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Here’s a little Monday morning treat for you – free Star Alliance Silver status in 30 seconds, courtesy of Singapore Airlines Krisflyer and Shangri-La Golden Circle!
All you have to do is head to this page here and link your SIA Krisflyer account with your Shangri-La Golden Circle account. If you haven’t already signed up to one or both of the programmes, you can sign up through the link above too and then link them.
For real?
Yep!
It’s only supposed to be Golden Circle Jade (mid-tier) and Diamond (top tier) members that get given Singapore Krisflyer Silver, but it works for anyone.
Krisflyer Silver Status doesn’t actually get you much (25% Miles bonus, priority waitlist, priority standby, waived or discounted service fees) – but any status is always better than no status, particularly if it’s free and takes 30 seconds!
The discounted service fees are actually well worth knowing about if you ever redeem Krisflyer Miles (which you should, because you can transfer Amex MR to Krisflyer at a 1:1 rate, and there are lots of great redemption sweetspots!).
With Silver status you only have to pay $15.00 rather than $30 to cancel an award booking and get all the Miles back, and you can change any of your 5 free redemption nominees for $15.00 rather than $30.00 too.
Krisflyer Miles expire after 3 years (regardless of activity) but a non-elite member can extend that for 6 months by paying $12.00 per 10,000 Miles. Silver members can keep their Miles alive for 12 extra months for the same fee.
Star Alliance Silver is also pretty underwhelming most of the time, but can be extremely useful if you find your travel plans going wrong due to bad weather or other issues. Being a bit higher up the priority list than you otherwise would, can be the difference between getting rebooked onto the last flight of the day on Christmas Eve when your original flight had been cancelled, or spending Christmas by yourself at an airport (we’ve all seen the films!).
You mentioned a Gold fast-track?
I did.
The rules of the promotion state that Golden Circle Jade members get Krisflyer Gold (and therefore Star Alliance Gold) status after just 3 flights with Singapore Airlines or SilkAir within 4 months.
The thing is, I don’t have Golden Circle Jade status – but that didn’t stop me being granted free Krisflyer Silver status, which suggests that the coding is probably tagging everyone as having Jade status. If that’s true, then 3 eligible flights should get anyone Gold, but of course if it didn’t work you’d have no way to legitimately complain, so it’s a risk.
If you happen to have some Singapore/SilkAir flights coming up anyway though, or are in the region and can spend a few quid more to fly SIA rather than Air Asia then I think I’d give it a go.
If you have an American Express Platinum Card, you can get instant Shangri-La Jade status as one of the perks so can definitely take advantage.
Krisflyer Gold is great because not only does it give you Star Alliance Gold (so lounge access, extra luggage allowance etc when travelling on 28 different airlines), it also allows you to use Virgin Australia lounges and Virgin Atlantic’s awesome Clubhouses when flying Economy.
Could Krisflyer silver be used to match to tiers in other airlines, and if so, what levels?
Great question – something I’m looking into and will report back!
Not sure it has worked for me. Opened both accounts and linked Singapore to Shangri-la. Nothing upgraded. Then tried it the opposite way i.e. Shangri-la to Singapore and it wouldn’t allow the link & referring me to Singapore. Will give it another bash soon, but not hopeful. Thanks for heads-up tho.
Have you logged in to check your Krisflyer account after you linked to see if it upgraded? There’s no bells and whistles or anything, the only thing that changes is that on the screen immediately after you login the little bubble under ‘Your Status’ says ‘Krisflyer Silver’ if it’s worked, so it’s easy to miss.
Hi Joe. I have gone back in and it has changed to Silver, so thanks.
Now the question of the status match possibilities…………
Pleased to hear it worked for you!
Looks good to me
Done and it has worked.
For *A gold, I suspect flight (SQ327/SQ328) between MUC and MAN may qualify.
If it does it is indeed a very quick and possibly cheap way to get *A gold for what it is worth!
Glad to hear it!
Hasn’t the Manchester-Munich flight been pulled? Would be a great option if it’s still going, but I think it’s been switched/about to be switched for Houston-Manchester-Singapore.
Worked fine here. I was already a golden circle member. signed up using the link provided to krisflyer.
Went to the partner programmes page and set up golden circle as a partner, and entered my golden circle account number. And then finally clicked “link” to link the two.
Krisflyer account summary shows me as “krisflyer silver”
Manchester-Munich finished last Friday.
This seems to be a recent qwerk. I cross-linked my accounts when this was first announced, did not get KrisFlyer Silver and still not today. Even tried un-linking and re-linking my GC account from my KF account but no luck.
Also, your Amex appears to goes to “You have been referred for: The Preferred Rewards Gold Card” as opposed to the Platinum Card.
Sorry to hear that Steve.
Cheers for letting me know about the link – now amended.
Joe, did you find anything to suggest this could be used to match to other airlines?
I’m afraid I haven’t had chance to take a proper look yet – will definitely share if I do discover anything interesting though.
Not sure this works – it says EliteSilver qualification even when you freshly sign up. Did anybody manage to confirm yet?
Log in to your Krisflyer account and click on ‘Account summary’. Below ‘Your status’ there is a circle, and inside it should say ‘Krisflyer Silver’ in bold and ‘qualification’ underneath in light type. If what was said above is correct, this indicates that you are Krisflyer Silver. Many people think that what is in the circle is the next target to attain, rather than the status you have. Krisflyer don’t make it clear at all and I can’t find any indicator elsewhere in my account.
Even in AwardWallet, my Krisflyer account indicates I have no status. If you want to be sure, contact one of their social media arms and ask them!