SIA to renew PPS Club, Krisflyer Elite memberships for a year amid virus outbreak

Nisha Ramchandani

Published Wed, Apr 1, 2020 · 08:46 AM

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) will automatically renew all PPS Club and Krisflyer Elite membership statuses for a year, given that the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the carrier to ground the vast majority of its network.

Membership statuses for its frequent-flyer programme will be renewed at the end of each member's membership year, and applies to all memberships expiring between last month and February 2021. In addition, the validity of expiring PPS and Elite Gold Rewards will be extended until end-March next year. PPS Rewards that were meant to expire between July and December include double KrisFlyer miles rewards and advance upgrades.

In a message to PPS Club members, SIA chief executive Goh Choon Phong said: "This is a small token of our appreciation for your loyalty and support, which we value greatly as we work hard to get through this outbreak." He apologised to travellers affected by the wide-scale flight cancellations, especially as its customer-service centres grapple with a massive spike in the volume of calls and e-mails from passengers.

"While we ramped up the handling capacity at our customer-service centres, a few of our overseas contact-centre operations were disrupted by government-imposed lockdowns," he went on to say, adding that the airline was working towards responding as soon as possible.

For those with cancelled flights or who are planning to postpone their travel, the value of the unused ticket will count as flight credits, which can be used to make a new booking between now and March 31, 2021. The airline has waived no-show and rebooking fees, it said.

Airlines worldwide have found themselves rocked by turbulence in what has been described as an unprecedented crisis for aviation, with border closures and city-wide lockdowns bring travel to a screeching halt.