gnomey

you only need this chart https://www.singaporeair.com/saar5/p..._RoundTrip.pdf
and also to know what *A airlines land in JNB - start from the JNB wiki page.

you wont be flying any SQ metal in the routes you described.
it will be all partners

drvannostren

Yea, no, I got that thanks. I was looking for some reading in terms of the routing rules and stopover stuff.

sbs2716g

SponsorSFC

As advised above you will have access to the Silverkris J lounges. They are OK but not worth spending 21 hours in, there is no where to sleep except some couches down the back and the staff will give you a pillow and balnket if you ask (here isn't anywhere better to sleep in the F lounge or TPR either).

Definitely book a hotel room either in the city or at Changi. We have used both the Crowne Plaza at Changi and the city option (Marina Bay Sands, Conrad, Pan Pacific and Marina Mandarin) for our transits from PER, we haven't used the airside hotels yet but they look a decent option.

It is a quick relatively trip into the city so I would do that with such a long layover.

drvannostren

So that was something I definitely wanted to find out, I can't seem to find anywhere that says explicitly no stopovers on alliance awards. But most guides list on SQ cities as stopovers in their examples so it does kind of explain it.

As far as the second part, maybe you've already answered my follow up question...I've found availability on EF for JNB-FRA and FRA-BOG. I can find FRA-BOG on the SQ site, but when I search JNB-FRA it says it's illegal due to backtracking. Is the IT just so bad that it defaults to searching for only SQ flights which WOULD be available if it wasn't backtracking JNB-SIN-FRA? But the IT again is so bad, that I can't search ONLY star alliance until it generates a variety of options that are legal? So it's just a catch 22 of can't filter the options because they're illegal but I can't filter get past the illegal options because I can't filter out the SQ default search? I had no problem booking a really simple flight before with SQ miles, but I'm trying to better use them this time.

FWIW the ideal itinerary would be MDE/BOG-CAI-JNB-BOG/MDE. South Africa from South America has really attractive rates with SQ, but I'm trying to get 2 cities in, without paying for the flight between CAI-JNB, because it's expensive in cash, and it seems like a bit of a waste of miles to redeem separately for that. The other issue is the traveller is visa-less on a Colombian passport, so transiting the US/Canada is either impossible, or at best costly and unlikely. Transiting Europe on the other hand, or other points in South America is easy (I've looked for GRU-JNB and the availability is pretty paltry) trying to book in Y as well if it matters.

I can piece together an itinerary that's like BOG-MEX-IST-CAI, but I have no idea if SQ considers that back tracking or not. Of course I can phone them, but without being armed with the rules/tricks/tips a bit more I'm confident they'll immediately shoot down anything I say and I'll just believe it. I've had that happen before when the agent told me "no availability" then I fed her flights one by one and suddenly there was availability.

gnomey

i suggest you read the T&C here
<Section J: Star Alliance Awards and Star Alliance Upgrade Awards>

https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/p...6-f2febec2faf2

the SQ website is known to be wonky, more so for partner award availability. it's better to call in.

drvannostren

So while reading the T&C I found that stopovers are permitted on Star awards. So that's good news.

I hate calling in, that's just a millennial thing, but if I get what I want I'm happy to do it. My fear and my experience in the past has been calling just seems to be them going on the website and searching MDE-CPT and saying "oh, sorry no availability". So I'd love to have SOME kind of ammo. It would be nice to know that with a little research and EF results, that the SQ agents would see those flights, but there seems to be no reliable source for inventory when it comes to SQ. Meanwhile both UA/EF results are replicated when I call Aeroplan, literally every single time.

w4rd

I believe they are allowed on return tickets, definitely not on one ways.

SLINKYTRAVEL

SLINKYTRAVEL

...Just following up my own query...I tried multiple times with Krisflyer (HUCA) and finally found an agent that saw Premium Economy space (But could not see the Economy or Upper Class space i was seeing on EF or DL or VS websites...)....waiting for them to call me back with a quote...

drvannostren

Just booked another trip to Africa, so now I'm trying to find Y space from MDE-NBO...again, absolutely nothing, in either direction, for days like 4-5 months out. Search on Aeroplan, no problem. Short haul copa, long haul Lufthy long haul AV...I mean com on, this is just getting ridiculous. I'm glad I don't have a ton invested in this program. I was quite happy to be a member for a few years, but this total inability to redeem is driving me nuts.

I need a ticket return from Europe to YVR in Mar 2020...searched multiple cities, always using flexible dates...nothing in either direction. Just a joke. It's to the point where I'd say the website is glitching out. But then I call and the results are the same.

drvannostren

Alright, update, trying to micro-serach my way through this. Trying not to sound like a cry baby.

Let me ask you guys this. To the power users of Krisflyer...is it just isolated airlines that seemingly have no availability? I've found some flights IST-BOG and FRA-BOG, I've found LH availability pretty well matches up with what I find on EF, same with TK availability.

However, nothing that I find with Avianca or Air Canada is duplicated on the Krisflyer search. So I'm wondering if that's normal, or if there's just a handful of airlines that are impossible to redeem on.

Unionruler

Hm...you're approaching it with the wrong frame of mind. AV LM and AC Aeroplan have reasonably good *A availability. KF has reasonably poor *A availability because years of sour relations with partners in terms of award availability reciprocity. They have diverged to the point that AV LM and AC Aeroplan should never be used as benchmarks for KF because there is simply no basis of comparison.

KF has what KF has, and you need to phone in to check what they really have, period.

Polytonic

Has anyone tried a RTW miles redemption recently? What rate(s) do they charge on mixed cabins?

Sitting on ... several hundred thousand miles/points that I need to burn-off soon-ish.

drvannostren

Based on rules from all other programs I participate in, they'll definitely charge you the highest cost. The only program I know much about that doesn't do this is Lifemiles. They charge per segment, so you can save miles by taking long haul business then short haul econ especially when it's pointless like euro-biz.