SQ does have some nice redemption offers on domestic flights within India, I already have about 20k miles with them that can be used for a few domestic roundtrips. I did not realize that Infinia had a reward miles option with SQ, as the Smartbuy portal did not have a direct miles transfer option to SQ, had to go on a separate portal through netbanking for it. Thanks for pointing that out!

For UK redemption - if you have the points in Infinia... utilizing that would be cheaper than using SQ. Unless you're not planning of increasing your SQ stash to be able to do better international redemption.

OW Y fare at equivalent to USD 2,400?!! That sounds very very steep. Full fare economy, I imagine.

I do a lot NYC-INDIA trips and manage to find Business fares in the region of ~3,000 USD RT. They all earn me miles, even though they are discount fares. At some point, I decided to earn miles in several mileage programs and have status with a few of them (AA, AS, VS) albeit at the lowest level. Since I am mostly buying or redeeming FF points for J/F, status doesn't matter to me as much, although the mileage earning bonuses definitely help.

I chose my FF programs based on where I can earn the most miles and which programs allow me to redeem at the best levels. For example, from NYC, AA has some great redemption values to India, UA not as much. Neither does AS now, unfortunately, since JAL devalued their redemption values.