The KrisFlyer and Shangri-La Golden Circle Infinite Journeys partnership offers a fast track to KrisFlyer Gold status to those with Golden Circle Jade status, which is automatically available for holders of the American Express Platinum Card.
How the status match works
Shangri-La hotels are limited in Australia (just three, in Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns), so unless you are a frequent globetrotter, it is unlikely you have Golden Circle status through stays, and an abundance of Golden Circle points to transfer to KrisFlyer.
View from the Shangri-La Sydney
As a result, here is the most likely scenario:
If you have the Amex Platinum Card, you have automatic Gold status with five hotel chains: Starwood Preferred Guest, Hilton Honors, Radisson Rewards, Small Luxury Hotels of the World and Shangri-La Golden Circle (called ‘Jade’ instead of Gold).
The partnership between Singapore Airlines and Shangri-La means that you can match your Golden Circle Jade status to KrisFlyer Silver—but there aren’t too many benefits to that (see below). Do note that our readers have told us this first status match can take up to eight weeks to match.
Where the real value lies is in upgrading your status to KrisFlyer Elite Gold by taking three Singapore Airlines or SilkAir flights within four months of your status match. They can be in any booking class except G (group bookings). They must be flights bought with cash, i.e. not award flights. (If you are lucky enough to hold Golden Circle Diamond status by merit of another method, you only need to take one flight).
Due to Singapore Airlines’ strong presence in the Australian market, this shouldn’t be too hard to achieve if you plan your flights for a four-month period ahead of time.
If you are wanting to take those three (or one) qualifying flights from a Singapore base, then Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Bangkok are close and cheap options.
The status match also works the other way around for those who hold KrisFlyer PPS Club and Elite Gold status—you’ll get an instant match to Golden Circle Gold and be upgraded to Jade after one stay at a Shangri-La property.
Reports are that the Gold/Jade status match in both directions is instant and that it will be valid until the end of the month you have applied (plus one year).
Update: Some Point Hackers have reported that KrisFlyer has not honoured the promotion and that communication has been very poor. Please read others’ experiences in the comments below and share your own.
What constitutes the three-flight requirement?
This is the really generous part of the promotion—it just means three different legs or, put another way, three different flight numbers.
So, you could book a return trip on Singapore Airlines your Australian airport to Hong Kong via Singapore in any class and it would qualify!
Benefits of KrisFlyer status
Elite Silver
At this level, you really don’t get too much:
- 25% bonus KrisFlyer miles on flights
- Priority reservation waitlist
- Priority standby
- Waived or discounted service fees
- Complimentary Standard Seats when you fly in Economy Class on Singapore Airlines and SilkAir
Elite Gold
Gold is where it is at. You’ll get:
- Access to KrisFlyer, Virgin Australia and Star Alliance lounges
- Higher checked baggage allowance
- Priority check-in
- Priority security
- Priority boarding
- Priority baggage handling
Star Alliance Gold members get access to this excellent lounge at LAX
Of course, if you’re a Platinum Card Member, you have Virgin Australia lounge access anyway.
You could then use your KrisFlyer Gold status to status match to other airlines.
Note that you cannot take advantage of this program more than once. The FAQs state:
Can I register for a membership status match benefit more than once?
No. You may only register for the membership status match benefit once.
Benefits of Golden Circle Jade status
You can read more about the benefits of the Shangri-La Golden Circle program here.
Ongoing reciprocal benefits of tie-up
The only real valuable benefit is that you can double-dip, and will earn 500 bonus KrisFlyer miles for Shangri-La stays.
It is not really worth transferring miles/points in either direction; it is just better to keep them in their respective accounts as they will lose value when transferring. Here are the transfer ratios anyway:
- 1:1.25 from Golden Circle to KrisFlyer
- 12:1 from KrisFlyer to Golden Circle
Summing up
If you have the Amex Platinum Card, then you should have automatic Golden Circle Jade membership with Shangri-La. Use that to now status match to KrisFlyer Elite Silver using the link below.
Then, to take it a level up, take three Singapore Airlines or SilkAir flights within four months of status matching and you’ll qualify for KrisFlyer Elite Gold.
That means you’ll enjoy Gold benefits across the whole Star Alliance network, plus Virgin Australia lounge access, and you can status match to other airlines within the alliance and outside of it too.
And make sure you put your KrisFlyer number on any Shangri-La bookings to get 500 bonus miles.
The promotion page and registration link is here.
Can I link Golden Circle (Jade from Amex Plat) to KrisFlyer (no status) without pulling the trigger on the status match, then potentially do the status match later?
I’d like to double-dip on points earning for a potential Shangri-La stay shortly but won’t have any revenue Singapore Airlines flights anytime soon.
Personally, not interested in gold
Golden Circle Jade and Diamond members also enjoy complimentary KrisFlyer Elite Silver membership for one year after registering for membership status match benefits
For those who are wondering, yes it’s three different legs as describe in the guide. My trip was from CGK – SIN – PVG and return PVG – SIN – CGK with total of four different SQ airlines with different numbers.
Also be sure that you’re upgraded to KrisFlyer Elite Silver first before doing the flights requirement. Another note: your Elite Miles for your Krisflyer Elite Gold qualification will be reset to zero once you’re upgraded from Krisflyer Elite Silver to Krisflyer Elite Gold. You get to keep the standard miles from your previous flights for miles redeem.
Yesterday:
– I logged into my KrisFlyer account
– I linked my Golden Circle account
– I immediately received a confirmation email my account was linked “Link of KrisFlyer and Shangri-La Golden Circle Accounts”
Then:
– I logged into my Golden Circle account
– And my KrisFlyer account was displaying as linked
– But I had to select a check box confirming the link
– I immediately received a second email confirming the status match “GC Jade Member Status match is successful”
And today (less than 24 hours later):
– I received another email welcoming me to KrisFlyer Silver “Welcome to KrisFlyer Elite Silver Membership”
Log in to your Golden Circle account
Add your KrisFlyer membership number to your Golden Circle account.
Once your accounts are linked, click on ‘Register’.”
but “register” is not coming up as on option for me.
I raised this very offer as a question around the 14 of February in the Pointhacks questions. There were no responses. The offer has not been accommodated by Krisflyer from our experience of last year (when this promo was on as well). We had followed through all the steps including linking accounts and taking the requisite category flights etc. I wonder if it is worth a bit of investigation?
Here’s what I raised recently as our experience over this Golden Circle membership.
I was excited about the Infinite Journeys promotion Singapore Airlines was hosting together with Shangri-La. Being a Jade member with Shangri-La and KrisFlyer Silver member, my partner and I registered last year (2017) for the Infinite Journeys promotion by linking our respective accounts.
After taking the requisite three flights to achieve KrisFlyer Gold status well within the four-month period in August 2017, we heard nothing from KrisFlyer.
After some weeks, I rang and was assured that the Gold Status promotion could take a while to process, but that it would come through. However, these assurances were made several months ago and the only thing we heard from KrisFlyer, since then was that our Silver status was renewed. This would have been the case anyway regardless of the Shangri- La join offer considering the mileage we flew.
Has anyone in the Pointhacks community experienced similar issues obtaining this much promoted Shangri-La and KrisFlyer Gold status?
Dio
The article was geare towards platinum
Thanks
I refer to the following section of your article:
The status match also works the other way around for those who hold KrisFlyer PPS Club and Elite Gold status. You’ll get an instant match to Golden Circle Jade and be upgraded to Diamond after one stay at a Shangri-La property.
Having stayed at Shangri-la Sydney just a week ago, I didn’t get my Diamond status with one stay despiting holding a Elite Gold KrisFlyer and a Golden Circle Jade.
Quite disappointed.
“The status match also works the other way around for those who hold KrisFlyer PPS Club and Elite Gold status. You’ll get an instant match to Golden Circle Gold and be upgraded to Jade after one stay at a Shangri-La property.”
So instead of Jade to Diamond, it’s Gold to Jade.
Also, the rep said the double points (offer 1) only applies to bookings made after the accounts are linked, is this also true? Given only a week left in January, i dont think I’ll be able to double dip on both offers.
The rep sounded very junior and I had to hold for like 20mins while he ‘searches’ for the offer.
Did a bit of research on this. I’ve subsequently linked and received an email from Kris flyer that I’ve been upgraded to Silver and I need to do the whole 3 flights in 4 months thing to attain Kris Flyer Gold. We are travelling CBR-SIN-PEK then HKG-SIN-CBR but under 1 booking ref – booked via Singaporeair.com. After some trawling I found this on flyertalk:
“Regarding the flight requirement, members are required to travel three flight sectors regardless of bookings made. For example, a round-trip between Singapore and Phuket in a booking is considered to have two flight sectors.
Members can proceed to link both accounts anytime at their convenience. However, if the planned flight is early next year, members should only register for status match nearer to the travel dates. Please note that ‘Linking’ and ‘Registration’ are two different steps.
You may login to your Golden Circle account and link your KrisFlyer account by adding your KrisFlyer Membership Number to your Golden Circle account. Once the accounts are linked, click on ‘Register’. Registration for status match should be done nearer to the travel dates as flights need to be completed within four months from the date of registration. ”
After some guy emailed Kris flyer regarding what “3 flights mean”. From this e-mail it seems that 3 flight sectors regardless of booking would mean that you and I would both qualify as we would complete 4 flight sectors.
I might give Krisflyer a call soon to confirm though – seems a bit ridiculous to have to make a separate booking to go outbound from Singapore!
Would rather this than have to do CBR-WEL status run to get star alliance gold 🙁
“Should you have completed a round trip for flight departing from Sydney to Hong Kong via Singapore, it will be consider as four flights completion. Do note that ‘G’ (Group fares) on Singapore Airlines or SilkAir, award and codeshare flights are not eligible for status match.”
So we’re good.
Think of it as 3 one-way flights as the requirement
Also, I have sq flights coming soon.
Is it best to wait until current status expires?
Anyone else in the same boat
I’m able to do this the other way round with flights being booked through Singapore able to be attributed to a number of other airlines. I just can’t see a way to do it with the Virgin Australia website.
I’ve got a 2-leg trip through Singapore next year and I also have some credit with Virgin that I don’t have any solid plans for (From a cancelled refundable flight). If I could wangle a return trip to NZ as a Singapore flight to get Gold status, that would be sweet!
That said… why not look at the direct CBR-WLG flights that SQ operate now? You won’t be able to use your Virgin credit but you would get the SQ flight numbers without issue…
Thanks.
Not sure why it takes so long!
If Shangri-La hotel stay is booked through an agent with a package, say cathay pacific flights for example regardless of how the hotel stay is booked will points etc still be able to be earned for the Shangri_la reward program?
I’m thinking of doing a dash to Jakarta, with a stopover in Singapore soon. Does this qualify as 3 flights, even though I’m purchasing a return with a stopover..
Cheers
Guide updated!