If you’ve been involved with travel rewards for a while, you know that there are two main opportunities to score award seats for flights. Either you book way in advance, such as 11 months before your departure date, or within a few weeks of departure. Those two time frames seem to be when airlines will release award space. With that in mind, I like to plan as far ahead as possible, so I’m more comfortable searching for award space 11 months out.
Where Are We Flying?
Currently, I’m planning our flights to Europe next summer and I’m wanting to fly Singapore Airlines either in business class or their first class suites. Many of you know that Singapore Airlines provides one of the best premium flight experiences in the world. What I’m not sure of is where I want to fly out of. Our final destination will be Russia, so if we fly in to Manchester, or Frankfurt, I will still need to find flights to get us to Russia. Singapore Airlines used to provide a Houston to Moscow route, but that since has been changed to a Houston to Manchester route. Bummer!
Flying Options On Singapore Airlines
There is a New York to Frankfurt route that is appealing because that route flies the Airbus A380, which features the suites in first class. Once in Frankfurt, it’s just a short 3 hour flight to Moscow, where I’m sure I could find a good fare online. The drawback to this is finding positioning flights to New York from Texas. From our home airport, we would most likely have to connect in Dallas then fly to JFK which would be around 7 hours at the least.
The other option would be to fly the Houston to Manchester route. It flies on the Airbus A350 which does not feature a first class, only business class. Although Singapore Airlines’ business class is top notch, it would be nice to have the option to be able to redeem miles for their suites. We could fly out of our hometown on a short 1.5 hour direct flight on United to Houston, then on to Manchester on Singapore Airlines in business class. Once we’re in Manchester, we’d need to find a flight to Russia which would be around 5-6 hours depending whether we fly into Saint Petersburg or Moscow.
Either way, we’ll be able to enjoy a Singapore Airlines premium class flight on points. Accomplishing this is fairly easy. Singapore’s Krisflyer Program is a transfer partner with Ultimate Rewards, Membership Rewards, Thank You Rewards. I ended up transferring Thank You Rewards to my KrisFlyer account to book. Here is the process to book an award flight on Singapore Airlines.
How To Search For Award Space
Enter in your flight search information. Make sure to select “Redeem flights” since this is an award flight.
You will need to log in to your KrisFlyer account
If there is saver award space available on your desired date, it will look like this. Select it and continue.
Once selected, you will see the total points required, and the taxes/fees. Keep in mind that it takes a couple of days for points to transfer from Thank You, Membership Rewards and Ultimate Rewards.
Pay the taxes and fees. Now you can brag to your buddies that you and the better half are flying business class to Europe for less than $50!
Conclusion
Being able to travel to different parts of the world for pennies on the dollar makes this hobby very appealing. Getting there well rested and with a full belly is the icing on the cake! Singapore Airlines offers one of the top premium cabins in the world, and being able to experience it with points is amazing. The great thing about their KrisFlyer program is that it is transfer partners with all four of the major flexible point programs. KrisFlyer miles are not only useful for premium cabin flights on their own airline, but for cheap flights on other Star Alliance partners as well. Where will KrisFlyer miles take you?