AVOID KrisFlyer scheme/scam if you travel as a family!
Dec 4, 2018, 10:21 am
#16
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: WAS
Programs: Free Agent
Posts: 1,757
1. Some airlines permit this for an extortionate fees, some don't at all, very few have free and user friendly pooling features (e.g. BA HH account)
2. pretty standard. You can use miles from account A to upgrade passenger B, but can't use 10k from account A, 15k from B and 7k from C. Normal
3. 3 years, pretty standard
4. I don't know, I'd assume it depends on the *A partners making awards available to some degree
TL/DR, OPW?
2. pretty standard. You can use miles from account A to upgrade passenger B, but can't use 10k from account A, 15k from B and 7k from C. Normal
3. 3 years, pretty standard
4. I don't know, I'd assume it depends on the *A partners making awards available to some degree
TL/DR, OPW?
Dec 4, 2018, 2:19 pm
#17
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: SF Bay Area
Programs: United, AA, KrisFlyer
Posts: 179
My wife and I belong to KF, UA Mikeage Plus and AAdvantage. None of them free transfers between spouses. We did have to do it once on AA when I was short a couple of thousand points on an Asian trip. It’s a pain, but certainly not a scam. KF does have some inconsistent rules on points transferred from credit cards, however. Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred to a spouse, but Thank You points can only go to the individual. I got caught not knowing the TY point rule and the points ended up in SQ limbo for a while. But, you live and learn.
Dec 4, 2018, 2:44 pm
#18
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 21,009
jorrdanhammond Welcome to FT
Being able to move QF ff points, for free, to eligible family members is one of the better features of the QF ffp (Its hard to think of many more). That QF free transfer and/or family pooling offered with some other ffps is not common. On the flip side QF has atrocious cash surcharges on awards, poor award availability and poor ff points & SC earning on many partners. For awards QF earn to burn is poor.
Hard expiry is not unusual ---> Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire. Click to open the wiki.
If you want to look at bad ffp look at Air NZ (Star Alliance). SQ ffp is shiny platinum compared to NZ's very dull bronze.
FFP's are not all the same. You need to understand the t&c's. Its not fine print, but clearly on the web sites. Many ffp's have a sweet spot or features that benefit some people. Here on FT you can that information/limitations to get the best benefit from a ffp.
- Being able to transfer with a fee is far better that not being able to transfer at all and the points disappearing. Qantas has no transfer fee.
- Without a transfer option, pooling your family accounts would be the only logical solution. Since you can only have 5 connected accounts, abusing this would be hard. What's the purpose of being able to connect the accounts of you cannot share the points? A "pointless" feature.
- 3 years without automatic extension? I've never come across this before. Every point system I've used is N years from the last date of activity for the entire points balance. KrisFlyer ignores you activity and auto-expires points after 3 years no matter how much you fly with them.
Hard expiry is not unusual ---> Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire. Click to open the wiki.
If you want to look at bad ffp look at Air NZ (Star Alliance). SQ ffp is shiny platinum compared to NZ's very dull bronze.
FFP's are not all the same. You need to understand the t&c's. Its not fine print, but clearly on the web sites. Many ffp's have a sweet spot or features that benefit some people. Here on FT you can that information/limitations to get the best benefit from a ffp.
Dec 4, 2018, 6:29 pm
#19
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 1,675
In the small print of the KrisFlyer terms & conditions is a small line that mentions that pooling of points is not permitted. They have a system that allows you to access the points of your family members, but you cannot use those points combined to access any reward.
11. Pooling of KrisFlyer miles and/or status credits is not permitted and each KrisFlyer membership can only be utilised by one person. Singapore Airlines reserves the right to cancel a KrisFlyer account and all KrisFlyer miles and/or status credits in the account, if it is found to be used by more than one person.
So if you have a family who travel together, each with their own KrisFlyer account, and later you want to use all those points to upgrade a flight. You can't.
What do we know about the KrisFlyer scheme?
There are so many other options out there without such restrictive rules.
11. Pooling of KrisFlyer miles and/or status credits is not permitted and each KrisFlyer membership can only be utilised by one person. Singapore Airlines reserves the right to cancel a KrisFlyer account and all KrisFlyer miles and/or status credits in the account, if it is found to be used by more than one person.
So if you have a family who travel together, each with their own KrisFlyer account, and later you want to use all those points to upgrade a flight. You can't.
What do we know about the KrisFlyer scheme?
- You cannot transfer points to other members
- You cannot pool points between connected accounts
- Your points expire extremely rapidly
- Within Europe, your reward flight options are extremely limited (once on the phone every reward flight available between EU cities was to go via Singapore)
There are so many other options out there without such restrictive rules.
Dec 4, 2018, 6:32 pm
#20
Join Date: May 2016
Location: SIN
Programs: SQ TPPS, QR Gold
Posts: 380
Dec 4, 2018, 6:42 pm
#21
Join Date: Mar 2015
Programs: HH Diamond, GHA Titanium
Posts: 1,961
Dec 4, 2018, 7:20 pm
#22
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: YVR, HNL
Programs: AS 75k, UA peon, BA Bronze, AC E50k, Marriott Plat, HH Diamond, Fairmont Plat (RIP)
Posts: 7,832
Dec 4, 2018, 7:49 pm
#23
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Singapore
Programs: QF LTG, SQ EGTP, Bonvoy LTG
Posts: 4,847
My main points experience has been with Qantas which does free family transfers. This works fine without issue. The other is Virgin Atlantic, which have proven in more than 10 years to be impossible to use. The "surcharges" normally cost more than the list flight price. I have 300K of those which I've not been able to ever use. If there's any good posts for using these, let me know.
Dec 4, 2018, 8:01 pm
#24
Join Date: May 2004
Location: SIN (LEJ once a year)
Programs: SQ, LH, BA, IHG Diamond AMB, HH Gold, SLH Indulged, Accor Gold, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,735
Here are my top 5 reasons.
1. Access to Singapore Airlines suites first class award redemptions.
2. Sweet spots in redemptions between the Middle East and Europe (Dubai to London etc.) or Maldives to Europe, North America and Hawaii etc.
3. NO fuel surcharges on Singapore Airlines own flight awards
4. Very low cancel/change fee (20 USD)
5. Ability to wait list Singapore Airlines own flight awards and they don’t charge a close-in ticketing fee (booking an award within 21 days of travel)
among others.
1. Access to Singapore Airlines suites first class award redemptions.
2. Sweet spots in redemptions between the Middle East and Europe (Dubai to London etc.) or Maldives to Europe, North America and Hawaii etc.
3. NO fuel surcharges on Singapore Airlines own flight awards
4. Very low cancel/change fee (20 USD)
5. Ability to wait list Singapore Airlines own flight awards and they don’t charge a close-in ticketing fee (booking an award within 21 days of travel)
among others.
Dec 4, 2018, 10:32 pm
#25
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Singapore & Globe trotting
Programs: QR Gold, ITA Club Executive, Hilton Gold, GHA Titanium, Taj Gold, Accor Gold, Marriott Gold Elite
Posts: 425
Here's a good overview of which airlines allow family pooling: 21 Airlines That Allow Families to Pool Miles - The Points Guy
Dec 4, 2018, 11:06 pm
#26
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: YYZ/MGA
Programs: AA 1MM Lifetime Gold, AA Platinum, WS Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 7,607
When I saw the post title and trending I bet myself they had one post but now 5 but no surprise.
Dec 5, 2018, 4:02 am
#27
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Canada, USA, Europe
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 31,452
Dec 8, 2018, 8:28 pm
#30
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,397
To credit *A miles into a family account, look at the OZ program. KE allows family accounts and IIRC OZ does too. Otherwise, in my mind the major ones would be BA and QF, both in oneworlld.