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With US airlines regularly offering less value for their points, I’m putting together this series with background, tips, and tricks for frequent flyer programs programs whose points:
- can be very useful to you
- that you can earn easily by transferring in from bank rewards currencies.
I love flexible points far more than earning points in a single airline frequent flyer program. That helps me to diversify so I don’t get hurt as badly when one airline program devalues and that gives me the points I need, when I need them with the airline that has availability for the award that I want.
Here’s my tips for the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program.
My Biggest Flexible Points Balance is With Chase Ultimate Rewards
A real go-to for the past 5 years has been the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. It’s been reliably the most rewarding card for spend.
There’s a 50,000 point signup bonus (after $4000 spend within 3 months). The card earns double points on travel and dining. So they start you off quickly with points, and you accumulate points quickly for your spending.
Chase points transfer to:
- Airlines: United, Korean, Singapore, Air France KLM, Southwest, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways
- Hotels: Hyatt, Marriott, IHG, Ritz-Carlton
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Actually Partners With Everyone
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer also partners with Citibank, American Express, and Starwood Preferred Guest. So you’ve got all the major transferrable points currencies covered, and it’s a place that you can pool your points from several different cards.
The Citi Prestige Card earns triple points on air and hotel and double points on restaurants and entertainment.
The
Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express gives you 5000 bonus miles when transferring points into 20,000 miles. So you effectively earn 1.25 miles with the airline of your choice of over 30 airlines.
Singapore Airlines is One of the Best Airlines in the World
Singapore Airlines has a mythology all its own. It’s built a brand reputation on service, I think, that’s unmatched by any other airline. They perfectly captured that with an ad campaign a few years ago ‘Understanding Your Needs’ which depicted flight attendants traveling the world to find the perfect tea for you and serving it just the way you like it, and in another spot attending film screenings to select the most touching inflight entertainment for your journey. They don’t actually do that exactly of course. But you could imagine them doing it.
Singapore Airlines has one of the world’s best first class products. They have one of the world’s best business class products. Their new premium economy isn’t just a seat, they offer pre-order meals and champagne. And even their economy class product is surprisingly thoughtful.
Economy seat with padded headrest, remote control, and cup holder
I’ve found Singapore’s service to be at the top of world airlines, and their Book the Cook pre-order meal service (and main meals generally) to be among the world’s best for inflight dining (though I find their inflight snacks lag).
It’s not surprising then that Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer would be a top notch earn and burn loyalty program, that’s strategically very useful to US frequent flyers.
Important Tips, Tricks, and Cautions Using Singapore’s KrisFlyer Miles
Here are 18 things a US-based frequent flyer should know about the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program:
- Singapore Airlines lets you have much better award availability when using their miles. It’s very rare indeed that you can ever use miles from Star Alliance partnerprograms like United MileagePlus, Aeroplan, or LifeMiles for long haul premium cabin travel on Singapore. But Singapore offers members using their own miles fantastic award availability on most of their routes.
- Singapore Practices ‘Journey Control’ With Their Award Inventory. You may not be able to find award space New York JFK – Frankfurt or New York JFK – Frankfurt – Singpaore. But there may be space searching New York all the way to Hong Kong (meaning adding on Singapore – Hong Kong to the end of the trip). You can fly all the way, or if you haven’t checked bags throw away the final Singapore – Hong Kong segment.
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Awards are Cheaper than What’s Listed on their Award Chart. Singapore gives you a 15% discount for booking online. That means prices for booking Singapore Airlines and SilkAir awards are 15% lower than what’s listed on their award chart.
You do not get a 15% discount for Star Alliance or partner awards, which cannot be booked on the website. However I generally have not had trouble getting a telephone agent to give me the 15% discount for a Singapore Airlines award which couldn’t be booked on the website.
I frequently do not even need to ask, since I begin the conversation explaining that I found award availability online but could not book it on the website because [insert reason]. Just yesterday I booked a one-way award with stopover, which has to be done by phone, and I received the 15% discount without asking.
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Offers ‘Extra Miles’ Upgrade Awards That Are Almost Always Available. The very best deal in upgrades is Singapore Airlines premium economy to business class. Since Singapore has ‘standard’ (versus saver) prices not just for awards but also for upgrades, if you’re willing to buy premium economy and have access to Singapore miles you can almost always fly business class without buying business class.
Singapore Airlines Business Class - Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Business Awards Are Easy to Get and So Is Suites Class — On Certain Routes. Availability is better when the schedule opens than several months out. Availability is better from Singapore to the US than from the US to Singapore. But with Singapore changing schedules to offer its A380 only from New York JFK, there aren’t a lot of Suites from the US. Regular first class from Houston to Manchester UK and on to Singapore will be easier.
However A380 Suites availability between Europe and Singapore is amazing. So you might want to combine US-Europe trips with Europe – Asia awards booked through KrisFlyer.
Singapore Airlines Suites - There Are Some Great Value Awards on Singapore Airlines.
First Class Suites between Asia and Australia are 63,750 miles one-way (booked online). Between New York JFK and Frankfurt they’re 57,375 each way booked online.
Singapore Airlines A380 SuitesFirst class San Francisco – Hong Kong is 70,125 miles one-way booked online.
US-Australia in business class via Singapore runs 85,000 miles each way with good availability for one of the world’s best products.
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer is a Great Option for Redeeming Star Alliance Awards.
US domestic first class on United is 20,000 miles each way. US – Hawaii costs 17,500 miles each way in coach, 30,000 miles each way in first. There are no fuel surcharges on US domestic awards.
North America – Europe is 65,000 miles each way in business class, 80,000 miles each way in first.
North America – Middle East is 57,500 miles each way in business class, 75,000 miles each way in first.
South Africa is 72,500 miles each way in business class.
- Change Fees are Ridiculously Low There are no fees for telephone booking. There are no fees for close-in award redemption. There are no fees for changing the time or date of travel on a Singapore Airlines award.
Changes to partner awards are just $20 (compared to the $150 or so you’ve come to expect from US airlines).
Award cancel and redeposits cost $30. And they’ll warn you about penalties if you fail to cancel or change your ticket at least 24 hours prior to departure — if you no show and don’t bother to call, and still want your miles back, that will cost just $75.
- Roundtrip awards allow one stopover and one open jaw. Your open jaw may be at either the origin or destination (but not mid-trip). On a one-way ticket only standard (extra miles) awards offer a free stopover.
- Stopovers cannot be used for the traditional ‘free one way’. Normally stopovers on an award ticket give you the opportunity for a ‘free one way’ ticket. You book the roundtrip you intend, but instead of just returning to your home city you call that your stopover point and add another flight from there to use later. That works especially well if you live in a hub city.
However Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer doesn’t allow your original departure city (on a roundtrip ticket) to be a stopover city on your return.
- You can book extra stopovers for $100 each. These cannot be booked online, but over the phone you can add up to 3 stopovers.
However Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer stopovers are not permitted on itineraries entirely within one country, within the country of departure on an international ticket, on wholly intra-Europe awards, or on awards between the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, or US Virgin Islands.
- Award holds are possible. There’s no Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer official policy I’m aware of that allows awards to be put on hold, though I’ve done it many times.
I’ve read reports of agents saying you have to have at least 50% of the miles required for an award in your account in order to hold an award ticket, but I haven’t heard this in some time. It’s definitely not something that Singapore’s systems check for, as I’ve also put awards on hold without any miles in an account.
I’m generally given 3 days, which is fine because points transfer to Singapore from most programs more quickly than that.
- You can waitlist awards. In fact you can waitlist as many flights and dates as you wish and sometimes waitlists clear, but sometimes they do not.
Singapore Airlines Caviar Service - Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Awards must fly the most direct routing. There’s no backtracking permitted on Singapore Airlines awards — at all. However when flying an all Singapore Airlines award, you are allowed whatever the most direct routing is on Singapore Airlines flights. That means you can fly from the US to Australia or New Zealand via Singapore. You’re allowed six segments per itinerary.
- SilkAir Flights Can Be Redeemed with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles But Not Star Alliance Miles. That’s because even though SilkAir is a Singapore subsidiary, it is not a member of the Star Alliance. So you have access to flights that other Star partners do not.
SilkAir flies to about 50 destinations in more than a dozen countries in Asia — mostly leisure destinations in countries including Australia, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, China and Thailand.
Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia .. a SilkAir destination - Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Gives Full Miles on Most United Tickets. While United gives you only 5 to 11 miles per dollar spent on tickets (depending on your elite status), Singapore Airlines will give you 100% of the miles you fly when crediting nearly all United fares to the KrisFlyer program (.pdf). So cheap international United fares may be better credited to Singapore than to United.
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Adds Fuel Surcharges to Award Tickets. You’ll pay fuel surcharges that would apply to the same paid ticket. San Francisco – Hong Kong business class roundtrip has no fuel surcharge (just airport and international taxes). Los Angeles – Tokyo business class roundtrip has a $60 fuel surcharge. US-Singapore roundtrip runs ~ $450; Bangkok ~ $550.
- KrisFlyer Miles Expire After 3 Years. This isn’t like a US program where any activity in your account extends the life of your miles. Each mile expires 3 years after it’s earned. Non-elite Krisflyer members can pay a fee to extend their miles 6 months, elites can extend for 12 months. So only transfer the points you plan to use.
I have a question to pose:
I was booked with points on Singapore from Maldives to Singapore in business class. They changed this over to a silk air business class seat. I feel like I’ve been downgraded. Singapore Air 777-200 is now Silk air A320. Looks like not as nice equipment, food or service. Should I request some compensation? I have no point of reference for this. Any help suggestions appreciated, even if its “nothing you can do”.
Thanks
“Between New York JFK and Frankfurt they’re 57,375 each way booked online”
The existence of a Saver Award JFK-FRA is an Urban Myth. You are more likely to get a clear photo of a Yeti riding a Unicorn than to be able to book this route at Saver. And yet both you and other bloggers continually post about it as though it’s freely available. 🙁
@Robert Hanson – booked some a couple of weeks ago. You have to look at end of schedule. But I write in the post that space from the US is tough, to the US is tough but a little less so, and totally abundant Europe – Singapore and beyond.
@Paul Davis you can ask but as far as the airline is concerned they’re likely to say you were in business class on the route before and in business class on the route still even if the inflight product is inferior.
@robert @gary – i have waitlisted JFK-FRA in the past and within two days it cleared. Always worth a try….
** Here’s my tips **
Here ARE.
Basic grammar. Why do so many constantly get this wrong?
Thanks for the tips, Gary. I flew Singapore Airlines once when I was a kid (around 1973, I think). They gave out cool 4-color SIA pens and also some 707 and 747 postcards, which I treasured. Even as a kid flying Economy, the service was great and they become my favorite airline. Haven’t flown them since, but I still look forward to the day I can fly Singapore again.
“Each mile expires 3 years after it’s earned.”
But, if your miles are about to expire, you can use them to get a flight about a year out, and then change the date as needed.
@andrew true! but there are times when it won’t clear. it’s never a guarantee even when seats are left empty.
@brteacher that’s correct
As a US based LH Senator I have always credited all my Star flight to my Miles & More account. I’ve flown SQ twice in Business Class on the JFK to FRA route and I have a trip booked in September. I’m trying to decide if I should sign up for their FF program and credit my next SQ flight plus my UA domestic flights to SQ moving forward. The amount of M&M points I get for my UA domestic flights is a joke! If I do this I will likely loose my Senator status which I would not be happy about but I think I might miss requalifying this year anyway due to the low amount of points I get for discounted Business Class flight on UA and LH to Europe in decent priced booking codes.
Does signing up for the SQ program make sense? I have AMEX and UR points which I could use to top of my account for awards if needed. I fly out of JFK or EWR for work trips to Europe since I work in CT but for leisure trips to Europe I usually fly out of IAD or PHL since my primary residence is in MD. The fact that SQ only flies directly out of JFK is my biggest concern (and doesn’t have great availability according to what I have read) in crediting points to their program.
How do Star awards work with them? Is it possible to route JFK to FRA on SQ and then continue on in Europe on another Star carrier? Is this easy to do? For clarification…we typically use awards for US to Europe awards.
Also has SQ ever flown out of IAD or PHL? Any guesses on the likelihood that they ever would?
“Change Fees are Ridiculously Low ”
I completely disagree with this choice of words.
Low fees is a good thing, No fee is even better. “Ridiculous” I would only use this word on something you don’t like.
Other than this bad choice of words, it is a good article.
Can Singapore miles be used to book a United one-way award with a free stopover (like Alaska Air)?
Thanks for a very helpful (and well laid-out) post, Gary!
Thank you very much for this. I like to collect points from all 4 transferrable currencies, leaving all options open, and i feel like this makes singapore my best option for one program to focus on.
Related question: gary have you ever used qatar airlines qmiles program? I can’t find much about them and would like to know if the program is easy to use in real life. Do you have any experience?
(I ask because i’m about to book a flight from sao paolo to buenos aires–it is either $255 or 5,000 qmiles that i can transfer from citi TYP. Thanks!)
Under 7, the roundtrip prices you listed are actually for one-way flights. 130k and 160k for business and first, respectively.
Great post Gary. Super helpful.
In addition, SQ considers a domestic connection of more than 4 hours a stopover. This comes into play when routing to the US via other regions. For example, JNB-FRA-JFK and then to your hometown airport if you don’t live in a hub city.
gary, if one is honeymooning in singapore suites (JFK-FRA-SIN-DPS) is it worth reaching out to the airline to let them know. don’t want to seem entitled, but if they do something for all couple honeymooning, well yolo right?
@Steven: You make a great point. It happened to me about a year ago and it took us about 10 minutes to figure it out. The taxes and fees where $100 more than what they should be since the system was pricing the ticket out with a stopover.
Thanks for posting this Gary. Very helpful and informative as always.
You say the a380 is only going to be used to JFK. I have had Suites class tickets from LAX to NRT for about 8 months…
When does this change go into effect. Please tell me I’ll still be in suites for my flight in September.
Hi Gary,
About the #2 tip, if say we can find F awards for JFK-FRA-SIN-HKG, can we just give them a call and get them to book us JFK-FRA-SIN only segment?
Cheers,
Felix
@Felix no, book the full thing to HKG.
Gary, I’d suggest you edit the text in Tip #7 to make it 80K each way (it’s written round trip currently) just for clarity. I read it the way I wished it, instead of the way I figured it had to be, the first time through.
theBOAT
Robert Hanson, about 2 weeks ago I was looking at JFK-FRA suites. I had a 10 day window from about Aug 20-30. There were several waitlist options as well as 1 confirmable saver option (Aug 23 I think). I didn’t end up booking it because I didn’t want to book a flight into JFK and out of FRA but it was definitely there.
Great article. On a recent flight on SQ, I opened my e-mail upon landing and found I had earned PPS Club membership. Now I can use the really upscale KrisFlyer lounges on any SQ flight. Always great service on SQ!
Great article! I know there are some major upcoming changes to Krisflyer. Do you know if paid stopovers are permitted on one way Star Alliance awards eg LIS-FRA(LH)-SIN(SQ) – stopover – MEL(SQ)? I understand that one stopover is allowed on return Star Alliance awards but cannot find any info on whether you can pay for one.
Question: I called to book a HNL- IAH United Air Flight with KrisFlyer miles that is available on United’s website as a saver award (22.5k one way). The Singapore air employee said that flight is not available for booking with KrisFlyer miles. Is there a way to tell if a United domestic flight is available to book using Krisflyer miles besides calling?
@Jason check the Aeroplan website as a starting point, because United makes more seats available to elites and credit card holders you want to make sure you aren’t looking at that
“Each mile expires 3 years after it’s earned.”
But, if your miles are about to expire, you can use them to get a flight about a year out, and then change the date as needed.
@brteacher and @Gary – do you know what would happen if you booked a flight and then wish to change the date to another date in the future (i.e. is it possible to extend an award flight for more than a year)
“Each mile expires 3 years after it’s earned.”
But, if your miles are about to expire, you can use them to get a flight about a year out, and then change the date as needed.
@brteacher and @Gary – do you know what would happen if you booked a flight and then wish to change the date to another date in the future (i.e. is it possible to extend an award flight for more than a year)
Hi Garry,
I would like to know, how many miles are required to get a redemption ticket
From Singapore to Bordeaux/France (Return)?
I am currently flying with Turkish Airlines but wish to change to Singapore Airlines Kryflyer.
@Nelly Singapore Airlines flight Singapore – Paris, if you fly that route you redeem off the Singapore Airlines award chart. If you want to get to Bordeaux that requires flying on a Star Alliance partner so look up their Star Alliance award chart.
HI Gary, actually I wanted to know how many miles is required to get a redemption ticket from SIA or Star Alliance. There are flights from Spore to Bordeaux by Singapore Airlines.
Hey Gary, there is a spelling error on the “You may not be able to find award space New York JFK – Frankfurt or New York JFK – Frankfurt – Singpaore.”
Gary, this site did a great job of plagiarizing your very well written and informative post:
http://www.flyermiles.biz/blog/getting-the-most-from-singapore-airlines-krisflyer-miles/
Can I amend an award ticket. Original ticket was Singapore to Copenhagen I wish to change it to Melbourne to Copenhagen.
I can purchase the additional leg but the points diff with 2 tickets is 38,000 miles.
YQ is still charged by SilverKris? If not perhaps the original article should be amended. I mention this because I understand Aegean (A3) is not charging on SQ award flights.
Hello,
Booking with cash is not a problem, but when trying to redeem Kris points, it won’t work at all (JFK-FRA) or other flights (5 days in a row now)!
As soon as you click on seat selection, it’s all over.
They ask you to call them!
WHY?
Thank you and stay safe!