In June last year, the Singapore Airlines website took a step in the right direction by allowing passengers to book stopovers of up to one year online. Previously, stopovers booked online were limited to 30 days, and those who wanted anything beyond that had to call up customer service.
While this was only possible for free stopovers, the thinking at the time was the functionality could eventually be extended to paid stopovers too, paving the way to book $100 stopover tricks entirely online, without CSO assistance.ย
Unfortunately, the Singapore Airlines website has now reverted to its original state, with online stopovers capped at 30 days once again.
Booking stopovers with the Singapore Airlines website
When you select an award itinerary with stopover potential, the system automatically asks you if you’d like to add a stopover. For example, a MEL-SIN-HND has the potential for a stopover in Singapore.ย
With last year’s website enhancement, stopovers booked online could be anywhere from 1 to 355 days in duration (stopovers can be a maximum of 1 year, but the website only shows award space up to 355 days in advance).ย
This has since been undone, and the maximum stopover duration you can book onlineย has once again been reset to 30 days. In the example below, my first leg from MEL to SIN is on 13 September, so the system tells me I must continue my journey from SIN to HND no later than 13 October.
That’s incorrect, of course. Stopovers can be up to a maximum of a year; you’ll just have to call KrisFlyer to get it done.ย
As before, the website still does not allow you to add a stopover to a one-way Saver award.ย
Once a stopover is added to a one-way booking, all Saver awards will be removed from selection, leaving only the pricier Advantage ones.ย
This has more to do with system limitations than KrisFlyer policies. Here’s a reminder of your entitlement, depending on the award type:
| Award Type | Free Stopovers | Per Additional Stopover (Max 3) |
| One-way Saver | 0 | US$100 |
| One-way Advantage | 1 | US$100 |
| Round-trip Saver | 1 | US$100 |
| Round-trip Advantage | 2 | US$100 |
The Singapore Airlines website allows you to add freeย stopovers online, but additional paid stopovers require manual CSO intervention.
So tl;dr, we’re back to square one:
- Stopovers booked online can only be a maximum of 30 days
- Only free stopovers can be booked online
It’s strange they’d add the option to book longer stopovers online, only to remove it again. I’m no IT expert, but it seems like it wouldn’t be difficult to have the system show dates beyond 30 days. I’m stumped as to why it’s reverted, quite frankly.
Conclusion
One step forward, one step back. While it’s great that the Singapore Airlines websiteย finallyย has an award calendar, there’s still work to be done in enhancing the range of transactions that can be performed online.ย
It’s not that big of a concern at the moment since no one’s flying anywhere anyway, but I do hope we’ll see progress on this soon.ย
Who cares…