Background and Hat Tip

Warning before you read on: less than 5% of readers will likely take advantage of this award gem – this type of booking is not for beginners.

MileValue recently posted here about Hawaii being a sweet spot in Singapore Air’s KrisFlyer program since it was coded as part of Central America.  He went 1 step further and explained here yesterday how we can take advantage of this gem being based out of the US.

Rules and Example Itinerary

Similar to the way free one ways work on United award bookings, Singapore Air allows one free stopover per round trip award and in addition, up to 3 additional stopovers for $100 each.  The cost for round trip Hawaii – South America: 50k in coach and 80k in business (60k in coach and 100k in business if USA-South America).  Combine these two concepts and you can work out a trip like this (assuming you are based out of LAX):

• HNL – LAX (stopover 1 – free)
• LAX – EZE (destination)
• EZE – LAX (stopover 2 – $100)
• LAX – HNL (return “home”)

What’s even sweeter is that one open jaw is allowed per round trip award.  That means instead of flying into and out of EZE, you can choose another city in South America to fly into / out of OR instead of flying out of and into HNL, you can choose another city in Hawaii to fly out of / into.

 

 

Airports that Can Take Advantage of this Gem

Per MileValue, here is a list of airports that can take advantage of this award gem:

• Newark
• Chicago
• Houston
• Denver
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco
• Washington-Dulles
• Boston
• Fort Lauderdale
• Miami
• Las Vegas
• New York-JFK
• Tampa
• Dallas/Fort Worth
• Orlando

 

How to Accrue Singapore KrisFlyer Miles

Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards both transfer at a 1:1 ratio.  I have been sitting on over 160k in MR points from a targeted Amex sign-up bonus, waiting for the highly coveted 50% BA Avios transfer bonus to return.  It’s now been a couple years since Amex offered the 50% BA Avios bonus and the current transfer bonus has been relatively low.  I am highly considering ditching Plan A and just converting them into KrisFlyer miles – just enough for 2 rd trip biz class tickets.

I also have some Chase Ultimate Rewards left from the last Chase Ink Bold 60k offer from last year (they are currently offering 50k which is still very good); you can find links for business card offers here.

• Don’t have Amex MR points –  check here for the latest Amex sign up bonuses under Airline & Frequent Flyer Card Offers
• Don't have Chase Ultimate Rewards – check here for the latest business cards that offer them

 

Other Considerations

I have not tried this booking yet so use judgment before transferring miles over to the KrisFlyer program.  I am based out of NYC and a bit surprised that Singapore Air would allow flying from Hawaii connecting through Newark to get to South America.  The rules do not state any Maximum Permitted Mileage limitations, so in theory it should even work for the northern states.  The main drawback is that you must start off somewhere in Hawaii since the redemption is for Hawaii (aka Central America) – South America.  You don't need to end up back in Hawaii since you can just get off in your home town (in the US) without ever taking the final trip back to Hawaii.

Read more about MileValue’s posts here and here for full details.

 

 

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