Not like I’ve been swarming in PremierMiles, but I’ve been able to make some good transfers over the past 18 or so months to get the best value out of my PremierMiles. And while I’d encourage you to participate in this poll where I am trying to figure out how do you guys use your miles, here is a flight I just stepped off which is perhaps my best redemption of PremierMiles till date.
I spent the past week travelling to the other side of the globe for the Boarding Area Conference, and then, on the way back, got a flat tire, and also stopped by in NYC for a bit. On the way back to Mumbai, I wanted to fly Singapore Airlines on their all business class A340’s which operate from Newark and Los Angeles to Singapore daily, partly because these flights are going to be discontinued in the last quarter of 2013, and the world’s two longest routes (#1 and #2) would come to an end.
Tickets on these routes routinely retail at about $7,000 roundtrip, and I was definitely not spending that kind of money for the flight. Instead, I looked up my repertoire of the various points/miles I had and decided to transfer some PremierMiles to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, which I’d be able to redeem for LAX-SIN on the all-business class LAX-SIN flight, and after a layover at Changi, bring me to Mumbai. It cost me 76,500 PremierMiles + $480 for this redemption (cash value: Rs. 2,00,000 at least). The same number of miles as it’d cost for about 7 one-way tickets on Mumbai-Delhi in economy class (cash value: Rs. 35,000).
And here is a little glimpse into what was on offer, which will be captured in a trip report at a later date.
The Star Alliance Lounge at LAX
Singapore Airlines A345 at LAX
The All Business A345 Cabin
The latest SQ Business Class seat/throne!
Hey, don’t judge me. Those socks were chosen by Singapore Airlines!
Meal service & in-between meals
Worth it you think? I’m going back to bouncing around like I have been doing for the past 5 hours at Singapore Changi Airport!
Related Posts:
- Poll: How do you use your India-minted miles?
- Hang on, do not use your Citi PremierMiles for Jet Airways redemptions
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AJ,
Great redemption idea. Have you done an analysis on the same for Air India/ Jet?
regards,
Kurian
those seats are super comfortable. who cares what they look like
I’ll be in Changi in about 2 hours, Terminal 2. There’s a sports bar there that I like to get a drink at before I board Silk Air if you’re still around.
I’m looking forward to the trip report AJ! 🙂
Hi AA,
I have been a long time follower of your post- and believe me, it has been informative.
But I would be really grateful if you can share some post on best value for Premiere Miles for Economy class international travels also- as mostly while you use them for the Business class, using them for Economy class would make more sense for many of us.
Also- while your general routes are JFK or London and all, what about the tourist destinations in Asia- if I want to gift a ticket to a frnd for Thailand or Singapore or Dubai- what kinda redemption rate one can expect?
@Priyansh, the only thing that holds me back against advising for economy is that the fuel surcharges are the same and hence the value goes down for economy. So, for a few more miles, you get way higher value.
I really dislike their “Office Space”-like cubicle of a business class seat. Looks dingy.