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Hi I’m looking for some advice on using membership rewards points to fly SIN-DPS-SIN and I am hoping the HfP brains can help!
We have 2xBA LHR-SIN CW tickets in August using an Amex 241. I am sitting on a decent amount of MR points, so I was hoping to use these for return flights to DPS from SIN, ideally in Business. The attractiveness of using points is partly down to flexibility, as we would prefer to have the option to move or cancel later for family reasons.
My question is, how do I go about planning this? What’s the process for finding out which MR transfer airlines have options for SIN-DPS? I know of KLM via Flying Blue, and SQ via Virgin Flying Club or Krisflyer. Are there others? When looking to price it up and book, is there a way to check availability & price before moving MR points, so that I am not left with stranded points?
For ref I only have Avios and MR points i.e. nothing sitting in VS FC or Flying Blue etc.
The fall-back would be Scoot premium, which I think offers date/time change for a reasonable premium, but not refunds.
Hope that all makes sense. Grateful for any steer.
There’s a great website called flightconnections.com which will show you which airlines fly between airports. Most airlines will show you how many points you need for a booking, or there are award charts on plenty of frequent flyer-type websites. I don’t know of any quicker ways of doing this!
Thanks @northernlass. I can see the airlines flying the route, but not the different FFP permutations which enable me to use my MR points either directly or via an airline’s partners. Conscious I might be massively over complicating this! I’ll get started with KLM and SQ by signing up to their programmes and see how it goes from there.
Two useful websites.
1) award hacker . com > this gives you all possible routes and the frequent flyer programs that you can use. But this can be outdated as we see some routes still included that were cancelled during covid.
2) point . me > a one stop solution to identify all routes, programs AND availability.
Cash flights are usually competitive on this route as you have Air asia, Scoot and jetstar competing with bigger airlines.
Thanks @BBbetter that’s great, These sites are great and will save me lots of time! One question though – Air Canada shows on both sites as a MR partner, but Air Canada doesn’t appear on the UK Amex site list of airline partners. So I take it that MR has different partners by region, and as a UK cardholder I don’t have the option to transfer out to AC.
Krisflyer is likely best option but SQ points have a 3 yr hard expiry and expensive cancellation fees so not a good idea if you might cancel
Flying blue is an option if you’re happy with the KLM timings but again, will you have a use for the points if you cancel
Personally unless it’s a super peak date I’d leave it and see what’s a good option when you’re confirmed on dates. It’s 2hrs so not essential to fly premium / business (though if you’re carrying luggage Scootplus is often good value)
I think you’re right @SamG, I hadn’t thought about the possibility of orphaned points in the event of cancellation. Very helpful thanks
I’d use KLM and on a cash basis. August is peak season for Bali and I suspect business tickets would be a challenge. There is no one else unless you go via a third points like KUL or HKG on MH or CX. I have never found seats on CX in August but from SIN it too long a journey.
KLM does not connect well with anyone do night stop required before and after flights . Consequently you might be better off with jet star etcI just went through this with granny Froggee.
From memory, Singapore Air was 43,000 points return in business (in the cheaper redemption category) whereas Virgin was 35,000 points (for Singapore Air flights).
KLM would have been 50,000 points if booked using Virgin points but I did not check the Flying Blue price as we already had miles in situ.
In terms of “flexibility”, as well as the three year hard expiry on Singapore, for the cheaper redemption category I believe there is a US$75 redemption mile redeposit fee which is a decent bit more than Virgin’s £30 (I think it’s £30).
From my experience, the availability shown on United Airlines (no need to register) matches Virgin’s availability on this route. United do have a bit of a reputation for false availability though. Availability tends to be very good also. Granny Froggee pretty much had her pick of dates and times for late September.
One other point from granny Froggee’s experience was it actually worked out way better for her to book back from Bail with Qatar Air as this took away the need to self connect on the way home at Changi. But she managed to bag the 80,000 one-way in J fare. Fees are cheaper from DPS-LHR with Qatar then with BA. It would be less of a no-brainer for you as (1) I imagine you’re not 80; and (2) she was fly8ng to EDI, not LHR so was swapping three flights for two.
Yes the “regional” routes SQ is seemingly not precious about who has access so this is one area that Virgin miles may be OK for SQ + you’re more likely to use them in future if you end up cancelling
The KLM flight is often very reasonable in J for cash and is a nice way to travel, very popular in my friend group as the times worked well for a Fri-Sun trip. The return is pretty late and it was often delayed when I took it though which may be a consideration for some, especially if you’re in a villa in Bali you have to check out of
Great info @Froggee thanks, saved me a bunch of time and research. I was tempted to switch the outbound to QR if there was availability, but sadly none. So, the plan I think is to transfer MR points > VS FC > SQ flights for SIN-DPS, choosing a late flight to allow for any BA A380 delay. Then, probably Scoot on the return. Meanwhile I managed to switch the BA flights from August to June last night.
@SamG very tempted by the KLM option wither for MR points or cash, but unfortunately the flight times don’t work as well as you say @Paul.Oh – if you do book with Virgin, make sure the agent gives you the SQ booking reference and not just the Virgin Atlantic one. Otherwise you won’t be able to book seats (free of charge with SQ)
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