KrisFlyer devaluation beginning Nov 1st 2025

kpc

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Aaron from The Mile Lion is comcerned....
I consider him to be one of the most knowledgeable online bloggers when it comes to all things about Sq and KrisFlyer!

 
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I hope not. KrisFlyer these days has terribly high redemption rates particularly on partners compared to other Star programs, carrier charges on most partner flights, and low earning rates on the ground with worse conversion rates from most partner programs than other alternatives. These days it already costs nearly half a million AMEX points for a one way Suites flight from Sydney to Singapore, not that far off a million AMEX points to fly return or one way with a partner. Over the years they've gone from a great niche program to something as mainstream as Qantas - albeit with a bit better availability on its own flights if you can find ways to earn miles at reasonable rates.
 
This was bound to happen, for anyone/everyone who knows about how to be good at running a business.
The question is by how much...
 
Seems to be a very distinct lack of award space for July into August from what I've been looking at.

Why would you call for an award ticket and how could it not be ticketed immediately ? Unless waitlisted

Of course I need flights for Dec 2026 so no doubt it will cost more points :(
 
Seems to be a very distinct lack of award space for July into August from what I've been looking at.

Why would you call for an award ticket and how could it not be ticketed immediately ? Unless waitlisted

Of course I need flights for Dec 2026 so no doubt it will cost more points :(
I rang up and reserved a redemption. I think I lucked out. From memory have tried recently and no luck.

I was able to "checkout" when my points had landed. Saved the ticket from being snapped up by someone else.
 
Last devaluation was in 2022.

Going to make it increasingly hard for Australian credit card holders to be able to afford SQ redemptions when you combine with the 3:1 transfer ratio from most programs.
There is HSBC star alliance card… at 1 to .8 for the first $3000 or so, and then about half that for the rest. Still, potentially better than 3:1.
 
There is HSBC star alliance card… at 1 to .8 for the first $3000 or so, and then about half that for the rest. Still, potentially better than 3:1.

The Amex Plat earns at 2.25 MR before the 3:1 though, so an effective earn rate of 0.75 KF per dollar, uncapped.

The Star Alliance card is very slightly better for the first $3k, but then much worse.

For anyone earning enough from monthly spend to afford premium SQ redemptions, they'd need to be spending far more than $3k per month....
 
Last devaluation was in 2022.

Going to make it increasingly hard for Australian credit card holders to be able to afford SQ redemptions when you combine with the 3:1 transfer ratio from most programs.
If the transfer rate to Velocity is 2:1 (as it often is), and there's a 15% transfer bonus, it's better funneling through VA first as you end up with about 10% more points than a straight 3:1 conversion.

Still, the choice is not particularly appealing: book through VA and cop the huge carrier charges (if you can find availability at all - which is often not the case for premium cabins on SQ particularly to and from North America) or transfer even more points to SQ...

EDIT - more rumours on Reddit:
 
Reported on Mile Lion, not too bad as fas as devaluations go:




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Edit, quote:
Singapore Airlines will also be introducing a new type of dynamically-priced award called Access, which will offer additional seats on top of existing Saver and Advantage inventory for a higher price.

Crucially, Singapore Airlines claims that Access seats will be offered “in addition” to award seats, which means that they shouldn’t be taking seats away from existing Saver and Advantage buckets.
 
“Singapore Airlines will also be introducing a new type of dynamically-priced award called Access, which will offer additional seats on top of existing Saver and Advantage inventory for a higher price.”
Hmm where have I seen that before? 🤔

View attachment 465839

The days of Saver and Advantage appear numbered.

Yes, and this could make KrisFlyer from the best to the worst frequent flyer program due to the hard 3 year Mile expiry feature.
 
Well in future the focus will be on finding acceptable cash fares, not premium class redemptions.
 
Access redemptions will be available from 1 November.
They will probably at best have a value of one cent per point, meaning you can expect to pay more than half a million miles for a return ticket in business from Sydney to Singapore.
And having travelled on Qatar airways business this year I can definitively say that SQ J is NOT the best business class in the world.
 
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