What are the KrisFlyer ‘sweet spots’, as Singapore Airlines heads to Gatwick?
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As we covered earlier this week, Singapore Airlines is heading to London Gatwick airport next year. There will be five flights per week, adding to the existing Heathrow services.
You might think that the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer programme, which is part of Star Alliance and so accesses a different group of airlines to Avios, is irrelevant to you.
The KrisFlyer frequent flyer scheme has some interesting sweet spots in it, however. As the scheme is an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner, albeit at 3:2 and not 1:1, I thought it was worth looking at some of the best options today.
If you want to learn more about the programmme I recommend the Mainly Miles website which is based in Singapore and is very similar to HfP in its content.
How can you earn KrisFlyer miles?
The obvious route is transferring American Express Membership Rewards points. As you can see here, it is a 3:2 airline partner from the UK scheme.
(Yes, 3:2. Singapore Airlines is the only UK Amex airline partner where the transfer rate is not 1:1.)
Here are the key Membership Rewards earning cards we cover:
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold
Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review
The Platinum Card from American Express
40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review
American Express Rewards
The only ‘free for life’ Amex card which earns Membership Rewards Read our full review
American Express Business Gold
20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review
American Express Business Platinum
40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review
Other options include Heathrow Rewards and moving points from hotel schemes, in particular Marriott Bonvoy where the rate is 3:1 (3:1.25 if you move chunks of 60,000 points at a time).
Marriott Bonvoy points can be earned via the Bonvoy Amex:
Marriott Bonvoy American Express
20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review
It is also a HSBC Premier credit card partner if you want a Visa / Mastercard option:
HSBC Premier Mastercard
Highest earning Visa or Mastercard for Avios, but hard to get Read our full review
HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard
A huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review
You can also earn KrisFlyer miles via the Currensea debit card.
What are the KrisFlyer sweet spots?
Why might you want to redeem KrisFlyer miles if you live in the UK?
Here (click) is the Singapore Airlines reward chart for partner airlines.
The best deal is travel from the UK to the Middle East
The slam dunk best deal is ‘Europe to Middle East’ for 67,000 KrisFlyer miles RETURN in Business Class.
Remember that British Airways wants up to 120,000 Avios on a peak day for a return Club World flight to Dubai, Abu Dhabi etc. This number is even higher if you want the Reward Flight Saver option with £350 of add-ons.
You can use just 67,000 KrisFlyer miles, most likely routed on Lufthansa via Frankfurt or SWISS via Zurich, instead. Other fun routings include Turkish Airlines via Istanbul and Egyptair via Cairo.
Here are some other good options
Here are other sweet spots for UK residents:
- Europe to South East Asia, at 103,500 miles one-way in Business. You can fly direct to Singapore on Singapore Airlines for the same 103,500 miles, but if you can’t find seats on your dates (not unlikely) then you should get something on partners such as Thai, Lufthansa, SWISS and Turkish Airlines.
- Europe to South Africa for 60,000 miles one-way in Business. Your primary choices would be Lufthansa, SWISS, Ethiopian and Turkish, given that South African Airways is not currently flying to Europe.
- Europe to the Maldives is 61,500 miles one-way in Business. Turkish Airlines is your likely carrier. Sri Lanka and India are in the same pricing zone.
- Domestic USA / Canada flights. Whilst not as cheap as Avios for short hops, 14,000 miles one-way in Economy or 26,000 miles one-way in Business (domestic First in the USA is priced as Business, currently priced at 23,000 miles) can work out well.
And if you are prepared to start your trip in Turkey ….
Istanbul to Singapore is astonishingly cheap at 56,500 miles one-way in Business. Taxes are also exceptionally low – just US$24.60 last time I checked.
This is based on flying with Singapore Airlines itself, not a partner airlines, priced off the Singapore Airlines reward chart for Singapore Airlines flights. You want Page 2 which covers ‘Saver Awards’ – look at Zone 1 to Zone 10 travel. OK, you need to position yourself in Istanbul first – but for a discount like this I think you could live with it.
Virgin Atlantic redemptions look like a great deal but ….
In theory, the biggest value for KrisFlyer miles from London comes from the Virgin Atlantic partner award chart. You would pay 50,000 miles one-way Upper Class to any US destination.
These awards are not going up on 5th July but “Upward revisions will be made to Award Levels for flights on partner airlines and will be implemented progressively.”
There’s a big drawback though – Virgin Atlantic limits its award inventory to KrisFlyer so tightly it’s almost useless. You cannot book online and the call centre finds it virtually impossible to find seats. This may be some sort of retaliation by Virgin Atlantic for the rules that Singapore Airlines imposes on Virgin Flying Club members who want to redeem with them.
I hope this article has given you a few ideas for potential uses for the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer programme, especially if you are sitting on a large pot of American Express Membership Rewards points.
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