August ‘Spontaneous Escapes’ KrisFlyer miles discounts announced

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Now an eagerly awaited monthly feature for KrisFlyer members, the latest Singapore Airlines and SilkAir KrisFlyer ‘Spontaneous Escapes’ destinations list for discounted award tickets in August 2018 has been released. As usual it’s a 2-week booking window so you’ll have to secure your tickets at the lower rates before 31st July 2018 to be eligible.

What’s ‘Spontaneous Escapes’?

Singapore Airlines releases the ‘Spontaneous Escapes’ offer almost every month with discounts on ‘Saver’ award tickets. Economy Class seats always feature, and there’s usually a list of Business Class routes on Singapore Airlines too.

For SilkAir flights it’s usually just Economy Class discounts, though some months Business Class is included in the offer.

Typically you’ll get 30% off saver awards, though there are occasional 40% discount offers and a 50% saving was once available on a single route earlier this year.

This isn’t ‘charitable giving’ of course – Singapore Airlines is a business and these are seats they basically know they can’t fill even at regular saver award rates. That explains both the difference in routes offered each month and the fact that some popular routes are hardly ever (or never) discounted at all.

The ‘Spontaneous Escapes’ offer for August was released earlier today and features a special 40% discount for Economy saver flights to Bangkok, Yangon and Phnom Penh. Usually 12,500 KrisFlyer miles one-way for an Economy saver, these three routes are now bookable for all of August at a rate of 7,500 miles one-way.

Otherwise it’s the standard 30% discount on other selected routes and cabin classes. As always you have two weeks left to search and book at the discounted rate.

Best deals this month

Discounts are applicable for 43 Singapore Airlines and SilkAir destinations for most dates in August. As always there are some blackout dates and specific flight numbers on certain routes. You can see the full listing in the tables below, including aircraft type information and for business class even the seat type.

Europe doesn’t feature at all this month, unfortunately for us Singapore Airlines has no problem filling these flights in peak European school holiday season. Even Dusseldorf, a Spontaneous Escapes stalwart, is missing.

Hong Kong also disappears this month, but you can still secure seats on the A380 Version 3 with the latest 2017 Business Class seats on the Shanghai to Singapore route at just 24,500 KrisFlyer miles. Just aim for SQ833, and remember these only have the new product from 2nd August onwards as shown on our tracker page for the new A380 products.

Sadly the Singapore – Shanghai offer isn’t on the new plane, but our comprehensive review of the new 2017 J seat less than 3 weeks after it commenced service in January this year concluded that this is probably one of the best long-haul business class products on the market. That’s a good reason to aim for it on the return sector in August if you can fit it into your plans.

Johannesburg is back this month – this 10 hour 45 minute flight is already a great value redemption at standard saver rates on the Airbus A350 featuring the 2013 J seats. It will now set you back just 31,500 miles during August under this offer.

As far as Australia and New Zealand routes go there are a number of cities included in both Economy and Business Class this month – Wellington, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Melbourne is sadly missing once again. The longer flights in this zone save 17,400 miles each way in Business Class on the usual saver redemption cost, however no new cabin products feature this time around.

New Regional Business Class

In July we saw Bangkok and Osaka included at the discounted rate on the new 2018 RJ business class seats under the Spontaneous Escapes offer, with selected Perth and Nagoya flights featuring this new product eligible too.

For August it’s just Bangkok and Nagoya included at 30% off regular saver rates with these newer flat-bed seats, which we reviewed here.

Unfortunately other 787-10 routes like Bali and Manila don’t feature this month. You can fly the 787-10 to and from Perth in Economy – but that cabin is nothing to shout about.

If you’re still interested in a normal price redemption to try out this brand new seat see our 2018 RJ Tracker page for all the route details.

Singapore Airlines August Economy Class Discounts

Here is the full list of Singapore Airlines economy class routes on offer (30% or 40% off) for August 2018. Required miles are shown for a one-way redemption, with aircraft types operating the flights also indicated.

Economy Class

South East Asia

North Asia

South Asia

South West Pacific

Singapore Airlines August Business Class Discounts

This is the full listing of the applicable routes with 30% off in business class with Singapore Airlines in August 2018. Again the required miles are shown for one-way redemption. We also show the aircraft types operating these flights, and the seat types. See the following links for further details about the seat types:

2006 J – 2009 RJ – 2013 J – 2017 J – 2018 RJ

Business Class

South East Asia

North Asia

South Asia

South West Pacific

See the following links for further details about the Business Class seats:

2006 J – 2009 RJ – 2013 J – 2017 J – 2018 RJ

SilkAir August Discounts

This month SilkAir are offering a range of routes with 30% or 40% discounts again only valid in Economy Class during August 2018. Required miles are shown for one-way redemptions.

Hiroshima flights are back in August with a saving of 7,500 miles per sector.

Note that we don’t include aircraft type details for SilkAir flights because unlike SIA many of their flights are served by different aircraft types on different days of the week despite the same flight number being used (e.g. A319 on Monday, A320 on Tuesday, 737-MAX8 on Wednesday).

South East Asia

North Asia

South Asia

Trust the System

One snag about the KrisFlyer ‘Spontaneous Escapes’ rates is that they don’t appear obviously when you search a redemption booking. You need to know which routes to search, and then price them up before the lower rate will appear.

Despite it not being very clear until you make your selection, trust the system, proceed to select the flight(s) you’re interested in and the discounted redemption rate will then be shown.

Terms and conditions

You should all be familiar by now with the rules for this regular offer – but for those new to it here’s a summary of the T&Cs:

• Book before 31st July 2018.
• Valid for flights from 1st – 31st August 2018.
• Valid for ‘Saver’ award tickets on selected routes.
• Blackout dates apply on certain routes (e.g. Singapore to Sydney in Business Class blocked 1st-12th August).
• Once booked, these promotional redemption rates are non-changeable and cancellable.
• All flights in the chosen itinerary must be included in the offer, otherwise the miles rate reverts to standard ‘Saver’ rates for the whole itinerary with no discount. We recommend booking one-way legs so you can still save, for example on one direction of a return trip.
• Stopovers are not allowed (again, think one-way redemptions with this offer).
• Waitlist Saver redemptions are included in the discount, however the waitlist must clear on or before 31st July otherwise the regular ‘Saver’ rate will apply.

Summary

A slightly thinner list this month without any Europe options, unsurprising at this time of year. The 40% discounts on Economy Class rates to Bangkok, Yangon and Phnom Penh are a nice addition.

Nice to see the new 787-10 aircraft included on Bangkok and Nagoya for those waiting to try out the new regional Business Class product, and the A380 with the latest 2017 Business Class seats discounted on the Shanghai to Singapore sector.

Remember if you’re unable to secure a return flight at the discounted rates, book two one-way tickets instead. You’ll pay the usual ‘Saver’ rate for the non-discounted sector but at least the whole itinerary will not be at the standard rate.

One last ‘golden rule’ to always bear in mind with this offer is that you will want to have pretty firm plans before taking advantage, because you can’t modify or cancel these bookings once made.

(Cover Photo: Edwin Leong)