Which Star Alliance and partner airlines can you book online using KrisFlyer miles?

Last week we wrote about Singapore Airlines’ new enhanced date range online award availability search function, making it quicker and easier than ever to pinpoint the redemption you need with the ability to skip through weeks’ worth of dates in just a few minutes.

Happily the same functionality has since been rolled out to the SingaporeAir mobile app too.

Star Alliance and partner airlines are included

When Singapore Airlines released its first version of the seven-day award search functionality in January 2019, it was only applicable to Singapore Airlines and SilkAir awards.

With this latest enhancement, the website and app now support seven-day award searching for these Star Alliance and partner airline redemptions too.

Singapore Airlines improves calendar award searching READ OUR ARTICLE

Singapore Airlines improves calendar award searching, including partners READ OUR ARTICLE

For example, it’s easy to scan through a whole week’s availability on ANA from Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur using the website (+/- 3 days):

Or using the mobile app (+/- 1 day):

Which Star Alliance and partner airlines?

It’s been two and a half years since Singapore Airlines first added Star Alliance and partner airline online award search functionality to its website.

Unfortunately it got off to a bad start, with only Air New Zealand, Lufthansa, Virgin America and Virgin Australia searches supported.

Four months later the situation had improved significantly, with 20 out of 26 Star Alliance Airlines and 1 out of 4 partner airlines supported through the online system.

Since April 2018 however, we haven’t looked again in detail at which airlines’ flights can and can’t be searched online, so it was time to rectify that.

First of all the bad news. It’s no longer possible to search or book Air Canada award seats using the KrisFlyer online search tool.

We don’t know if that is a permanent or temporary issue, however we found plenty of Air Canada awards this morning, both domestic and international in both Economy and Business Class, on the United and Aeroplan sites. It could not be replicated at all through the KrisFlyer search.

On to the good news though, the improvements. There have been some useful additions since we last checked.

• Asiana awards are now searchable and bookable online, including domestic flights within South Korea.

• Air New Zealand domestic awards are now searchable and bookable online. Previously availability was shown, but a price could not be computed for domestic services, so you had to call to book.

• Air New Zealand Business Class awards are now searchable and bookable online. Previously, Business availability showing on sites like united.com could not be replicated through KrisFlyer.
• TAP Air Portugal flight awards are now searchable online, but a price cannot be computed so booking must still be done over the phone.

Here’s how the KrisFlyer Star Alliance airlines list looks.

Star Alliance

Airline		Searchable	Bookable
	Aegean Airlines
	Air Canada
	Air China
	Air India
	Air New Zealand
	ANA Domestic
	ANA International
	Asiana
	Austrian Airlines
	Avianca Colombia*
	Brussels Airlines
	Copa Airlines
	Croatia Airlines
	EgyptAir
	Ethiopian Airlines
	EVA Air
	LOT Polish Airlines
	Lufthansa
	Scandinavian Airlines
	Shenzhen Airlines
	South African Airways
	Swiss International Air Lines
	TAP Air Portugal
	Thai Airways
	Turkish Airlines
	United Airlines

* Avianca Costa Rica, Avianca El Salvador and Avianca Ecuador awards are not searchable or redeemable online using KrisFlyer miles.

Air India awards continue to be offline only for both availability and booking. It is also still not possible to book ANA domestic award flights in Japan online, you can search availability but will have to call to book.

On the partner award side there has only been one major change.

• Vistara awards are now searchable and bookable online, including all three classes (Economy, Premium Economy and Business) on domestic flights within India.

Note that it is not yet possible to redeem Vistara international flights using KrisFlyer miles, including those to and from Singapore, either online or over the phone.

We are still awaiting an updated KrisFlyer redemption chart to reflect international flight award rates on Vistara, while the airline currently has its long-haul ambitions using new Boeing 787-9 aircraft on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here’s how the KrisFlyer partner airlines list looks.

Partner airlines

Airline		Searchable	Bookable
	Alaska Airlines
	Juneyao Airlines
	Virgin Atlantic
	Virgin Australia
	Vistara

Aside from Vistara there are no other changes here, with Virgin Australia being the only other partner showing availability online using KrisFlyer miles.

Fun fact: Virgin Atlantic is a moot point, the airline hardly offers any award space at all to KrisFlyer members, so it wouldn’t even be obvious to anyone if what little space they loaded had actually become bookable online!

What if you can’t search online?

We recommend the following sites to search award space on airlines not supported by KrisFlyer online:

• Air Canada: Aeroplan or United
• Air India: Aeroplan or United
• Alaska Airlines: American Airlines or Alaska Airlines
• Juneyao Airlines: Call KrisFlyer
• Virgin Atlantic: Delta (feel free to try, but the KrisFlyer agents can never see any space in our experience)

What if you can’t book online?

With airlines not supporting online booking, once you’ve found available seats, you’ll have to call KrisFlyer to book. Usually there is an offline service fee of US$25 or 2,500 KrisFlyer miles, however this is waived if your booking cannot be completed online.

Summary

A new date range search for Star Alliance and partner awards certainly makes it easier for you to search availability using KrisFlyer miles across several weeks or months if required, with the majority of Star Alliance airlines and even some partners.

For the vast majority of the ones you can search, online booking is also possible.

It’s taken us some time to revisit this list (over two years!), but it’s good to see new search and booking availability for Asiana, Air New Zealand domestic and Business Class flights and Vistara domestic flights.

TAP Air Portugal award availability is also now searchable online.

Unfortunately Air Canada awards have ‘gone missing’ from the KrisFlyer online search function since we last checked, which is surprising as it was one of the airlines added first after the initial launch of partner award search functionality in late 2017.

We’ll no doubt see later whether this is a permanent issue or just a temporary glitch.

(Cover Photo: Shutterstock)