With the big three US carriers awarding redeemable miles based on how much you spend rather than how much you fly, this has opened up some arbitrage opportunities for crediting miles. The number of miles you earn for a given ticket on an airline can vary drastically based on which program you credit to. That’s true now more than ever, with how American, Delta, and United award miles.
The best way to keep track of your choices for where to credit flights is wheretocredit.com, where you can enter the airline and fare class, and it will show you all the programs you can credit flights to. For example, in the case of United, MileagePlus members earn 5-11x miles per dollar spent, depending on their status.
That’s why one of the most lucrative programs for crediting United flights has been Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer. Up until now, KrisFlyer has awarded the following number of miles for United flights (broken down by fare class):
- A, F — 150%
- C, D, J — 125%
- P, Z, B, E, G, H, K, L, M, Q, S, T, U, V, W, Y — 100%
KrisFlyer is the most useful program that I know of that offered one mile per flown mile on United, even on the cheapest fares.
Well, that has quietly changed without notice, as noted by View from the Wing. For flights as of October 1, 2017, KrisFlyer will award the following number of miles for United flights:
- A, F — 150%
- C, D, J — 125%
- P, Z, B, E, H, M, U, Y — 100%
- Q, V, W — 75%
- L, S, T — 50%
- G, K — 25%
That’s a pretty significant drop for many fare classes. Discounted economy tickets are going from earning 100% KrisFlyer miles to earning 25% KrisFlyer miles.
This change doesn’t come as a surprise, and ultimately it was just a matter of time. United and Singapore have never had an especially close relationship, and even if they did, they wouldn’t keep this arbitrage opportunity open for so long. If you’ve been thinking of crediting any United flights to KrisFlyer, be sure you take a look at the updated earnings rates, and the options available to you.
Did anyone consistently credit the miles from United flights to KrisFlyer?
@Debit
TK is still good on paper since earnings bottom out at 50% (K, G, N). Two year status duration is also a plus. Downside is that redemptions are a nightmare. I recently gave up on trying to redeem TK to UA and bought a set of silverware with points instead.
@Shane
Just remember that Air Canada is spinning off Aeroplan and making their own loyalty program. The fate of that FFP is up in the air (pun intended).
That just took away my single reason to fly UA on my transpacifics. Time to look at oneworld...
What little UA flying I still do (after 10+ years of being loyal to them, which ended a couple years ago), I credited to SQ. This just provides another excuse to not fly UA, as if I needed more of them. And an excuse to slightly prefer Virgin America over other options (one can still earn SQ points at 100% of miles flown on all fare classes).
looks like the gravy train is over, time to re-look at my options
I've split earnings on UA metal between TK & KF ever since the United $ based system was introduced. Sad to see it go, but for now, I'll be generally TK. Glad I saw this as I might not have checked wheretocredit on my next trip, presuming stats quo and then been more upset!
Is that just AWARD miles or is that PREMIER QUALIFYING miles as well? United has the separation of variable award miles but PQM is based on the route distance? Will they follow the same accrual method or the % reduction and earning amount affects both? Thanks.
Why not Turkish ?
Yup I think avianca lifemiles are a good bet.
so i'm guessing aeroplan and lifemiles are the way to go with long haul united economy tickets. Since both programs award 50% of distance flown.
Gio: Your comment didn't even make any sense at all. Alaska discount economy doesn't even credit to either of those programs.
I credited over 50k miles to Singapore through United flights and earned Gold status with them that way. Sad this opportunity is vanishing, but glad that I at least get to hold on to Star Alliance Gold for awhile!
That said, what's the best *A program for discounted longhaul United economy tickets now?
What's the best place to put your miles now for k class?
That means Alaska/Virgin America are the only domestic carriers that still earn 100% KrisFlyer miles (or Asia Miles / Flying Blue miles) across all fare buckets. I credit all my domestic flying to either Krisflyer or Asia Miles. Now there's really no incentive left to fly UA. Good riddance? Hehe.
so much for the poor man's *G...
Effing assholes. No notice.
My understanding is that it stayed this way for so long because SQ wouldn't renegotiate it's FFP contract with UA without them agreeing to pay extra for SQ award flights (which is why they stopped showing them online). I guess UA finally decided to bite the bullet in order to stop having to pay SQ for so many award miles. I mean, how many arbitrage opportunities like this lasted over 2.5 years?