spachick

Here's my goal.
I live in the BWI/IAD area.
In 3 yrs = 2018, I'd like to travel to Asia.
My question is about my return trip from Singapore.
I dream of flying in luxury on Singapore Airlines. I hear they have 3 levels (First/Biz/and an upcoming 3rd level).
Presently, I frequently fly on Southwest, Delta, United and AA/US Airways.
What is the best strategy to obtain this dream without paying cash but with points etc? I'd love to fly in luxury going to Asia too but I think that would be a little ambitious and unattainable, perhaps?
I am currently using the Hilton & IHG cards to harvest hotel points for the trip.
If I am in the wrong forum, please direct me to the right one.
Thanks.
Spachick

Yoshi212

Start reading up on Singapore airlines and its reward program. Getting premium seats outside of the Krisflyer program can prove to be challenging. The upside is that Amex transfers into the Krisflyer program and Amex currently has a 50,000 points signup bonus for the Gold Premier Rewards card and 100,000 for the Amex Platinum. SPG also transfers to Krisflyer.

Depending on your credit and spending abilities you could do SQ one way and CX another via the AS rewards program.

glennaa11

If you want to fly SQ up front you should probably start collecting Amex MR points, Chase UR points, or SPG points.

If you don't have have the Chase Sapphire preferred card yet that is one of the no-brainer credit cards. And you can keep an eye out for the Amex Platinum 100K offer that pops up from time to time. That's how I managed to fly SQ suites on the A380 SIN-FRA-JFK a couple of years ago.

You can book SQ awards on their website with a 15% discount as long as you restrict yourself to SQ's flights. So a one way from SIN to JFK costs about 93K miles for Suites class. Then you can either just buy a cheap ticket from JFK to IAD or BWI or try to use miles (maybe Avios if you have any since it's such a short flight it should only cost about 4500 Avios in economy).

CDKing

by 2018 miles will be worth about nothing, This is not a good idea for long term planning

farbster

Way to far ahead to be thinking and don't get hung up on flying first class in the suites. I can almost guarantee that you'll save up your points for the time needed and then when the time comes for you to fly, you'll either have an equipment change, the routing will stink or you'll be unable to go to Singapore due to civil unrest/earthquake/illness in family, etc. That's a long time to wait for a trip.

I would instead focus on getting points (credit card sign up bonuses are easy for some) and then redeeming. Don't worry about pickling your points. Find a destination that you're excited about and figure out how to go there. Don't make the flight the highlight of your trip.

Just my two cents.

LondonElite

In addition to what has been said above, you should note that SQ does not release any significant Suites redemptions to its partners in advance. Your best way to redeem for Suites would be to earn miles within KrisFlyer, which is not really practical/useful if you live in the US. Seats are currently released on a sporadic basis to, for example, UA, but it's not something you can count on. High demand, low availability, and the uncertainty of what will happen in three years time make your strategy a bit dicey.

SQTraveller

I suspect this should be in the Singapore Airlines forum.

3 years is a long time. If you really want to make it, I suggest you focus on one programme. Singapore Airlines is notorious for making it difficult to redeem if you are not using their own (Krisflyer) program.
Like glennaa11 said, you get an additional discount if you book on their website. So a one way first class flight that would normally cost 100k would cost 85k --- or something like that.
Once you get about 18 months out before the date you want, you should come back to us with more pointers. Things will change.
For example, as I mentioned, SQ makes it difficult to redeem using miles from other Alliances - one way they do this is by not showing the available redemption-class tickets (even though they are actually available). There are ways to show the availability, but this might change over the next 2 years.

Just briefly on the experience, I recently wrote a report on FlyerTalk about my experiences travelling business class. When you look at the seats they honestly look like first class for most other airlines!! Really is crazy!!

iluvcruising2

SQ Business class is very good. The hard product on the New Business Class is of course better than the old one. The retrofit of their fleet seems rather slow though. The following videos give you an idea.

SQ A380 Business Class - older Business class

SQ New Business Class on a Boeing 777

manneca

Don't transfer points to Singapore too soon. Miles expire 3 years after they are credited. This is different from most US programs where generally the miles don't expire after a specific time, but only after there has been no activity in the account for a specific time (yes, Delta right now is an exception).

JDiver

Cross posting across fora is strongly discouraged. I've merged your thread in the Singapore forum with this one. The forum moderators may move it to a more appropriate forum as it develops.

Good luck with your aspirational travel.

JDiver
Senior Moderator

lcpteck

No worries spachick, where you're at, you actually earn miles faster/better on SQ than us here in the home of SQ.

USA is still the home of great mileage earnings. ^

mattp1987

I have to strongly disagree with this. KrisFlyer is a 1:1 transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, and SPG. This makes it quite easy to rack up miles that can be transferred to KrisFlyer to book SQ Suites if availability is there but can also be transferred to other programs (UA, DL, AC, BA, etc.) in order to still make the trip happen on another carrier if the award space OP is hoping for isn't released.

LondonElite

You missed my point. KrisFlyer as a mileage accrual programme is not very useful if you don't live in Asia and/or don't fly with SQ. I'm not disputing that you can transfer into SQ from any number of credit card partners, but once they are in there, they're not much use beyond *A and Virgin. To get a Suites reward, transfer into your SQ account, but if not transfer into something else. For *A awards otherwise, UA is probably the best for those living in the US.

spachick

Wow! What a lot of information.
The common thread that I am seeing is to:
a) Sign up for the Krys Program
b) Get a AMEX (when the 100K promo comes up) or Chase card to rack up points.
c) If I need to, Transfer points (although the inventory may be limited) to the Krys Program when the time comes
d) Come back to FlyerTalk 18 months out from my travel date to get more advice because things change.

Did I miss anything or am I a good student?

LondonElite

For the most part, yes!

Award seats are usually released between 330 to 355 days before travel (i.e. 11-12 months), but never earlier, so 18 months out you won't be any wiser.