s website. The bonus miles will be credited to your account directly, there is no need to fill up a separate redemption form.

SingSaver promotion -get 40,000 miles instead of the usual 30,000 miles when you pay the annual fee on the SCB X Card

The 40,000 miles will be transferred in the form of 100,000 360° Rewards Points that you can use on 11 different partners (see below).

Note that the annual fee is $695.50 cannot be waived.

An overview of the card:

  • Income requirement: S$80,000 p.a. (or $30,000 p.a. for Priority Banking customers)
  • Annual fee: S$695.50 for principal cardmembers, S$107 for supplementary cards
  • Annual fee gift: 30,000 miles (in the form of 75,000 reward points)
  • Earn rates: 1.2 mile per dollar spent (mpd) locally; 2.0 mpd overseas
  • Foreign currency transaction fee: 3.5%

What’s noteworthy is that Standard Chartered also boast of the widest range of airline transfer partners, with 11 partners under its fold. The transfer ratio varies though, so this is what you’ll get with 100,000 360° Rewards Points:

Loyalty ProgrammeTransfer Ratio100,000 360° Rewards Points
will give you:
Singapore Airlines Krisflyer2.5:140,000 miles
EVA Air Infinity Mileageland2.5:140,000 miles
Air France KLM FlyingBlue2.5:140,000 miles
Qantas Frequent Flyer2.5:140,000 points
Malaysia Airlines Enrich3:133,333 miles
Qatar Airways Privilege Club3:133,333 miles
Etihad Guest3:133,333 miles
United MileagePlus3.5:128,571 miles
Lufthansa Miles & More3.5:128,571 miles
Emirates Skywards3.5:128,571 miles
Accor Live Limitless5:120,000 points
IHG Rewards Club2.5:140,000 points

Best offer seen in 2019: 100,000 bonus miles

Standard Chartered Bank’s famed X Card has created a huge wave last year with its humongous 100,000 bonus miles offer, even though that meant spending $6,000 on the card.

This offer ran out in days, given the ‘overwhelming response’ and SCB even cut short the promotion. But, SCB return a short while later but at a reduced level of 60,000 miles, also at $6,000 minimum spend.

This again, ran out quickly. Since then, it was only the sign-up offer, i.e. 30,000 bonus miles for $695.50, making it poor value from any perspective.

Final thoughts

We have not seen any decent sign-up promotions from SCB in a while since its launch, so I guess this is as good as it can get – for now.

Having said that, without the sign-up bonus, there’s really no reason to have this card. It’s abysmal earn rate of 1.2 or 2.0 mpd for local or overseas spending pales – or at best equals to – other travel-related cards. You can easily find a card that has a much better earn rate, such as the UOB PRVI card at 1.4 mpd for local spend and 2.4 for overseas spend.

So the only upside to this card is probably the fact that you can transfer points to some lesser-known frequent flyer programme, such as Emirates Skywards. Even then, if you really don’t need the miles at this point, maybe it’s a good time to pass.

Mandarin Orchard to be rebranded as Hilton Orchard Singapore

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Property set to be the largest Hilton in Asia Pacific region

OUE Limited and OUE Commercial Reit (OUE C-Reit), owners of Mandarin Orchard Singapore, has announced that it will be rebranding the property into Hilton Singapore Orchard.

Located in the heart of Orchard Road right across from Ngee Ann City, Hilton Singapore Orchard will be Hilton’s flagship in Singapore and the largest Hilton hotel in Asia-Pacific.

The refurbishment was originally planned for later, but OUE has brought it forward to commence in Q2 this year, given the challenging climate due to Covid-19. The works are scheduled to complete by end 2021, for a 2022 opening.

When completed, the hotel will boast of 1,080 rooms, three ballrooms and five restaurants, one of the largest non-IR properties in Singapore.

In the meantime, the hotel will still continue to operate under the Mandarin Orchard brand, managed by Meritus Hotels & Resorts.

Final thoughts

This is definitely very exciting news for Hilton, given that the group has not put out any new properties in Singapore despite growing its footprint ferociously in other parts of Southeast Asia last few years.

The first question that comes to mind is what will happen to the current Hilton Singapore, which sits on the other end of Orchard Road. I’m expecting Hilton to give up that property, in favour of this shiny new boy come 2022.

I’ve not seen any renders or found any announcements by Hilton on this development, so it’s rather intriguing that OUE has decided to unilaterally put out the announcement.

I would expect Hilton to put out more information in time to come, but this is definitely an exciting development so I’ll be eager to try it when it opens.

Hilton Honors offers 1-year extension for all members with status in 2019, 2020

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All statuses extended by a year.

Hilton Honors has finally announced its Covid-19 provisions for its loyalty members, with what is possibly one of the most generous extensions across any hotel chains.

Extensions for members with status in 2019

Hilton will be giving a one-year extension for members who had status through the whole of 2019 and were scheduled to be downgraded this month. They will instead hold on to their 2019 status for another year, up to March 2021.

This refers to the group of members who earned their status through stays in 2018, and enjoyed them in 2019. If this group of members didn’t requalify for their status in 2019, they would have been downgraded this month (i.e. March 2020).

Extensions for members with status in 2020

For members who have qualified for an elite status for the entire year of 2020 through stays in 2019, their status will be extended through March 2022, a year longer than it usually is.

Similar to Qantas’ policy, the extension of the status doesn’t mean that you get two years now to qualify for status in 2022 – your nights and stays you earn in 2020 will still be reset by 31 Dec 2020 and you start climbing the ladder again in 2021.

Points won’t expire before December 2020

On top of the status extensions, Hilton Honors will also pause all points expiration.

Hilton points usually expire 12 months after your last stay, so if you have had a chance to clock a stay during the 12-month window, your points will still stay active up to 31 Dec 2020.

Note that this means if you have not make any activity in 2020 by 1 Jan 2021, your points will expire then.

Final thoughts

This is probably one of the most generous extension policies laid out by any hotel loyalty programme, given that Hilton has not only extended current members with elite status, but also those who were scheduled to be downgraded this year (boo, Marriott Bonvoy).

This is an incredibly good gesture on Hilton’s part, on top of its very flexible booking policy during this global pandemic. I’m sure this will earn a lot more goodwill down the road for the chain, and I’m for one to keep supporting them.