Singapore Airlines typically revamps the PPS Club every 10 years or so, and since the last major overhaul came in 2017, the smart money says that we’re due another update in the near future.
While we don’t know exactly what that will entail, it’s likely that the minimum spend required for PPS qualification — which has remained at S$25,000 since 2007 — will increase (I’ll share some thoughts on that in a separate post).
If it’s any consolation, it’s also likely that SIA will cushion the blow by introducing some additional benefits, as they did the last time round.
What could those look like? Well, I have a few items on my wish list…
A “miles overdraft” feature
| Programme | Maximum Overdraft |
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Air France Flying Blue, Lufthansa Miles & More and Xiamen Egret Miles offer elite members an “overdraft facility”, which basically allows members to spend miles first, and earn them later.
For example, Flying Blue Platinum members can redeem an award ticket that costs up to 50,000 miles more than their current balance. They can then earn back the miles at their own pace, and use the facility again once they’ve regained a positive balance.
It’s a cool little idea, if you think about it. If your miles are on the bank side and need time to transfer, or if you’re waiting for a welcome bonus to be credited, you can secure the award seats first instead of risking them disappearing.
Sure, there’s the potential for this to be abused (e.g. abandoning the account and never earning back the miles), but I suspect that if you’ve spent the money to earn elite status, you’re not going to sacrifice it for a relatively small number of miles.
The ability to “force clear” a waitlist
One of the biggest frustrations of the KrisFlyer programme is the waitlist, and while Solitaire PPS and PPS Club members enjoy additional access to Saver awards, they aren’t completely exempt either.
When I wrote about ways I’d reform the KrisFlyer waitlist, I mentioned the idea of “force clears”, which would give elite members the ability to guarantee a waitlist clear.
Yes, yes. I know what you’re going to say. “Force clears already exist, they’re called Access awards!” That’s very clever and all, but I’d like to think that an elite member, as a valued customer, should have the ability to book a Saver award on the trips that matter the most to them.
For a parallel, look at Qantas Frequent Flyer. Qantas Platinum or Platinum One members can call up membership services to request for reward seats to be opened up on flights that otherwise don’t have them.
Per Points Hacks:
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Here’s how to request reward seats from Qantas:
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If successful, awards will be booked at the Classic Reward rate (aka Saver). That’s the beauty of this feature: it recognises loyalty by opening award seats when you really need them, while not charging you an arm and a leg to do so.
In the context of SIA, I could see a limited number of “force clear” instruments being issued as a higher-level PPS Reward, and valid for Business, Premium Economy and Economy (Suites and First wouldn’t be realistic, given how small the cabins are).
I don’t think it’s that outlandish. High-spending Solitaire members have shared their experiences getting Saver awards opened up by calling, so this would merely formalise the process.
TPR invitations as a PPS Reward
The Private Room (TPR) is Singapore Airlines’ flagship lounge, and is only accessible when departing (or arriving) on a Singapore Airlines Suites or First Class flight. There’s no access for Solitaires, whose entitlement maxes out at the First Class lounge.
I get that the inaccessibility is part of the whole appeal, but I’d like it if it were possible to earn TPR passes as part of PPS Rewards. Again, like Force Clears, this would need to be a higher-level reward because of capacity restrictions (TPR takes just 78 guests), but maybe a pair of passes could be awarded at the 100,000 PPS Value mark?
Bring back companion awards
Prior to 2007, Singapore Airlines offered companion awards. These were discounted award tickets that could be redeemed in conjunction with a paid commercial fare.
This basic idea was that if someone was travelling on a paid ticket, they could redeem their personal miles to bring along a +1. The discount wasn’t amazing — you’d usually save 15-20% off the regular Saver price — but it was still a nice little gesture which acknowledged that +1s do often tag along for business trips.
| ✈️ Regular Business Saver vs Companion Business Saver (2006) |
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| From Singapore to | Regular Business Saver | Companion Business Saver |
| 🇯🇵 Tokyo | 65,000 | 55,000 -15% |
| 🇦🇺 Sydney | 85,000 | 70,000 -18% |
| 🇬🇧 London | 120,000 | 100,000 -17% |
| 🇺🇸 San Francisco | 120,000 | 100,000 -17% |
| 🇺🇸 New York | 135,000 | 110,000 -15% |
| Prices are for round-trip travel, and do not include the 15% discount for online redemptions that KrisFlyer offered from 2003 to 2017 |
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Given that many Solitaire PPS and PPS Club members travel for work (rare is the member who earns it on their own dime!), it’d be great to see this discount return in some form.
Waiver of award change fees
| Saver | Advantage & Access | |
| Change of date SIA |
US$25 | Free |
| Change of route, cabin class, award type, or additional stopover SIA |
US$25 | US$25 |
| Change of date, route, flight or carrier Partner |
US$50 | N/A |
| Cancel award or upgrade SIA Partner |
US$75 | US$50 |
While Solitaire PPS and PPS Club members enjoy fee waivers when changing redemption nominees, they still pay the same US$25-75 fee as everyone else for changing or cancelling award tickets.
Unofficially, you can ask for a waiver, and depending on the circumstances, it may be granted. However, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for this to be formalised as an official benefit, especially since fee waivers for award changes and cancellations are already a common perk for elite members in other programmes.
Of course, there’s a risk that removing cancellation penalties could encourage members to make speculative bookings and cancel unwanted tickets at the last minute, potentially depriving other members. If that’s the concern, the benefit could be limited to a fixed number of uses per year, or restricted to changes and cancellations made at least X days before departure.
Unlimited redemption nominees
Currently, all KrisFlyer members are restricted to five redemption nominees, regardless of status.
I understand the need to have this measure in place for general KrisFlyer members, to prevent people from creating burner accounts and selling award tickets (though that doesn’t really stop the folks on Carousell!). But I don’t think it’s necessary for members with elite status, especially Solitaire PPS or PPS Club members. I mean, is anyone really going to risk their status by doing something like that?
Lifetime status returns (in a different form)
Singapore Airlines did away with Lifetime Solitaire PPS Club status in 2007, citing that it was “unsustainable”. Existing Life members were grandfathered in, but no new memberships were granted from that point on. This sparked an almighty kerfuffle and resulted in an (ultimately unsuccessful) lawsuit by disgruntled members.
Now, I don’t think there’s any real chance of SIA bringing the concept back, at least in that particular form, but may I suggest a compromise?
If granting lifetime status for “free” is too onerous, then why not make it such that PPS Reserve doesn’t expire?
Currently, PPS Reserve is valid for just three years, or six years if you qualified for Solitaire PPS Club status prior to 1 June 2018. But if it were valid indefinitely, then members would have every incentive to bank as much value as possible during their working years. In that sense, no one is getting anything for free. They’ve still earned it, just at a different point in life.
SIA also stands to gain, to the extent that employees decide to switch airlines to bank additional PPS Reserve for use in their golden years.
Conclusion
Singapore Airlines is likely to announce revisions to the PPS Club within the next couple of years, which will almost certainly result in an increase in the PPS Value required for qualification. However, there will probably be some new benefits to ease the pain, and the ones I’ve cited here would be welcome indeed.
I’m not going to say every one of these is realistic — I suspect there’s a degree of trepidation around the concept of life membership, so evergreen PPS Reserve might be a bridge too far — but hey, one can hope, right?
What benefits would you like to see added for Solitaire PPS and PPS Club members?
