Singapore Airlines announces a mild KrisFlyer devaluation

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• ChrisC says:

  4 Jan4 January 05:10

  ‘Bonvoy’ sounds more like the house brand of a shop than a h otel programme. Not sure it would be their budget food, clothes or home wear range though.

  “ Sit on your Bonvoy cushion as you wear your Bonvoy dressing gown eating your Bonvey ready meal cooked in your Bonvoy microwave.” The advert would go.

  I think Marriott will be saying bon voyage to it very soon.

  • MKB says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:57

    If evidence were needed that Starwood is now in the hands of fools, then the new name/logo should suffice.

    • Ian M says:

      4 Jan4 January 09:03

      Haha so true

    • Alan says:

      4 Jan4 January 11:55

      Indeed – my ongoing fight re travel packages is now entering its fourth month! Two months after escalating to CEO level things finally improving – TP applied to one-week stay at Westin Melbourne and they’re going to cover the points cost of a higher-level room (was booked into a single-bedded internal room!)

  • 1nfrequent says:

    4 Jan4 January 11:14

    Whenever I see the word “Bonvoy” I get an immediate mental image of Del Boy saying it to Boycie while sipping an absurd cocktail …

    1F

• Neil Donoghue says:

  4 Jan4 January 06:06

  Morning all, so I’ve just received 4 cancellation emails from Iberia in regards to flights I booked during the Avios promotion. Can I expect a full refund if I call them?

  • Simon says:

    4 Jan4 January 06:46

    +1

    • Judge says:

      4 Jan4 January 06:52

      +1

      If we ask for a refund, will they want our 90,000 Avios back? Should we just ignore these messages and see what happens?

      • Neil Donoghue says:

        4 Jan4 January 07:27

        My avios are long gone but knowing Iberia, they will put our accounts in to a negative. Time to pull out the T&C’s on this one as I believe the avios were awarded only for booking. It never mentioned flying nor did it ever mention anything if the flight was cancelled.

  • Rob mc says:

    4 Jan4 January 07:30

    2 cancellations for me and a time change

  • xcalx says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:01

    Not long after booking, IB cancelled a couple of MAN-MAD flights from the promo ( the only ones I wanted) full cash refund and no Avios deducted.

    • Neil says:

      4 Jan4 January 08:04

      Thank you very much xcalx

    • Rob mc says:

      4 Jan4 January 08:05

      Were the refunds automatic or did you have to contact them?

      • Neil says:

        4 Jan4 January 08:45

        Just called Iberia – All flights fully refunded to the card that I used at the time of purchase. Apparently the refund will take 1 month!! Refunds will not be automatic as the customer service manager was desperate to get me on to another flight which was 4 hours earlier

      • xcalx says:

        4 Jan4 January 09:07

        I contacted IB and asked for alternate flight a few days earlier but would only offer one 2 days later which was of no use to me. Cancelled and was told no Avios would be taken away.

      • Jay says:

        4 Jan4 January 09:18

        Well someone made a terrible mistake. They’ve basically given thousands of Avios away for free. Maybe realised they will be flying loads of half empty planes and could fill the seats in the sales.

    • Judge says:

      4 Jan4 January 09:16

      Thanks for replies xcalx and Neil.

• Roger says:

  4 Jan4 January 07:22

  Are all of these for UK stays only?

• Liz says:

  4 Jan4 January 07:29

  I am saving up my Marriott pts for a future Singapore Airlines flight when we go back to Oz in a few years time. When I booked our trip in 2017 for 2018 the miles had just gone up from 55k to 58k for one way from SIN-BNE – now it’s gone up to 62k – wish they would change the expiry policy.

  • Neil says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:05

    +1 – Cancelling the expiry date policy would result in me moving permanently to Kris Flyer

  • RTS says:

    4 Jan4 January 10:00

    Ohhh i forgot Marriott moves to Krisflyer… What is the transfer rate?

    • Liz says:

      4 Jan4 January 15:13

      Its 3:1 but if you have 60k you get the 5k bonus. Aiming for 120k in each of our accounts for 50k KF Miles. Think I’ve got my sums right – then need a further 12k now instead of 8k although they will probably increase it again before we go.

• JP says:

  4 Jan4 January 07:44

  No First Class MAN-IAH.

  “Premium redemptions on the Manchester to Houston route increase modestly. One-way Business Class redemptions increase from 65,000 miles to 72,000 miles. One-way First Class redemptions increase from 76,000 miles to 86,000 miles”

  • Rob says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:57

    Thanks, will amend.

• paulm says:

  4 Jan4 January 07:58

  As bits, two OT questions please:-

  Groupon/Iberia Avios – How long do these take to post ? Groupon say 10 days but just wanted to see if that was usually the case ?

  Melia – How long after checking out do the points from stays post to your account. Checked out of 1st stay last Sunday but nothing yet.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:52

    I’ve noticed Meliá stays take quite a while to post. Last one was well over a week

  • Anna says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:04

    I bought 3 lots of Groupon avios mid-December, the first 2 posted in 5 days, the 3rd lot was still missing when I checked a couple of days ago, though the Groupon vouchers are all showing as redeemed. I can’t decide whether to chase it up or not, given the previous lack of success reported by a few on here!

    • Londoner says:

      4 Jan4 January 09:59

      I’m having the same issue. I suspect it’s because of Christmas, but I don’t know. Normally they post 2 days after redeeming, so it might be that they are there in a few days. I will contact Iberia if they are not there on Monday.

      Purchased 4 so far, first 3 posted as promised, but this one is indeed still missing.

    • paulm says:

      4 Jan4 January 10:08

      thanks – just checked groupon and its not showing redeemed yet (I did it last Friday) so will give it a few days and submit again!

• Matthew says:

  4 Jan4 January 07:59

  The days of SQ biz Amsterdam to Oz/NZ for just 68,000 miles are long gone :-(.

  Just shows how harder it is becoming to earn miles and at the same time becoming more expensive to redeem.

  • Alan says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:06

    As has the cheaper 265k (+£350) Star Alliance redemption for round trip UK to Oz in Suites (with connecting flight on LH to Germany to start trip) – I enjoyed that this time last year!

    • Matthew says:

      4 Jan4 January 08:12

      Nice! It makes me wonder if I’m better of buying four seats to Oz/NZ during a QR sale ex EU than try and save well over half a million miles….

      • Mikeact says:

        4 Jan4 January 08:41

        Of course, those fortunate enough to be members of Singapore’s own KrisFlyer scheme pay no surcharges now, which can be a substantial saving.

        • Alan says:

          4 Jan4 January 11:54

          Although still surcharges on Star Alliance awards, even if mainly SQ flights. Availability much better via KrisFlyer so have never tried to book via VS, etc. Expiry is a pain though so try to just transfer points across when required. Did have success waitlisting for a business saver ticket before. Telephone agents very helpful at holding award too.

      • RTS says:

        4 Jan4 January 08:58

        Thought anyone can join Krisflyer?

      • Polly says:

        4 Jan4 January 09:04

        Many of us have actually cancelled 241 bookings in F to Asia, and Mid East, in order to buy QR ex EU J flights. Such good value, hard to justify spending almost 300k avios plus very high BA fees and surcharges. But the recent sales have not ever been that low price the last year or so. However, you could end up getting Oz, NZ around £1700/1800 which is a very good cash price.

        • Alan says:

          4 Jan4 January 11:56

          Plus although not quite as good value remember the long term ex-OSL deals to Oz with BA. Approx half the prices of ex-UK tickets and has been there for at least 3y now.

      • Mikeact says:

        4 Jan4 January 09:20

        @RET Of course, anybody can join, I’m a member, but it takes a significant amount of effort to get a substantial holding of their Miles from the UK unless the Far East is a regular commute. It’s a pretty good scheme in my opinion….a shame that *Alliance partners have to pay hefty surcharges for redemptions with them.

      • Rob says:

        4 Jan4 January 09:56

        You can ALWAYS buy business class to Oz for £1999 or less – admittedly it may be China Southern or Eastern ex Amsterdam but deals are there. Qatar and Etihad both doing well under £1999 from Scandinavia at the moment. Factor in the non-existent Avios availability and far better Qatar / Etihad product and I don’t see why you’d do it anyway. Qatar is 600 tier points too.

      • Louie says:

        4 Jan4 January 10:29

        Replying to Rob – for me, the reason for using Krisflyer or Avios or whatever is that I can cancel or change the flights. Living 12,000 miles away from elderly parents means there’s a significant risk attached to in an inflexible ticket. I’d say more than half of our long haul journeys have been changed in some way from initial booking over the last four years, though I appreciate that most people are more able to plan with near certainty.

      • Alan says:

        4 Jan4 January 11:50

        Yep I think that would be a very sensible option, esp given the normally much better availability for cash fares. Plus you’d probably secure BA Silver with the tier points earned!

• David says:

  4 Jan4 January 08:00

  OT – I’ve just booked an open jaw flight on BA: London to San Francisco out, returning from Los Angeles to London. It was 125,000 Avios as expected, but the taxes and charges seem high to me at £668 (I mean I know they’re a disgrace anyway but these are higher than I expected…)

  When I price up straightforward LON to SFO or LON to LAX returns on BAEC the taxes and charges are ‘only’ £599.

  Anyone have any idea what I’m missing here? Are open jaw flights just more expensive in charges? The agent I spoke to one the phone was clueless. Grateful for any HfP advice.

  • Matthew says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:09

    I think they are effectively pricing you two singles in terms of taxes and charges. They have increased the surcharges a lot for travel from the US.

    In fact, lots of routes have had surcharges go upwards…..I priced a BA first return LHR-SYD and it was over £700 in taxes and charges plus a shed load of avios of course!

  • The Original Nick says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:27

    @David, if you have the £200 off £600 spend offer at Amex try looking for the flights there. I nabbed my Mum a flight LHR-LAX rtn for £559 in Premium economy last week. You could always just upgrade then if needed.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      4 Jan4 January 08:55

      But be prepared for the possibility of Amex selling you a package fare which can’t be upgraded.

      • Rob mc says:

        4 Jan4 January 09:53

        I thought all premium economy fares were upgradeable on BA..? If not which fares can’t be so I can look out for them. Thanks

        • Alan says:

          4 Jan4 January 12:01

          Yes if bought direct from BA (and if doing so and there’s availability I’d just upgrade to CW at the same time!) but Amex Travel seem to be selling some package tour WTP fares that can’t be upgraded – which they shouldn’t be doing as standalone tickets! Not sure if anyone has had any luck contesting this with them?

      • Gavin says:

        4 Jan4 January 10:57

        Rob mc – sometimes Amex sell premium economy fares that can’t be upgraded (special discounted travel agent fares) and there’s no way of knowing if this is the case

      • TGLoyalty says:

        4 Jan4 January 12:09

        @ Alan

        Be careful with upgrading at the same time as it effectively stops you being able to use the 24 hour cooling off period.

        • Alan says:

          4 Jan4 January 12:11

          Fair point – when doing it I’ve normally been more worried about reward availability disappearing than needing to cancel it though 🙂

      • BlueHorizonuk says:

        4 Jan4 January 12:22

        This happened to me yesterday. Bought a Premium Economy fare at Amex Travel (to use the £200 offer) with a plan to upgrade using Avios. Couldn’t do it online so called BA and they said it was an unpublished fare. After getting back to Amex they said they can change it to a published fare for £1 extra. Paid it and ticket was reissued and BA went on to process the upgrade. BA then charged me a £30 service fee (even though I couldn’t do the upgrade online and was the reason for me calling) which I didn’t realise until I got the email. Not sure if this is contestable.

        • Alan says:

          4 Jan4 January 12:32

          Really interesting (& great result) re £1 fee to change to published ticket -hadn’t heard of them doing this but great to be able to still make use of the Amex Travel offer!

          Personally I’d look at challenging the fee with BA a bit more although would have also just processed the upgrade at the time, better to get that in the bag and then dispute the fee with them more given lack of website functionality. Ultimately though still a great deal 🙂

  • Craig says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:36

    BA upped their ‘carrier imposed surcharges’ recently, similar for me using a 241 to Atlanta and back.

  • Mikee says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:38

    Try beginning your trip in Dublin to avoid the high APD.
    I booked to LAX starting in DUB via LHR. The return to DUB is also via LHR but with a 3 month stopover in London meaning I get to collect my bags in LHR and have a “free” trip to Dublin later in the summer. This cost me £230 vs £600 in charges.

    • pixie says:

      4 Jan4 January 08:59

      how do you book the extra long stopovers? do you have to call over the phone

    • RK says:

      4 Jan4 January 10:43

      Hi Mikee

      How did you achieve the 3 month layover in Dublin?

      TIA

      • RK says:

        4 Jan4 January 10:44

        Meant to say London not Dublin

    • Mikee says:

      4 Jan4 January 19:28

      Just booked the over the phone.

  • Bagoly says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:10

    They increased the ex-USA fees more than other routes (to soak up activity from many Americans getting very large credit card sign-up bonuses).
    So put that together with Matthew’s point about it being priced as two singles and your result becomes understandable.

  • David says:

    4 Jan4 January 10:16

    Thanks guys. Sadly no Amex offer that I can use, but starting in DUB could be an option.

    However, I guess the broader question becomes should an open jaw ticket be priced as two singles for taxes and charges or treated as a return?

    The £599 vs £668 amounts are accurate as of today on the BAEC website…

    • Genghis says:

      4 Jan4 January 10:21

      Priced as a return. Back of fag packet I use as a gauge is the average of the two return prices.

  • TripRep says:

    4 Jan4 January 11:11

    YQ/CIS in BA CW seem to be £200/LH sector

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