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Get a good Australia and New Zealand business class flight deal on Singapore Airlines

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The best flight deals in Europe at the moment are out of Scandinavia.  I’m not sure who started it – potentially Qatar Airways – but other airlines have been forced to join in.

For example, Oslo to Cape Town on British Airways in Club World in May is the equivalent of £1,250 return.

If you look at IDENTICAL flights for just Heathrow to Cape Town, on the same dates, you will pay £701 in Economy ….

Anyway, back to Australia and New Zealand.  Whilst there are plenty of Australia deals out of Scandinavia, Singapore Airlines has an excellent reputation for food and service.  If you book by tomorrow night (23rd) there are some attractive fares available.  In May, for example, I found last night:

Stockholm to Sydney – SEK 23,372 return (£1,881)

Stockholm to Auckland – SEK 23,145 return (£1,863)

Stockholm to Perth – SEK 21,873 return (£1,760)

Stockholm to Brisbane – SEK 23,336 return (£1,877)

Stockholm to Canberra – SEK 22,396 return (£1,802)

Stockholm to Melbourne – SEK 23,201 return (£1,867)

Stockholm to Christchurch – SEK 23,122 return (£1,860)

There is a ‘7 day’ option for search results so you can easily find days with the best fares.

If you don’t have a credit card with 0% foreign exchange fees, your best option for paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers triple points – 3 per £1 – when you book flight tickets in a foreign currency.  This is because the transaction triggers the ‘double points for airline spend’ and the ‘double points for foreign spend’ bonuses.  Our review of Amex Gold is here.

Singapore Airlines is in Star Alliance so you can’t earn Avios or BA tier points.  You can credit the flights to Singapore’s KrisFlyer scheme (learn more about KrisFlyer here) and top them up with American Express Membership Rewards points at 1:1, or to any other Star Alliance scheme such as Lufthansa Miles & More.

You can also credit Singapore Airlines flights to Virgin Flying Club – details are on the Virgin Atlantic site here.

You can book on the Singapore Airlines website here.

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How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards (April 2025)

None of the Star Alliance airlines currently have a UK credit card.

There is, however, still a way to earn Star Alliance miles from a UK credit card. 

The route is via Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty points convert to over 40 airlines at the rate of 3:1.

The best way to earn Marriott Bonvoy points is via the official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. It comes with 20,000 points for signing up and 2 points for every £1 you spend. At 2 Bonvoy points per £1, you are earning (at 3:1) 0.66 airline miles per £1 spent on the card.

There is a preferential conversion rate to United Airlines – which is a Star Alliance member – of 2 : 1 if you convert 60,000 Bonvoy points at once.

The Star Alliance members which are Marriott Bonvoy transfer partners are: Aegean, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Avianca, Copa Airlines, Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points for signing up and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

Category

General

Comments (198)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • David says:
    22 Jan22 January 09:27

    Anyone have any insight / predictions as to whether the Singapore fares (or any other airline) to Australia are likely to pop up again later in the year?

    There are c£1850 fares over Xmas which feels like a great price however I am reluctant to jump on right now as I am already paying off other holidays at the moment!

  • David Moritz says:
    22 Jan22 January 09:28

    Just booked for June with Qatar. Got the QSuite too from DOH-CPT (note that Google Flights cited a A350)

  • Polly says:
    22 Jan22 January 09:50

    Very good…

  • Stefan says:
    22 Jan22 January 09:52

    Any chance to get off in London on the way back while still getting all applicable tier points etc.? I suppose it might only work with hand luggage?

  • Benilyn says:
    22 Jan22 January 09:52

    OT: Hilton Honors – is it free to transfer points to someone else i.e. friend?

  • Michael C says:
    22 Jan22 January 10:02

    OT Boston hotels: is there any remote chance of any offers at all to combat the absolutely insane prices for all Boston hotels in Oct. 2020?!!

    • RedEyeDonkey says:
      22 Jan22 January 10:23

      Check out H0tw1re – I’ve been lucky with that in Vegas a bunch of times when a big conference has been on and my usual go to hotels have been crazy direct. Saved $100/night this year on an upcoming trip. You want to use one of the ‘hot rate’ supposedly secret deals. You can usually work out which hotel it is going to be from the clues they give you:

      * 2x lists of guaranteed 3 hotels (one on the search and one when you click for more details) – often these don’t fully overlap revealing the only one that’s possible or two of the three on the list AREN’T in the section of the city it guarantees the hotel will be in.
      * the ‘last person got’ clue
      * sometimes the location gives it away/you can search again with the exact hotel address and make sure the one you think it is gets super close.

      I looked at a random week and on average the hot deals are saving $60 but you do need to be somewhat careful as there are HW fees so double check the final prices vs the best options you can find direct with hotels – some hotels you have to call in and speak to bookings to get their best prices. In the past I’ve had them come in lower sometimes but this time in LV they were still more/wouldn’t throw in enough extras to even it out.

    • Anna says:
      22 Jan22 January 10:41

      Have you tried Air B n B or similar? I think BOS hotels are expensive generally and especially in the autumn when lots of people visit to see the leaves in full Fall colours.

      • Jonathan says:
        22 Jan22 January 11:26

        Always exorbitant in Boston I’m afraid, generally a brilliant use of hotel points/Creation IHG voucher. If it’s October you’ve got time to generate some points but I wouldn’t expect cash prices to drop below £150-£200 for a grotty holiday inn or £350+ for an Intercontinental etc.

        • Stu_N says:
          22 Jan22 January 12:13

          Definitely look at redemption options, we found it ridiculously expensive in May of last year too so suspect it’s a year-round thing. Great city though.

          • Anna says:
            22 Jan22 January 19:25

            In May I think they have student graduation ceremonies so they have families rocking up from all over the country driving the prices even higher! It’s always a good ides to check those articles with names like “When is the most expensive time to visit…?”

        • KevMc says:
          22 Jan22 January 12:40

          +1 to this. I used an IHG free night voucher @ the Intercontinental and also had enough points to book 4 extra nights straight away. I then bought more points when IHG ran a 100% bonus offer to pay for the last two nights (I seem to think cash prices were $400+ per night in October half term 2018)

    • Sussex Bantam says:
      22 Jan22 January 12:12

      Have a look a bit further out – I’ve had some success in Cambridge for instance and the T line is pretty good for getting back and forth..

      • AB says:
        22 Jan22 January 15:33

        Seconded I stay at the end of the greenline in Newton Riverside, (Indigo Hotel is fine), its usually about half the price of the city centre and usually slightly nicer (stayed in the DoubleTree downtown on rewards last year and thought it was a bit grotty).

        I think the T runs quite late, but was about $80+Tip back in a cab from downtown which was about half the nightly saving (and probably cheaper in an Uber).

        • Anna says:
          22 Jan22 January 19:27

          Also the airport is very close to the city and a very pleasant boat ride across the harbour. Though hotel prices still not cheap as I recall!

  • Ken says:
    22 Jan22 January 10:14

    OT:

    A friend of mine booked me a flight to Bali. It was EDI – DOH – DPS and same on the way back Qatar.

    Friend didn’t enter any Frequent Flyer numbers when they booked.

    I think I am correct in saying that crediting this flight to Iberia rather than BA would have been more lucrative points-wise, so after the trip I created an Iberia account, then made a request for missing miles. The request was refused though – possibly because the Iberia account wasn’t live at the time of the flight? They didn’t give a reason.

    I do have a BA Executive Club account that was open at the time of the flight. Should I be able to request the missing miles be attributed to that account, albeit for fewer points than I would have got by crediting to Iberia?

    Thanks

  • oliver says:
    22 Jan22 January 10:34

    OT: virgin atlantic have started charging me cash advance fees on revolut top ups, just to warn others. No charges until 20th Jan, then they started.

    • Secret Squirrel says:
      22 Jan22 January 10:37

      Sporadically happening to others also. Use other mile cards to load R for the present & stay away from VA.

      • Nick_C says:
        22 Jan22 January 13:20

        If the problem is being caused by the MCC code and transaction type that is being passed through, then the problem may not be limited to Virgin.

        Has anyone topped up Revolut this week from a different rewards card and not been charged a cash advance fee?

        • EwanG says:
          22 Jan22 January 14:20

          I topped up on my IHG card on Monday, transaction has cleared today and no sign of any fees.

          • Pangolin says:
            22 Jan22 January 16:16

            Same here. Topped up with the IHG White card on MON and no fees appeared so far.
            I’m going to stay away from the VS card for topups for now.

          • Isolde says:
            22 Jan22 January 17:50

            I think that Creation show the charges at billing time and not online through the month. Somebody with more experience may be able to confirm.

          • Chas says:
            22 Jan22 January 18:23

            @Isolde – that’s a concern for me then, as have been monitoring my IHG top-ups and given that they haven’t shown any cash advance fee have been proceeding with them as normal. Can anyone confirm please?

    • Boi says:
      22 Jan22 January 13:43

      Charged on HH Barclaycard. I am afraid it’s not just Virgin.
      Chat say they are aware of issue and are working hard to fix. Apologised but didn’t offer anything for charge. Can we ask them for refund of fee? Or what else?

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      22 Jan22 January 13:56

      Revolut have now updated the page:

      ‘Please note, credit card deposits might be recognised as a cash advance transaction.’

      • Secret Squirrel says:
        22 Jan22 January 14:17

        Oh, so terms are open to charges on any top ups now to attract cash advance fees.
        Not looking good!

        • Boi says:
          22 Jan22 January 14:55

          Who could we complain to- those of us who were affected prior to them changing their terms? I just got an apology and said she hopes I will continue using it

        • Shoestring says:
          22 Jan22 January 15:10

          Financial Ombudsman? but I think it would be better to threaten going to the Ombudsman first and see if you can get a gesture/ compo first – as they’ll know the FO referral will cost them plenty

        • EwanG says:
          22 Jan22 January 16:41

          re Financial Ombudsman.
          They will only take a case on if you have complained to the org first and it has reached a final decision, or timed out if they have not resolved it in time.

      • Grant says:
        22 Jan22 January 15:08

        They have changed the page since this morning. I have a screenshot of the old version.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          22 Jan22 January 23:50

          Can they just change the T&C’s for existing customers on a financial product with no warning ? I didn’t think so

        • Grant says:
          23 Jan23 January 14:04

          My guess is they will say that it is a ‘help’ section of the website and doesn’t form part of the T&Cs

      • Lady London says:
        23 Jan23 January 13:57

        Should a change in the wording like that become effective only when the appropriate number of days notice has been given? Would normally require 30/60 days

    • Craig says:
      22 Jan22 January 17:19

      does anyone know if Revolut top ups are being treated as cash advances for the HSBC Premier credit card?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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