Singapore Airlines extends free rebooking for tickets issued by 30 September 2021

Back in March 2020, Singapore Airlines introduced a complimentary rebooking policy giving customers the flexibility to adjust their travel plans without incurring change fees, amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Singapore Airlines has been progressively extending this policy as COVID-19 continues to keep borders closed worldwide, and the latest version now covers commercial bookings and award redemptions made up till 30 September 2021. 

Singapore Airlines complimentary rebooking policy

Singapore Airlines passengers can make unlimited, complimentary changes to their travel dates as per the table below:

Any booking changes must be made before the original travel date or within a year of the ticket’s date of issuance.

Both dates and destinations can be changed:

• Travel dates can be changed via the Manage Booking function on the SIA website
• Destination changes will require contacting Singapore Airlines

If your booking was made through a travel agency or partner airline, you will need to contact them directly for assistance. 

Singapore Airlines provides the following illustration of how rebooking works:

While change fees are waived, you will still be required to pay any fare differences. To illustrate, suppose I originally booked a SIN-LAX itinerary for travel in March 2021.

Subsequently, I wish to change it to travel in July 2021. While I won’t pay any change fee, I’ll need to top up S$812 in fare and S$13.30 in taxes (the USA International Arrival Tax is based on a percentage of the fare, hence it changes as well). 

In some cases, fare differences can be substantially more than change fees, so take note. 

Free changes apply to award tickets too

If you redeemed a Singapore Airlines ticket using your KrisFlyer miles, you’ll also enjoy free unlimited changes just as if you bought a commercial ticket. 

This overrides the usual US$25 admin fee for changing a Saver award (Advantage awards already do not have any change fees). 

Do note that this does not apply to partner airline bookings made with KrisFlyer miles, nor no-show fees. Be sure to make your changes before your travel date comes round!

Can I get a refund?

The complimentary rebooking benefit outlined here is not the same as the travel waiver policy that Singapore Airlines has in place. SIA’s travel waiver policy states that passengers who booked a Singapore Airlines ticket on or before 15 March 2020, with travel up till 31 March 2021, are entitled to a full refund or bonus travel credits.

Therefore, the complimentary rebooking benefit is for those who made bookings more recently, or who want to make a booking now. You can refer to the chart below for the full decision tree- the yellow boxes refer to the complimentary rebooking benefit; the green boxes refer to the travel waiver policy for refunds or bonus travel credits. 

If your ticket is not currently eligible for a free refund under Singapore Airlines’ COVID-19 travel waiver policy, don’t rush to cancel it just yet. You’ll still get a full refund without fees if:

• Singapore Airlines cancels your flight
• International border closures make travel impossible
• You test positive for COVID-19 and cannot travel

If you proactively cancel a flight, you will not get a refund of your fees even, if Singapore Airlines subsequently cancels that flight anyway! 

Conclusion

Singapore Airlines continues to offer greater flexibility on both award and commercial tickets, although it’s not quite gone to the extent of US airlines, which have eliminated change fees “permanently” (I’m skeptical because nothing is ever really permanent in aviation; it’d be better read as “until further notice”). 

Unfortunately, there’s still no word on when Singapore will start vaccinating its general population (that may change at 4 p.m today, though), so the prospects for travel in the second half of the year are still fuzzy. 

Until then, these flexibility policies allow you to adopt a wait and see approach, but you should certainly hold off on any non-refundable hotel or activities bookings for now.