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Singapore Airlines introduce Credit Card surcharge, but only on the cheapest economy tickets

Singapore Airlines introduces a 1.3% non-refundable credit card surcharge on the cheapest economy fares, no doubt originating from the, quickly becoming notorious, "Transformation Office".

(Update 4th January 13:22: Singapore Airlines have had a change of heart over the credit card surcharge proposal, and have now announced that it will not go ahead as originally planned on 20th January. See here for details.)

In a seemingly rather desperate attempt to raise revenue, a 1.3% credit card surcharge will now be applied to some Singapore Airlines and SilkAir bookings originating in Singapore. The news broke rather subtly, as some website users noticed a note at the top of their screens, starting on 3rd January.

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The whiteboard at the “Transformation Office”

The change becomes effective on 20th January, coinciding with a raft of other changes to fares detailed in full in our recent article. Needless to say – much of that wasn’t good news either. After all – companies rarely manage to squeeze more money out of you and make you happier at the same time.

Hang on a second… let’s just calm down and take a breath

It’s been very poorly explained by Singapore Airlines and actually affects a relatively small group of customers (probably less than 10% of bookings, and only the very cheapest) so the confusion is understanding.

Note: The notice has since been updated on the Singapore Airlines website. Instead of “certain fares”, to clarify it only affects “Economy Lite fares”.

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Updated and Clarified notice on Singapore Airlines website

The devil is in the detail on this one. As per the terms and conditions of the website: