Sweetspots with Singapore Krisflyer Miles #1: Suites Class for as Little as 32,000 Miles

MileValue is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

Note: Some of the offers mentioned below may have changed or are no longer be available. You can view current offers here.

This post is part of a series about how to maximize value when transferring your Citi ThankYou Points to airline partners.

• Sweetspots with Singapore KrisFlyer Miles #1: Suites Class for as Little as 32,000 Miles (this post)
• Sweetspots with Singapore KrisFlyer Miles #2: Awards on United and Partner Flights
• Sweetspots with Virgin Atlantic Miles #1: 10,000 Points USA to Europe
• Sweetspots with Virgin Atlantic Miles #2: Sweetspots on 12 Partner Award Charts
• Sweetspots with Flying Blue Miles: 30,000 Miles Roundtrip to Hawaii
• Sweetspots with Virgin America Points: 35,000 Points Roundtrip to Europe in Flat Bed
• Sweetspots with Etihad Miles: 20,000 Miles One Way to Europe

Singapore Airlines has two award charts when redeeming its KrisFlyer miles. There is one award chart to fly Singapore and its subsidiary SilkAir and one award chart to fly Star Alliance partners. This is a post about sweetspots on the Singapore/SilkAir chart. A second post will follow about sweetspots on the Star Alliance chart.

Singapore KrisFlyer miles should have your attention. You can amass a huge stash since you can easily transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou Points.

Singapore’s A380s feature one of the world’s best First Class products that it calls Suites Class, and it is only bookable with Singapore miles. (Singapore releases no First or Suites Class space to partners.)

Singapore awards that fly Singapore/SilkAir have the following rules:

• One way awards cost half the price of roundtrip awards
• On Saver awards (the only ones that are reasonably priced), you get zero free stopovers on one way awards and one free stopover on roundtrip awards
• Since you can book one way awards, a roundtrip can have two open jaws
• You must fly a published route of Singapore/Silk Air
• You can only redeem awards for yourself or or one of five nominated people (nomination is simple and free, changing nominees costs money)
• All Singapore awards booked on singaporeair.com receive an automatic 15% discount

Singapore awards include fuel surcharges when an identical cash ticket would have fuel surcharges, and I believe that all Singapore flights except those leaving Brazil have fuel surcharges. These are noted in the post.

Almost all my choices will focus on flying Singapore Suites Class, since that is what’s special about using Singapore miles. Here is a list of routes that feature Singapore A380s (and thus Suites Class.) Most of these deals are really just fair prices, not exactly sweetspots, but since they are the only way to fly such a fantastic product, I consider a “fair price” to be a sweetspot.

Here are some deals I particularly like:

• Sao Paulo to Barcelona: 17,425 miles in economy + $37
• Sao Paulo to Barcelona: 58,225 miles in First Class + $37
• Los Angeles to Tokyo: 74,375 miles in Suites Class + $113
• Los Angeles to Tokyo to Singapore: 91,375 miles in Suites Class + $276
• New York-JFK to Frankfurt: 57,375 miles in Suites Class + $203
• New York-JFK to Frankfurt to Singapore: 93,500 miles in Suites Class + $286
• Singapore to Hong Kong: 31,875 miles in Suites Class + $30
• Singapore to Mumbai: 42,500 miles in Suites Class + $160
• Singapore to Beijing: 42,500 miles in Suites Class + $160
• Mumbai to Beijing: 61,625 miles in Suites Class + $322
• Hong Kong to Sydney: 63,750 miles in Suites Class + $188

Sao Paulo to Barcelona: 17,425 miles in economy + $37
Sao Paulo to Barcelona: 58,225 miles in First Class + $37

Singapore flies from Sao Paulo to Barcelona to Singapore with no fuel surcharges because Brazil law prohibits fuel surcharges.

Economy and First Class tickets are absolute steals for 10.5 hours of flying, especially compared to how many miles competitors charge.

Award space is wide open on the route in all cabins. Unfortunately Singapore flies a 777 with First Class instead of an A380 with Suites Class on the route. Here is my review of Singapore First Class.

Los Angeles to Tokyo: 74,375 miles in Suites Class + $113
Los Angeles to Tokyo to Singapore: 91,375 miles in Suites Class + $276

Singapore flies an A380 daily from Los Angeles to Singapore with a stop in Tokyo. You can fly the whole thing (19 hours in the air) or just to Tokyo (12 hours.) Both are decent deals with miles, though the fuel surcharges are much lower if you just go to Tokyo.

New York-JFK to Frankfurt: 57,375 miles in Suites Class + $203
New York-JFK to Frankfurt to Singapore: 93,500 miles in Suites Class + $286

The only other Singapore Suites experience from the United States similarly allows you to fly to Singapore with an intermediate stop. The flight to Frankfurt is just 7.5 hours (and a bit longer flying west), while flying all the way to Singapore would be 20 hours in the air.

The price to Europe in Singapore Suites is undoubtedly a steal, though award space from JFK to Frankfurt in Suites Class is not great.

Singapore to Hong Kong: 31,875 miles in Suites Class + $30

The cheapest Suites Class route costs fewer than 32,000 miles, though unfortunately you’ll get less than four hours in the air.

Singapore to Mumbai: 42,500 miles in Suites Class + $160

For an extra hour of flying time, head to Mumbai instead. Unfortunately the award is 10,000 miles and $120 more expensive, which is not a rate I would want to pay per hour of Suites Class.

Singapore to Beijing: 42,500 miles in Suites Class + $160

I think six hours, if you don’t plan on sleeping more than about 90 minutes, is the minimum amount of time to fully enjoy the Suites Class experience. You can book such an award from Singapore to Beijing for less than the sign up bonus of one credit card, which is a pretty good deal.

Mumbai to Beijing: 61,625 miles in Suites Class + $322

The Singapore award chart has some good options to fly Singapore Airlines A380s in Suites Class twice and enjoy the Private Room (lounge) in Singapore. Just make sure you get a longer layover than the 50 minutes on this itinerary.

Almost 12 hours in the air for under 62,000 miles compares very favorably to the award prices from Singapore to Europe, which are over 90,000 miles for the same amount of flying.

Hong Kong to Sydney: 63,750 miles in Suites Class + $188

Similarly you can get two segments and 11.5 hours of flying by booking Hong Kong to Sydney.

This is the only screen shot that shows “Waitlist” at the Saver level instead of “Available.” Here’s How Waitlisting Singapore Awards Works.

Product

Singapore Suites is a world-class fully enclosed suite.

The suites are laid out 1-2-1, and the middle two suites can have their divider removed to turn two suites into one double bed.

The food, alcohol, and service are legendary.

Getting Singapore Miles

Ultimate Rewards, Membership Rewards, and ThankYou Points transfer 1:1 to Singapore miles with a 12-36 hour delay.

Bottom Line

Singapore miles are excellent for booking flights on Singapore Airlines. Singapore has way-too-cheap awards from Sao Paulo to Barcelona in economy and First Class with no fuel surcharges.

Singapore has fair value awards from the United States to Europe and Asia in Suites Class, and Singapore offers some attractive intra-Asia redemptions in Suites Class, starting at 31,875 miles.

Singapore miles are easy to get as a transfer partner of every major transferable points program.