harusadu

Before you guys get mad, please note I'm quite new with the redemption process in airline frequent flier programs. So please excuse me if this isn't the right place or if its a stupid question. The conundrum I'm facing is this. I had roughly 85,000 miles but I let 30K miles expire. I now have 56K miles and 10K miles expire by Dec and a further 3K and 7K by January and February. I know it isn't a significant amount of miles but whats the best I can do with these? I live in Vancouver and a trip home to Chennai (MAA) would be nice. Whats the best way to use these miles if I want an upgrade? Should I do a straight redemption and buy the remaining miles. I've heard this is bad value though. Or should I buy a regular ticket and upgrade with miles? Even if I was to upgrade just the inbound or outbound this would be fine, I just don't want the miles to go to waste. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much guys.

lcpteck

Since SQ does not fly to Canada, you can only redeem on partner airlines which would be more expensive.

Partner Airline Awards
Business class roundtrip to North America.
Economy class roundtrip to Hawaii or Central American
Buy 2k KF Miles for Economy class roundtrip to Europe.

Upgrade Awards

See which one would be best for you. ^

harusadu

Hey Icpteck,

Thanks for the prompt reply. I can always fly to the States and start my trip from there while booking a separate return with cash between Vancouver and that city. What are my options then? And for all the options you've provided me apart from the partner airline rewards, are they with Vancouver or the rest of Canada in origin or from India?

lcpteck

Do take a look at the chart, it will show how much miles needed from 1 region to the next.

Here's the award chart for flights on SQ.

kazuwox

If you stick to redemptions on SQ, nearest SQ-operated city is either SFO or LAX which is in zone-13 in SQ redemption chart. So, you need to fly to the starting point by yourself first.

How to redeem is absolutely your choice, like upgrade or award ticket/s. Just take note that 57K is not sufficient anyway, then you need to top up (purchase) miles if need be.

harusadu

So I guess what I'm really asking is, if I was to redeem with partners, does it make sense for me to redeem what I have and pay on top of that. I've read a lot that miles + cash is never good value. In this case, most likely, I'll be buying a ticket and then upgrading with my miles, probably to AMS from YVR. Or should I try to redeem a full award ticket?

kazuwox

Whichever you like....
North America - Europe return ticket on economy (partner) needs 55k
while one way upgrade North America - Europe is 40k(Y to C)/45k(C to F).
I don't know which option you prefer.. Considering the distance, Eco-return award ticket
looks interesting...

Yes, mile + cash is never a good choice in my understanding.
Just your ref there seems no direct flight between YVR-AMS on star alliance carriers,
You need to change planes en route.

harusadu

Given one will give me a free return ticket and the other will cost me 80k both ways while paying for a flexible economy ticket, as a guy who's about to graduate, the first option looks much more attractive to me. What would I fly, Air Canada to London or Lufthansa to Frankfurt and then off to Amsterdam?

SQ325

Nothing in life is for free

You still got to pay for taxes and other charges. They can be quite substantial. You might end up paying more than for a discounted ticket in economy.

harusadu

Right now I'm looking at trying to combine my Qatar Airways Miles with my SQ miles. QR fro the outbound and SQ for the inbound YVR-MAA. Its quite difficult. Though I did find good mileage value on QR. SQ is kind of making things difficult.

smarsani

92k of my miles expiring this January and I can't use them before they do. And there's the (other) dilemma of 69k of my wife's miles also expiring.

http://i.imgur.com/H3QPLxv.png

SQueeze

Which is why rule no 1 in the mileage game is:

NEVER EVER REDEEM IN ECONOMY

kazuwox

Another rule : Don't try cash and mile option unless really desparetely avoid expiry

lokijuh

It's not always that simple, wish it where. Sometimes it can be nigh on impossible to get seats when you want in business class, especially if there are multiple travellers.

My rule of thumb is to look at the value per point ()by comparing it to commercial fare of reasonable competitor. I've certainly done economy redemptions to MEL from SIN when the cheapest fare on QF has been $1200 (and SQ $1400), even with ~$400 in taxes, that's still just under 2c per point. Also economy one way, business the other is a viable proposition when there is no alternative.