So it’s been twelve months since Singapore Airlines started a monthly redemption promotion called KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes, offering discounts on using your miles for select destinations.
Given it’s the first year anniversary of the promotion, KrisFlyer is offering 40%, instead of the usual 30%, off to Bangkok, Yangon and Phnom Penh!
You can find the full list on KrisFlyer’s website, but here’s some shoutouts:
Bangkok, Yangon, Phnom Penh: 7,500 miles each way in Economy; 14,000 miles each way in Business
Sydney, Wellington: 19,600 miles each way in Economy; 40,600 miles each way in Business
Nagoya (time to try out the B787-10!): 17,500 miles each way in Economy; 30,100 miles each way in Business
Singapore Airlines Boeing 787-10 will serve Nagoya from August 2018
What is KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes?
Singapore Airlines releases a list of discounted KrisFlyer redemption Saver awards, in both Economy and Business, to select destinations every month, at 30% off the usual redemption rates.
The deals are usually available for a very short time, and travel is also limited to the following month, making this perfect if you have unused leave or you are in need of a spontaneous holiday.
The list varies from month to month, sometimes including destinations as far as Düsseldorf, so be sure to check back each month!
If you are one of the few people who uses your KrisFlyer miles to redeem flights on Star Alliance partners instead of Singapore Airlines (horror of horrors!), you will need more miles to book your flights with these partners from 7 December 2017 onwards.
This follows a devaluation SQ made on their own award redemption requirements in March this year. While that increased the number of miles required for bookings with SQ and removed the 15% online redemption discount, the change also removed the surcharges (which typically cost a couple of hundred bucks), so it was considered a nominal inflation.
So what has changed this time?
Across the board there is an increase in the new of miles required for redemption, particularly in Business and First. For those who have been using KrisFlyer miles to redeem on EVA Air to Taipei, it’s now a lot more expensive (and a poorer use of your miles).
Here’s a look at the old and new charts:
Old Chart (For bookings made up to 6 December 17)
New Chart (For bookings made from 7 December 17)
In Economy, travel between most regions don’t see any increase unless you are departing from Southwest Pacific, North America or Africa.
Just some examples of revision in levels for flights from Southeast Asia:
From Southeast Asia to
Economy*
Business*
First*
Old
New
Old
New
Old
New
Taipei, Hong Kong
15
15
27.5
37.5
37.5
47.5
Japan, Korea, China
25
25
40
43
60
65
Europe
45
45
80
85
107.5
129
USA, Canada
55
55
97.5
97.5
112.5
135
*No. of miles required one-way, in thousands of miles
So how do the changes stack up against redeeming on SQ’s own metal?
From Singapore to
Economy*
Business*
First*
SQ
Partner
SQ
Partner
SQ
Partner
Taipei, Hong Kong
15
15
27.5
37.5
37.5
47.5
Japan, Korea
25
25
43
43
65
65
Europe
38
45
85
85
115
129
USA
38-40
55
88-92
97.5
118-120
135
*No. of miles required one-way, in thousands of miles. SQ redemption are at Saver levels.
When you stack the revised Star Alliance redemption chart against SQ’s own chart, you will realise that the Star Alliance redemption were for a period of time cheaper than SQ’s own redemption. I would imagine that there will be many redemptions on Star Alliance partner flights, given that they required less miles and also theoretically provided a larger network.
For an airline, it also doesn’t make sense to have its members redeem on partners’ network – I would assume that there is a cost SQ will have to pay its partners for these redemptions.
This revision will inevitably piss off members outside of Asia given that they are the ones who will more likely redeem partner flights. Having said that, the revision also now brings the redemption levels on par, if not a little more expensive, than SQ’s own redemption charts.
So what does this mean for Singapore (or Asia) based members?
If you do redeem exclusively on Singapore Airlines, pretty much nothing has changed. This change is likely to affect non-Singapore based members, such as US or Europe based members who tend to travel more with Star Alliance members with a heavier presence there (e.g. Lufthansa, United).
What’s good for you, however, is that SQ is finally moving its partner flights redemption online. In the past you will have to fill up a form (manually, no less) and send it back to their reservations to redeem a flight on Star Alliance partners, or call up their reservation centre to help you with your redemption at a fee.
