Singapore Airlines (SQ) is the very flight I took the first time when I went abroad. I was quite impressed with its premium facility and flight attendants in unique dressing with sweet smiles.Not only offering courteous services; they will also squat down to talk to the economy passengers. So I am always well disposed towards SQ. Since 2007, SQ has been ranking the top three on the Skytrax airline ratings for consecutive years. Its reputation is well supported by the fact. Its first-class cabins Suite, which will be discussed at the end of this article, are comparable to that of Emirates and Etihad.
Contents
1. Earn miles by flying SQ
The economy/business class award tickets of Singapore Airlines exclude Star Alliance and other partner airlines. Thus, it is important to earn Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles if you want to redeem miles for Singapore Airlines flight. The table below shows the earning ratio per fare class of Singapore Airlines flight. The specific miles can be calculated here.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles expire after three years (Challenging miles is one year). If you are a member of Singapore Airlines Guest membership, you can extend for another six months or one year by paying after the timeline of expiry (depending on the tier levels).
2. Redeem miles for SQ flights
The biggest discount to redeem miles for Singapore Airlines flight is 15% online booking discount, and the fuel surcharges just dropped this year (It remained high before with $100 /KM), it is a good deal to redeem the economy/business class flight. Besides, it allows one-way exchange. These are the highlights of Singapore Airlines Guest Miles.
The specific award chart is here. Following are the Saver tickets for frequent lines:
- A one-way flight from USA west coast to southern China, Hong Kong or to Taiwan would be 30K/75K/82.5K (the first-class cabin includes Suite), required practical miles after 15% discount would be 25.5K/63.75K/70.125K. Fuel surcharge of the economy/business class flight is not so high (Fuel surcharge of a one-way flight is between $300 and $400, except Suite). There is no fight from USA west coast to Beijing or Shanghai.
- A one-way flight from USA east coast to southern China, Hong Kong or Taiwan would be 30K/75K/82.5K (before discount); to Beijing or Shanghai would be 52.5K/102.5K/132.5K (before discount).
The most attractive highlight needs to be mentioned is SFO-HKG, business class of a one-way trip flight costs 63.75K miles + $68.9 taxes and fees, first class of a one-way trip flight costs 70.125K miles + $68.9 taxes and fees, the required miles is almost as much as AA using miles for CX. However, award tickets of economy/business class flight in the two routes are more than that of AA using miles for CX (checking through BA).
When you find that saver ticket is not available (especially the Saver of a Suite, you, which is always short), the Singapore Airlines will offer waitlist until the ticket is sold out. It has been proved that the waitlist works sometimes. Following are a few items you need to pay attention to (thanks to TPG):
- It is necessary to keep enough miles in the account of a guest member before booking an alternate flight or seat, but the Singapore Airlines will not deduct corresponding miles.
- You can be on the waitlists of several flights at the same time as long as you earn the maximum miles the single flight requires.
- Making calls to the Singapore Airlines from time to time can sometimes enable you to book the ticket faster. People even think the technology should be responsible for the jam of the tickets. It is the call that works.
- If you have to fly on a particular time, you can, if possible, book an economy class with miles and the charge is not so high if you want to cancel it.
It is worth noticing that there are many flights from China to countries in the southern hemisphere, for example, flights to Australia and various resort islands (Maldives, Bali, etc.). Besides, round-trip Saver ticket (Saver Award) allows one stopover and one open-jaw. One-way flight ticket (not Saver Award) allows one stopover. And the One-way trip Saver ticket can add three stopovers with $100 over the phone (allegedly airlines of Star Alliance are included), it’s a good deal. These tickets can be booked over the phone and you can ask the 15% mile discount over the phone.
3. Membership tier levels
The frequent flyer program of Singapore Airlines is called PPS Club (Priority Passenger Service), its mileage program is called KrisFlyer. Kris means dagger, which can be found in archaism in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
There are three tier levels: KrisFlyer、Elite Silver、Elite Gold. Among them, the main advantage of Gold or Silver members is that they can get additional award miles, for example, flying on Singapore Airlines would obtain 25% award miles.
4. Airline partners
Singapore Airlines is part of the Star Alliance, and it establishes partnership with Virgin and JetBlue (JetBlue only allows earning miles to Singapore Airlines). Here is the KrisFlyer mileage required for different fare options, click and check.
It’s not recommended to use KrisFlyer mileage to redeem the award tickets for airlines of the Star Alliance. The main reason is that they all have high fuel surcharges except United Airlines. Let’s have a look at the Round Trip Awards Chart:
Among these, a one-way flight from North America to China (include Hong Kong and Taiwan) requires 45K/87.5K/100K, pretty high, so it’s not a good option.
By the way, the economy/business class flights of Singapore Airlines basically excluded all its partners (except an Avianca (AV) and Deutsche Lufthansa (LH), but fuel surcharge of LH is very high). Thus, generally speaking, the tickets are solely bookable through using Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles.
5. Transfer partners
In conclusion, it’s a good option to use your KrisFlyer miles to pay for economy/business class flight. While the biggest draw for Singapore Airlines is its connection with four Transfer partners: Amex MR, Chase UR, Citi TYP, SPG.
- Transfer American Express Membership Rewards (Amex MR) Points into miles at a 1:1 ratio
- Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards (Chase UR) Points into miles at a 1:1 ratio
- Transfer Citi ThankYou Points (TYP) into miles at a 1:1 ratio
- Transfer Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) Starpoints into miles at a 1:1 ratio, and you’ll get 5,000 bonus miles with every 20,000 miles transfer.
In addition, sometimes you may get additional bonus miles in the transformation of MR and TPY. As we can see, earning miles is not so hard. Matter that needs your attention is that transfers are not instantaneous, it needs several days.
6. First-class cabins “Suite”
There must be a great many people who adore the famous Singapore suites. Currently Singapore Suites can be found on the following routes:
- Singapore to Auckland
- Singapore to Beijing
- Singapore to Frankfurt
- Singapore to Hong Kong
- Singapore to London
- Singapore to Los Angeles (via Tokyo)
- Singapore to Melbourne
- Singapore to Mumbai
- Singapore to New Delhi
- Singapore to New York JFK (via Frankfurt)
- Singapore to Paris
- Singapore to Shanghai
- Singapore to Sydney
- Singapore to Tokyo Narita
- Singapore to Zurich
- Frankfurt to New York JFK
- Tokyo Narita to Los Angeles
Each flight departs every day, but not every flight on these routes has Suites class. Some routes have more than one flight a day, for example, there are two flights from Singapore to London everyday. But only the Airbus 380 is equipped with the Suites and 12 seats in all.
Singapore Airlines doesn’t release these award seats to their partners, so redeeming it with KrisFlyer miles seems to be the only accessible way except booking in cash. A one-way flight costs 25K miles to 1410K miles (before 15% discount). For example, a one-way flight from USA east coast to Beijing or Shanghai costs 112K miles after discount. The prices after discount is almost equivalent to the first class award tickets of Star Alliance such as UA, some of them are even much cheaper. Therefore, it is well worth the consideration for those who pursue their enjoyment.