KrisFlyer by Singapore Airways is among the hottest Worldwide Frequent Flyer programme for Indians as you’ll be able to switch factors from most of the Indian Credit score Playing cards like HDFC, CITI, AXIS & HSBC to KrisFlyer.
Whereas the try is to spotlight a few of the fashionable routes, they needn’t be the perfect of the redemptions for everybody, as one program doesn’t go well with all and for all routes.
When you’re new right here, please take a look at the Intro to airmiles article for higher understanding. Right here’s every little thing you could know in regards to the Singapore Airways KrisFlyer program as an Indian,
Overview
| Airline [Code] | Singapore Airways [SQ] |
| Residence Nation [Hub] | Singapore [SIN] |
| Loyalty Program | KrisFlyer |
| Airline Alliance | Star Alliance |
| Validity | 3 Years |
| Worth / mile | ~ 1 INR |
| Finest for | SE Asia Redemptions |
| USP | Free Stopovers |
| Award Availability | Respectable |
Singapore Airways is famend for its luxurious Enterprise and Firstclass cabins and is a superb alternative for Indians touring to Southeast Asian nations.
Why KrisFlyer?
There are two issues that make for an awesome flight.
- The laborious product, that means the objects that can’t be simply modified, such because the seat.
- The comfortable product, which is the meals, facilities and repair.
Within the case of Singapore Airways, each merchandise are good and rated the most effective merchandise out within the sky.
Huge physique planes are most well-liked for medium and lengthy haul flights and what higher airline to decide on than SQ which is the “first” airline to fly the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787. It has an enormous fleet of broad physique’s Boeing 777 & 787, Airbus 380 & 350, and so on
Membership Tiers
There are three membership tiers with KrisFlyer as above and the true profit like lounge entry kicks in solely with Gold tier. Right here’s the entire record of tier advantages.
Whereas attending to Gold tier is sort of robust, SQ not too long ago ran one-of-a-kind promo that might get you to Gold/Silver tiers on switch of X quantity of KrisFlyer miles from bank card switch companions.
Such promotions are uncommon and was potential earlier than due to the Covid scene however we are able to anticipate some kind of “bonus factors” provide as an alternative.
Taxes & YQ
Probably the most essential issue when analysing a proper airline loyalty program is the tax element.
Singapore airways doesn’t cross on carrier-imposed charges, typically known as gas surcharges (YQ). The taxes on redemption are fairly nominal on Singapore Airways.
Nevertheless, it ought to be famous that taxes for redeeming associate airline flights are steep, because the gas surcharge (YQ) is handed on to the client.
Incomes KrisFlyer Miles
- Axis Credit score Playing cards: Magnus, Reserve & Atlas are the preferred bank cards within the nation in the intervening time to earn KrisFlyer miles.
- Citi Credit score Playing cards: Premier Miles and Status are fairly good so long as it lasts.
- HDFC Credit score Playing cards: Whereas Infinia & Diners black are good, it’s not clever to make use of these playing cards for miles transfers, because the earn charge isn’t that nice as Axis playing cards.
- Amex Playing cards: Whereas Amex permits transfers to SQ, earn charge is so poor and it’s normally higher to keep away from.
Whereas the record perhaps large, most cardholders want the Axis Magnus Credit score Card due to it’s engaging milestone advantages.
Redeeming KrisFlyer Miles
To make use of KrisFlyer miles for award flights, you’ll must login to your KrisFlyer account. As soon as logged in, go to the “guide flights” tab. Make certain to pick the “Redeem Flights” choice to seek for award flights.
Right here’s a pattern award seat seek for your reference:
You will notice two varieties for fares,
- Saver
- Benefit
Saver award fares require much less variety of miles in comparison with Benefit. Saver can be laborious to return by except you propose to guide the flights prematurely (at-least 1 month) on a lot of the fashionable routes.
Observe: Singapore’s award chart is predicated on 13 zones and every zone requires a unique variety of miles. Right here is the chart to your reference.
Cease Overs
| Ticket | Saver Awards | Benefit Awards |
|---|---|---|
| One Approach | – | 1 |
| Spherical Journey | 1 | 2 |
- Validity of award tickets: 12 months
Please confer with desk for cease over necessities. Two separate redemption bookings will likely be required for stopovers of greater than 30 days for award redemption tickets issued on or after 1 August 2022.
Many travellers visiting locations like Bali will even be all in favour of exploring Singapore throughout their journey. In these circumstances, StopOvers could be a precious choice.
Improve Award Seats
SQ miles can be put to good use by upgrading income ticket. Please word that one you’ll be able to solely improve to subsequent cabin. The miles required for improve is predicated on the fare class booked.
Please confer with beneath SQ calculator for the route you want to know.
That apart, we are able to’t improve a SQ Companion airline ticket utilizing KrisFlyer miles.
Cancellation / Date Change
Expenses for date change and cancellation are very affordable for KrisFlyer program as proven beneath.
| Charges for awards/upgrades | Saver ($) | Benefit ($) |
|---|---|---|
| Change of date on Singapore Airways | 25 | 0 |
| Change of route, cabin class, award kind or add a stopover on Singapore Airways | 25 | 25 |
| Change of date, route, flight or provider on associate airways | 50 | – |
| Redeposit of miles for award / upgrades | 75 | 50 |
Toddler Ticket
Toddler passengers are issued what’s termed an ‘Toddler-in-Lap’ or ‘Lap Toddler’ ticket. This ticket should be tagged to a reserving reference variety of an grownup (>18 years outdated) touring on the identical flight. An grownup can solely have one toddler tagged to him/her.
If you’re making your award redemption on the SQ web site, you’ll not be capable to purchase an toddler ticket on-line. Merely make your redemption reserving as common.
When you’re executed and have a confirmed ticket, name up SQ KrisFlyer and supply your reserving reference quantity and clarify that you simply wish to add on an Toddler-in-Lap ticket to your reserving.
Miles required are usually 10% of the miles required for grownup reserving. Its advisable to examine with SQ upfront to know the precise miles requirement for including toddler.
Companion Redemptions
Singapore Airline is a part of Star Alliance and it has tons of companions, nevertheless as talked about earlier than, it does cross on gas fees whereas redeeming miles on companions.
So anticipate to pay excessive taxes on these redemption’s. Nevertheless, some choices are fairly good to discover as miles required is fairly first rate. We’ll see some examples later within the article.
Household Pooling
This ‘household pooling’ function permits dad and mom to entry the KrisFlyer miles of their youngsters in order that the dad and mom can benefit from the miles earned on little one’s account.
Nevertheless, that’s not helpful for many because the definition of household pooling with SQ is extra between Mother or father-Little one, want it’s lot broader. Unsure the way it’s helpful in actuality although.
Observe that transferring different members CC factors to your a/c isn’t allowed (switch will get reversed and an alert electronic mail will get despatched as effectively) and your KrisFlyer account may even get blocked if repeated makes an attempt are executed.
Redeeming for others
A member could nominate as much as 5 people as nominees at anybody time to be in his/her Redemption Group. A baby or toddler nominee is handled the identical as an grownup.
Members could exchange or delete nominees of their Redemption Group for a flat charge, whatever the variety of adjustments or deletions.
As soon as a change or deletion has been carried out, additional adjustments or deletions to the Redemption Group can solely be carried out after six months.
There isn’t any charge for including new nominees to a Redemption Group
Waitlist
When you’re trying to find award seats, you may as effectively come throughout the “waitlist” standing. This implies your reserving goes to the queue and it could or could not get cleared.
The idea behind that is that award seats are inclined to open up nearer to departure (1-2 weeks prior), and being on the waitlist saves you from having to maintain checking.
Listed below are some key factors:
- You could have adequate miles so as to add your self to the waitlist
- No miles are deducted when becoming a member of the waitlist
- Waitlists are open up until three weeks earlier than departure. All unfilled waitlists will likely be mechanically cancelled two weeks earlier than departure
- Ought to the waitlist clear, you’ll normally have 72 hours to substantiate your reserving. There isn’t any obligation to take action.
- Waitlist clears inside one month of departure
- Elite standing improves your probabilities of clearing the waitlist.
However typically waitlist on SQ isn’t a clever choice for many.
Spontaneous Escapes
Singapore Airways gives Spontaneous Escapes promo each from time to time, whereby we are able to get vital financial savings (30%) on award tickets in choose areas.
It’s a “Promo” fare and so it comes with it’s personal disadvantages like: non-cancellable, non-changeable ticket. It additionally doesn’t permit stop-over even on roundtrip awards.
However it’s nonetheless the simplest method to scale back your miles requirement, helpful for these with confirmed plans.
KrisShop, Vrooms & Pelago
There are occasions while you don’t have any plans or your miles are expiring, you’ll be able to contemplating utilizing the miles for purchasing, reserving resort or experiences. Right here’s a fast look into the identical.
- KrisShop: You possibly can store devices on KrisShop portal utilizing Miles. Getting something above 50ps per mile is normally laborious.
- Vrooms: This service helps to guide resort rooms utilizing KrisFlyer miles. Attempt to use for resorts provided that you get a price of 50ps per mile.
- Pleago: This service helps to guide native experiences like excursions and extra utilizing KrisFlyer miles. Whereas we did discover this prior to now, its laborious to get worth greater than 40ps per mile for the Pelago experiences.
Throughout the pandemic, I used to be in a scenario the place I felt I must burn some miles off after which I noticed a sale on apple merchandise. I went forward and bought apple SE watch which gave an approximate worth of 65ps per level which I felt was a superb deal.
I had this merchandise shipped to US as there wasn’t any customized obligation to USA beneath $800.
Redemption Concepts
SE Asia
| Nation | Route | Economic system (Miles) | Enterprise (Miles) | Tax (INR) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singapore | BOM-SIN | 20,000 | 43,000 | ~2200 |
| Vietnam | BOM-SIN-SGN | 20,000 | 43,000 | ~2800 |
Observe: You’re seeing factors required for A method saver awards. Benefit awards are within the vary of 37K (financial system) & 65K (enterprise) miles for the talked about routes.
As you’ll be able to see above, it requires identical quantity of miles to fly from India to Singapore (or) to different SE asian nations (REP/SGN/HAN/MNL).
So the perfect thought is normally to guide a round-trip saver award and put one cease over in SIN in an effort to discover 2 nations in a visit.
Observe:
- Within the above instance, chances are you’ll exchange BOM with some other metropolis in India from the place SQ flies, like MAA/BLR/HYD.
- You might also exchange SGN with different airports in SE asian nations like Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, and so on.
SE asian routes are the popular ones for most individuals exploring air-miles as a newbie, as a result of its comparatively straightforward to earn these many miles and it’s additionally finest for household travellers as one can discover upto 4 biz class award seats in these sectors, which is mostly uncommon within the trade.
Australia / New Zealand
| Nation | Route | Economic system (Miles) | Enterprise (Miles) | Tax(INR) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | BOM-SIN-SYD | 43,000 | 92,000 | ~4,500 |
| New Zealand | BOM-SIN-AKL | 43,000 | 92,000 | ~5,500 |
This can be a nice program to go to both of those nations and extra so for New Zealand as there are not any higher choices to go to New Zealand from India.
Good factor is you will discover as much as 3 award seats even in Enterprise class for these routes. The provision for SYD is fairly good throughout the yr however AKL is normally robust except you guide few months prematurely.
UK
| Area | Route | Economic system (Miles) | Enterprise (Miles) | Tax(INR) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zurich | BOM-SIN-ZRH | 62,000 | 146,000 | ~1,800 |
| Germany | BOM-SIN-FRA | 62,000 | 146,000 | ~1,800 |
Whereas the choices are first rate, the issue is one must goto Singapore to take these flights, which looks like an undesirable roundtrip for many Indians.
So in such circumstances, associate redemptions are helpful, some examples on that later.
USA
| Area | Route | Economic system (Miles) | Enterprise (Miles) | Taxes (INR) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | BOM-SIN-JFK | 60,000 | 136,500 | 4K-6K |
| West Coast | BOM-SIN-LAX | 51,000 | 123,000 | 4K-5K |
SQ does function a direct flight to New York (JFK) from its base in Singapore however discovering availability is difficult and you could guide prematurely to essentially discover saver awards. Miles required for west coast (LAX/SEA/SFO) is sort of affordable as effectively.
However typically it’s not straightforward to search out greater than 2 saver awards on the US routes.
General its an effective way to journey to USA utilizing KrisFlyer miles, I consider miles required are first rate and the tax may be very affordable. Sooner you propose, probabilities of getting saver award is increased.
Private Expertise
Listed below are some private experiences with SQ by Puneet,
Asia:
Whereas I haven’t taken SQ flights to Asia, this program is among the finest and most well-liked ones for journeys like Bali, Vietnam and so on and doing a stopover in Singapore.
I’ve seen as much as 4 enterprise and financial system award saver seats obtainable for this route and it’s an effective way to have a household journey with first rate stability of miles accrued from card spends.
UK:
I’ve personally travelled to UK again in 2019 on Swiss air enterprise class (associate) redeemed utilizing Kris Flyer miles. The expertise wasn’t nice, and it was underwhelming.
A lot of the star alliance companions like Lufthansa and Swiss air fly out of Delhi.
Miles required for Delhi to Zurich (associate redemptions),
- Economic system roundtrip Saver award : 61,000 miles + INR 16,815
- Enterprise roundtrip Saver award : 123,000 miles + INR 18,369
One other choice to Europe is to take AirIndia direct flights which can be a Star Alliance associate.
Miles required for Bombay to London (associate redemptions),
- Economic system roundtrip Saver award on AI: 61,000 miles + INR 16,729
- Enterprise roundtrip Saver award on AI: 123,000 miles + INR 27,143
That is fairly on the upper aspect and we’ve different Star Alliance packages which can price much less miles and tax for a similar route and we’ll speak about this within the coming articles.
Because the star alliance has a really large record of companions, the award redemptions covers nearly the whole world, one can guide intra Europe flights like Paris to Zurich or a Sydney or Auckland.
USA:
I’ve personally taken the lengthy path to US alongside the east coast, Ahmedabad -> Singapore -> Frankfrut -> Newyork on enterprise class.
Whereas it’s not the optimum method to attain US with a protracted layover in Singapore, being my first expertise with SQ I actually loved each the comfortable and laborious product as effectively the “Guide the Prepare dinner” choice to prebook a few of their signature dishes.
For lengthy haul, SQ principally makes use of widebody planes, Boeing 777, Airbus A350 and A380 and its at all times a nice expertise flying enterprise class on these merchandise.
We’ll cease right here with a few of the above examples which we consider will assist a lot of the people to get began and plan for hottest routes.
Help
Chances are you’ll join with Singapore Airways KrisFlyer group via beneath cellphone strains.
- 1800 121212 (native calls)
- +91 22 501 66046 (calls from exterior India)
Backside line
The Singapore Airways KrisFlyer program is undoubtedly a tremendous choice for Indians exploring close by overseas nations in model, because the factors requirement for enterprise class award seats are honest sufficient.
That mentioned, it will be good if we’ve some co-branded bank cards with Singapore Airways in India simply as they’ve just a few in Japan, Malaysia and few different nations.
Have you ever flown Singapore Airways or it’s companions? Be at liberty to share your experiences within the feedback beneath.
