Scoot’s KrisFlyer deal revamped. Earning – Better; Redemption – Still Awful

Back in January you may recall how we strongly suggested never to use KrisFlyer miles to redeem Scoot flights, by using them to purchase Scoot vouchers. Later the same month we explained how paying more for the Scoot ‘PlusPerks’ package so that you could earn KrisFlyer miles when flying on Scoot often didn’t make sense.

Well for tickets issued from earlier this week (26th April 2018) onwards, a new structure for KrisFlyer miles accrual and redemption on Scoot flights was implemented.

What’s changed?

In summary:

• All Scoot flights now earn KrisFlyer miles regardless of the fare type (purchasing the ‘PlusPerks’ add-on is no longer necessary, and indeed no longer possible). It’s a fixed rate of 1 KrisFlyer Mile per S$1 spent on the base fare including optional extras (e.g. seat selection, extra legroom) but excluding taxes and service fees, and also not counting the insurance add-on if you choose it.
• Redeeming on Scoot is now available as a ‘cashback’ proposal, allowing you to use KrisFlyer miles to pay off almost any element of a cash fare, which values your KrisFlyer miles at a fixed rate.
• You can still use Scoot vouchers converted from KrisFlyer miles as before until the end of their validity period.
• You can still purchase Scoot vouchers with your KrisFlyer miles until 25th May 2018, though this seems silly as they are less flexible and it would needlessly tie you into a fixed validity window.

Earning Miles

Scoot Flights

Here’s the big improvement – for all Scoot tickets issued on or after 26th April 2018 you can add your KrisFlyer membership number and will earn miles for the trip, based on the ticket costs and optional extras but excluding taxes, service fees and the optional insurance fee if chosen.

You also won’t earn miles for the credit card payment surcharge – if you choose to pay that way.

Here are two examples, with the eligible elements of the total cost for KrisFlyer earning highlighted in yellow.

	Singapore to Penang 22nd May (FlyBag)	Singapore to Gold Coast 28th May (ScootBiz + lounge access)
Base Fare	S$5.00	S$559.00
Taxes & Service Fees	S$34.00	S$50.07
Baggage Fee	S$24.00	—
Scoot-in-Style	—	S$39.00
Total	S$63.00	S$648.07
Miles Earned	29	598

We’re not talking life-changing sums of KrisFlyer miles here – accrual on an ‘Economy Lite’ fare with SilkAir to Penang would be 187 miles while on a premium economy trip to Brisbane with Singapore Airlines you’d be awarded at least 3,818 miles.

Having said that – some miles is better than no miles, which was previously the case for both of these examples (unless you voluntarily paid extra for them at relatively poor value).

The cost of a SilkAir flight to Penang or a Singapore Airlines flight to Brisbane is of course commensurately higher than the Scoot options, so the comparison is not strictly fair.

Scoot Flights in Mixed Itineraries

For flights on what Scoot calls ‘mixed itineraries’, you’ll earn miles for the Scoot portion of the journey based on the Scoot flight in your booking, and the Scoot fare code which you can find on your booking confirmation itinerary. The rates aren’t terribly generous and range from 10% to 25% of actual miles flown – the relevant miles accrual can be found in this table.

If there is an SIA / SilkAir portion of the itinerary, like in the above example, miles accrual for that flight segment is in accordance with the KrisFlyer calculator. In total you’ll receive both miles amounts.

ScootBiz has the biggest gain

The most significant advantage for those earning KrisFlyer miles on Scoot comes for ScootBiz passengers. That’s because, as we mentioned in our earning miles on Scoot article earlier this year, it was never worth paying for the old PlusPerks add-on for a ScootBiz fare because it was always more expensive than the only additional perk it came with, aside from miles earning – booking flexibility.

That meant those customers were always paying a specific price for the only other benefit – earning KrisFlyer miles. As we saw in the examples – it meant ‘buying’ KrisFlyer miles for between 2.4 cents (Singapore to Sydney) and 2.6 cents each (Singapore to Athens) – way more than the 2 cents per mile cap we recommend for acquiring KrisFlyer miles.

Under the new system the miles are ‘free’ – as they are awarded without purchasing any additional bundles. Since ScootBiz tickets are on the pricier side (and can sometimes be very expensive for what they are), the miles are a welcome bonus.

Full details about earning KrisFlyer miles on Scoot flights is available at their website.

Redeeming Miles

Redeeming your KrisFlyer miles on Scoot flights has become much more flexible. Sadly though – it hasn’t become any better value.

Where previously you were restricted to redeeming your KrisFlyer miles in exchange for Scoot vouchers in fixed denominations, then using those to offset the cost of a ticket, you can now log on to your KrisFlyer account through the Scoot website and use your miles directly to replace cash for any flight booking.

Here’s how the KrisFlyer miles to Scoot Vouchers system works – still available until 25th May 2018.

* SGD, cents per mile

That removes the time limit previously associated with the vouchers (they were valid only for 6 months), but removes the option to effectively extend the life of any expiring KrisFlyer miles by half a year using this method. That was very much a last resort anyway, as we explained.

You don’t have to pay for the entire flight with miles – if you only have enough to reduce the cost by a certain amount that’s fine too, provided you have a minimum of 1,050 miles in your account. The value of your miles is fixed at 0.95 cents per mile when used this way – the same as the S$100 Scoot voucher in the table above.

You also can’t use miles to offset any credit card surcharge or optional insurance add-on, these have to be paid using cash.

It’s a similar system also available to KrisFlyer members to offset the cost of a paid Singapore Airlines or SilkAir ticket, even without a redemption being available on the chosen flight.

The problem of course is that it remains horrible value, even worse than the Singapore Airlines equivalent shown above which itself is bad enough.

We can’t emphasise strongly enough how using your miles this way, in the form of ‘cashback’, is a really bad value redemption which you should never do.

Full details about redeeming KrisFlyer miles on Scoot flights is available at their website.

Summary

By all means the improved KrisFlyer earning offer is very welcome. Though the number of miles involved is small there is now no necessity to pay extra for an add-on whose other features you were unlikely to use, or which you should never have added for example on a ScootBiz fare as it involved ‘buying’ miles at a high cost.

On that very point – ScootBiz passengers have the most to gain from this change as it was never worth paying to earn KrisFlyer miles on these flights – and now they’ll be credited regardless.

Redemption has moved entirely to the part-pay ‘cash back’ style already available for Singapore Airlines and SilkAir, all of which assume a fixed and very poor value for your hard-earned KrisFlyer miles. This is definitely not a good way to spend your miles, with the possible exception of those expiring soon for which you have no plans (there are still alternatives).

So by all means add your KrisFlyer details and earn away on Scoot flights, just remember to save them for a Singapore Airlines or KrisFlyer redemption.