Hi people,

I'm new to FT so I hope that the experts around here can help me out.

I'm based in Singapore and I'm an Elite Silver member with SQ. However, I would be going to the US to study for anything between 4-8 years so I was thinking of changing to UA. I called the Singapore UA office and they said they will match my silver status with SQ but my miles won't be transferred (I only got 5000+ left anyways after redeeming 2 upgrades).

I was wondering if this is a good move on my part cause I primarily fly SQ unless left with no choice. I would be travelling enough to obtain EG/PE but not enough for 1K this year. So I was wondering which FFP maximises my benefits.

Also, I noticed that the # of miles required for SQ to redeem a tix is incredulously high. For example a *A award (Y class) to US would be 80000 with SQ but only 60000 with UA. Considering this factor, would it be better to change to UA so as to maximise my miles?

Any opinion would be helpful.

Thanks a million.

Krisflyer is a stingy program. Dump em.

SQ miles expires. UA miles (almost) don't.

While it's true that SQ miles expire and SQ is very stingy, there are a few more considerations at play here. First, there is the issue of UA's financial health. UA is in the shakiest health of the major US carriers at this point. If they go under, your miles go under with you (not trying to fearmonger, but this should be a legitimate concern). As an option, you could credit to a different *A carrier.

You say you primarily fly SQ. Well, if you fly SQ, and credit UA, you cannot use your miles for upgrades on SQ. You will not earn an elite tier bonus flying on SQ (meaning if you have 2P [Premier] status on UA, you only earn the 25% mileage bonus on UA and US flights). So if you fly 60,000 BIS miles on SQ, UA would give you 60,000 miles, SQ would give you 75,000 miles. Couple that with SQ's 15% discount for booking awards online, and you should earn rewards quicker with SQ. And generally, award availability is much better for Krisflyer members than other *A members.

I believe that there is a compromise. You could join SQ PPS. This will let you have credits for flying in SQ (raffles/first) and credit your miles to United.
I think that it's a very weird system but, I suppose, that you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
You simply join Krisflyer. When you fly on SQl, you ask for PPs accreditaion for the flight on SQ and for your miles to be credited to United.

Here's the UK URL:
http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/app/...WelcomePg.html

Hope this helps

When I first joined KrisFlyer I really dug the pretty girls they put on their home page. As well, i was able to double dip and actually send in stubs to them while getting credit on both DL and UA flights! Dunno if that works anymore but the big bummer is that no matter what you do, they expire their miles after a certain set of time in big chunks, so you must use em or lose em. Plus they have too much procedure and paperwork and stuff like that to get things done. I was about to lose 15k of 30k I had so I wanted to give my award to a friend and first I had to fill out forms and then I had to pay a fee to add him on there but they did waive the fee when I complained. They give personallized service if you call the LA office but you can be on hold forever so I did not like that. Tickets were paper tickets in nearly every case I ever booked any award and so I just stick with UA. UA has its issues but they are still big enough and local enough to handle most of my concerns. I just will never use the UA mall ever again to buy anything!

Stick with UA.
keep it afloat every 3 years and have award levels ready to redeem because they take the longest to post problem miles like ones that may be late or missing. But at least they dont just take them away like SQ does.


MM

thanks you all for replying to my post.

acf573 I understand the issue with UA's financial health and there is of course a risk of losing the miles if anything were to happen. However, as I don't fly as much most of the ppl in FT, I don't think I have much to lose as compared to you all. With that said, is there any other *A carrier worth considering if I were to be in the US for like 4-8 years? I know there is US Airways but they don't fly to Singapore so I won't be gaining as much if I were to fly UA back here.

Also, I've considered your point about the 25% mileage bonus if I were to stay with SQ. However, as I would be studying in Baltimore, I was thinking of redeeming *A awards instead of SQ awards. Considering that fact, the discrepency between the number of miles needed for a *A award greatly outweigh the 25% bonus. But is it true that it's really tough getting a *A award with SQ using UA miles?

ramraideruk as I mentioned earlier, I'm actually a student so I don't think my dad would be paying for me to fly business or first, therefore PPS is kinda out of the question. But thanks for your opinion.

I don't know about *A awards on SQ from the US, but we live in the Middle East, and have found it very easy to cash in our UA miles for SQ awards from Dubai to Asia. (Unlike our experience on KLM, where we just keep accumulating miles because we can never use them!)

LH might be a good choice. I'm sure they can get you IAD-FRA-SIN. Going east, this is decent time-wise. On the return, the fastest route is probably the SQ SIN-EWR nonstop. If you're willing to go non-*A, VS is another SQ partner. I don't know anything about their program though.

See this thread on the UA board for award availability:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ward+singapore
This is one of many, but the only one I could readily find. The consensus is that F and C availability is very hard, Y is easier, but you'll still get better results being in KF than M+ or another *A carrier.

But yeah, from BWI, it's tough to do it SQ only. You'd have to trek up to EWR (not too bad on Amtrak) for the nonstop or JFK for the JFK-FRA-SIN on SQ. I've heard that there are decent fares available for the RTW JFK-FRA-SIN-EWR, but that may only be in C.