SQ website blocking award searches for accounts with zero KrisFlyer miles

[Mattg]

Per reports on Reddit, KrisFlyer is now preventing accounts with zero miles from searching for award availability on the Singapore Airlines website.

Apparently you can get around this by having even just a small balance.

I’m really not a fan of this change. I often search for award availability on the Singapore Airlines website to find out if I should transfer points into KrisFlyer for a particular redemption.

 

[Rayesfeg]

I hold Singapore airlines in high regard, so it is disappointing for them to put up this sort of 'paywall' to prevent award searches.

I often search for award availability on the Singapore Airlines website to find out if I should transfer points into KrisFlyer for a particular redemption.

Same for me, and I don't fancy transferring a stack of points from Amex/Velocity etc (which have a minimum redemption amount, and not to mention have an expiry date once they are Krisflyer miles) into my Krisflyer account for the privilege of seeing what is available.

 

[transpactraveller]

I’m really not a fan of this change. I often search for award availability on the Singapore Airlines website to find out if I should transfer points into KrisFlyer for a particular redemption.

I do the same, and transfer the exact amount needed then go back to zero (because otherwise they expire...) guess I need to keep some sacrificial points in my account going forward just to be able to search

Maybe it will mean increased availability for those who are prepared to jump the extra hoop.

 

[tassie6]

I have a few orphaned miles in my account (393 to be precise) and it still gives this error on the website when trying to search. so not ideal:



It is the same error on my partners account, but she has 0 miles

But, searching via the iOS app is still working on both accounts, for a random search in June next year ADL-LHR in business

 

[NoName]

No issues at all searching with a zero point balance for me in the App around 2 minutes ago.

 

[SYD]

No issues at all searching with a zero point balance for me in the App around 2 minutes ago.

Yes, app is working for me (for now) but website throws up the error (I have 144 pts remaining).

 

[tassie6]

This article says minimum 1000 points required, which would explain why @SYD and I's searches are not working with the small amount we have remaining

Singapore Airlines adds new restrictions on award searching - The MileLion

KrisFlyer members now require a minimum balance of 1,000 miles to search for awards, as SIA seeks to clamp down on automated queries from award search tools.

milelion.com

 

[Mattg]

No issues at all searching with a zero point balance for me in the App around 2 minutes ago.

It seems this change is being rolled out to different accounts on a staggered basis. My guess is that you won't be able to search in the app anymore within around 2 weeks from now.

 

[daft009]

I think I'm a fan of this new change.

 

[RooFlyer]

Something to prevent scraping by award seat search engines (seats.aero for example?)

 

[elanshin]

Something to prevent scraping by award seat search engines (seats.aero for example?)

I think this is the real answer here.

Bot scraping doesn't just make things easier, its also constantly hitting the servers with searches and data - effectively i would imagine a non insignificant real cost.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Something to prevent scraping by award seat search engines (seats.aero for example?)

Potentially.

But wouldn't those sites just add a few points to whatever account they’re searching from?

 

[sudoer]

Potentially.

But wouldn't those sites just add a few points to whatever account they’re searching from?

SQ may be actively shutting their accounts down - it wouldn't be hard to identify which ones are consistently searching thousands of times an hour. Without a minimum points requirement, seats.aero could create virtually unlimited accounts to use for their automated searches - but with a minimum points requirement they couldn't without a cost (potentially substantial depending on how aggressively SQ is play cat and mouse)

1000 KF miles is practically nothing in the scheme of things. If that's the cost of access to SQ searches for 36 months, so be it. In reality I will book at least one award in those 36 months and the counter will reset, so it'll actually cost me nothing.

I'd much rather this approach than limiting F awards to certain status levels like EK has done. As convenient as tools like seats.aero are, there is an argument they make points redemptions too accessible and may be a net-negative for those of us who are heavily invested in this game.

 

[madrooster]

But wouldn't those sites just add a few points to whatever account they’re searching from?

These sites don't use individual accounts to search. They pull from the JSON API exposed by the website.

 

[sudoer]

They pull from the JSON API exposed by the website.

From a quick poke around, it looks to me like the API requires authentication? How would they be authenticating if not using individual accounts? (assuming SQ doesn't want to give them a static token)

 

[Captain Halliday]

As convenient as tools like seats.aero are, there is an argument they make points redemptions too accessible and may be a net-negative for those of us who are heavily invested in this game.

Agree.

IME, searching has become considerably easier in the past 3-4 years.

However, premium cabin award availability has become much harder to find.

Correlation not causation of course, but I think it’s reasonable to conclude that the democratisation of award searches is at least a contributing factor.

 

[kamchatsky]

I have just over 400 points, and when I searched using my browser on PC, I have the dreaded message of not sufficient balance. But I have no problems searching on my SQ App on my phone.

 

[SYD]

How’s SQ when it comes to EF searches? Any free EF account now has seat, award, upgrade and flight availability searches (with constraints).