KrisFlyer Axing Star Alliance Round The World Award

Singapore Airlines will discontinue the Star Alliance Round The World Award that lets you circle the globe with up to seven stopovers for just 280,000 KrisFlyer miles.

You still have a few weeks left to take advantage of the KrisFlyer Star Alliance Round The World Award. Singapore Airlines will still ticket these up to 30 April 2024.

After that, this award type will sadly disappear. You can still use KrisFlyer miles to circle the globe on one ticket – but not with the same amount of stopovers, flexibility and value.

Singapore Airlines has quietly given notice of this change on its website. The notice says:

Round The World Awards will not be available for ticketing via Singapore Airlines from 1 May 2024. Award tickets issued before 1 May 2024 will remain valid.

You can still book by 30 April 2024, for travel dates up to 11-12 months in advance.

Sadly, Singapore Airlines had already been gradually been making this award harder to book over recent years. After increasing the number of miles required to book a KrisFlyer RTW Award in July 2022, it also added a USD250 service fee for bookings made from March 2023.

Want to redeem your Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles for one of these great-value redemptions before the end of April? This guide explains the booking process…

How much does a KrisFlyer Star Alliance Round The World Award cost?

You can redeem your KrisFlyer miles to fly around the world in Economy, Business or First Class.

Prices are as follows:

• Economy: 200,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles + taxes
• Business: 280,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles + taxes
• First: 405,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles + taxes

A service fee of USD250 per ticket applies to all new Star Alliance Round-the-World redemption bookings. This fee is charged regardless of how you make your booking, but is waived for PPS Club members.

In general, you can expect to pay around $1,000-$2,000 per passenger in taxes. However, the final amount will depend entirely on your routing and the airlines used.

Some Star Alliance airlines, such as Lufthansa, SWISS, EgyptAir and Turkish Airlines, have relatively high carrier/fuel surcharges which will add to the cost. Other Star Alliance airlines, such as Singapore Airlines, United, Avianca, Copa Airlines and South African Airways, have no or low fuel surcharges. You can also save on taxes by avoiding long-haul flights departing from the UK.

If you don’t yet have enough KrisFlyer miles, you can transfer points across from most Australian credit card rewards programs. You can also convert Virgin Australia Velocity points into KrisFlyer miles at a 1.55:1 transfer rate.

Award routing rules

With this award, you can fly with Singapore Airlines and/or any other Star Alliance airline/s:

Each flight in your itinerary would need to have award space available in your desired class of travel. For flights operated by Singapore Airlines, this needs to be “Saver” (not Advantage) availability.

There are a few routing rules to be aware of:

• Maximum 16 total flight segments
• Maximum 7 stopovers
• Maximum 2 stopovers in any single country
• Surface sectors are permitted, but count as stopovers
• Maximum 35,000 miles total distance travelled
• If your itinerary includes more than one class of travel, the entire booking will be priced according to the higher cabin
• You must start and end the journey in the same country
• Travel must be in a continuous eastbound or westbound direction. You must cross both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans once each.

Almost any itinerary is possible, provided it meets the above criteria and flights are available. As an example, here’s one possible routing that uses Singapore Airlines, EgyptAir, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa and Air Canada…

Here’s another itinerary that would be possible to book as a KrisFlyer’s Star Alliance Round The World Award. This itinerary would include flights with Star Alliance members All Nippon Airways (ANA), TAP Air Portugal, Ethiopian Airlines and Singapore Airlines.

How to Book a Star Alliance Round The World Award with KrisFlyer miles

To book a Star Alliance Round The World Award using KrisFlyer miles, you would need to call Singapore Airlines. It is not possible to book this online. When calling up, make it clear that you want to book a round-the-world ticket using KrisFlyer miles, i.e. not using money.

If you’re in Australia, you can call Singapore Airlines on +61 2 7209 4388. See the Singapore Airlines website for contact details from other countries.

Before calling, it’s definitely a good idea to do some research and check for award seat availability on the flights you wish to book. Be patient as it can be difficult to book this award at times.

You can also check whether you have a valid routing without backtracking by plugging your routing into the Star Alliance round-the-world online booking tool. (This tool is used to book regular Star Alliance round-the-world airfares, which are a different product.)

If your itinerary gets a green light and appears to be valid, your booking does not have backtracking and should therefore be a valid routing if all other KrisFlyer conditions are met. After creating an itinerary in the Star Alliance round-the-world booking tool, you may receive a 16-digit reference number – keep this handy in case you need to provide it when calling Singapore Airlines to book.

Note that the availability of paid flights is very different to award availability, and you cannot use the Star Alliance website to make your award booking. In the context of the KrisFlyer round-the-world award, this tool is purely for checking that your itinerary has no backtracking!

If you’re planning a KrisFlyer Round The World Award, be sure to check out our dedicated Q&A thread on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: