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At the very beginning of this year Singapore Airlines increased the cost of awards on its own aircraft and now, over the weekend, the airline has taken a similar line with Star Alliance awards – from 19 April 2019 you’ll need more KrisFlyer miles to book Business and First Class awards on Star Alliance carriers.
Below are charts showing the changes in roundtrip Business Class and First Class award costs for travel from North America and Europe (Economy Class awards appear to be unchanged).
First Class Star Alliance Awards From North America
Note: All figures are in ‘000s
Business Class Star Alliance Awards From North America
First Class Star Alliance Awards From Europe
Business Class Star Alliance Awards From Europe
Link to current and new Singapore Airlines Star Alliance Award Charts
Thoughts
Star Alliance awards from North America appear to have increased between ~8% and ~15% while Star Alliance awards from Europe appear to have increased between ~8~% and ~16% so there are some pretty big increases in here.
After the KrisFlyer devaluation back in January it was always just a matter of time before the Star Alliance award chart was devalued too but the double-digit increases are a little painful to take.
It’s also worth remembering that Singapore Airlines adds significant surcharges to its Star Alliance awards so, even though a roundtrip Business Class award between North America and Europe may not look too bad at a cost of 144,000 miles, when you add in the cost of the surcharges it starts to look pretty expensive.
A big sweet spot of the Singapore Airlines Star Alliance award chart has always been the Business Class award for travel between Europe and the Middle East. Right now this roundtrip award costs just 50,000 KrisFlyer Miles but, from 19 April, it will be going up by 16% to 58,000 miles.
That’s still probably quite a good deal considering you can book SWISS & Turkish Business Class for that number of miles but it’s hardly a good sign when an award cost goes up by over 15%.
Another nice sweet spot has historically been the 95,000 miles required to fly roundtrip Business Class between Europe and the Maldives but this award will soon cost 109,000 miles with an increase of just under 15%…and that’s a big hit to take.
From A US point of view, this second KrisFlyer devaluation of the year doesn’t really help the value of any of the three major transferable credit card currencies (Amex Membership rewards, Citi ThankYou points and Chase Ultimate Rewards) all of which can be converted to KrisFlyer miles.
Bottom Line
Personally speaking this won’t make too much of a difference to me as I use Chase points for Hyatt stays and when I move Amex or Citi points over to the KrisFlyer program it’s because I plan on booking awards on Singapore Airlines and not on its Star Alliance partners….but I may be in a minority here.
There are some significant increases in award costs coming into effect from 19 April 2019 so, as you can still book awards at the current rates between now and then (for travel as far ahead as February 2020), I suggest you take a long hard look at any Star Alliance award bookings you were thinking of making and make sure you get them ticketed before the devaluation kicks in.
Don’t forget the “fees and surcharges” that you have to pay for a “free” trip. SQ’s are the highest in the industry.