-
@rosswill – were these intra-Asia flights or longer ones?
I was only able to try and actually progress the booking to the final stages with Virgin due to the miles I have available. This process whilst ultimately successful, albeit with my second choice of flights for the days in question, was pleasant enough but painful. Virgin cannot appear to see reward availability without attempting to place an actual booking with all passenger names and dates of birth, and only then on a flight by flight basis one at a time. Call hold times were 45mins+ to reach an agent and there were payment processing issues meaning the whole process took around 90 minutes to complete every time.Thankfully this is not something I intend to do often.
@rosswill – do you think this means if I don’t have the miles, I cannot check? Or can they make the booking and once it comes back as available, then take the miles? Essentially, I am a few thousand short but will only buy if I can get these flights. Not sure if this sounds possible now.I’m not 100% sure. The cost of taxes was not confirmed until after requesting the flight so I would guess you should be able to check availability without having the full mileage balance available. The VS agent had to submit a flight request to SQ it appears and this either came back positive or negative but was not ticketed at this stage just avail e to be reserved I believe
@rosswill – were these intra-Asia flights or longer ones?
These were indeed intra Asia flights but on long-haul aircraft.
Thanks. Going back 20 years (with EK / UA) , I remember a similar process where a request was put through the system and it was then either confirmed or not. Sounds the same here.
Something I had not done before today was to calculate the value received when using my VS points for SQ flights. For anyone interested this is detailed below.
I have now booked a total of 4 intra-Asia reward flights for next summer, all in business class, currently scheduled to be B787-10 aircraft, and for 4 passengers.
Total cost (taxes and fees) 271.88 GBP plus 300,000 flying club miles.
Equivalent cash fare today would be 5,715.18 GBP
By my calculations this makes the value per mile just over 1.8p.
Not as good as the 5p per Avios for the return London-Singapore flights but still respectable I think.
What are the surcharges like? I’m looking at DPS. Is it just “taxes”? UA website seems to suggest it’s fairly minimal (approx 40 USD) but not sure if that’s indicative of redemptions via VS.
What are the surcharges like? I’m looking at DPS. Is it just “taxes”? UA website seems to suggest it’s fairly minimal (approx 40 USD) but not sure if that’s indicative of redemptions via VS.
Fees and surcharges per passenger are not very high.
SIN to DPS Passenger Service and Security Fee 27.10 GBP, Aviation Levy 4.70 GBP, Airport Development Levy 6.30 GBP
DPS to BKK Passenger Service Charge 21.90 USD, Advance Passenger Processing User Charge 1.10 USD, International Arrival and Departure Fees 0.50 USDJust as a data point. Booked SIN-DPS today in Business. Called up, they requested the flight and it took about 10 seconds to come back confirmed. Had to buy a small amount of miles and can confirm they can hold for up to 72 hours which is excellent.
Called back a few hours later and ticketed instantly.. Was approx £38pp in fees. Quite pleased with the whole experience, excellent phone service and frankly seem friendlier and more knowledgeable than BA staff.
I agree I think these intra-Asia flights are good value and a decent way to spend VS points. Our flight isn’t until July but looking forward to this. Lots of research to do now before booking hotels.
I agree I think these intra-Asia flights are good value and a decent way to spend VS points. Our flight isn’t until July but looking forward to this. Lots of research to do now before booking hotels.
Also July but agree. One way prices on SQ were very expensive so a good use – albeit it course bargains can be had on Air Asia but still!
Is this a sweet spot for SQ miles too? We have about 15,000 each (6 of us) and even if I could easily pool them, I can’t find anything useful. I kind of regret not crediting our *A flights to UA programme now to redeem for internal US flights, but chose SQ on the basis we could top up with Amex MR.
Is this a sweet spot for SQ miles too? We have about 15,000 each (6 of us) and even if I could easily pool them, I can’t find anything useful. I kind of regret not crediting our *A flights to UA programme now to redeem for internal US flights, but chose SQ on the basis we could top up with Amex MR.
You need to look at each route as the amounts seem somewhat random. But Virgin points are worth less to me but then SQ points expire!
How old are your kids? If under 16 then you should be able to pool them although SQ take 10% of the amount for their troubles.
https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/sg/ppsclub-krisflyer/krisflyer/familybenefits/
Hard to know but using SQ miles between SIN and DPS is 21000 whilst VS was only 17500 for the same route.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
