Krisflyer/Lufty and Virgin

[FatherOfFour]

Apologies for the long post, if any of you can confirm any of my thinking here (even in part) it’d be appreciated. Questions or clarification points are numbered. Known facts are bulleted.

– I’ve booked flights with Lufthansa. LHR-FRA-SIN-SYD (T Class) and MEL-SIN-MUC-LHR (M Class)
– The SIN-OZ and vv legs are operated by SIN on an LH flight number
– I haven’t yet decided which scheme to credit the miles to.
– I’ve read Rob’s post about crediting to Star Alliance programmes. None sound a perfect match
– There are 6 of us travelling. (2 adults plus 4 kids)
1) As far as I can tell, Miles and More is spend based- very opaque about points credited and doesn’t allow family pooling?
– I’ve considered Turkish and Avianca as no expiry, but doesn’t allow transfer in of MR
2) I’ve run calculations on Krisflyer. As I understand it, we’d accrue 10705 * 10% (T class) * 6 outbound = 6423 and 10181 * 75% * 6 on the inbound = 45814.
Grand Total 52,000 KF. Does this look correct?
– Its unlikely I’d use the KF for Singapore flights within 3 years.
– It’s more likely that the 2 adults might be able to make use of the miles for a one-way redemption elsewhere.
– I understand that there’s a surcharge for transferring the kids points into my account, but looks relatively low compared to, say United.
3) Singapore site says these can be redeemed on Virgin Atlantic. However, as Virgin are SkyTeam, I presume I can’t credit the Lufthansa flights directly to Virgin Flying Club?
4) Is there any prospect of the partnership between SQ and VS ending?
5) Converting our additional 80k MR at a rate of 3:2? We’d have an additional 53,000 KF?
– Grand Total 105,000KF

6) Could these extend to being used for Virgin Voyages, or is it strictly flights?
7) Am I missing a better option here? Is the value of these points so insignificant (looking at the 52k from the Lufthansa flights) that I shouldn’t even bother?
– If it helps, future travel plans are: couples break(s) to New Orleans, Cape Town (likely on BA 2-4-1), Cruise.
family to Orlando, Caribbean, Europe
– We could increase our pot of Amex MR points by diverting spend from BAEC.

[SamG]

From what I’ve read using SQ miles on VS is difficult, there isn’t much availability. SQ usually requires a lot of miles for most things including intra Europe so may not be the best option especially as the rate in from MR isn’t particularly attractive

United has some redemption for 8000 miles in a region IIRC so could be worth it

Turkish do expire, but has a good award chart (especially to Africa) and you can transfer in from marriott so could be an option

But realistically it’s probably a scenario where you aren’t going to get enough for flights. Not sure if any offer some kind of cash out to a gift card or similar ?

[FatherOfFour]

Thanks for feedback on use of SQ on VS… certainly a consideration.
I’ll look into whether a United internal flight could be paired with something else, alternatively, as you say- cash-out somehow.
Aware that QR credit before the flight to allow spend in duty free etc. wondering if any others do.
Virgin Australia do redemptions of SQ which would be useful for internal flights, but it would be too late to leave booking until we are there.
Crediting to Krisflyer gets us free Wifi on the SQ sectors, which is a very small benefit.

[BBbetter]

Using SQ to book on Virgin is close to impossible for long haul business (its reciprocal), but economy should be ok.
SQ also has a couple of 5th freedom flights within Europe. Plus flights from FRA and MAN to US where redemption availability will be higher (in economy atleast). Within SQ, their flights to IST is the sweet spot in their award chart.
Turkish award chart is brilliant, but customer service is the worst. If you have to make any changes, you’ll have to speak to a dozen agents before something can get done. Believe you can topup Turkish if you go MR -> Bonvoy -> Turkish route. In fact more than 20 airlines can be credited this way.

[memesweeper]

(3) forget it – there’s never availability

Redeeming Kris on United to, from and within the States is easy enough, reasonable rates and no fake taxes.

Redeeming Kris within Europe is pointless, most flights are LH and their fake taxes are ludicrous.

There are other sweet spots in Kris – like middle east with Turkish or Egypt – but sensible flight times and availability might be hard to find.

If you come up against expiry there’s email warnings at six months and some poor value cash out options. You shouldnt loose everything.