mentor of monty

Real apologies if this is asked elsewhere (I'm sure it has been)- can't find it!

It appears from the KF website that I can pay for flights using a combo of miles and cash- my question is what value does one receive from the KF miles- I want to check before transferring miles from Amex.

Looking at LHR-SIN in J if that is of any relevance.

Many thanks

cmdsea

Did you see the micro site.?

http://paywithkrisflyermiles.com/

In summary its shocking bad value compared to using miles for outright award redemption and really only worth considering if you have orphan miles that are about to expire and go to waste anyway...

lokijuh

For every 1000 krisflyer miles you use in the co-pay arrangement you save approx. £5.03.

AddictedTraveller

As mentioned it's not a good value option. You'll get 1 cent per KrisFlyer mile (SGD), whereas for normal flight awards you can get 2-8 cents per mile:

Singapore Airlines Pay with KrisFlyer Miles Option – Is it Worth It?

What is a Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Mile Worth?

mentor of monty

Thanks all- much appreciated. As I suspected!

redvelvetmartinis

It's terrible value.

A friend of mine didn't check as she booked a flight to LHR - ended up paying over 60,000 miles in addition to nearly $1000 cash. (This was only in Y!)

A full redemption that I did was less than 60k miles.

In short - don't do it.

RTWFF

I was wondering about this myself. I have enough points (at the book-online-get-15%-discount rate) for 1.6 tickets in J Class using points SIN-AMS (where there seems to be a good availability of seats), for Her Indoors and me

1. I'm assuming that I can't make such a booking in one swoop and get the 15% discount
2. It's one-way and a one-way ticket is always more expensive than 50% of a return ticket (all part of a RTW trip using points in various programs)
3. If I bought a full-fare Economy ticket and then upgraded that still seems to be an expensive option

Basically I think I might be screwed

redvelvetmartinis

It's still very expensive. I used to this back in the early days as a flying newbie, until I realized 1) it made no sense to pay the full fare and not be able to claim miles for it just cos you upgraded and 2) it didn't cost much more to simply redeem a full ticket on the higher class.

Are there any other CC / FF programs that you could potentially use to bump up your miles bank? Or, if I'm not wrong, you can purchase KF miles (though I have never used this option so I don't know anything about it).

SingaporeDon

Your 1) is clearly wrong!!! One of the benefits of buying an economy ticket and upgrading using miles is that you also earn miles for your coach ticket (plus the 25% bonus if your are silver or gold). So the net cost of upgrading in number of miles needed is lower than the headline number becasue a) you can get the 15% online discount and b) you will earn 100% or 125% (if you are gold or silver) for the paid economy ticket

Also, note that SQ charges pretty hefty YQ and taxes on award redemptions. When you buy an economy ticket and upgrade, you effectively "save" on those YQ/taxes you would pay on a full redemption.

My advice is to always look at the net cost of the two alternatives - full redemption versus buy economy and upgrade with miles - for your particular itinerary before deciding which one makes sense

For OP, with 1.6 times the miles for 2 award redemptions, buying upgradeable coach and upgrading using miles (with 15% discount) may make that option a viable option.

RTWFF

Unfortunately the kicker is going to be the expensive one-way fare if I purchase it. I checked yesterday and for that routing SQ have award availability within a very few weeks of departure so maybe I fly and spend as much as I can and hope to make up that missing 0.4

cmdsea

Your profile doesnt state where you are based but usually churning a credit card or two (or three) is the best way to generate a significant chunk of miles in a quick and painless manner..

RTWFF

I live in Australia so that's definitely NOT an option. KrisFlyer doesn't now partner direct with any Australian credit card. I'm assuming by "churn" you mean get a card that offers sign up bonus miles to an airline, replace with another, replace with another. I don't believe even if I lved in Singapore which is their home base that I could do that.

I think the best solution points-acquisition strategy is going to be to wait for SPG to offer a discount on Starpoints, buy 20,000 (the maximum) and then transfer them through to KrisFlyer and take the 5,000 point transfer bonus at the same time.

As I've been an SPG member for many years (although I tried to log on yesterday and it tells me I need to re-activate my account) this is probably going to be the most painless. I guess I could also pop over to Coupon Connection (haven't been there for years either) and see if anyone's got any Starpoints to spare.

lokijuh

It doesn't have to be a direct partnering card, it could be a card that earns in that bank/cards own program and then transferring across. Also there's the option of a Velocity card to churn through, for example I recently saw an offer for 50,000 Velocity points after opening card and spending $1000 (or something like that) on the card. At a transfer to Krisflyer of 1.35:1 that equates to 37,000 KF miles. Of course this may depend on annual fee whether worthwhile.

redvelvetmartinis

I have NEVER, EVER gotten miles for an upgraded Y ticket.
Did they start this recently, or has it always been the case?
I used to do upgrades about 3-4 years ago, but stopped.

If they've always done it... that's A LOT of retroactive mileage I am entitled to (but will probably never be able to claim).

lokijuh

Upgraded tickets should accrue mileage in the original booking class, but not in the class upgraded to.