A couple of day ago Singapore Airlines revealed the details of their new Suites & business class, which will be in service before the end of the year. The cabins are impressive, with Suites featuring fully enclosed suites that look more like hotel rooms than airplane seats, and with business class featuring double beds.
With that in mind, I’m sure a lot of people would like to redeem miles for this new product, so in this post I wanted to look at the options available for doing so.
First routes to get Singapore’s new A380 Suites & business class
As of now the only flight to formally get Singapore’s new A380 Suites Class is between Singapore and Sydney. Specifically, SQ221/232 will be the flights that will get the new cabins as of December 18, 2017. We have reasons to believe that London will be the second destination to get the new Suites, as of March 1, 2018, though that hasn’t yet been formally announced.
Singapore Airlines is taking delivery of five new A380s that will have the new cabins, and will also reconfigure their existing A380s with them, though it will be 2020 before that project is complete.
Historically Singapore has blocked new premium product redemptions
About a decade ago when Singapore Airlines first introduced Suites and their new business class, redeeming miles for the cabins was prohibitively expensive. At the time Singapore Airlines had three award levels, with the highest level being outrageously priced. At the time, if you wanted to fly their newest product you could only do so at the most expensive of the three award levels. We’re talking something like a million miles for a roundtrip Suites ticket.
That policy finally changed in 2012. So while I wasn’t convinced they were going to take this approach again, the precedent is certainly that they block redemptions when they introduce new cabins, and I figured it was a real possibility here.
Redeeming miles for Singapore’s new A380 business class
For the most part there’s very good news when it comes to redeeming miles for Singapore’s new premium cabins. Singapore Airlines isn’t blocking saver level award redemptions for their new business class cabins. I see a good amount of saver level business class award availability on SQ221/232 between Singapore and Sydney.
A saver level one-way ticket will cost you just 58,000 KrisFlyer miles.
If you potentially want to get an even better value, you can redeem 105,000 KrisFlyer miles to fly all the way between London and Sydney. So paying an extra 47,000 KrisFlyer miles for the flight between London and Singapore is a great deal incrementally. However, keep in mind that formally Singapore hasn’t yet confirmed that SQ305 will get the new cabins, though I think it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s happening.
Lastly, Singapore lets you book a stopover on a one-way award ticket for $100. So if you book by phone you could redeem 105,000 KrisFlyer miles for business class from London to Sydney, and could stop in Singapore for as long as you wanted.
Redeeming miles for Singapore’s new A380 Suites
Redeeming for Singapore’s new Suites is a bit more challenging, which doesn’t really come as a surprise, given that this cabin will be in very high demand, and there are only six seats per plane (which is half as many as they currently have).
The bad news is that as of now Singapore Airlines doesn’t seem to be making saver level award seats available for the new Suites. For almost all dates I’ve checked, there’s not even the opportunity to waitlist a saver award, but that may change over time.
The good news is that Suites availability is pretty wide open at the standard award level, and that’s actually not that outrageously priced, when you consider what a good product this is.
For example, a one-way standard Suites ticket from Singapore to Sydney will cost you 150,000 KrisFlyer miles.
Using the same London example as above, you could fly from London to Singapore to Sydney for 260,000 KrisFlyer miles. If you’re splurging already, it could certainly be worthwhile to spend an extra 110,000 KrisFlyer miles to add the long flight between London and Singapore. That flight is actually long enough to enjoy the full experience.
Earning KrisFlyer miles
Singapore KrisFlyer is transfer partners with all four major transferable points currencies, including Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, and Starwood Preferred Guest.
That means there are potentially lots of great ways to earn points that can be transferred to Singapore, using credit cards like:
- 5x total points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®
- 3x points on dining
- 2x points on travel purchases
- $95
- 3x points on Travel after the $300 Annual Travel Credit
- 3x points on Dining
- $300 Travel Credit
- $550
- 4x points at restaurants
- 4x points at U.S. supermarkets, on up to $25,000 in purchases annually
- 3x points on flights booked directly with airlines or through amextravel.com
- $250
- Earn 5x points on flights purchased directly from airlines or through Amex Travel (up to $500k/year)
- $200 Annual Uber Credit
- Amex Centurion Lounge Access
- $695
- Earn 3x Points on Airfare
- Earn 3x Points on Hotels
- Earn 3x Points at Restaurants
- $95
- Earn 2x Venture miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary
- $395
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check Credit
- $95
Bottom line
The way I see it, the current award availability situation with Singapore Airlines is the best case scenario. You can redeem miles at the saver level for Singapore’s new business class, and Suites availability is wide open at the standard level, which isn’t that unreasonably priced. They could have certainly taken a more restrictive approach.
Given that KrisFlyer is transfer partners with all four major transferable points currencies, hopefully lots of you have the chance to try Singapore’s new cabins.
I'm getting 80K for F saver award from SIN-SYD... Did they increase redemption rates?
Question on redeeming suites for more than one person. Would it be better to have separate Kris flyer accounts and wait list separately or put all points into one account and redeem for two?
Lucky, the availability you see also depends on your status.
As PPS you can instantly book some of the suite saver awards that non-PPS can only waitlist, or waitlist some of the suite saver awards that non-PPS see as unavailable.
Comparing this product, product launch and likely execution / timing for roll-out vs UA's Polaris highlights the ridiculously underwhelming and borderline incompetent nature of United.
Any suggestion on how to redeem krismiles for flight to India from Atlanta?
As Singapore doesn’t fly from Atlanta ,is my only option to buy a ticket from a Atl to One of the Singapore getaway cities in US(like IAH,SFO or LAX)?
Appreciate any help
It won’t be available via velocity just as the suites aren’t available either - just regular first class (which is still pretty awesome!)
I managed to waitlist the new suites on saver on the outbound to Sydney in March but inbound was not available. Pretty sure they won’t ever confirm the saver level. One option could be to book a later flight same day and try to be uplifted as go show on earlier flight if there is a seat empty. SQ is pretty stupid with award availability these days: on my daytime reconfigured 777 flight tomorrow from...
I managed to waitlist the new suites on saver on the outbound to Sydney in March but inbound was not available. Pretty sure they won’t ever confirm the saver level. One option could be to book a later flight same day and try to be uplifted as go show on earlier flight if there is a seat empty. SQ is pretty stupid with award availability these days: on my daytime reconfigured 777 flight tomorrow from Sin to Fra F seems to be empty but they only sell 4 F class, no A class, no award on saver level, no upgrade from business class, only standard award in firstc can be waitlisted. I‘m pretty sure they won‘t sell 4 first class tickets within 24 hours yet they rather have the cabin empty then sell an award or upgrade a paid business class ticket with miles...
I must have misunderstood the SA rep but when I asked when SA would start flying the A380 from the East Coast with the new cabins, she told me it was already flying from JFK to SIN via FRA.
krisflyer's 58,000 miles biz saver is a bargain compared to ua's mileage plus partner (i.e. flying tg metal) biz saver sin-syd at 50,000 miles (instead of 30,000 miles prior to nov01)...
@chani: No chance, SQ does not release those to partners (only economy and regional business class)
@chani, no chance whatsoever.
Any chance at all getting the business/suite with a partner points?
I wonder how the new product will go with VA Velocity points, as I’m a Virgin Australia frequent flier. Currently it’s about 105,000 points for MEL-LHR in Singapore or Etihad business, or 200,000 in first. Wonder if they will keep the same redemption rates.
Does anyone’s know th3 answer to.....
I have 6k miles sitting in kris flyer Acct and 5k in ANA....
No credi5 card to add or keep alive...
Can I transfer them to a USA partner where I have mucho miles and status.
Or..what to do with them before they just expire.
Speaking for myself, sure, the new suites look great, but as someone who participates in this "hobby", the non saver rates are just insanely expensive. I'm really glad that you're in a position to pay standard rates, but it's way out of my price range. I guess I'm just cheap.
Oh, that was for Sydney - London return
I agree about the reasonable points redemption rates for both first and business at the saver level. However, the fees are not negligible, and worth mentioning. For redemptions earlier this year they were: AU$623 each which I think is roughly US$500 ish.
http://www.2paxfly.com/2017/09/04/booking-qantas-and-singapore-airlines-first-class-between-sydney-and-london/
Lucky if it is 90k SIN-SYD how did you get it for 82500? I know this was at saver but should it be 90k?
if they buy 1st class ticket as well, can they then hang in your room?
No, definitely not!
I've always wondered:. If I get first class seat in the suite and my partner gets economy seat, can they hang in my suite for some/most of the flight?