KrisFlyer has announced that it will be revising its award charts from 1 November 2025, which for the most part will increase the cost of awards and upgrades on Singapore Airlines and its partners.
If there’s a silver lining to this devaluation — apart from it being milder than expected — it’s that members have just over two months to lock in awards at the current prices. During the previous devaluation in July 2022, they had just 28 days!
The key thing to understand is that you don’t have to travel before 1 November 2025; you just need to book before then. And that’s raised a lot of questions about just how far in advance award tickets can be booked, and whether they can later be rescheduled even further into the future.
How the KrisFlyer devaluation will work
To recap, KrisFlyer members will be able to book awards at the current prices up till 31 October 2025, 11.59 p.m SGT, after which the new prices will apply.
| ✈️ Summary: Current and Revised Award Charts | ||
| Till 31 Oct 2025 | From 1 Nov 2025 | |
| Singapore Airlines awards | Link | Link |
| Singapore Airlines upgrade | Link | Link |
| Star Alliance awards | Link | Link |
| Star Alliance upgrade | Link | Link |
| Garuda Indonesia awards | Link | Link |
| Juneyao Airlines awards | Link | Link |
| Virgin Australia awards | Link | Link |
| Alaska Airlines awards | Link No change |
|
| Malaysia Airlines awards | Link No change |
|
| Scoot awards | Link No change |
|
Award tickets can be booked up to 355 days in advance, and new Singapore Airlines inventory is loaded every day at:
- 8 a.m SGT (All destinations except USA)
- 1 p.m SGT (EWR/JFK)
- 4 p.m SGT (LAX/SEA/SFO)
For example, on 25 August 2025, award inventory will be loaded for 15 August 2026.
| ⚠️ Exceptions |
|
There are two periods during the year when Singapore Airlines temporarily stops loading award seats at T-355: one in April, and one in November. This is due to the switchover between the Northern Summer and Northern Winter schedules, and affects both award and commercial tickets. It is usually resolved within a week. Fortunately, neither bottleneck will overlap with the notice period for this devaluation, so you don’t need to worry about it. |
Any waitlists which clear from 1 November 2025 onwards will be ticketed at the new prices, even if you joined the waitlist before this date.
Any changes made to award tickets from 1 November 2025 onwards that involve reissuance, such as route, cabin or award type, will require a top-up of the miles difference.
| Requires reissuance | No reissuance required |
|
|
Date changes do not require a top-up…
Date changes do not require a reissuance of the ticket.
Therefore, if you booked an award by 31 October 2025, you can still change the travel date from 1 November 2025 onwards without having to top-up further miles. Do note that a change fee may apply, depending on the award type you booked:
- Saver: US$25
- Advantage: Free
This assumes that the revised date has available award space in the same category.
Suppose you’ve booked a Saver award at the old rates, and want to make changes to the travel date after 1 November 2025. If the revised date only has Advantage awards, you must top-up the difference between the old Saver rate and the new Advantage rate.
| Original Award (Booked by 31 Oct) |
Revised Award (Changed from 1 Nov) |
Remarks |
| Saver | Advantage | Top-up difference, based on new Advantage price |
| Saver | Saver | No top-up required |
| Advantage | Advantage | No top-up required |
| Advantage | Saver | No refund of difference in miles. If old Advantage > new Saver, cancel your ticket and rebook at the new Saver price |
Of course, there could be the reverse scenario where you booked an Advantage award at the old rates, make a change after 1 November 2025, and find that the revised date has Saver awards.
The new Saver price should still be lower than the old Advantage price, so in this case you should cancel your award ticket and rebook to save (do make sure your award booking does not contain any expired miles before cancelling though).
…unless your ticket is no longer valid
Since date changes do not require a top-up of miles, some people are proposing the following:
- Book an award before the devaluation
- Keep changing the date as new award space opens up, to move the flight into 2027, 2028 and beyond!
But let’s pause and think for a moment. If that were possible, then in theory, I could still be holding on to an award I booked at prices 10 years ago, paying a nominal change fee each time to kick it a further year into the future. Clearly that can’t be the case!
Instead, it’s more accurate to say that date changes do not require a top-up of miles, provided the revised date is still within the ticket’s validity period.
Let me try to explain that.
Award booking horizon: 355 days
As mentioned before, award flights open for booking 355 days in advance.
Therefore, if I were to book an award on 31 October 2025, the last day before the devaluation, the furthest date I could select for travel would be 21 October 2026.
Ticket validity limit: 365 days
Award tickets have a validity of 365 days from the date they are issued.
Therefore, if I were to book an award on 31 October 2025, the last day before the devaluation, the ticket would be valid until 31 October 2026.
However, as of 31 October 2025, I wouldn’t be able to book 22-31 October 2026 yet, because it’s beyond the 355 day window. Instead, I’d have to wait until the seats open up, and it wouldn’t be until 10 November 2025 that I can move the booking to 31 October 2026 (+355 days).
Now here’s the important bit: I cannot move the award ticket beyond 31 October 2026 without requiring a reissuance, because that’s the limit of the ticket’s validity. A reissuance will require a top-up of miles, based on the new award chart.
Therefore the absolute furthest date that someone can travel on a pre-1 November priced ticket is 31 October 2026.
A warning about booking speculative awards
Over the next couple of months, I’m sure a lot of people will be contemplating booking speculative awards, in order to lock in the current prices.
You certainly can (and I’ll be doing that too), but there are a couple of precautions to take.
Watch out for expiry
First, you need to be mindful of your miles expiry date, because once they’re attached to an award ticket, it can be a case of “out of sight, out of mind”.
Suppose my miles expire on 31 December 2025. To avoid the devaluation, I make a booking on 31 October 2025 for travel in June 2026.
Then suppose March 2026 comes round and I have a change of heart. I want to cancel my flight and get my miles back— only I can’t. Each mile has a “memory”, and since my miles expired on 31 December 2025, I can no longer get a refund. My only option in this case will be moving the travel date as far as 31 October 2026, the limit of the ticket’s validity period.
So be extra careful if you’re making a speculative booking using miles that will expire in the near future.
Note the fees
Given that most Saver awards are increasing by just 5%, it’s possible that the amount you pay for change and/or cancellation fees on speculative bookings exceeds any savings.
For example, Singapore to Bangkok in Business Class is increasing from 24,000 miles to 25,000 miles. By booking ahead of the devaluation, you save 1,000 miles, but if you make even one date change, that US$25 (~S$32) you spend will almost certainly outweigh the savings. And if you have to cancel it, that’s US$75 (~S$96) down the drain!
So don’t be miles wise, cash foolish.
Conclusion
With KrisFlyer set to revise its award charts in two months’ time, there will no doubt be a flurry of bookings trying to beat the price hike.
There’s nothing wrong with doing this per se, but remember that free date changes do not mean you can push your ticket into the future indefinitely. The ticket’s validity has a hard limit of one year, and any dates after that will require reissuance— and with it a top-up of miles.
(Cover photo: The Points Guy)
I find the changes to be quite mild and given these new values will stay for a couple of years, actually quite conservative in the face of the current flight-related inflation. I do worry about the PPS/TPPS thresholds to rise, as 25/50’000 SGD are a bit low and probably due to a correction. The “light” approach to miles and the fact to be able to earn via non-flight expenses, makes me believe that the new thresholds might be significantly higher. Then said, I can also imagine the non-flight change to be due to the lack of traction of Pelago and… Read more »
With the impending launch of new cabin products, the inflation should have been a given.
And frankly, with the ease of earning miles, well…then the only surprise comes from the generally modest increase in redemption rates.
That being said, as a Singapore based flyer, my strategy moving forward is to use miles only for direct flights to Japan/Korea/Australia and New Zealand where the value of that airmile still makes sense for First/Suites.
The value per mile drops drastically for first class redemption when considering flights to Europe, US or Canada.
I’m from Houston, TX, trying to book business class flights for May/June 2026. I haven’t had much luck with finding open tickets. I started looking into it since June 2025. Would you know any tips or tricks to help me secure these tickets?
@aaron SQ is contesting this btw. They are not allowing the shift of flight dates (e.g. 21 Oct 2026 to 22 Oct 2026) without top-up, even though ticket is valid. Have written to them
Quote them their own FAQs (point 4) https://www.singaporeair.com/content/dam/sia/web-assets/pdfs/ppsclub-krisflyer/krisflyer/progupdates/AdjustmentstoAwardRatesForFlightRedemptionsandUpgrades.pdf
Ah yes sir thanks for the advice. Had already written to them with this piece of literature. Seeing how it goes.
Clarified in person.
If manually changed by CSO, no need for topup.
If done online, will need to topup.
But since flights open at 8am, while the service centre opens at 930am. Manually changing is practically impossible.
So ya, the rule is technically correct but practically infeasible.