Seattle1

If you expect to qualify for KrisFlyer Gold early in the 12-month cycle, what would you advise doing with additional miles earned (all of this on economy class)?

Is it worth crediting to another Star Alliance program, like United, to qualify for that? Would being Gold on United give any additional benefit to already being KF Gold?

Also, if I do credit to United, can I transfer the miles to be used with SQ instead? In other words, can you use the miles to get status on United, but use all the miles for redemption on SQ instead?

Thank you for your advice.

SQueeze

Depends on what your redemption target is. Note that you cannot combine miles from 2 accounts to redeem a flight.

You can redeem SQ miles on SQ flights on all their flights including in Business, First, and Suites and there is a lot of improvement in availability lately (at least if you are based in SIN and region).

You can redeem UA miles on SQ flights but think will be limited to economy and regional business (not their wide seats) and the inventory is limited compared to what is available trough SQ miles. But I think their taxes are much lower.

Personally, I will keep accumulating on SQ because my redemption target is the Suites even if i have to pay a few hundred dollars in taxes for the long-haul flight.

If you are looking for free upgrades at check in, then SQ does it only rarely. Gold status on SQ is only good for its lounge access, priority tag, and waitlist.

keepinitsimple

SQ miles -
1.) Good for SQ F and C redemptions as many more seats are open to KF members compared to other star alliance members.
2.) Only option for SilkAir redemptions as SilkAir is not a part of *A
3.) Good for extra baggage allowance in Y on SilkAir

Worthless for everything else

aster

I agree that it's all about where you want to burn the miles. No point in crediting them elsewhere if you can't make much use of them later.

So I would just keep adding them to my KrisFlyer tally.

Which airline do you fly most often? Is it SQ or have you reached *G by racking up those miles on other alliance carriers?

JohnSIN

I am based in SIN and only use my SQ Krisflyer for booking that don't earn on any other star member. You would get more benefits doing 50k on TG and getting the all the benefits of *G + one Gold Gift a year and 1 UPG on a return flight every 50k.

So this is what I do: 50k on TG for Gold, then 100k on LH for Senator (50% redemption).

If I am short of a Business class ticket on SQ, I sometimes credit some miles there but as others have mentioned, Krisflyer is not great in terms of perks. It is mainly the program where I credit some of my credit card miles but that's it.

garykung

Do you think you will qualify for PPS? If not, unless you always travel on F/J award on SQ, going to another program will be better.

1. Yes.

2. Yes - You can get E+ for free at booking, as well as CPU on eligible flights.

No.

Archieflyer

Remember that United requires 4 flights on UA metal to qualify for status. If you are just accumulating in UA for redemption, this is of course a moot point.

Tbh, unless you are looking for SQ redemptions in premium class (on the new layouts), or are looking to combine bums in seat miles with credit card miles (esp if you are SIN-based, since most of the credit cards only support KF and Asia Miles), there is absolutely no reason to credit your miles to KF. There are superior *A FFPs around offering easier *G qualification to better benefits.

Even if you are going for PPS, it would still be possible to credit your miles to another program (LH is a good one), and the revenue to your KF account for PPS qualification.

SQ325

Firstly you should ask yourself how many miles are you able to accumulate in one year. It doesnt make much sense of accumulating the first 50000 to KF and the other 50000 into another programme. They become useless in both programmes.

Secondly you should ask yourself what you want to redeem. If its mainly flights on SQ (or MI) KF is not the worst programme. For sure other programmes are giving a wider choice on redemptions (like LHs MM) were you even have opportunity to chose Lifestyle products from their worldshop. But the same applies here, burnrate is pretty bad.

aster

You need a lot of miles to get *G with LH and they aren't crediting as well from partner airlines (or even their own low fares) as they have been in the past. The good thing is that you get status for at least 2 yrs and only have to get the required amount of miles in one of those years to re-qualify for a further 2 yrs...

LH is also useful if you will be redeeming for 2 pax on the same flight. If not then I wouldn't really bother with LH as that is their main perk: getting a companion ticket at 50% of the miles required.

But overall if the OP mainly flies on SQ metal then I'd stick to KF for the 25% bonus and just credit there. Diamond Club used to offer a 25% bonus on all *A metal but they're no longer around and I don't think any other FFP does this any more.

lokijuh

I tend to agree with sticking to SQ if wanting to access SQ J or F awards, due restricted availability for partners (particularly of the 77W and A380 long haul 1-2-1 lay out cabins - where there is no availability to most * partners). If wanting awards on other carriers, in Y, J or F this is less important.

I use SQ miles = Silkair, waitlisting Y on SQ, J awards on SQ, but have also started accumulating on UA for lower taxes, convenience of booking (online) and short haul one way awards (eg in Europe where oneways can be very expensive to buy).

One suggestion was using TG, which has good side benefits if flying TG a lot, but conversely has worse earn/burns than most star alliance programs, and not so good if not flying TG.

enelym1978

It really depends on your flying pattern and the airlines used I guess...

If you manage to (re)qualify for Gold on SQ quite early in the year and that you would not redeem for anything more than Asian destinations, then maybe cummulating on UA could be an option. Out of SIN, UA redemption is so much cheaper when it comes to additional taxes...

Or why not put them on a OW carrier? if you fly a lot, you might be able to get both Gold on *A and top tier status on OW/ST?