SIA extends loyalty memberships for another year due to lack of flying opportunities

SINGAPORE — Singapore Airlines (SIA) is automatically extending its loyalty memberships for another year due to border closures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in the past year and the lack of flying opportunities.

Announcing this on Wednesday (Jan 6), the national carrier said that the extension applies to its Priority Passenger Service (PPS) Club and KrisFlyer Elite memberships that are set to expire between March this year and February next year.

This means that PPS Club members, who stay on the loyalty benefit programme by accumulating S$25,000 worth of PPS value a year, will get to keep any reserve value they have in their accounts for subsequent membership renewal.

PPS value is earned when members fly on SIA’s suites, first class or business class, or on SilkAir’s business class.

The PPS Club members’ existing membership cards would also continue to be valid and recognised by SIA and its partners worldwide past their expiry date.

KrisFlyer Elite members would have the miles they had earned in the 12 months before the latest extension credited back to their accounts.

This is the second time that SIA has extended its loyalty programme benefits. The first extension was announced last April when there were travel restrictions, shortly before Singapore entered a partial lockdown.

In its press release on Wednesday, SIA stated that this latest extension is a way of appreciating the loyalty and support that members have shown over the past year, as well as “to allay any concerns that they may have about membership renewal during this time”.

In an email to a PPS Club member seen by TODAY, Mr Ryan Pua, SIA’s vice-president for loyalty marketing, attributed the extension to the “lack of travel opportunities” in the past year. 

“The past year has been a challenging time for everyone, with mass disruptions to travel plans due to unprecedented border closures,” he added.

Ms Neo Lay Yong, 66, a manager in the metal industry who has been in the PPS Club for more than 20 years, is pleased with the extension.

Otherwise, her membership would have lapsed with only S$4,000 to S$5,000 in reserve value through no fault of her own, short of the S$25,000 needed for her to keep her membership.

She would have travelled rather frequently, mainly to Taiwan almost once a month, if not for the pandemic, she said.

EXTRA BENEFITS

SIA on Wednesday also announced several new features to its KrisFlyer and PPS Club programmes.

They include opening up Scoot flights for KrisFlyer members to earn Elite miles.

These miles will count towards the KrisFlyer Elite membership status renewal or upgrade, and can be used to redeem KrisFlyer Milestone Rewards, a new initiative where members may claim cabin-class advance upgrades on board SIA and SilkAir flights, among other rewards.

As for PPS Club members, if they take Scoot flights from February, they could get priority check-in and boarding, an added allowance of 5kg with any baggage purchase, a one-time complimentary booking change and complimentary standard seat selection.

SIA said that it will continue to review its loyalty programmes and membership offerings to bring greater value to its members.