ThatAdamGuy

Hi there,

SQ opened my eyes to how wonderful air travel can be; before my SFO-HKG-SIN journey in R (via MR points), I had mostly flown Y and a few times in C on UA.

My parents (near LAX), however, have only ever traveled in economy, and I'd love to treat them to a special premium SQ itin; I've been saving up my MR and UR points for a while, and though I don't have enough for RT R, I can at least book them in suites one way!

And I was thinking Singapore with a stopover in Tokyo would be especially great!

So here's where I'm hitting some challenges:

• Award holds: SQ apparently doesn't allow holding of award itins. Since I'll need to move over points from Amex and Chase, do I need to worry about availability issues? Any tricks for getting award travel reserved?
• Stopover: It seems stopovers are only allowed for itins with cabin classes the same in both directions. Any workarounds, so I could do LAX-SIN J, then SIN-LAX R with a stopover in NRT, for example?
• Finding availability: Continuing their tradition of winning awards, their web site should win "Most likely to cause people to shriek in rage." Is there any way to search by flexible dates with that monstrosity, or do I seriously have to either deal with a friendly-but-difficult-to-understand phone agent or page through one day at a time on the web site?

Thanks much in advance for your suggestions! Please save me from having to resort to my UA mile stash... (though I guess UA C or F would still be pretty exciting for my parents compared to UA or DL Y! Or hmm, I'm actually seeing lots of Asiana C availability via UA...)

lingua101

What is MR and UR?

f you are redeeming through SQ itself, you can always book 2 one-way ticket and the return trip with stop over in Tokyo.

But I guess, you are not using SQ Krisflyer points right?

ThatAdamGuy

MR = American Express Membership Rewards points.
UR = Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
Both are transferrable to Krisflyer at a 1:1 ratio. I think the MR points transfer immediately, but I hear the UR points take 1-2 days to transfer.

re: 2 one-way tickets... alas, on Singapore's site, they specifically note that you only get a stopover on a roundtrip flight, not a one-way.

lokijuh

If booked as 2 one ways, it will be a standard award (2x points) on ticket with the stopover!

There are really three options for the itinerary:
- Three saver one-way savers, LAX-SIN, SIN-NRT, NRT-LAX
- A one way saver LAX-SIN and a standard award SIN-LAX with stopover at NRT
- A return saver (not sure if it has to be same class in both directions, I think it does, or if not it will be charged at the higher class anyway) with stopover in one direction.

Obviously points will vary depending on the mix/match of different classes, but if booked online and all in F, the points for three options respectively would be 216,750; 269,875; 182,750.

planetshakers

It is a little known fact that you can add a stopover to a 1-way KF redemption by paying US$100 !

Google it.

Downside is you have to call KF to book it and in most likelihood, they will not honor the 15% online discount for the miles.

But the 15% milelage loss + US$100 / pax is cheaper than the miles for the 2x 1-ways for sure !

Hope you manage to book the dream trip for your parents!!!

cmdsea

Don't underestimate the difficulties of trying to redeem 2 saver level Suites on the same flight. Hope their schedules are VERY flexible...

ThatAdamGuy

lokijuh, I appreciate you outlining those options; thanks!

On a related note, here's what I'm thinking so far (especially since I've found 2 passenger to/from SIN availability really difficult, just as you suggested cmdsea!): (points listed are per person, w/ online booking discount)
- Option 1: Book LAX-NRT in SQ Suites (74K KF), and KIX-LAX on Asiana Business Class via Seoul (75K MileagePlus)
- Option 2: Book LAX-NRT in SQ Business (66K KF), and SIN-SFO on SQ Suites (91K KF)

(I live in the San Francisco area, so my parents could visit me on the way back and I can almost certainly get SFO-LAX flights for them for just 4.5K Avios a person! . The challenge is finding that SIN-SFO availability <sigh>.

I ended up buying a year of KVSTools, which I'm sure I'll find useful for my own travel, too (goodness knows I need to actually take a vacation myself one of these days; all these years of hoarding points, and what have I gotten? Massive, depressing devaluation and lost opportunities, but I digress). And wow, KVS is powerful, but the "help" is not exactly help for a beginner. I spent hours last night just trying to figure out how to do basic searches <sigh>. Someone needs to make a Getting Started Guide for that thing!!!

But alas, so far, even KVS is not finding me 2 suites out of SIN. Bummer!

And lastly, planetshakers... that's fascinating info re the stopover to a 1-way KF redemption! Unfortunately, losing the 15% discount on 2 SIN-SFO tickets would be 27K KF, and I only have about 330K KF total if I use every last KF, MP, and UR point I have . But if by chance I ever earn enough of these points to fly SQ premium again myself, I'll have to keep that in mind! Or, if I use UA MP for one direction... hmmmmm!

Anyway, thanks everyone for the thoughts! Appreciate the tips and encouragement, and please keep the ideas coming!

cmdsea

You could try seeing if availability for the following is any easier..

1) LAX-SIN one way business redemption.

2) SIN-NRT paid flight on Scoot

An SQ LCC. Their promo fares usually around $200 in economy so not much more than the taxes and fuel fines you would be paying for a redemption on SQ anyway. their business promo fares usually around $350-400 but its more of a premium economy product than real business..

3) NRT-LAX Suites redemption

SFore

Just remember Sin-SFO isn't Suites, it's regular F.

ThatAdamGuy

cmdsea, hadn't thought of Scoot... great idea!
SFore... D'OH! Completely forgot that the SFO-HKG-SIN SQ A380 route I personally enjoyed was discontinued! On a related note, you wouldn't happen to know if there's a way to search for just SUITE availability via the KVStool?

Oh, and another question y'all: if, by chance, I do find availability for two Suites on SIN-LAX... does this inherently mean that the seats will be next to each other? I imagine my parents would want to sit together on the flight!

(yes, I know I could probably choose seats at some point in the reservation online... but I don't want to move my Chase points to KF until I'm sure that the seats are available!)

james7

Not necessarily. It depends on the availability of the 2 pairs of centre seats, if that is what you're referring to.

KVS

Welcome to the KVS Tool!

SQ Suites would still fall under the F Cabin, so you would need to search for FS Class:

[KVS Availability Tool 7.3.9/Diamond - Awards/SQ]
You would need to check the [Seat Map] by double-clicking the desired flight:

[KVS Availability Tool 7.3.9/Diamond - Seat Map: 01 Mar 2015/SQ 12/SIN-LAX/388/F-First]

ThatAdamGuy

James7, thanks for the info.
KVSperson, that's super advice! Hadn't thought to leverage that part of the tool, and now I'm stunned to see quite a few wide-open suite-pairs LAX-NRT in April (Sakura month)!

My parents just told me they're especially keen to visit Japan, and hey, that's fewer points needed from me . So my current plan now is to fly them in Suites one way, and then back in business via UA or a partner so I can save some KF points for myself! (that's only somewhat greedy, right?)

Followup question: Would you recommend suites in SQ11 (going to NRT) or SQ12 (returning to LAX)?
The latter is more than an hour longer AND it seems more sleep optimized (arriving in the afternoon vs. evening). Any other considerations? (Hmm... but this is weird; shouldn't eastbound be quicker? With AA, for instance, it's just under 10 hours, not 11.5 hours).

Edited to add:
Oh wow! There's also lots of availability via my United MP points for routing my folks one-way in business or first on EVA, Asiana, ANA, and UA! If only my stupid Delta points were as easy to use (and if only UA didn't now gouge on partner redemptions [sigh]).

Of those options, would any of you care to rank them for me? From that list, I've only flown UA C, SQ C and F, and ANA C.

planetshakers

If you can get ASIANA F / ANA F, go for it.

EVA has only a C product, no F. But Royal Laurel in EVA C is one of the best C around.

UA no experience but I'm sure it is a few steps behind OZ / NH F.

ThatAdamGuy

Here's an update on what I ended up booking.

My parents have been super-excited to visit Japan (one of my favorite places, too!) and also eager to experience Singapore Airlines.

So in the end, I booked them on...

1) LAX-NRT in (middle) Singapore Suites (total of ~145K Chase UR points transferred to KF + ~$350 in taxes/fees)
2) KIX-HND-LAX in ANA (sadly old) C (total of 150K UA points + $85 in taxes/fees)*

I'm a bit bummed that -- though I love ANA overall -- my parents will be in super-narrow and not-lay-flat seats on the way home, but overall I'm sure they're going to be thrilled with their flights and their two weeks spent exploring Japan (with the small-group Odyssey tour company). And as a bonus, I now have some leftover points for me since I spent fewer points on getting them to/from Japan vs., say, Singapore .

Thank you for all the earlier advice here!

*P.S. -- I'm still stunned that Singapore Suites are, all things considered, such a value points-wise. I mean, I'm having to fork over fewer points to send my folks in SQ Suites than in ANA old-C seats (or, heck, even fewer points than UA F!!!). Now if SQ would just get their act together by making a not-carve-my-internal-organs-out-with-a-spork-worthy web site, they'd be even awesomer!

P.P.S. -- It took <48 hours for Chase points to get transferred to my KF account

P.P.P.S. -- I was really hoping to book them on Asiana's KIX-ICN-LAX A380 in C for the same number of miles as the ANA itin, but alas, that timetable didn't work out with my parents' tour schedule :\