KrisFlyer Star Alliance partner awards update, two months on

Back in December 2017, Singapore Airlines made it possible for flight redemption on partner airlines to be done online.  Initially, the number of partner airlines available online was limited. Then in January 2018, the situation improved significantly with a lot more partner airlines bookable online. A month and a half has passed since then, and the situation largely remains the same as per our January 2018 post.

When searching for partner award space online, this disclaimer still appears:

To refresh your memory, here’s the list of airlines that were still missing from the Singapore Airlines engine as per our January post:

• Air India
• Asiana
• Shenzhen Airlines (economy class seats are available as of January 2018)
• TAP Portugal (It only appears if you search for a First Class routing. Which is odd because TAP doesn’t operate F)

Air India (AI)

Award space on Air India is available as per a search with KVS Tool via Aeroplan. However, going over to the Singapore Airlines website only returns me results for a flight from Singapore to Delhi on a combination of SQ and TG flights in the Star Alliance tab. So if you want to fly Air India desperately, you’d still have to call in to redeem.  Not that Air India is a particularly aspirational product, but still… strike one for SQ.

Asiana (OZ)

Similar to Air India, award space is available but not searchable via SQ’s website. This time round, both Lifemiles and Aeroplan shows space on Asiana to Incheon. Even when I tried searching from Ho Chi Minh to Incheon, SQ still insisted on routing me through Singapore to Incheon. Strike 2 for SQ.

Shenzhen Airlines (ZH)

For Shenzhen Airlines, the situation largely remains the same where only economy class seats are available for redemption. If you tried searching for business class seats with SQ’s, the page will just time out and return you to the main menu. Award space is actually available via Aeroplan on Shenzhen Airlines on the dummy search I made from SZX to PEK. So if you’re planning to fly intra-China, I guess you’d have to call in again. Strike 3.

TAP Portugal

Normally after 3 strikes, you’re out. I was hoping for TAP to be available online as previously, I saw some award space on TAP which was classified under a first class ticket but was unable to reproduce the result here. This time round, award space on TAP is non-existent while searching with SQ but available on you guessed it, Aeroplan.

(Edit :

TAP is indeed showing up only when you search under first class. Kinda weird if you ask me especially since Aeroplan codes it correctly)

Intra-Japan flights now available online

There is a silver lining. Previously, to book an intra-Japan flight on ANA you had to call in to do it, even when ANA was bookable online. SQ has since updated their engine to allow intra-Japan flights to be bookable online (hurrah). Prices are rather exorbitant though, and I personally would book my intra-Japan flights using Avios on JAL.

One month on, no improvement still

A month has passed and the situation remains largely the same, granted the caveat is still there when you’re trying to search for flights using SQ’s engine, but really that caveat has been there way too long. Here’s hoping that SQ can finish what it started and integrate the remaining airlines into their engine as I really really want to fly Air India first class to San Francisco.

Let me know if you guys can find otherwise.