Singapore Krisflyer, loyalty program of Singapore Airlines, increased the price of various partner award prices on April 16, 2019. These changes weren't without notice, as they announced in March the impending devaluation. Devaluations always suck but are inevitable.

Singapore devaluations sting in a special way as they are by far the easiest mile to earn. Every major transferrable point currency--Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Citi Thank You Points, Capital One miles and Marriott Rewards--transfer to Singapore Krisflyer, so they are the sweetheart of foreign loyalty programs.

Thankfully the changes weren't drastic.

I hope you weren't saving your Delta miles for an award flying a partner airline like Virgin Atlantic or China Eastern, or you might be sorely disappointed the next time you check out delta.com.

In the beginning of 2015, Delta got rid of their online award charts. The price of a Delta award became whatever Delta's computers said it was. Travel is Free has the latest aggregation of standard Delta award prices, but at the end of the day those prices don't matter if they don't match your search results.

REMINDER: The changes outlined in this post kick in March 23 (this coming Thursday). If you want to book a Singapore award flying Singapore or Silk Air before the changes, remember to book by Wednesday, March 22.

Delta has devalued its miles with no notice (again), but this time is even worse than prior instances. While Delta's never announced an award price change, they at least have increased the prices for travel a few months in advance. For example, at the end of this past August, Delta increased the price of a Business Class award to Europe from 62,500 miles to 70,000 miles for travel beginning January 1, 2017 and on.

This time, there's no buffer period whatsoever.

To sum it up one sentence and rip off the Band-Aid: The results from a basic United award search now define all possible routing options if you want the flights to price as one award. Building your own itinerary if you don't like what the computer gives you has become considerably more expensive.

In the past, if you didn't like what United's award search tool displayed, you could search segment-by-segment and piece them together as one award as long as you followed United's award rules.

I am re-publishing this post as a reminder that as of October 1, 2016, Delta Skymiles prices for Business Class awards between North American and Australia, Asia, Africa, and South America are becoming more expensive. Economy awards between the United States and South Africa, the Southwest Pacific, and the Middle East are getting cheaper however. 

If you have been saving your Skymiles for a Business Class award to any of those areas, consider booking so your trip is completed before October 1.

Southwest has mildly devalued its Rapid Rewards points by about 3%. What's alarming isn't the size of the devaluation, it's that:

Southwest gave no notice, only some sleuthing by FlyerTalkers sussed it out
This is the third devaluation in third years, something which is completely unnecessary for a revenue-based program like Southwest

The Devaluations
Southwest points used to be redeemable for any "Wanna Get Away?" fare at a rate of 60 points per dollar of the fare.

Yesterday, Alaska Airlines doubled the price of flying Emirates First Class awards with no notice whatsoever. Here was my take:
Devaluations stink.
Major devaluations stink more. (Please do it the Aeroplan way of small yearly devaluations with a few months notice instead.)
No-notice major devaluation stink the most.
They are plainly unethical. For weeks Alaska has been selling its miles with a bonus to entice you to buy.

Alaska Airlines has massively devalued its award charts to fly Emirates with zero notice.

Starting tomorrow, March 22 (I don't have any information on the exact minute), American Airlines' award prices, off peak dates, and definitions of regions change.

Today you can book travel through February 15, 2017 to take advantage of the current award chart, which is much cheaper to most regions in Business and First Class.