As our regular readers will know from our reminder on Wednesday last week, today was set to be the effective date for the new schedule of increased amendment and refund fees for KrisFlyer award tickets.
It wasn’t a big deal if you already had an award booking, as you would still be entitled to a single change at the (lower) old rates, but we recommended locking in any redemptions you might need by 28th February in case you needed to change or refund them later.
Now, some breathing space
On Tuesday, just over a day before the change was due to take place, Singapore Airlines amended their website to state that the current fees would remain applicable for now, and that the introduction of the increased fees will be postponed by 2 months – which means they’re now kicking in from 1st May.
This hasn’t come about from the goodness of SIAs heart of course – “technical implementation delays” were cited as the reason for the short notice postponement.
Again our regular readers will know that IT ‘advances’ at Singapore Airlines rarely go smoothly, so this isn’t a huge surprise, though normally their IT glitches make things worse for KrisFlyer members, this is a rare example of them actually improving things for us for once – so we should be thankful for that!
A recap of the changes
Here’s the table we published before, as a reminder of which award ticket change and refund fees are increasing, and by how much. These now take effect from 1st May 2018 (IT permitting, of course).
| KrisFlyer Service Fee Changes: May 2018 | ||
| Current Fee → New Fee | Change | |
| Date Change ‘Saver’ Redemption |
Free → $20 | nm. |
| Date Change ‘Advantage’ Redemption |
Free → Free | – |
| Route / Cabin / Award Change SQ / MI Redemptions |
$20 → $25 | +25% |
| Route / Cabin / Award Change Star Alliance / Partner Redemptions |
$20 → $50 | +150% |
| Miles re-deposit fee ‘Saver Redemption’ KF Basic Members |
$30 → $75 | +150% |
| Miles re-deposit fee ‘Saver Redemption’ KF Elite Silver and above |
$15 → $75 | +400% |
| Miles re-deposit fee ‘Advantage Redemption’ KF Basic Members |
$30 → $50 | +67% |
| Miles re-deposit fee ‘Advantage Redemption’ KF Elite Silver and above |
$15 → $50 | +233% |
| No-Show fee Economy Redemption |
$75 → $100 | +33% |
| No-Show fee Premium Economy Redemption |
$75 → $150 | +100% |
| No-Show fee Business Redemption |
$75 → $200 | +167% |
| No-Show fee First / Suites Redemption |
$75 → $300 | +300% |
Note: Fees quoted are in US Dollars (US$)
Avoiding the fees increase
Here are some of the tricks you can use to avoid the higher fees by acting before they come into force:
- All award ticket changes and refunds made before 30th April 2018 will be at the old rates.
- Book your redemption on or before 30th April 2018, then if you need to make any of the above changes to your flight after 1st May, or cancel and re-deposit your miles, you’ll pay the old rates as shown above for the first amendment.
- If you already hold an award ticket and are considering a change of date for example, take a look now and try to make the change before 1st May, as not only will it be free under the current fee structure, you’ll still be entitled to one more change at the lower rates after 1st May.
- For award tickets booked after 1st May 2018, the new rates will apply for all changes / refunds.