After the March 2017 KrisFlyer miles devaluation, there was at least one sigh of relief. The redemption rates for award flights operated by Star Alliance partner airlines, it seemed, wasn’t being changed… for now. Well somewhat inevitably ‘now’ has arrived, or more correctly will arrive in about three weeks.
From 7 December, there is an updated (for “updated”, Singapore Airlines mean “generally more expensive”) set of redemption rates whenever you use your KrisFlyer miles for an award booking on a Star Alliance member airline – that’s any of the 26 other airlines in the alliance, aside from SIA.
Have all the miles rates been increased?
To be fair, no. The majority of economy class redemptions will stay at their current rate, particularly if your trip starts or ends in the South East Asia (SEA) 1 and SEA 2 zones (Singapore and it’s surrounding countries), which will probably be the case for most KrisFlyer members.
The old and new redemption rates
Here are the full Star Alliance redemption rate tables by cabin class:
The tables also fully describe which countries fall into each zone.
Economy class changes
Some of the more notable economy class increases are for flights between North Asia 2 zone (China, Japan and South Korea predominantly), and North America / Hawaii and Central America, where rates are increasing by 20%, with a roundtrip economy award redemption between these zones increasing from 90,000 to 108,000 miles.
Business class changes
In business class, it looks to us as though about half the zone combinations remain the same, while half will suffer a miles cost increase of typically between 6% and 36%. Some of the standout increases will be seen for flights within the South West Pacific zone (Australia, New Zealand and most Pacific Ocean islands), which previously required 25,000 miles for a business round-trip redemption and will now require 35,000 miles, a significant 40% rise.
This will certainly affect members who regularly use KF miles to fly trans-Tasman business class with Air New Zealand between Australia and NZ for a reasonable rate, no doubt SIA realised this zone was a little underpriced.
Getting to and from the South West Pacific zone (Australia, New Zealand and most Pacific Ocean islands) from Singapore and it’s surrounding countries (SEA 1 & SEA 2) will also become more costly in business class on Star Alliance airlines – to the tune of 20% (132,000 miles round-trip instead of 110,000).
Flights between SEA 1 and SEA 2 (Singapore and it’s surrounding countries) to the Middle East and North Africa go up a whopping 30% in business class, from 100,000 miles round-trip to 130,000.
Another notable one for us as far as business class is concerned is the 36% increase for award flights between North East Asia 1 (Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), and the SEA 1 and SEA 2 regions (Singapore and it’s surrounding countries), a rise from 55,000 miles round-trip to 75,000 miles round-trip.
First class changes
Though there are some zone combinations with no changes, a large swathe of first class redemption rates will go up, some by as little as 5% but at the top end by an eye-watering 78%.
Of note is the change between both the SEA 1 & SEA 2 zones (Singapore and it’s surrounding cou