elleana

Being based in SIN, I didn't think very much when first signing up for a FFP and am with SQ KF. Recently though, I have been toying with the idea of switching, or at least diversifying.

A bit of background:
- For leisure travel, usually book cheapest Y ticket on SQ (10% mile earn rate), or J/F redemption using KF miles (mostly earned with CC spend)
- For work travel, full fare Y or J depending on distance, but total mileage in a year is <50k (most common destination is HKG which is just a shade over 3k miles return, always in Y)

Why I am thinking of swiching / diversifying:
- YQ on redemptions
- KF Silver is kinda meaningless

Why the decision is difficult:
- Nothing quite beats flying Suites
- Say what you will, but there still remains a little bit of patriotism in me
- Not sure I can even accumulate enough miles elsewhere to make it worthwhile
- CC mile redemption options are limited

Is there any other option out there worth considering or should I just stick with KF? Or perhaps continue to fly on SQ but credit miles to another FFP? I can probably still get into Suites from time to time from CC redemptions.

To be honest I'm not sure if there is another airline whose metal I would fly on any sort of regular basis, which makes it tough to choose any one other alternative FFP. Ex-SIN it's quite hard to be 'loyal' to any one airline other than SQ. Of course I'd still like to stick to *A in the event I manage to hit *G sometime... UA MP sounds interesting but chances of flying on UA metal would be low, at the most 1 trip to the US a year. UA does fly to HKG but at only one flight a day the schedule is pretty punishing - 0600 outbound departure and 0020 inbound arrival.

Apologies if this is somewhat of a ramble, I am just thinking out loud..

azimax

Stick with SQ now you have options of flying premium economy as well
Also SQ has best service overall

lcpteck

What about CX? Local CC points can transfer to CX Asia Miles as well. You can also fly CX to HKG.

Kacee

Except MPC is even worse than KF. And CX, while a great airline, offers an inferior hard product to SQ on HKG-SIN.

Agree though that CX is the only real alternative here.

elleana

Thanks for the suggestions, though I probably should have mentioned would rather stay with a *A carrier so CX is out. Would probably have been the obvious alternative otherwise.

nanyang

I'm SIN-based and use both SQ and UA programmes.

I credit all SQ and MI flights to Krisflyer, and nothing else (apart from credit card points):
- not sure if there are good options for credit card earning rates in SG (just haven't done any research)
- if you fly MI every now and then, obviously Krisflyer is pretty much the only option
- I find it pretty challenging to use KF miles; typically would like to redeem for long-haul J, booking max. 2 months out, but this is difficult (I don't mind the surcharges, but availability is an issue)
- On the other hand, would not consider using my hard-earned Krisflyer miles flying anything else than SQ in premium classes

UA
- I tend to fly a fair amount of flights on other Star partners, and find UA convenient for this
- Visit the US a few times a year, so with some planning I can get the UA segments together
- I don't care about status with UA, and have Platinum (previously 1K)
- Prefer to use miles to fly long-haul J, booking close to departure (I find united.com pretty convenient for these type of redemptions)

I would probably stick with SQ in your case if you get miles via the credit card. On the other hand, I find UA pretty good as well. Wouldn't worry about status too much.

MSPeconomist

I'd stick with SQ but explore whether it would be worth booking slightly more expensive fare classes for leisure trips or alternatively doing some fun little weekend trip MRs to get higher status. [Check the MR Deals and Premium Fare Deals fora for ideas, as well as watching for announcements of SQ sales.] You have a good start with your J and full Y business trips.

You really don't want to fly UA if it can be avoided.

Mwenenzi

The airline you fly and the airline ffp you credit those flights does not need to be the same

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...post-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

lcpteck

That is correct.

But it does however depends on which airline you fly with as the crediting of mileage to FFPs differ from FFP to FFP due to the different fare codes on the mileage earned in each FFP. There's also the concern on redemption value, fuel surcharges, and any CC points redemption.

Something like that... Someone check my english if that makes sense...

elleana

Also, one generally is only able to enjoy the best benefits of being on a higher tier in any FFP if you fly that airline. So to me when choosing an(other) FFP, I wouldn't pick an airline where I could easily qualify for silver or gold, but I would never ever fly them.

lcpteck

Agreed, I guess that's why my primary FFP is MH cause I fly them due to the more affordable fares.

Kelvin L

I am quite similar to you, based in SIN, paying for cheapest fare for leisure and accumulating miles through CC.

My most common destination was HKG too until last month. I probably will not be going that often anymore though, with my company recently cutting down costs. I got my *G last year just flying SIN-HKG.

I am also thinking of changing my FPP, maybe to TK for the status match, so that I can at least enjoy 2 more years of *G in case I cannot re-qualify for KF elitegold. But I agree the suites is too enticing

lcpteck

Wow that's alot of flights for SIN-HKG.

I haven't tried Suites yet, probably won't have a chance to. Maybe by the time I'm able to fly Suites SIN-FRA-JFK, the next generation Suites would be out...

timster

So what exactly do you get for being KrisGold when flying SQ, over and above what you get for being *G via other programs where it is easier to get to gold (with airlines which you may rarely or never fly) ?

nanyang

I would assume:
- Access to SQ inventory for redemptions
- Earn miles on MI
- Status benefits on MI
- No need to the minimum number of segments on another airline for status (e.g. on UA); not sure if for example TK have such a requirement