Tuesday, June 6, 2017

How much is a KrisFlyer Mile worth (after the 2017 Devaluation)?

In March 2017, Singapore Airlines announced a revision to their Redemption Chart. And naturally, by "revision," they effectively meant "to increase the cost (in miles) for redemption flight tickets." The old and new redemption charts can be found on their website here and here respectively.

Having said that, we feel that it's actually a pretty fair revision, because Singapore Airlines also eliminated fuel and insurance surcharges. So redemption tickets now cost more miles, but less cash.

So with the new redemption charts, how much is a single KrisFlyer mile worth? As with our previous analysis, it really depends on which flights (and to a larger extent, which class of travel) you're flying on.

Krisflyer Economy Class Redemption Value

As expected, Economy redemptions are really poor value - as low as 0.6¢ per mile! In most cases you would be better off just paying the full cash fare to your destination. Of course there are exceptions where it could make sense: For example, perhaps the Economy Super Saver or Saver cash fare isn't available for the dates that you want to fly, or perhaps you have a small number of miles that are going to expire soon anyway.

Krisflyer Premium Economy Class Redemption Value

Premium Economy redemptions are a little better - around 2-3¢ per mile. At this value point, the decision to spend miles instead of cash starts to make a little more economic sense. Singapore Airlines' Premium Economy class isn't really that great, though - but that's a discussion for another day.

Krisflyer Business Class Redemption Value

Business Class redemptions seem to hover around a value of 3-4¢ per mile: a significant reduction from the 4-8¢ per mile values in the old redemption table.

Krisflyer First Class Redemption Value

And as expected, First / Suites Class redemptions continue to give the best bang for your mile at around 5-7¢ each.

So to conclude, the value of a single KrisFlyer mile ranges from around 1-7¢ per mile depending on which flight/class you fly on. The ¢ per mile figures are still pretty solid for Business and First Class flights, but if your mileage earning and redemption patterns normally allow you only to buy Economy and Premium Economy flights, it could be worth re-evaluating whether 'playing the mileage game' still makes sense for you.

One caveat: The number of miles required for redemption tickets are fixed, but the cash fares vary according to promotion periods, availability of cheaper fare buckets (e.g. the economy super saver buckets), etc, so these ¢ per mile values should only be taken as a rough guideline.

Hopefully this post has helped you. And if you've decided to continue playing this mileage game, good luck and have fun with your next Singapore Airlines Suites Class Redemption flight, whenever that is!!