US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Converting Amex Point to Dividend Miles fro travel on SQ...

Hello All,

I've tried to search for an answer to this, but am having trouble finding anything definitive.

I've got about 300,000 Amex Membership Rewards points and I'm trying to figure out the best way to use them for travel to SE Asia. The trip that I want to take is LAX-NRT-SIN-DPS on SQ.

Based on the Amex reward offerings I can convert the points to miles on several airlines including DL and US. I do mostly short-haul flights in the western US so I don't have established status on either carrier (I don't even have a dividend miles account).

The logical solution seemed to be to convert the points to DL and then book an award ticket on SQ, but from reading the DL forum I'm finding that I probably have a better chance of getting there by flapping my arms since the SQ awards are non-existent.

Am I going to have the same problem on US? My plan would be to open a dividend miles account, deposit the miles, and then book the travel. Is there any way of finding out if flights are available without having an account?

Thank you all for your help and advice!

Converting Amex Point to Dividend Miles fro travel on SQ..

Wow... me spell good...

Hello All,

I've tried to search for an answer to this, but am having trouble finding anything definitive.

I've got about 300,000 Amex Membership Rewards points and I'm trying to figure out the best way to use them for travel to SE Asia. The trip that I want to take is LAX-NRT-SIN-DPS on SQ.

Based on the Amex reward offerings I can convert the points to miles on several airlines including DL and US. I do mostly short-haul flights in the western US so I don't have established status on either carrier (I don't even have a dividend miles account).

The logical solution seemed to be to convert the points to DL and then book an award ticket on SQ, but from reading the DL forum I'm finding that I probably have a better chance of getting there by flapping my arms since the SQ awards are non-existent.

Am I going to have the same problem on US? My plan would be to open a dividend miles account, deposit the miles, and then book the travel. Is there any way of finding out if flights are available without having an account?

Thank you all for your help and advice!

Well, open the account and transfer only the minimum MR's you have to (1000 miles) until you know that the seats are available and you put them on hold.

Once you transfer the MR points out of AMEX, it it not reversible. You don't want to have a bunch of DM's stuck in the US account without award availability.

There is a federal fee charged when you transfer MR points to an airline ff program. It should only take a day to see the points credited to a ff account once you do a transfer.

I have heard that SQ awards are hard to get period....

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Duplicate Post

Well, open the account and transfer only the minimum MR's you have to (1000 miles) until you know that the seats are available and you put them on hold.

Once you transfer the MR points out of AMEX, it it not reversible. You don't want to have a bunch of DM's stuck in the US account without award availability.

There is a federal fee charged when you transfer MR points to an airline ff program. It should only take a day to see the points credited to a ff account once you do a transfer.

I have heard that SQ awards are hard to get period....

..


I did this a few weeks ago, booked a *A award in Y for Asia-USA-Asia (flying on LH and UA). I needed to 'top-off' my DM account with about 40K miles from Membership Rewards to have enough miles for this award.

I made the reservation first before transferrring miles from MR into DM. DM allowed me to hold the reservation for 3 days before either ticketing or cancelling.

The transfer from AMEX MR to DM was virtually instantaneous-- I had windows open to both AMEX and US websites, and upon authorizing the transfer, the miles were in my US DM account in seconds. And the charge was $0.04 per 1000 miles, so my 40K cost me $16.

About SQ availability difficulty, I can't speak for F or J awards, but I also just booked 2 *A awards in Y from US to Asia using United miles, and got our first choice of SQ flights on the 4 segments that we wanted SQ for, so you may get what you want! Good luck!

I did this a few weeks ago, booked a *A award in Y for Asia-USA-Asia (flying on LH and UA). I needed to 'top-off' my DM account with about 40K miles from Membership Rewards to have enough miles for this award.

I made the reservation first before transferrring miles from MR into DM. DM allowed me to hold the reservation for 3 days before either ticketing or cancelling.

The transfer from AMEX MR to DM was virtually instantaneous-- I had windows open to both AMEX and US websites, and upon authorizing the transfer, the miles were in my US DM account in seconds. And the charge was $0.04 per 1000 miles, so my 40K cost me $16.

About SQ availability difficulty, I can't speak for F or J awards, but I also just booked 2 *A awards in Y from US to Asia using United miles, and got our first choice of SQ flights on the 4 segments that we wanted SQ for, so you may get what you want! Good luck!

I don't recall reading any posts on Y awards on SQ. Everybody seems to want to fly in their storied first class. Those awards seem to be next to impossible to get.

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I don't recall reading any posts on Y awards on SQ. Everybody seems to want to fly in their storied first class. Those awards seem to be next to impossible to get.

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Yeah... I'm looking for first class.

Given the AMEX MR options, here are your most realistic possibilities to Asia:

United via US AIR account
NW or CO via Delta (if NW and CO are not in the program?)
China Air via Delta
China Southern via Delta (downside is ticket only good FROM LAX)

SQ is a dream - dont count on it

PS: Biz class is just as good as 1st - don't sweat the difference

Used MR points on DL for SQ first class back in 2002 from EWR to DPS via AMS and SIN. Booked two tix five months out but it took some searching, left on a Tuesday and returned on a Wednesday (two weeks later). Did not transfer points to DL until I had hold on reservation. After points transferred, I booked the tickets. Based on the posts I have read, it looks as though seats are even more limited at this time. If I had to do it again, I would book through US as there are more options available thru *A.

I'd say you can forget about first class on SQ. FWIW, I had no trouble using my UA miles to book LAX-SIN-DPS earlier this year for a business class award. It was much better going nonstop to SIN rather than stopping off in NRT or TPE. IIRC, I booked this ticket about 3 months in advance of my departure date. Good luck!

I booked a J award on SQ using US miles (one way; outbound on LH). No trouble with the FRA-JFK on SQ, but they couldn't get me UAx from JFK to IAD. I told them not to worry...

Also did transfer from Amex, and was also stunned by the speed.