SQKrisflyer Elite

I wanted to know if anyone has more information on when SQ are likely to open up Business Saver Awards & Upgrades on A380/B777/A345 aircraft.

I emailed Krisflyer about a month or so ago and just got the following response:

We appreciate the feedback that you have highlighted regarding Business Class award offered for A380 and B777-300ER,
Please allow us to explain that at the moment Only Standard and Full awards are available for First and Business Class on B777-300ER flights and On the A380, only Standard and Full awards are available for Business Class. At the moment, there are no plans to introduce Business Saver award tickets on the above mention premium flight carriers for redemption.





Anyone closer to SQ know further details, it is a bit ridiculous that it is now 2010 and Business Saver's aren't available. I can totally understand when the product was new that it would come at a premium, now that is not the case. It is an established product on many of their routes.

Also you now don't have a choice on many routes to take the old 747 style business class. Travelling from London - Sydney on a business saver upgrade just doesn't seem like a possibility now.

Looks as though it is time to burn up all the miles on SQ with Y class tickets and continue to bank with LH.

Their Krisflyer programme just seems to be going backwards everyday.

aster

This is annoying, buy it's still better to burn in F on the 744, say from FRA-SIN or SIN-JFK.

And never, ever move to LH...

It's BD's Diamond Club that is the best FFP for *A fliers. ^ It is THE ONLY FFP where once you reach Silver/Gold you get a 25% bonus for flying any *A carrier. On top of that it is #1 when it comes to redeeming miles. LH is complete crap compared to Diamond Club (especially their miles+cash option).

chrispstan

The bit on "no plans" to introduce Business Saver Awards is absolutely correct. It seems there are those who consider it absolutely worthwhile to burn their miles at Standard rates. If this is the case, why should SQ introduce Saver awards? They are pricing redemption seats at what the market can bear. For those routes that are more miles sensitive, what SQ would do is to offer special discounts.

Supersonic Swinger

This applies until Diamond Club, with BD now a 100% owned subsidiary of LH, gets subsumed into the "Miles & More"-borg - like Adria, Air Dolomiti, Austrian, Brussels Airlines, Croatia Airlines, LOT, Luxair and Swiss already have been.

aster

Some of these airlines are not financially linked to LH, they just choose to be in this joint M&M program that I find to be quite unconvincing...

Redeeming in M&M seems to be crap unless you are going for companion awards (you have to be on the same flight on an award). Their 1-way redemptions are a joke (even KF members can redeem 1-way across the entire *A at 50% of the miles required for return flights).

Overall M&M has nothing going for it, so if LH decides to take down Diamond Club in the future then 95% of its members will probably bail straight away... In the meantime I would use DC for as long as it's around, and who knows whether it won't be running strong for many, many years?

flyGreg

SQ are now flying the 777-300 to Melbourne with angled lie-flat Business Seats (same seats as A330 SIN-BNE afaik). One can now fly MEL-SIN-FRA with Business Saver. It's actually a better connection to Europe because the A380 now departs Melbourne before midday. I don't want to spend 7 hours in Changi airport.

The new 777-300 is fitted out with the same First suites as the 777-300ER so I don't think we'll ever see First Savers on here, nor do I really want to. First Standard redemption is still great value for the high level of product and service.

Kiwi Flyer

Most unlikely. Swiss Travel Club was closed very quickly after LH bought LX. Brussels Airlines moved into M&M even quicker.

weero

Exactly. SQ can rely on a large base of idiots who confuse their excellent product on a few select aircraft with the quality of SQ's large and at times shabby fleet and their disloyalty joke-plus program.

So I think that they can go a long way with fleecing their customers.
That makes perfect sense, if I said it. But you have a companion to travel with and what you covet is riding on SQ or LX. And for both targets M&M is actually quite a decent program. You can get the new seats on SQ at saver rates and you can waitlist LX Biz awards .... seems like the place for you in my narrow view.
I don't think that they remotely care. When they crippled M&M for non-European customers, they did not care either. A pity, I agree.

Kiwi Flyer

Yes, except for SEN+

aster

It's still quite decent for F saver awards, but as you've brought up in the past - those won't be around once SQ pulls the plug on the 747s.

For me it's either KF or DC for now, so I'm kind of feeling the pressure from both sides. It's kind of like, "what will be the first to go: SQ's 747s... or DC?"

The companion award for SEN is an enticing miles-saver, as is redemption on SQ's new J (I'm curious how easy/hard it is to book 2x biz seats on the 77W/A380). My only beef with them is a) no family membership -and- b) 100k threshold for SEN. Of course the flip side is that I only need the 100k once every 2 yrs once I have qualified, and the 200% bonus +25% extra give a nice status miles boost in C.

I think this is now a toss-up between: "what will be the first to go: SQ's 747s, DC, or the old LX C seat on the A340?"

I think they might leave something in place for existing DC members, like an adjustment period. If DC actually makes financial sense then maybe one of the other airlines is already looking into filling the gap if LH starts their demolition job?

aurigakb

Quite the optimist!

weero

How realistic is it that once the 747s are gone that SQ will lift the ban on saver awards and their 'standard' equipment then?
Hmmm is that safe enough? No chance for an A330 to show up on this route ?
Yes. LH always tries to sell their devaluation schemes as "enhancements", so they will do the same thing with DC. They will silently and immediately kille the miles & money awards and but allow companion awards or F awards on LH and brag with that. Then the earning schemes get 'adjusted' etc etc.

DownUnderFlyer

I think the only thing which can save DC is LH selling BD again.

Not sure I can follow you. BD is not a good program when you fly mainly in discounted economy class. It is a good program if you fly in paid premium cabins long distance so the claim to be the best FFP for *A is not correct.
It's also not the right program if you want really easy status (TK, OZ) or if you want to get lifetime *G fast than in 10 years.
M&M is a really nice program depending on your needs. You get 2500 miles for a short 300 mile hop in paid business and have good earnings in other premium cabins. You can waitlist rewards and have decent call centre options around the planet, big contrast to the DC ICC.

aster

First and foremost you want the miles to be worth something. Not sure about redemptions on TK or OZ, but BD's Diamond Club seems to be the top FFP here with its Miles&Cash option.

To get from Silver to Gold (and recently they were giving out automatic Silver) you only need 38k status miles. Same amount to renew. That's a lot less than LH or SQ is asking.

I think BD is a very good program for Y travelers as well. In fact it's the only one that gives a 25% bonus for flying any *A carrier - all the other ones will give you this bonus only on their own metal.

Add to that BD's family membership where you can pool all your miles and I think they have a unique product that is geared towards all sorts of travelers. Take SQ or LH... can't combine the miles, so many people traveling in Y aren't able to build up a good enough balance to make a decent redemption. But with BD they can thanks to this feature.

Not convinced about TK/OZ, especially as I would not be flying their metal so no 25% bonus for me. As mentioned BD will give you that bonus across the alliance as the only *A FFP to do so.

On top of that once in a while a great deal in C comes along, like the recent LH 1,300 Euro biz return to SIN, and with BD you get the full 200% of miles, whereas TK would only give you 150% and OZ 125%. And of course the 25% bonus on BD would apply as well.

P.S. Where can I get lifetime *G in <19 years? Is there a quick "route" available somewhere?

Kiwi Flyer

I presume that is a typo for 10 years.

Some programs have lifetime gold status for 1 million miles (UA only counts UA flights, OZ counts all *A) - if you fly a lot this can be much less than 10 years.