zimstyles

Long time lurker in the forums with a few posts.

I have a dilemma that has recently surfaced. My long haul travel is now “exclusively” on EY, they have taken great care of me and I get upgrades 50% of the time Y to J.
I only fly two long hauls now a year and so status is hard to come by. Short haul I fly BA only due to great redemptions using Amex Points / BA credit card avios. I no longer fly for work.

Anyway Mrs Zimstyles and I are flying to Bali in August. Due to the bad reviews on SQ business class from JNB-SIN, we opted to fly JNB-AUH-SIN on EY metal. We will then change over to SQ and fly the 787-10 to Bali in J. Essentially two tickets, one on EY and one on SQ.

Annually we visit 1 island / beach resort, a Euro destination and or an Asian destination.

I have no intention of flying SQ again and so I am trying to figure out where to credit miles seeing as EY is not part of a real alliance. I am tempted to try miles and more and then see if I can not do a few hops with Lufty but I hardly think I will get any benefit. Can anyone recommend where to credit SQ miles for a traveler based in JNB.

Thanks in advance

Braniff

Why not your SAA Voyager account - both Star Alliance ?

zimstyles

SAA bigger redemptions are almost impossible to attain. The miles required for a redemption on Saa are usually insane. Not to mention the financial woes.

to give an example I have a companion voucher on Saa and I recently received the below email

Dear Mr Zimstyles

Voyager Credit Card Companion ticket Update - Hong Kong

South African Airways has announced the cancellation of its Hong Kong services until 31 January 2020due to the financial impact of the ongoing political tensions in Hong Kong. SAA will unfortunately not be able to issue any companion tickets for this period and until further notice. This decision has been made to prevent any inconvenience should SAA be required to extend the cancellation period.

We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

MSPeconomist

If you're crediting other miles to LH, you could do the same with your SQ flights, but make sure to check fare class earnings carefully. Some discount fare classes might earn little or nothing on one partner and somewhat more on a different *A alliance partner.

zimstyles

so we do not have any other accounts in *A. We are looking to open from scratch.

will do some research and potentially look at UA and LH as a start. I suppose I could try Kris flyer but again the likely hood of another flight via Singapore is low.

time permitting I am more likely to do Cathay or Qatar.

Goaguy

Try have a look at Turkish (Miles and Smiles). Relatively cheap redemption for business class tickets between central/southern Africa and Europe.
Also, Elite status (Star Gold) status only requires 40,000 miles within a 12 month period and is valid for two years.

MSPeconomist

Look at Aegean too.

Note that SQ FF program miles expire, IIRC in three years, regardless of activity in the account.

Mwenenzi

It is a short flight, so earning is not much with any ffp
Aegean is a popular catch all ffp.
But adding to SAA my be as good as any
UA ff miles do not expire. Is a revenue based ffp with other rules for ff partners
LH not that popular for infrequent flyers. OK if flying LH in premium cabins
https://www.wheretocredit.com/singapore-airlines/j
Cathay and Qatar are Oneworld, so to BAEC ffp?

Star Alliance: Need advice on which Star Alliance FF scheme to join? - please post here

Be mindful of expiry Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire. Click to open the wiki.

Yachtman

I’m more interested in your technique for how you upgrade 50% of the time with EY as such an infrequent traveller.

sydunipete

Virgin Australia allows to collect and redeem miles on both SQ and EY. It's a bit out of the way, but if you worked out the maths it could be handy.

I'm an Elite member with TK and it works pretty well. The retain level for Elite (*A Gold) is 37500 miles in a 2 year period but miles do expire in 3 years. Look at Asiana for a similar *A Gold attain / retain level and miles that last for 10 years.

definitelynotafrequentflyer

Virgin Australia account can only be opened by someone who reside in Australia, I think OP is based in South Africa.

nancypants

Which is a shame because SAA is a VA partner as well

oh well, can’t have it all I guess

geminidreams

Well other Star Alliance partners to consider for you would be Turkish for Europe and Asia travel and Ethiopian.

Unionruler

Why on earth did you pay the SQ the SIN-DPS J price, it is terribly expensive if you normally only have budget to pay for Y. JNB-AUH-KUL and MH J KUL-DPS would have saved you some cash and your current conundrum.

dici

Well, if you prefer to have some alcohol in flight, MH KUL to DPS may have chance to disappoint you, since the crew may not serve them. There has been report on the inconsistency of alcohol serving on KUL/DPS route