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Get excited, because you can now book Singapore Krisflyer awards flying Star Alliance partner United online! Why should you be excited? Because being able to book anything online versus having to call and speak to a representative, which was previously the only option, is going to save you a significant amount of time. And while I love the Krisflyer program with its cheap change fees, no close-in booking fees, and fair/cheap award chart, I’ve collectively waited on hold with Singapore for hours.
I wouldn’t say they are any worse–they’re probably better–than US based frequent flyer programs as far as hold times. I just happen to redeem a lot of Singapore miles on partner flights, and especially United flights, since Singapore doesn’t collect fuel surcharges on United as United doesn’t enforce them. I’m ready to eliminate Singapore’s hold music from my dreams (true story).
Singapore Krisflyer miles are arguably the easiest mile to accrue because Singapore is a 1:1 transfer partner of all four major transferrable point programs:
- Chase Ultimate Rewards
- American Express Membership Rewards
- Citi ThankYou Points
- American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints (from SPG they transfer 1: 1.25 if you transfer in 20k increments)
Booking Singapore Awards Flying United Online
Step 1: Create an account.
You’ll need to create a Singapore Krisflyer account to search for award space on singaporeair.com. If you don’t already have one, create one now and use promo code JOINKFSQ by March 31, 2018 to earn an extremely easy 1,000 Singapore miles. Read Easy 1k Singapore Miles for Opening a New Account for details.
Step 2: Look for Award Space on United’s website.
You can, of course, use Singapore’s search engine. But I recommend using United’s. You’ll have a less frustrating experience.
Don’t login to united.com before searching, as then the results displayed may show award space only available to United MileagePlus members. Not logging in is a surer way of only selecting award space that is bookable with Singapore miles.
You’ll also need to find Saver level space–the cheapest space–as that is the only award space bookable with Singapore miles (or any partner miles, for that matter). Newbies: That holds true across the mile-o-sphere. You can only book an airline’s cheapest level award space with partner miles.
Step 3: Search on singaporeair.com for the same award space you already found on united.com.
This is very important to double check that the award space you found on United is also available to book with Singapore miles. As long as it’s labeled Saver Award, as in the screenshot above, you should (most of the time) also be able to see it and book it on singaporeair.com–that is the rule of thumb. I say most of the time though because sometimes (this happened to me once, around the holidays, and I’ve read other data points as well) award space that shows up as Saver on united.com doesn’t turn out to be available to book with Singapore miles. At least you can check online now as opposed to calling in.
The singaporeair.com search tool is pretty intuitive to use.
Login first.
Fill in the bubble next to Redeem flights to switch from searching for a cash flight to award flight. Then input your origin and destination, return or one-way, travel date(s), cabin, and number of adults. Click Search.
The following page will look like this.
Bubble in the flight you want, and click Next to be taken to the next screen to book. I can’t show you any further screenshots as I don’t have enough Singapore miles to book this example award 🙁
Step 4: Choose which point type you want to transfer to Singapore Krisflyer.
If you have balances of all the four major points currencies and the luxury of picking from the four, then transfer the point you value the least to Singapore.
However, if there aren’t many award seats available on the flight you want to book and you don’t have flexibility on travel date, you should consider how long it takes each type of point to transfer to Singapore.
The only annoying thing about Singapore is that transfers in from point programs aren’t typically instantaneous–no matter which point you’re transferring.
- It takes one or two days for points to transfer in from Ultimate Rewards
- It takes one to three days for points to transfer in from Membership Rewards
- It takes two days for points to transfer in from Thank You Points
- It can take up to a week for points to transfer in from Starwood Preferred Guest Points (deposits are typically made Monday morning ET)
Step 5: If you’re worried about losing the award space, attempt to put it on hold.
Check out my series of charts with averages of all transfer times between the four major point currencies and their airline partners.
I guess this step kind of defeats the purpose of this post which is all about the exciting news of not having to call Singapore anymore. Buuuut, if there’s just one premium cabin award seat left on the one day you must travel, I’d say it’s worth a shot calling in to try to put your award on hold.
Singapore doesn’t “officially” allow holds, but supposedly it is possible to put a Singapore award on hold for free. Some say you have to have 50% of the required mileage already in your account, others say 30%, and others have reported needing none. I think this is a case of YMMV. If you don’t get a good agent, call back until you find one that will hold your award.
Upon Arriving has a post with tips outlining how to put a Singapore award on hold.
Step 6: Transfer your points.
If you have the luxury of choosing between all four point types, I’d transfer ThankYou Points. I value them the least of the four point types as they have the fewest amount of transfer partners.
Step 7: Book your award on singaporeair.com once your points hit your Krisflyer account.
Can I Book Stopovers Online?
Remember that with roundtrip Singapore awards flying United (or any Star Alliance partner), you can get a free stopover.
So can we also include stopovers when booking Singapore awards online flying United? Looks like you can.
If you are booking a roundtrip with a free stopover on United with Singapore miles, let us know how it goes in the comments.
Bottom Line
You can now book United flights with your Singapore miles right one singaporeair.com, as opposed to only over the phone which used to be the case. Yeehaw! As one of the easiest miles to accrue, since they transfer 1:1 from Membership Rewards, SPG Points, Ultimate Rewards, and ThankYou Points, being able to complete the booking process online will end up saving a lot of people a lot of time.
Follow the steps above to make sure you don’t pull the trigger too quickly transferring points to Singapore.
Have you booked a Singapore award flying United on singaporeair.com yet?
Hat tip Frequent Miler
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Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
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If u need that special flt Book it on UAL for more or if u can wait it could show up on Sin later .That’s why u don’t move the points till needed everything changes .
CHEERs
What am I missing? The example shows United charging 30K points 1-way IAH-EZE by visiting the easiest airline website I know, while Singapore charges 50K points for the same flight — and for the privilege of paying 67% more you have to visit two airline websites, probably repeatedly while you wait days for points to transfer. That’s 20K extra miles for a potential stopover. But if you’re visiting and not relocating you’ll book RT, which means a free stopover and a free Excursionist flight using United alone. I don’t see a pony in this barn.
The screenshot I used was confusing before so I changed it–sorry about that. I wasn’t trying to point out the economy price. It’s cheaper to book US to Southern South America with Singapore miles than United miles flying Business Class. It’s 50k Singapore miles one way flying United Business and 60k United miles flying United Business. So not only do you get a free stopover on a roundtrip, you pay 20,000 less points.
How flexible is Singapore with one-ways? Is it possible to book something like LAX-EWR-SFO as a one-way?
No
I have an existing SQ reservation. Is it possible to add a United positioning flight with the online system and pay the fee or I have to make that dreaded phone call
I’m not sure and I don’t have an existing reservation to test with. Click the manage booking tab in the search box, enter your booking reference and last name on the reservation, and that should pull your reservation. Let me know if you are able to add a segment online! That would be awesome if so but I honestly kind of doubt it.
[…] Book United Award Flights with Singapore Miles Online: Being able to book award flights online as opposed to talking to a representative is a plus! Many times representatives aren’t up to speed on all of their loyalty program’s rules which can make booking award flights a pain. […]
@ Sarah Page – I generally love the way you and Scott write, with your grammar skills far exceeding a million other writers if you get my drift. However, this article has several flaws that slowed me down:
“they have the least amount of transfer partners” should be “they have the fewest transfer partners” (only use “amount” when the item cannot be discretely counted like in your first use: “amount of time”)
“being able to complete the booking process online will end saving” should be “…will save”
“don’t pull the trigger to quickly” instead of “…too quickly”
As for the content, though, this is exciting news. Now I need to find United flatbed saver space to Hawaii!
Cheers,
Greg
@ Greg, good luck with finding United flatbed to Hawaii, I have been looking with ZERO results.
Sometimes I fly a little fast through these posts without enough proofreading. Thanks for your feedback.
Greg
I wish I was as smarts as U’s What an F Head ..
Was my English Skills up to yours ?
CHEERs
Eekk! Help! I need to use up some Singapore miles, so I want to used United to fly from San Luis Potosi (SLP) to Lincoln, Nebraska (LNK). Neither of those airports are options on the pull-down Singapore website, so I found saver space on United, called Singapore, waited on hold for 30+ minutes, fed the flight numbers to the agent, and she said nothing was available! It was my understanding that if I see saver space (without being logged in) on United, Singapore can access it. What am I doing wrong?? 🙁
Hi Erika, I am no expert but I have found th at not all Saver Awards are available to certain partners. I would reccomend that you go to United.com, sign in and turn on “Expert Mode” (google how to do it as I don’t remember all the steps) Then put in your travel info as a paid ticket. To check if there are truly seats available to use with Singapore miles click on to “details” for the flight. The number of seats in each fare bucket will come up. For economy seats you want “X”, the last fare bucket on the list. If all flights show some X availability you should be able to get those flights with Singapore but first make sure that all the flights are on United, that there is no significant backtracking in your route and that no connection is longer than 4 hrs. Then call Singapore if your cities are not bookable online. Yes, the hold time can be very long so put your phone on speaker and have sonething else to do while waiting! Good luck!
For others I have just booked a trip from ROC to CDG in April with my Singapore miles. United showed X availability for both flights ROC-EWR and EWR-CDG but Singapore’s website showed no availability ROC-CDG. However when I tried it segment by segment I found the exact flights I wanted. Needed to call and have the agent piece it together but it was worth the wait. Remember that Singapore is 12 hrs ahead of EST so best time to call would be after 9PM EST to get some of their better agents.
Thank you for the post. I just had a very frustrating experience with Singapore Airlines.
While I can clearly see Saver Awards on United.com, those flights are not available via the Star Alliance program or not reflected in the KrisFlyer system. Not sure where the disconnect is.
I called Singapore Airlines and they could not find any of the Saver Award flights for East Coast airports to Hawaii 🙁 that I could pull up on United.com. I asked them to try PHL, EWR, JFK, IAD, ATL.
Very frustrating.
I’ve followed all the steps and even transferred 1000 Thank you points into my new account. It took less than 48 hours.
But, still no United award space showing up. Even basic stuff like SAN-IAH doesn’t appear so I guess they don’t have all the bugs worked out yet.