Best use of Singapore KrisFlyer miles

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Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles are worth discussing — not just for the sweet spots on the award charts, but because of the abundance of ways to earn.

Each of the five big transferable points programs convert to Singapore Miles:

• Chase Ultimate Rewards points – 1:1 transfer ratio
• Amex Membership Rewards points – 1:1 transfer ratio
• Citi ThankYou points – 1:1 transfer ratio
• Capital One miles – 2:1 transfer ratio
• Marriott points – 3:1 transfer ratio

This post however is not about earning, but instead occasions when you may want to transfer to Singapore Airlines. Whether it’s your cheapest option to Hawaii or availability due to the ability to book partners 355 days out, there are many reasons to use Singapore Airlines miles.

I’ll show you the Singapore Airlines award charts we’ve made, a Singapore award map, a chart to compare/contrast with AA miles, and some discussion about stopovers, booking online, avoiding fuel surcharges, and sweet spots.

Using Singapore KrisFlyer Miles on Star Alliance Airlines

There are multiple award charts for using Singapore KrisFlyer miles. The first award chart is for redemptions on Star Alliance Partners (I also created maps and a few other resources). Then I created an award chart for Singapore Miles on Singapore Airlines flights. Then I discuss three other partners and their award charts (Alaska, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia).

There are gems in every award chart.

First, let me show the KrisFlyer Star Alliance award chart.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Star Alliance Award Map

I think one pertinent detail for understanding deals on the award chart is to know which countries are included in which regions… So I put it in map form so I can visualize it.

These maps do two things:

• They show the prices for each country
• They let me see the regions via different price points

Singapore KrisFlyer coach award map:

Singapore KrisFlyer first class award map:

Best Singapore Airlines Star Alliance deals from North America

• 27,500 miles for coach to Europe is a good deal and slightly cheaper than many others
• 30,000/57,600 miles to Southern South America is a good deal. Singapore doesn’t distinguish between Northern and Southern South America (like most award charts), making flights to the northern half (like Colombia or Peru) way more expensive, and flights to the southern half (like Chile, Argentina and Brazil) a decent deal
• 17,500 miles to Central America is competitive

Let me also point out one thing… It seems cheaper to fly South America to Hawaii (which would have to route through the U.S.) at 25k, than it is to fly South America to the U.S. at 30,000. Possibly worth a stopover and then booking another ticket later.

Best Singapore Airlines Star Alliance deals from Everywhere else

• 12,500 miles for intra “South America” is a great deal. Given that all of South America is one region, that’s a huge area. Unfortunately, Star Alliance has terribly few routes within South America
• Intra-Pacific for 12,500 miles is a great deal. That’s flights within Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, and Vanuatu
• Intra-Africa (Central and South Africa) for only 15,000 miles is a good deal. The region includes: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Using Singapore Miles on Singapore Airlines Flights

The best use of Singapore miles may be on Singapore Airlines itself. There are a number of advantages to using Singapore miles on actual Singapore Airlines flights:

• No fuel surcharges
• Stopovers are bookable online
• The award chart is slightly better

Here’s the official award chart for Singapore Airlines flights (you can find it here).

Best uses on Singapore flights

• 22,500 miles to Europe. It’s only for New York to Frankfurt and Houston to Manchester, however. Also, note that you can book a stopover in Frankfurt or Manchester
• 33,000 miles to fly to China from the West Coast
• 25,000 miles to fly from Southeast Asia to Africa, the Middle East, or Turkey (while Europe is 38,000 miles)
• Asia to Australia for as little as 20,000 miles

Also note that it’s a bit cheaper to fly Singapore Airlines from North America to Asia than on a partner. Plus, again, no fuel surcharges — and very bookable online.

Best Singapore Suites redemptions with Singapore miles

You won’t hear me say this often, but First Class makes more sense than business. Mainly, I don’t think the business class prices are competitive, so why would you want to transfer to Singapore miles for business class instead of another partner?

Of course, availability might be a valid reason. I can actually find Singapore Airlines business class flights across the Pacific. But other than that, I’m thinking the only reason to pay over 100,000 miles for a one-way flight across the Pacific is that you have tons of miles and want to fly in the most luxurious seat — the Singapore First Class Suites.

A380/Suites Routes: from Singapore to Auckland, Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, New Delhi, New York, Paris, Shanghai, Sydney and Zurich (as found here).

Price for Suites on different routes in oneways:

• NYC – Singapore = 132,000 miles (18.5 hours)
• NYC – Singapore – Sydney = 167,000 miles
• NYC – Singapore – Delhi = 160,000 miles
• Europe – Singapore = 125,000 miles (13 hours)
• Europe – Singapore – Australia = 163,000 miles
• Europe – Singapore – China/HKG = 143,000 miles
• Hong Kong – Singapore – Australia = 88,000 miles
• Hong Kong – Singapore = 40,500 (3.5 hours)
• Australia – Singapore = 85,000 miles (7.5 hours)

Remember, you get a stopover, as well!

In terms of hours spent flying to the cost, I might say New York to Singapore nonstop is the best deal. But also tacking on Sydney from Europe only adds 17.5k miles, and from the U.S. is only 28k, for an extra 7.5 hours of flying.

Of course, the big issue is availability.

Using Singapore KrisFlyer for other partners

Singapore Miles For Alaska Airlines Flights

Click here to see the Alaska award chart from Singapore Airlines.

Am I crazy, or is this one of the best redemptions to Hawaii? To or from Hawaii to every Alaska region is only 11,500 to 12,500 miles. Seeing as 12,500 miles to Hawaii is the most expensive, this is a great deal (though there are cheaper ways to get to Hawaii).

On another note, and even crazier in my opinion, is that “Zone 4” includes “Costa Rica, Cuba, and Mexico“. Flights from “Zone 1” (California, Oregon, and Washington) are 12,000 miles to these destinations, and flights from “Zone 3” are only 7.5k miles. Zone 3 includes states like Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, and many more.

Flights to Costa Rica, and Mexico for 7,500? Well… remember that this is only on Alaska Airlines flights, and officially “backtracking” isn’t allowed. So this leaves a limited number of options. It’s better from Zone 1 (which is 12,000 miles), as there are a number of nonstop flights from Los Angeles and Seattle to places in Mexico and Costa Rica.

One small note: Alaska doesn’t fly to Cuba anymore.

Singapore Miles For Virgin Atlantic Flights

Here’s the award chart (details found Click here to see the Virgin Atlantic award chart from Singapore Airlines.

Virgin Atlantic flights from North America to Europe are actually a great deal. 25,000 miles in coach, 32,500 miles in Premium Economy, and 50,000 miles for business class.

Also, Virgin Atlantic has lots of U.S. destinations:

• Atlanta
• Boston
• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles
• Miami
• Newark
• New York-JFK
• Orlando
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Washington Dulles

And you can add the Middle East for only 17,500 miles!

As you can see, the only North America price is to Europe, and all the other prices are to and from Europe. So you could book a ticket to London (their hub) for 25,000 miles, and then add another ticket to the Middle East for only 17,500 miles (like Israel or Dubai). That’s 42,500 miles for a one-way coach flight to the Middle East (or 85,000 miles in business class) on Virgin Atlantic, and you get a stopover in the UK (as they are separately priced tickets).

Also, you may not be able to book Virgin Atlantic flights to Europe, except the UK. If it would make you pay for another ticket within Europe anyhow, it would be cheaper to fly Star Alliance. But I can’t help but notice that there is no Europe to Europe price shown and the only country listed under “Europe” is the UK.

Use the chart I linked to for details, including countries. However, Virgin likely does pass on fuel surcharges!

FYI, It looks like Delta.com is the best place to search for Virgin Atlantic award availability.

Bottom line

There are tons of great redemptions with Singapore miles. But what’s the best use of Krisflyer miles? Probably one of the following:

• 30,000/57,500 miles to Southern South America is competitive
• 12,000 miles for a flight to Hawaii on Alaska is pretty fabulous
• For people not in Alaska Airlines cities, 17,500/34,500 miles is still a good deal to Hawaii
• 25,000/50,000 on Virgin Atlantic to the UK is a great deal. ANd you can add the Middle East as your destination for 17,500 miles, thus building a free stopover in London
• Booking Singapore Suites, if you’re into that sort of thing
• 25k for Asia to Africa, Middle East & Turkey, on Singapore Airlines

As you can see, there are lots of best uses of Singapore KrisFlyer Miles on partners and Singapore flights, and benefits with booking beginning 355 days out.

But the main reason you’d have Singapore KrisFlyer miles to use is because it’s a transfer partner of all major transferable points programs.

Let us know your favorite use for Singapore Airlines miles! And subscribe to our newsletter to have miles and points tips and tricks delivered to your inbox once per day.

Featured image by James D. Morgan / Getty Images.