How much does it cost to change a Scoot award flight?

Last week, Scoot published a new award chart, which allows KrisFlyer members to redeem fixed-priced awards starting from 1,500 miles each way. 

While it will still be possible to use the Miles + Cash option — which values a mile at a fixed rate of 1 cent each — the award chart should offer superior value in most situations. Moreover, it opens up the possibility of redeeming flights outside the Singapore Airlines network, including Chiang Mai, Jeju, Koh Samui, Okinawa and Phu Quoc.

I’ve already done a detailed run-through of the award chart and its various rules, but I want to tackle one question that wasn’t properly addressed at the time: how changes to Scoot award tickets will be handled.

What is the change policy for Scoot award tickets?

Just like commercial tickets on Scoot, award tickets are strictly non-refundable. There are only three categories of exceptions:

• Medical reasons
• Death of passenger or immediate family members
• Schedule change or disruption with retiming of two hours or more

Route changes are also not permitted, so a Singapore > Sydney ticket cannot be changed to Singapore > Melbourne, for example. 

However, changes can be made to dates or timings (e.g. if you want to switch to an earlier/later Scoot flight on the same day).

• If you have booked a Saver award, and there are Saver awards available on the revised flight, no further top-up of miles is required
• If you have booked a Saver award, and there are only Advantage awards available on the revised flight, you will need to top-up the difference
• If you have booked an Advantage award, and there are Advantage awards available on the revised flight, no further top-up of miles is required
• If you have booked an Advantage award, and there are Saver awards available on the revised flight, no refund of miles will be granted

Regardless of which of the four scenarios you’re in, a change fee will be applicable, which Scoot has told me will start from S$60 per passenger, per leg. You can look up the relevant change fees on this page; the highest I saw was S$100.

It may surprise you to know that Scoot Saver and Scoot Advantage awards both incur the same change fee, because with Singapore Airlines, Advantage awards enjoy a waiver of change fees (see below). It makes a bit more sense if you think of Scoot as only having one type of award, with two levels of pricing (Saver and Advantage) depending on demand.

How can you avoid the change fee?

Fortunately, there are several ways to avoid paying this change fee.

Option 1: Elite status

Solitaire PPS Club, PPS Club, and KrisFlyer Elite Gold members enjoy a complimentary one-time change fee waiver, which applies to both commercial and award tickets.

This benefit applies alongside the rest of the usual Scoot privileges for Singapore Airlines elites, summarised below.

✈️ Scoot Privileges for SQ Elites
	KrisFlyer Elite Gold/Silver	Solitaire PPS/PPS Club
Priority Check-in and Boarding	✅	✅
Extra 5kg Luggage Allowance^ (with min. purchase of 20 kg allowance)	✅	✅
Free Standard Seat Selection*	✅	✅
One-time Change Fee Waiver	✅ KF Elite Gold only	✅
SilverKris Lounge Access	❌	✅ Solitaire PPS Club only
^Only applies to the elite member, and not travelling companions *Only applies to bookings made directly on the flyscoot.com website

Option 2: Buy Flex bundle or Change Your Flight

During the award booking process, passengers will have the option to purchase a Flex bundle, which includes:

• Standard seat selection
• 20kg check-in baggage
• Change Your Flight

Change Your Flight allows for unlimited date or time changes, up to four hours prior to departure. You cannot change flights which you have already checked-in for, so if in doubt, you’d better hold off.

Alternatively, Change Your Flight can also be purchased as an a la carte add-on at the next booking step.

Now, it seems to me that for those without elite status, buying a Flex package or a la carte Change Your Flight add-on might be the safe option if you’re not 100% sure of your plans. In this particular scenario, making a single change for S$60 would already be twice the cost of an a la carte Change Your Flight add-on, and almost 70% of the cost of the Flex bundle!

Of course, the costs will differ depending on route, so you should make a point of checking this before deciding whether to purchase Change Your Flight.

Option 3: UOB KrisFlyer Thailand World Elite card

This option won’t be relevant to those of us based in Singapore, but for the sake of completeness I should mention that KrisFlyer UOB Thailand World Elite Cardholders (not the lower-tier World version) also enjoy a one-time date/time fee waiver.

The KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card in Singapore no longer offers this benefit, ever since June 2024, and in any case, its Scoot benefits do not apply to award tickets.

How does this compare to Singapore Airlines award tickets?

Scoot’s S$60-100 change fee stands in stark contrast to Singapore Airlines, where date and time changes cost a maximum of US$25 (~S$32), and can even be free. 

On the other hand, Singapore Airlines elite members don’t enjoy any waiver of the change fees on award tickets, even if they’re Solitaire PPS (you can ask and maybe it’ll be granted, but it’s not official policy).

Conclusion

While award flights on Scoot cannot be refunded, you can make date and time changes for a fee starting from S$60-100 (and a top-up of miles, where necessary).

Solitaire PPS, PPS Club and KrisFlyer Elite Gold members enjoy one complimentary date or time change, or you can choose to purchase the Change Your Flight add-on for unlimited complimentary date or time changes. 

If you don’t have elite status and aren’t completely sure of your plans, it might not be the worst idea to check how much this add-on will cost for your flight.