Singapore Airlines is rolling out a new series of ‘Elite Gold Rewards’ tomorrow, adding some new benefits for Elite Gold status holders in the KrisFlyer scheme who achieve specific Elite miles thresholds during the year.
How it works
In addition to the regular KrisFlyer Elite Gold benefits there are now some extra rewards for these members as they accrue 60,000 Elite miles, 75,000 Elite miles and 100,000 Elite miles respectively during their membership year.
The concept isn’t anything fundamentally new of course – KrisFlyer already offer additional perks to their PPS Club and Solitaire PPS Club members as they pass through ‘PPS Value’ levels ranging from S$30,000 (two double miles vouchers) to S$100,000 (a one cabin class upgrade at booking stage).
Edit 11th October: A few readers asked us whether these new Elite Gold Rewards benefits are ‘stackable’ with PPS Rewards for PPS Club members. We clarified this directly with Singapore Airlines and they informed us that PPS Club members are not eligible for Elite Gold Rewards, only PPS Rewards.
The new Gold benefits
KrisFlyer Elite Gold members will now be entitled to ‘Elite Gold Rewards’. Like the rewards earned by PPS members, these are in the form of vouchers issued as you achieve each Elite miles threshold during your membership year.
| New Elite Gold Rewards from 9th October 2018 | |
| Elite miles earned* | Elite Gold Rewards |
| 60,000 | Double KrisFlyer Miles Reward Receive one voucher which allows you to earn twice the KrisFlyer miles for a single flight segment. |
| 75,000 | Short-haul advance upgrade Receive one advance upgrade voucher for a one cabin class upgrade (subject to availability) on a single flight segment at the point of booking for flights in the following zones:
|
| 100,000 | Premium Economy Advance Upgrade Receive one advance upgrade voucher for an upgrade from Economy to Premium Economy (subject to availability) on a single flight segment at the point of booking. |
* On Singapore Airlines and/or SilkAir flights during your membership year.
The Double KrisFlyer Miles Reward covers KrisFlyer miles only including any cabin bonus, but excludes the tier bonus. If you used KrisFlyer miles to offset any cash element of your booking then you’ll only receive double KrisFlyer miles in relation to the amount you paid in cash.
As usual, redemption tickets are not eligible for KrisFlyer miles accrual.
For the Short-haul advance upgrade that basically means flying Singapore to or from Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia & Laos.
Also it is applicable to flights within Australia and New Zealand (i.e. Melbourne to/from Wellington) and flights within the Europe Zone (i.e. Moscow to/from Stockholm).
You must be travelling on a commercial booking and only the following fare codes are eligible:
- Economy Standard – M, H, W
- Economy Flexi – Y, B, E
- Premium Economy Standard – P
- Premium Economy Flexi – S, T
- Business Standard – U
- Business Flexi – Z, C, J
Note that Economy Lite, Premium Economy Lite and Business Lite fares are therefore not eligible. In some cases that will mean you’re actually ‘paying’ for this upgrade, as most people will presumably go for a ‘Lite’ fare when it is available.
Remember if a Premium Economy cabin is not available on your flight you can upgrade straight from Economy to Business Class with this voucher, provided you have a Standard or Flexi ticket. For example, from Singapore to Bali on the Boeing 787-10, you can try out the new Regional Business Class this way.
It’s crucial here to know which routes and which flights have a Premium Economy cabin installed, as you’ll likely want to be trying to upgrade straight from Economy Class to Business Class with this voucher. Luckily we’ve done the legwork for you on our Premium Economy seats by route page. For any route with a Premium Economy cabin offered, we show which flights do have it and which ones don’t – right down to the dates.
Finally the Premium Economy Advance Upgrade voucher entitles you to a single sector upgrade at the time of booking to Premium Economy for a commercial ticket booked under one of the following fare codes:
- Economy Standard – M, H, W
- Economy Flexi – Y, B, E
In other words once again Economy Lite is no good.
Again here our Premium Economy by route page is invaluable, as you’ll need to choose a route and flight where this cabin is actually offered.
Only Singapore Airlines / SilkAir accrual counts
One big caveat of the Elite Gold Rewards scheme is that the Elite miles earned to achieve the vouchers only considers your accrual on Singapore Airlines or SilkAir flights, as you might expect.
Elite miles earned on other Star Alliance airlines and SIA partner airlines continue to count towards your Elite Silver and Elite Gold status qualification, however they are not included in the calculation for these new Elite Gold Rewards.
Full details
For all the official information about Elite Gold Rewards including the full terms and conditions – see the dedicated page on the Singapore Airlines website.
Singapore Airlines has also produced a PDF guide on how to use your KrisFlyer Elite Gold Rewards as you earn them, through the online KrisFlyer portal.
Summary
These aren’t the most exciting benefits and they only really kick in for very regular Elite Gold fliers who don’t tend to fly in premium cabins and therefore aren’t eligible for the PPS Club tiers. For those travellers, this is a decent improvement (anything is better than nothing).
We can’t see many people being enticed to travel more to achieve the thresholds however, as the rewards aren’t really worth the effort (nor cost), unless you can easily channel some work travel through SIA / SilkAir.
We’ve updated our Status Tiers page in the KrisFlyer section to reflect the latest changes to KrisFlyer Elite Gold benefits for your reference.
This might be a stupid question but do these awards also apply to PPS members based on the elite miles they earn? Would be good to use the short haul and premium economy upgrades on short haul leisure travel. The standby upgrades for PPS rewards only start at 60k spending but one can get to 100k elite miles with 50k spending
Hi, we clarified this with Singapore Airlines directly and they informed us that PPS Club members are not eligible for Elite Gold Rewards, only PPS Rewards.
Thanks for clarifying! This is ridiculous. The same type of award for much less spending. Let’s use the double Krisflyer miles accrual as an example. PPS needs to spend 30k (to get two vouchers but you can’t spend half to get one voucher anyway so let’s stick with 30), but Elite Gold only needs to earn 60k miles. Conservatively assuming 4 round trips to JFK (9533*2*4) at $3k each (flights are usually much cheaper), that’s only 12k of spending. The math gets even worse for the upgrade options. Athough you could say the Elite Gold upgrades are more restrictive, but 60k spending only leads to standby upgrades, while 75k gets you an advanced upgrade. And don’t forget when we’re talking about 60/75k spending amounts, you’re talking about Solitaire s not “normal” PPS which are a time a dozen. Great way to piss off customers they kno w they won’t lose.