KrisFlyer miles are a great-value way to fly Singapore Airlines Business Class and Suites, especially when you’re booking reward seats outright. But did you know you can upgrade from a cash ticket as well?
It’s not the most amazing use of miles, but it’s a great option to have up your sleeve if work is paying for your ticket and you want to splurge a bit. Or if you’re paying for your own ticket and still want to splurge. We won’t judge.
Here are the simple steps to upgrade your next Singapore Airlines flight with KrisFlyer miles.
Note: the number of miles needed for upgrades will increase from 5 July 2022. All in-text numbers in this article have been updated to the higher figure. But the steps are still the same.
How many miles do I need to upgrade?
First up, you’ll need to do your homework. Luckily, that’s fairly easy to do with the KrisFlyer upgrade award chart. We’ll even put it below for you to peruse. To see how many miles you need, find the page appropriate to your upgrade pathway, then look at your start and end zones.
For example, a Sydney (Zone 9) to Singapore (Zone 1) flight from Economy Standard to Business (Page 3) would need 58,500 KrisFlyer miles for a Saver upgrade, or 85,000 miles for an Advantage upgrade.
There are seven pages, corresponding to seven different upgrade pathways:
- Economy Standard (M, H, W) to Premium Economy, Business
- Economy Flexi (Y, B, E) to Premium Economy, Business
- Premium Economy Standard (P, L) to Business
- Premium Economy Flexi (S, T) to Business
- Business Standard/Flexi (Z, C, J, U) to First and Suites
Only ‘Standard’ and ‘Flexi’ fare types mentioned above are eligible for upgrades. Unfortunately, this excludes discounted ‘Lite’ or ‘Value’ tickets, so make sure you book the right fare.
Westpac Altitude Rewards Black
- Sign-up Bonus:
- Up to 200,000 bonus Altitude points
- Rewards Earn Rate:
- 3 Altitude Points per $1 on international transactions, 2 Altitude Points per $1 on everyday spend, and 1 Altitude Points per $1 on all other eligible spend up to $10,000 per statement period. Then 0.5 Points per $1 thereafter, uncapped
- Annual Fee:
- $200 card fee for the first year, $295 p.a. ongoing
- The Westpac Altitude Rewards Black has up to 200,000 Altitude Points plus a reduced first year annual card fee on offer for new cardholders, the points can be redeemed for up to $950 in e-gift cards or transferred to Velocity Frequent Flyer, KrisFlyer or Cathay miles at a 3:1 ratio. The card offers high points earn rates plus ongoing benefits, including Priority Pass lounge invites.
How do I upgrade my Singapore Airlines flight?
In general, you’ll want to aim for the cheaper ‘Saver’ upgrades. Log in to your KrisFlyer account and do a dummy redemption search on the exact same date and route as your existing booking. If ‘Saver’ reward seats show up in the higher cabin class, then you should be good to upgrade online.
We say ‘should’ because sometimes, the upgrade inventory doesn’t match the reward seat availability 100% of the time. But in most cases, it should work out.
Here are the steps to upgrade online.
- Go to ‘Bookings’ in your KrisFlyer account.
- Choose the flight you want to upgrade and click ‘Manage Booking’.
- Click on ‘Upgrade flights’, then ‘Redeem with miles’.
- Tick the flight(s) that you want to upgrade.
- Confirm the number of KrisFlyer miles to complete the upgrade.
Other rules to know
1. It’s better to upgrade multiple flights
KrisFlyer uses regions and zones in its reward chart, and the same applies to upgrades. So if you have a multi-leg flight, it’s generally better value to upgrade both legs at once, rather than just one at a time.
For example, let’s say you’re flying Adelaide-Singapore-Bangkok in Economy Standard. Here are the Business Class upgrade costs for each individual leg:
- Adelaide to Singapore: 58,500 miles
- Singapore to Bangkok: 18,500 miles
But if you can upgrade Adelaide-Singapore-Bangkok in one go, it’ll only cost 58,500 miles overall. Go on, check the table to confirm. You’re essentially getting the second flight upgrade for free.
One other thing – you can’t upgrade from Economy or Premium Economy to First Class/Suites. Only paid Business Class passengers get that opportunity.
2. You get increased luggage, but not points
If your upgrade clears, you’ll have airport benefits from the higher class such as lounge access, increased luggage allowance and priority processing. But you’ll still earn KrisFlyer miles and Elite miles based on the original fare.
3. Everyone on your booking must be upgraded
You can’t have a ticket with half the passengers in Business and half in Economy! Everyone in one reservation must be upgraded together, and there must be enough upgrade availability seats to do so.
This means bigger groups will probably not be able to upgrade unless they split the booking.
Also, only one account can do the upgrade on behalf of everyone. If you’re doing the upgrade, that means everyone else in the booking must be on your KrisFlyer Redemptions Nominee list.
4. You have to pay any difference in taxes
This doesn’t affect most flights originating from Australia. But if upgrading to a higher cabin class means you need to pay a higher tax (such as in the UK), then Singapore Airlines will pass that on to you.
Is it worth upgrading with KrisFlyer miles?
In a pure number sense, generally not. KrisFlyer upgrades are priced so high that you can usually get a confirmed redemption in that cabin for not much more.
For example, Perth to Singapore only needs 40,500 miles in Business Class outright, whereas an upgrade is 32,000 miles from Economy Standard.
Sydney to London is 130,500 KrisFlyer miles in Business Class all the way. But an upgrade from a paid Economy Standard ticket will cost 104,000 miles.
So our rule of thumb is to try to redeem a seat outright where possible. Upgrades are best left to when someone else is covering the cost of your ticket, or if you already have a cash ticket and just want to upgrade anyway.
Incidentally, you can also upgrade Singapore Airlines flights with miles from other Star Alliance carriers. But that’s a complex process with lots of rules, so we’ll cover it another time.
Summing up
Singapore Airlines has a fairly simple online upgrade system. Unlike Qantas Frequent Flyer, which uses a lottery/waitlist system, you can potentially confirm upgrades with KrisFlyer miles in advance. There just has to be ‘Saver’ or ‘Advantage’ reward seat availability in the higher cabin.
So for people who book their travel quite far out, using KrisFlyer miles is a great way to lock in an upgrade. Just keep in mind the various rules, especially when other passengers are in the one booking.
Hello, Suppose that I had a mix cabin flight from ICN to LHR via SIN. The tickets were mix cabin with the long haul (SIN – LHR) in premium economy(flexi) and the shorter ICN to SIN in economy(flexi, due to the fact that there are no flights with premium economy seats).
In this case, how do Singapore Airlines calculate miles required for upgrades for entire flights, from economy to business ICN – SIN and from premium economy to business SIN – LHR?
Do they redeem miles required from economy flexi to business for ICN – SIN and from premium economy to business for SIN – LHR respectively or redeem both legs with one designated amount of miles?
Thank you for your any assistance.
Hi, has anyone had any experience with “mysq Upgrade” as opposed to paying the fare difference? Which is cheaper?
Hi Linda, these days mySQupgrade upgrade amounts can be quite high. It’s hard to say which is cheaper as there are so many variables. You may want to look at community forums where users compare offers such as this one on FlyerTalk.
Thanks Brandon- will do! One other question- if upgrading with points on Singapore Air, multi-leg trip booked as premium economy but mixed class. Per-Sin economy M then Sin-Muc Premium economy P. How to calculate points required? Do I look at what’s needed from economy to business or PE to business?
Can you upgrade individual legs if one of your four segments are not operated by SQ? im looking at SYD-LON then returning ATH-SYD where the ATH-SIN leg is operated by scoot. I cant do the dummy redemption search as you cant redeem miles to purchase the initial routing due to the codeshare. If I search each individual segment to see if any saver upgrades are available for each will this apply to my open jaw booking?
I have recently tried upgrading with miles from a Flexi site to business form Mel to LAX and online it not available.
I called the support number and after calling multiple times a day for a week was able to get a redemption agent who confirmed that they are not upgrading any flights with miles from Mel to LAX.