KrisFlyer has just published a new KrisFlyer award chart for award flights on Scoot, the Low Cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines. This chart represents a significant shift from the dynamic pricing model it had been using.
Under the new award chart redemptions start from 1,500 KrisFlyer miles (for Singapore-Kuala Lumpur). Looking further afield, redemptions between Australia and Singapore start from 6,500 miles, one way (in the case of Singapore-Perth).
Scoot Award Chart
The new Award Chart is largely a fairly traditional chart of this type. It divides Scoot’s network into a number of zones, with each zone more or less representing the distance from Singapore. However, rather than specifying distances, they use a geographical description.
Under this system Singapore is Zone 1, Peninsular Malaysia is Zone 2, East Malaysia is Zone 3, and so on. For those of us in Australia, Perth is Zone 14, and the rest of Australia is Zone 15.
For each zone, Awards are available in two tiers, with the main difference appearing to be availability:
- Scoot Saver: The lower-priced award option, possibly with limited availability
- Scoot Advantage: Requires more miles, but may have greater availability
A New System
The Award chart is quite a shift from a system where you could use points for essentially a commercial airfare. When you did this, KrisFlyer would basically convert on the basis of each mile being worth 1 cent each. Basically, they were what would be called Classic Plus Rewards in the Qantas program, and came with the same pros and cons.
As with Classic Plus Rewards, the conversion is ok when fares are low. However, when fares are high, the number of points required are also high. All that said, the ability to offset your Scoot fares at the 1 cent per mile rate will still be open to you.
Making Your Booking
In order to make an award booking on Scoot, you have to start the redemption process from flyscoot.com or the Scoot app. Either way, you will need to be logged into KrisFlyer to be able to redeem a flight.
On the website, select to redeem flights, and then search as usual. The booking journey is fairly normal from that point. You select the flights and work your way through the the payment screen,
Scoot Award Inclusions
These Awards are pretty much the basic Scoot product. That is seat only, with the same allowances for other passengers. Basically, that means you will have a 10kg carry-on allowance. You’ll get assigned a random seat, and have to pay for meals.
That said, you are able to purchase additional services, such as baggage, meals or seat selection, with cash.
Scoot Award Conditions
As always, there are set of conditions that come with these awards. Firstly, they are non-refundable (except in some specific circumstances such as death of the passenger, medical reason, or a timing change of greater than two hours).
Secondly, the chart displays the number of points for the base fare. You will need to pay any extra taxes and surcharges in the currency of the published fare.
There is also a small amount of flexibility in that you can change the date of your booking. This will be subject to a fee (that I was unable to ascertain).
However, other changes such as routing changes or name charges are not allowed.
Final Words
I would describe this as a something of an improvement for KrisFlyer members. While some may not be keen on Scoot, for those that are it make redemptions much more affordable.
