KrisFlyer Promo, Saver, Advantage and Access awards: What’s the difference?

When redeeming miles for a Singapore Airlines flight, KrisFlyer members may see up to four types of awards available for booking: Promo, Saver, Advantage and Access.

What’s the difference between these four categories, does it matter which one you choose, and should you ever pick a more expensive award? 

Overview: KrisFlyer’s four award types

In the table below is a summary of the four different KrisFlyer award types.

These award types only apply to Singapore Airlines flights; if you’re redeeming miles for a Star Alliance or other partner airline, you’ll only see the Saver category.

Do note that Access awards are a relatively new development, and work quite differently from the other three categories. I’ve written a dedicated guide for Access awards, which you can find below.

Complete Guide: KrisFlyer Access Awards

Price

Saver and Advantage awards are priced according to the KrisFlyer award chart. On average, Advantage awards cost 80% more compared to Saver. 

Promo awards are usually priced at a 30% discount to Saver, though on special occasions, the discount has been further increased (e.g. SG60 was marked with a 40% discount).

Access awards are “dynamically-priced” based on factors like seat availability, route, season and cabin. When commercial tickets are more expensive, so too will Access awards. When commercial tickets are cheaper, Access awards will cost less.

In practice, however, Access pricing is not fully dynamic. Instead, it follows an unpublished award chart, with fixed mark-ups over Advantage or Saver prices. 

Availability

Promo awards are the most restricted in terms of availability. A limited number of seats are released on certain routes, flight numbers, and dates. Moreover, the booking window only opens after Spontaneous Escapes are released on the 15th (or the next working day, if the 15th falls on a weekend/public holiday), giving you roughly half a month to book.

Saver awards can be booked year-round on all routes and all flight numbers (in theory at least; there are certain awards like Suites to London where Saver space is virtually non-existent). However, they’re in fairly limited supply too, at least compared to Advantage.

Advantage awards can also be booked year-round on all routes and flight numbers, with greater supply than Saver (that’s why you usually pay 80% more for Advantage!).

Access awards offer what’s known as last-seat availability. In other words, if there is a Singapore Airlines seat available for commercial bookings, you will be able to book it through Access.

This opens up the possibility of redeeming seats:

• at the very last minute, when all Saver and Advantage awards have been fully redeemed
• on flights where almost all seats have been sold out
• during peak holiday periods (e.g. cherry blossom season in Japan)
• on flights where redemptions are almost impossible to come by, or where only a fixed number of seats are released for redemption (e.g. Suites to London)

Flexibility

If you want to book a Promo award, you need to be very certain about your travel plans because there’s strictly no changes or refunds permitted. Can’t make your flight? Kiss your miles goodbye. That’s why I always advise readers to buy travel insurance that covers mile and points bookings, so in case you can’t travel, you can at least recover the cash value of the ticket.

Saver awards permit you to change dates, routes, cabin types or awards for US$25 per passenger. A US$75 fee per passenger applies to refunds.

Advantage and Access awards offer free date changes, but all other changes will cost US$25 per passenger. A US$50 fee per passenger applies to refunds. 

Stopovers

Stopovers are breaks in the journey of more than 24 hours. For example, you could fly from Singapore to New York on SQ25, spend a week in Frankfurt (the stopover point), then continue onwards to New York.

Promo awards are not eligible for stopovers. 

Saver awards receive one complimentary stopover on round-trips, but none on one-way journeys.

Advantage and Access awards receive two complimentary stopovers on round-trips, and one complimentary stopover on one-way journeys.

Do note that adding additional paid stopovers is no longer possible on KrisFlyer awards, following the nerfing of the “stopover trick” in July 2022.

Waitlist

Promo and Access awards cannot be waitlisted. They are either available, or they aren’t.

Saver and Advantage awards can be waitlisted, subject to availability. I’ve written an entire article about the ins and outs of the KrisFlyer waitlist, but in short:

• Waitlisting is only possible for Singapore Airlines flights. 
• You must have sufficient miles to add yourself to the waitlist
• No miles are deducted when joining the waitlist
• There is no limit to the number of flights you can waitlist on
• Should the waitlist clear, you’ll usually have at least 72 hours to confirm your booking.
• There is no obligation to confirm a cleared waitlist
• Waitlists are open up till three weeks before departure. All unfilled waitlists will be automatically cancelled two weeks before departure
• Waitlists typically clear within one month of departure, if at all
• Elite status is the only known factor that improves your chances of clearing the waitlist

As an aside, I’ve written a post on some ways the KrisFlyer waitlist could be improved, so check it out if you share my frustrations!

Mixing award types

You can mix Saver, Advantage and Access awards in a single booking. 

However, you cannot mix Promo awards with any of the other three award types (e.g. Promo award on the outbound leg, Saver award on the inbound).

Travel validity

Promo awards can only be booked for travel dates in the following month. That’s not a bug, it’s a feature– the whole idea behind Spontaneous Escapes is to encourage members to spend their miles on seats that would otherwise have gone empty.

This means that unless you’re the type who can take leave on short notice, Promo awards might not be feasible for you.

Saver, Advantage and Access awards can be booked for travel anytime in the next 355 days, and are valid for up to a year. For example, on 1 January 2026 you could book a ticket departing on 31 October 2026, and subsequently shift the travel date anytime up till 1 January 2027.

What award type should I choose?

With four different award types on offer, is it simply a matter of choosing the cheapest one?

Yes and no.

Obviously, no one in the right mind would pay Advantage prices when Saver space is available. Even though you get free date changes and a lower refund fee, that should be seen as the consolation prize for having to pay Advantage, not an incentive to do so. 

But what about Promo vs Saver? This is a bit trickier. If you’re fairly certain you’re going to proceed with the trip, Promo would clearly be the better choice (though you should still purchase travel insurance that covers award bookings, just in case). If there’s some question marks involved, then Saver would be the safer option.

I don’t think things like free stopovers should really factor into your decision, unless you want to visit two places on one trip (e.g. Frankfurt and New York, Tokyo and Los Angeles). If that’s the case, then a round-trip Saver or one-way Advantage award would let you do that for free, subject to award space availability.

Access awards can be eye-wateringly expensive, and if you can’t even bring yourself to pay Advantage prices, then Access will be all but irrelevant to you. However, there are some scenarios where Access might come in useful.

• If you have an emergency that requires you to fly at the last minute
• If you need to confirm your travel plans immediately, but Saver and Advantage awards are both waitlist-only
• If you’re travelling during a peak period like Christmas or Golden Week
• If you have some edge case that requires more seats than SIA usually releases for Saver and Advantage (e.g. you want to book out the entire A380 Suites cabin)

Conclusion

KrisFlyer offers up to four different award types, depending on when and where you plan to travel, and what cabin you’re booking.

While everyone dreams of Promo pricing, that’s not always a realistic option. Popular destinations rarely appear on Spontaneous Escapes, and even if they do, they’re liable to disappear very quickly. 

Moreover, Saver awards are harder and harder to come by, especially on long-haul First and Business Class. On certain routes, Advantage or Access is really a more realistic option for those without Solitaire PPS and PPS Club status.

Any other differences between the four awards worth highlighting?