Of all the benefits offered by the Standard Chartered Beyond Card, there’s one with so many strings attached it might as well be Pinocchio. I’m talking about the Business Class upgrade perk, which sounds great on paper: get a free upgrade to Business Class, twice a year.
But once you dig into the fine print, you’ll find that the perk is extremely restrictive, and in some scenarios might even be practically worthless. For instance, you can forget about using it if you only travel as a couple, because a minimum purchase of three tickets is required.
Well, the good news is that Standard Chartered will enhance this perk from 22 November 2025 by reducing the minimum purchase requirement from two Business Class tickets to one. However, the rest of the terms remain unchanged, and as such your savings could be marginal— or you could even end up paying more!
StanChart Beyond Card changing Business Class upgrade perk
Here’s how the StanChart Beyond Card’s Business Class upgrade perk currently works:
- Minimum purchase of two Business Class tickets
- Cardholders can upgrade one or two Premium Economy tickets for every two Business Class tickets purchased
A maximum of two Premium Economy Class tickets can be upgraded per membership year, and all tickets must be purchased through the StanChart Beyond Card concierge.
I hope you can see the problem already: the benefit requires a minimum of three passengers on the same itinerary, which rules it out for couples.
But from 22 November 2025, Standard Chartered will change the perk as follows:
- Minimum purchase of one Business Class ticket
- Cardholders can upgrade one Premium Economy ticket for every one Business Class ticket purchased
For example, you could purchase one Business Class ticket and one Premium Economy Class ticket, and have the latter upgraded to Business Class. Alternatively, you could purchase two Business Class tickets and two Premium Economy Class tickets, and have the latter two upgraded to Business Class.
Does this make the perk worthwhile?
The new perk is undoubtedly better, in the sense that you only need to buy one Business Class ticket rather than two.
That said, the rest of the terms remain the same, so I still wouldn’t consider it very attractive.
Not valid on airlines or routes without Premium Economy cabin
At the risk of stating the obvious, you won’t be able to use this benefit if you’re travelling on an airline that does not offer a Premium Economy product, such as Etihad Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines.
And even if it does, Premium Economy will not be available on every route. For example, Singapore Airlines does not offer this cabin on flights within Southeast Asia, as well as Adelaide, Brisbane, Maldives, Perth and Seoul, to name a few.
You must buy the most expensive Premium Economy fare
To use this benefit, you must buy a non-restricted Premium Economy fare, which is the most expensive fare class available. In some cases, this can cost even more than restricted Business Class tickets, and if so, then this benefit is effectively worthless!
Moreover, if the least expensive Business Class fare is sold out, then the upgrade can’t be used too.
Restricted Business Class fares may not enjoy all the perks
Standard Chartered will upgrade your non-restricted Premium Economy ticket to the most restricted Business Class fare, i.e. the cheapest-available.
On certain airlines, these come with additional limitations. For example, if you were to upgrade your Emirates Premium Economy ticket to a Business Special fare (the cheapest fare class there is), your ticket would have:
- No advance seat selection
- No chauffer service
- No lounge access
So you could end up in an odd situation where some members of your travelling party have lounge access and others don’t.
By the way, Air France, Finnair and KLM also don’t grant lounge access on their cheapest Business Class fares, and Finnair is particularly punitive. Business Light passengers on Finnair also don’t get any checked bags, prior seat assignments, priority check-in, priority security or priority boarding!
For what it’s worth, Singapore Airlines Business Lite tickets enjoy the same on-ground and inflight benefits as their more expensive counterparts (the main difference is the accrual rate for KrisFlyer miles).
Only the airfare is covered
Standard Chartered will only pay the fare difference between the non-restricted Premium Economy Class ticket and the most restricted Business Class ticket. The cardholder will need to pay any additional taxes or surcharges arising from the upgrade.
Depending on which carrier and where you’re flying, this could be negligible, or substantial. For example, Singapore Airlines does not have fuel surcharges, so if you’re flying with them to a destination where the taxes are the same for all classes of travel, then you won’t need to cough up anything extra.
On the other extreme, suppose you’re flying with Air France from Singapore to Paris. If you use the upgrade benefit, you’ll still be on the hook for an extra S$985, broken down into:
- An additional S$864.20 in fuel surcharges
- An additional S$120.80 from the French Air Passenger Solidarity Tax
That’s a lot to pay for your “free” ticket (and remember, you have to buy the most expensive Premium Economy fare available!).
Other things to know
Here’s a few other things you should know about the upgrade perk
- Only round-trip bookings are permitted
- Travel must be completed within three months from date of departure
- All bookings must be made at least one week in advance from date of departure
The full T&Cs of the revised benefit can be found below
Tickets must be purchased and charged to a valid Beyond Card (including the Beyond principal cardholder as one of the travellers): **Non-restricted fare refers to the most expensive fare of the Class ; Most restricted fare refers to the least expensive fare of the Class
Business Class Upgrade T&Cs
Conclusion
From 22 November 2025, Standard Chartered will relax the terms for the Beyond Card’s Business Class upgrade perk, by requiring a minimum of one paid Business Class ticket rather than two.
While this is clearly an improvement from the status quo, it’s still far from generous. You will still need to buy an expensive non-restricted Premium Economy Class ticket, your upgraded restricted Business Class ticket may not be the “full fat” experience, and you may have to cough up a hefty cash co-payment to cover the additional fuel surcharges and taxes.
Because of this, I don’t think you should give the Business Class upgrade perk much weight when evaluating the value of your StanChart Beyond Card.
Has anyone made use of the StanChart Beyond Card’s Business Class upgrade perk?
No one is using this – complete waste of time
How do they define premium economy? Some carriers like to apply their branding to it.
Would be cool to see how many people actually used this “benefit” under the old rules