KrisFlyer devaluations: How have award prices changed since 1999?

2024 marks the 25th anniversary of Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer loyalty programme, a milestone moment by any means. 

KrisFlyer now has more than 8.8 million members worldwide, 20X more than Passages, the joint frequent flyer programme with Cathay Pacific and Malaysia Airlines that it replaced. Its partners number more than 1,300 around the world, and the programme generates more than S$1.25 billion in revenue for Singapore Airlines.

I’ve already written a piece on what KrisFlyer looked like when it first launched in 1999, but what’s happened in the quarter of a century since then?

What did KrisFlyer look like in 1999?

More specifically, how has KrisFlyer changed in terms of award redemption costs? What features have been added, and what features have been removed? How often do devaluations take place, and will I ever be able to secure two First Saver awards to London during December?

These questions all require data, so data I retrieved. After hours of trawling through the Wayback Machine, I finally managed to assemble every single KrisFlyer chart since the programme’s inception in 1999. This wasn’t an easy task by any means, but now they’re preserved for posterity. 

✈️ KrisFlyer Award Charts  (For travel on Singapore Airlines)
Validity	Link
1 Feb 1999 to 26 Oct 2003	Download
27 Oct 2003 to 31 Jan 2007	Download
1 Feb 2007 to 29 Feb 2012	Download
1 Mar 2012 to 23 May 2016	Download
24 May 2016 to 22 Mar 2017	Download
23 Mar 2017 to 23 Jan 2019	Download
24 Jan 2019 to 4 Jul 2022	Download
5 Jul 2022 to Present Day	Download

Here’s what I found!

Overview: KrisFlyer devaluations from 1999 to 2024

All in all, KrisFlyer has updated its award chart six times from its inception in 1999 till today, which works out to once every four years. 

• October 2003
• February 2007
• March 2012
• March 2017
• January 2019
• July 2022

To give you an idea of how prices have evolved, I put together the round-trip award prices across 15 destinations in the Singapore Airlines network: Jakarta, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, Tokyo, Perth, Sydney, Johannesburg, Dubai, Amsterdam, Paris, London, San Francisco, and New York.

These all are or were part of different award zones, so collectively we should get a good sense of the overall picture.

A few points to note:

• SIA’s First Class network has evolved over time, and not all of the featured cities may have offered First Class service throughout the period
• When comparing prices between periods, we need to remember that from June 2004 to March 2017, KrisFlyer members would have to pay fuel surcharges on Singapore Airlines redemptions. These have since been eliminated
• As Premium Economy is a relatively new product, introduced in 2015, I’ve not included it in the analysis

The table below provides an overview of how prices have changed for Economy, Business and First Class awards during each of the six award chart updates.

What’s surprising is that contrary to popular belief, not every award chart update means a devaluation. In fact, there have been cases where the cost of many awards fell, such as in October 2003 because of the introduction of the 15% redemption discount for online redemptions. 

In fact, price inflation in Economy Class has been extremely muted. There are six zones for which annualised award price growth is 0.5% or less, including Jakarta, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai and Perth. In fact, Economy Class redemptions to Mumbai and South Asia are actually cheaper today (40,000 miles) than they were in 1999 (50,000 miles)!

It’s in Business Class where the price increases have been more acute. While Mumbai and the rest of South Asia saw a very modest 0.3% annualised growth, flights to Japan and Australia have increased by ~50%. Worse still are flights to Europe and North America, some of which have almost doubled in cost!

As for First Class, it’s pretty much the same story. Mumbai and South Asia have only grown by 0.6% p.a., but those wanting to travel to Europe or North America now need to pay more than 2X the miles compared to 1999. 

That said, there are of course limitations to this analysis. 

Changes in earning power

While it’s easy to measure inflation in award prices, what’s more difficult to measure are the changes in earning power. Even if award prices have risen, they might be offset by the increased ease of earning miles.

For example, in the early 2000s it wasn’t easy to earn KrisFlyer miles outside of flying, because miles card options were relatively limited (and, for the most part, restricted to high income earners), and partner networks nascent.

Fast forward to today, and you can earn miles from pretty much anything: staying at a hotel, renting a car, booking activities or shopping at Kris+ merchants. Anyone earning at least S$30,000 a year can get their hands on credit cards offering 4 mpd on almost all their spending (or 6 mpd sometimes!), and can even buy additional miles through services like CardUp and Citi PayAll. 

That’s a level of analysis that is far beyond me, but my gut instinct is that Economy Class awards today are much cheaper than they were in 1999.  Even at their most extreme (Europe), prices have only gone from 60,000 to 84,000 miles, and if you manage to snag one during Spontaneous Escapes at 30% off, the price drops to 58,800 miles- even less than 1999! 

For Business and First Class it’s harder to say. Paying 214,000 miles for a round-trip Business Class ticket to San Francisco is certainly a big increase from 115,000 miles, but then again, we didn’t have 100,000 miles welcome offers in 1999.

Award space availability

Another aspect this analysis can’t take into account is award space availability. Only Singapore Airlines knows how many Saver seats they’re releasing today, as compared to 25 years ago, and that will obviously change how we view award price increases. 

While I can’t speak to that figure, I will certainly say that KrisFlyer members have much more competition for awards than they did in 1999. It’s not just that the programme has grown in size; it’s that Singapore Airlines award space is now fair game for members of other frequent flyer programmes. 

Once upon a time, Singapore Airlines only allowed KrisFlyer members to book its long-haul First and Business Class products. However, that restriction was eased in recent years, and Alaska Mileage Plan and Air Canada Aeroplan members can sometimes book Singapore Airlines awards that KrisFlyer members can’t!

Can’t find Singapore Airlines award space? Try looking outside KrisFlyer

Therefore, every time there’s a new release of award space to and from the USA, you can bet the US blogs and social media community will pick it up and spark a feeding frenzy (and for the record, I don’t begrudge them that- I’d do the same if I were in their position).

Since there’s only so many seats on a plane, every seat redeemed by a partner programme is one less seat available to KrisFlyer members. 

Qualitative changes

Merely looking at award price increases also masks the impact of qualitative changes to the programme, which make it easier or more difficult to redeem miles.

A great example are fuel surcharges. Back in June 2004, Singapore Airlines introduced fuel surcharges on all its routes. This started at a very tame US$5, but over time eventually added hundreds of dollars to a so-called “free” ticket. 

As I’m sure you know, fuel surcharges also have very little, if any, relation with actual prices of jet fuel, and are the epitome of junk fees. Imagine going to a restaurant and having to pay an “ingredient surcharge”!

But as the carrot to the March 2017 devaluation, Singapore Airlines removed fuel surcharges from all its flights. Therefore, even though award prices rose, the cash payment fell- and whether you were better or worse off all boiled down to how much you valued a mile. 

Another example has to do with upgrades. In March 2016, KrisFlyer stopped allowing Economy to Business Class upgrades on aircraft where Premium Economy was available. This remained the policy until the January 2019 devaluation, where KrisFlyer published a new award chart allowing two-cabin upgrades from Economy to Business Class, albeit at a higher price.

So all in all, even though award prices have risen, the true impact is tempered by these other factors, the exact weight of each is hard to quantify.

Other fun tidbits

When digging through 25 years of history, I found some interesting tidbits that if nothing else, would come in useful for AVgeek trivia night. 

KrisFlyer once had 23 award zones

In October 2003, KrisFlyer expanded its original 12 award zones into 23 award zones. Yes, 23. 

Said Singapore Airlines at the time:

Our improved award charts will include more flight zones — 23 instead of the earlier 12. This will ensure that each region is more accurately represented — and make redemption travel much easier to understand and more transparent

Easier to understand? This thing?

This was truly a work of art. Indonesia was split into three zones; Japan and India into two (and yet the cost of travel was the exactly the same regardless of which sub-zone you flew to).  Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam were each given their own zone (which, again, had no impact on pricing). Adelaide was inexplicably grouped together with Perth.

Goodness me, what a mess.

Perhaps realising the folly of their previous decision, KrisFlyer reduced its 23 award zones into 14 award zones during the next devaluation in February 2007. 

To simplify the award charts, the number of zones will be reduced from the current 23 to 14.

So much for easier to understand…

One-way redemptions weren’t always possible!

Believe it or not: the original KrisFlyer programme did not allow one-way redemptions (though you could redeem open jaw round-trips, e.g. SIN-LAX/SFO-SIN).

It was only in October 2003 that this became possible- but even then, it was a very poor deal at 70% the cost of a round-trip award. KrisFlyer members would have to wait till September 2008 before the current 50% pricing we enjoy came into effect. 

But hey, Asia Miles members had it worse. One-way awards cost 55-75% of round-trip prices all the way till 2018. ANA Mileage club still doesn’t allow one-way redemptions!

The cost of topping-up miles has remained the same for 20+ years!

In October 2003, Singapore Airlines introduced the option of buying additional KrisFlyer miles to redeem an award, provided you had at least 30% of the required amount.

Amazingly, the price of US$40 per 1,000 miles has remained the same till today (though you can now buy up to 50% of the required amount). Obviously, it’s not the best option at your disposal, and there’s many just as fast and much cheaper ways of getting yourself over the finish line. 

Instant and quick ways to top-up a KrisFlyer miles balance

2006’s new cabin product fiasco

In October 2006, Singapore Airlines unveiled its new First and Business Class cabin products for its B777-300ER aircraft. 

They were, quite simply, amazing- especially Business Class, which was full flat, wider than many airlines’ First Class, and a quantum leap forward from their old angled-flat Spacebeds. 

But before the new cabin products can even enter service, KrisFlyer announced that they could only be booked with Unrestricted awards (the previous name of today’s “Advantage” awards)

“Members can continue to redeem award tickets in Economy Class (for both Saver and Unrestricted awards) on the B777-300 ER aircraft. Only Unrestricted awards will be available for redemption in First and Business Class”

When the A380-800 debuted with same Business Class seat and the first-of-its-kind Suites, the award chart was updated accordingly to block Saver redemptions. 

KrisFlyer members were understandably outraged. SIA was dangling an incredible carrot, only to yank it back and say it was “too good” for Saver awards.

It wasn’t till March 2012 that members could make Saver award bookings on the no-longer-new cabin products!

We appreciate your invaluable feedback and are pleased to announce that we will also be enhancing our seat award redemption offerings. Currently Saver Award is only available for selected First and Business Class flights. With this improvement, you will be able to redeem Saver Award for First and Business Class on most flights, including First and Business Class on our B777-300ER flights; and Business Class on our A380 and A340-500 flights

-Singapore Airlines

Suite Saver awards were also added in November 2012, five years after the product debuted. 

Thankfully, this wasn’t repeated in 2013 when the current generation First and Business Class seats were launched, and I certainly hope it won’t repeat when the new First and Business Class seats arrive with the Boeing 777X!

KrisFlyer’s 14-year online redemption discount

KrisFlyer launched online award redemptions back in 2003, and to mark the occasion, offered a 25% discount on all tickets redeemed online. This was later scaled back to 15%, but what’s amazing to me is how long the discount lasted. 

KrisFlyer members enjoyed the online redemption discount for 14 years, well after internet penetration became widespread. Moreover, because of the shortcomings of the SIA website (inability to do mixed cabin awards, inability to add a stopover of more than 30 days, inability to waitlist for upgrades), the discount also ended up being offered on many phone bookings too.

In March 2017, Singapore Airlines decided to finally nix it, which led to a double-whammy of both an award chart devaluation and a removal of the discount. As much as I missed it, I always thought that SIA worked it into their pricing anyway, giving the illusion of a discount where none really existed.

A Full and his money…

Hands up, who remembers Full awards? These were introduced in September 2008 as a third type of award that provided last-seat availability. So long as a seat was available for sale, you could redeem a Full award.

But the prices were ridiculously expensive: one-way Business Class from Singapore to Japan/London/New York for 138,000/300,000/381,000 miles! In fact, this gave us the closest thing we’ll ever see to a million-mile award (I hope): Sydney to Sao Paulo in First Class, 947,000 miles. It soon became a running joke that only a “Full” (say it aloud) would redeem such awards. 

Full awards were eventually removed in May 2016. No tears were shed.

The good old days of free changes

Once upon a time, KrisFlyer had very generous award change fees. Date changes were completely free of charge, and cancelling an award ticket could cost just US$15 for everyone except regular KrisFlyer members (US$30). 

That all changed in May 2018, when a new fee structure was rolled out- basically the one we have today. Goodbye free changes and cheap refunds- they’d now cost US$25 and US$75 respectively on Saver tickets, with no-show fees also added. Also gone were the discounted service fees for elite members; all members now paid the same fees, differentiated only by whether the award in question was a Saver or Advantage. 

You could be waitlisted all the way to the airport

Once upon a time, the KrisFlyer waitlist could clear at any time up to departure. Even, theoretically speaking, while you were on the way to the airport.

In March 2019, Singapore Airlines finally changed its policy, such that all waitlists would now close 21 days before departure, and be filled or killed at least 14 days before the flight. I don’t think the changes go nearly far enough- in fact, I’ve written about some simple changes which would significantly improve the waitlist experience for everyone – but it’s certainly better than before. 

Unrestricted to Standard to Advantage

KrisFlyer originally only had one type of Business and First Class award, but in October 2003, another category was introduced: Unrestricted.

Unrestricted awards required 1.25-2X the miles of the existing Business and First Class awards, which were then renamed Business Saver and First Saver respectively. In return, members would enjoy better seat inventory and two free stopovers per round-trip.

These were later redesignated as Standard awards in September 2008, and then in January 2018 became today’s Advantage awards. I believe the change in nomenclature was to highlight the fact these awards did have certain advantages that Saver awards did not, such as a bigger range of seats for complimentary selection and reduced change/refund fees. 

Online partner redemptions finally added

While online redemptions for Singapore Airlines became possible in 2003, it was a further 14-year wait till similar functionality was added for partners. 

In December 2017, the SQ website added support for Star Alliance and other partner airline redemptions- and even then, it was a royal mess at first, with only Air New Zealand and Lufthansa awards initially available. Thankfully, the situation eventually improved somewhat, but even today, six years later, it’s still hit and miss. 

I find it funny (and sad at the same time) that till today, the Star Alliance award search interface still has this message: 

You may not see all available award flights as online redemption with our airline partners is being rolled out progressively. If you wish to redeem award tickets on domestic flights within Japan and New Zealand, or if you do not see any flights from your preferred partner airline, contact your local Singapore Airlines office.

Progressively, eh?

If you’re looking for Star Alliance awards, I highly recommend you start by looking on a tool like Seats.Aero before going to the KrisFlyer website (or calling up customer service) to finalise your booking. 

Conclusion

What will KrisFlyer look like in 2049?

Well, with miles becoming easier and easier to earn, I think we might have to get used to more frequent award chart adjustments. While devaluations used to take place at a 4-5 year cadence, more recently the pace has quickened to every 2-3 years.

Mind you, there’s no guarantee that award charts will always exist. Elsewhere in the world we’ve seen airlines abandoning fixed priced award charts in favour of “dynamic pricing”, which basically turns frequent flyer programmes into glorified cashback programmes. While this tends to be a North American and European phenomenon for now, there are hints that it may come here too- just look at what’s happened to Malaysia Airlines Enrich. 

But I don’t want to end this on too much of a downer. While devaluations are a fact of life, the past 25 years shows that some things actually do get better. Compared to before, KrisFlyer members now have more partner redemption options, no more fuel surcharges, Saver space on all types of aircraft (though those trying to redeem Suites on the A380 might disagree), and Spontaneous Escapes. Some awards are even cheaper than they were in 1999!

No one knows what the next 25 years will hold, but all we can do as miles chasers is buckle up and enjoy the ride. 

Predictions for KrisFlyer 2049?