Krisflyer offering selected Elite Gold members reduced renewal threshold

A few months ago, I wrote about my surprise at finding out that Krisflyer “gave chance” with elite status renewal. I had assumed an organization as “by the book” as SQ would surely not bend the rules, but as it turns out if you’re a little bit short of requalification (the exact amount is an unknown quantity) you can email them and ask for an extension of time to requalify or a waiver.

Although I’ve done a buttload of travel this year, a good amount of it was on award tickets and Oneworld carriers, meaning that as of today I have yet to requalify for Krisflyer Elite Gold.

I wasn’t too worried about it because I’m scheduled to do another RTW trip in early 2018 (on Star Alliance this time…more details to follow) but in any case was surprised to get the following email in my inbox today:

I’ve selected some key T&Cs below (emphasis mine):

– Only recipients of this e-mail will be eligible to enjoy the promotion.
– This promotion is available on all booking channels including singaporeair.com and travel agents.
– This promotion is applicable only for travel on Singapore Airlines operated flights. It is not applicable on codeshare flights marketed by Singapore Airlines and operated by other carriers.
– To qualify for the promotion, tickets must be issued between 11 December 2017 – 31 March 2018 GMT+8. All travel must be completed by 31 March 2018 GMT+8. If any part of the itinerary falls outside the applicable travel period or contains an ineligible flight, the entire itinerary will not be eligible for the promotion.
– Only round-trip itineraries are applicable for this promotion. The itinerary must commence and terminate in Singapore.
– Flights to South East Asia and Hong Kong are excluded from this promotion.
– An itinerary purchased by mixing Miles and Cash (Pay with KrisFlyer miles) will be eligible, but all other promotion requirements must be satisfied. Redemption bookings are not eligible.

Most of the terms are quite reasonable, but there’s one in particular I’d like to highlight. Flights to Hong Kong and ASEAN aren’t included. Where does that leave me then?

Here’s a look at SQ’s route chart by distance (taken from the SilverKris magazine). Distances shown are one-way.

I’m currently short of 6,204 miles which means I need a destination which is 3,102 miles each way to requalify (assuming 100% Elite Mile credit).

The exclusion of Hong Kong and ASEAN means the shortest trip I can take out of Singapore to requalify is Guangzhou at 1,631 miles each way. In reality then, this promotion is saving me from having to fly just under 3,000 miles in total (2,942 to be exact). A round trip ticket to Guangzhou costs $412, FYI.

One important thing to remember, however, is that if I were to requalify regularly I’d need to fly 6,204 miles at 100% elite mileage accrual rates. If you’ll recall, only SQ’s two highest buckets of economy tickets (Flexi Saver and Flexi) earn 100% mileage accrual. If I went for Saver (50%) or Super Deals (10%) tickets, I’d have to fly more than 6,204 miles. So from that point of view, this promotion still has some use, even though it’s not as generous as it could have been.

I’m sure there must be some threshold trigger in terms of Elite Miles for this mailer to be sent out, and with 43,796 Elite miles to my name don’t think I’m at the lowest end. Obviously, the further away you are from 50,000 the more valuable this promotion is.

Krisflyer Elite Gold status is useful to have, insofar as Star Alliance Gold is useful, but don’t go into it expecting any royal treatment from SQ. You can’t even use the SilverKris lounges in Singapore as an Elite Gold when flying in economy. But hey, at least you’ll be in good company…