Beginner; would like advice on maximising Frequent Flyer benefits for family trip to Singapore

[a8wc9isbe]

Hello stranger!

I'm planning a family trip to Singapore from either Perth (where we live) or Sydney (where I work). I've used the Frequent Flyer program a couple of times to upgrade from Economy to Business, but those were more spur-of-the-moment decisions. Now, I'm looking to plan more strategically for a trip with three passengers around December or January, ideally flying Business for one or both legs of the journey.

I've heard great things about Singapore Airlines and am considering flying with them. From my research, they use KrisFlyer & Kris+, and also have an agreement with Virgin Australia for points exchange. To maximise my points, I've set up Coles Flybuys to automatically transfer to Velocity points and plan to shop there more frequently until I transfer them into KrisFlyer miles. I understand this might not be the most efficient method due to occasional deals, but I appreciate the ease of use.

I also plan to sign up for KrisFlyer & subsequently Kris+, when a good signing deal comes up. While Kris+ is not available in Perth, I've noticed there are quite a few Kris+ partners in Sydney CBD, so I'm hoping to utilise them to accumulate some KrisPay miles.

Lastly, I'm considering opening a credit card to further boost my points, but I'm unsure which one would be the best fit. I'm currently considering the Star Alliance Credit Card, a Velocity Points paying card with a big signing bonus, or an American Express card with a big signing bonus.

I would greatly appreciate any advice or insights from the community. Is there anything I may have missed, or is there something in my plan that might not be feasible? Is it more efficient earning KrisFlyer miles directly or via first getting Velocity points? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Cynicor]

Currently the Amex platinum has a very good signup offer. Pm me if you want a referral code.
I’d fly from Perth, as it sounds like there will be more than one of you going? Wouldn’t it be a hassle to fly from Syd if you need to get the family there?

275k points on the Amex will convert to 85k SQ which is enough for 1 person return business already.

Getting as many SQ and VA points is def the way to do it, and you need to do it soon to get Jan and Dec due to school holidays.

 

[lilkid28]

Hello stranger!

I'm planning a family trip to Singapore from either Perth (where we live) or Sydney (where I work). I've used the Frequent Flyer program a couple of times to upgrade from Economy to Business, but those were more spur-of-the-moment decisions. Now, I'm looking to plan more strategically for a trip with three passengers around December or January, ideally flying Business for one or both legs of the journey.

I've heard great things about Singapore Airlines and am considering flying with them. From my research, they use KrisFlyer & Kris+, and also have an agreement with Virgin Australia for points exchange. To maximise my points, I've set up Coles Flybuys to automatically transfer to Velocity points and plan to shop there more frequently until I transfer them into KrisFlyer miles. I understand this might not be the most efficient method due to occasional deals, but I appreciate the ease of use.

I also plan to sign up for KrisFlyer & subsequently Kris+, when a good signing deal comes up. While Kris+ is not available in Perth, I've noticed there are quite a few Kris+ partners in Sydney CBD, so I'm hoping to utilise them to accumulate some KrisPay miles.

Lastly, I'm considering opening a credit card to further boost my points, but I'm unsure which one would be the best fit. I'm currently considering the Star Alliance Credit Card, a Velocity Points paying card with a big signing bonus, or an American Express card with a big signing bonus.

I would greatly appreciate any advice or insights from the community. Is there anything I may have missed, or is there something in my plan that might not be feasible? Is it more efficient earning KrisFlyer miles directly or via first getting Velocity points? Thanks in advance for your help!

Amex Velocity Platinum currently has 100k Velocity points (64500 Krisflyer), I'd go for that if you don't already have an Amex and can get signup bonus points

 

[AIRwin]

Velocity allows family pooling of points and status credits

 

[aikman]

krisflyer miles has a hard expiry date of 3 years. It is not a suitable program for those who like to or inadvertently hoard points.

 

[a8wc9isbe]

Currently the Amex platinum has a very good signup offer. Pm me if you want a referral code.
I’d fly from Perth, as it sounds like there will be more than one of you going? Wouldn’t it be a hassle to fly from Syd if you need to get the family there?

275k points on the Amex will convert to 85k SQ which is enough for 1 person return business already.

Getting as many SQ and VA points is def the way to do it, and you need to do it soon to get Jan and Dec due to school holidays.

Thanks for the advice. The reason I was considering Sydney is because Perth doesn't offer Airbus A380, which from what I've read, is a better experience than the A350 or Boing 787.

Good point on the school holidays. Do you have a rough timeline/deadline on it? Especially since there'll be 3 passengers, I'd imagine it'll be exponentially more difficult.
Actually, an oversight on my initial message; I was thinking of buying the Economy tickets & then using points to upgrade them to Business. I believe in that case, it'll be better to aim for the Advantage option over the Saver option for a higher likelihood of getting them? It's gotta be all 3 or none, so I'm quite interested to know if you or anybody has tried & had success with multiple simultaneous upgrades, or if the likelihood is low & basically unfeasible.

 

[a8wc9isbe]

krisflyer miles has a hard expiry date of 3 years. It is not a suitable program for those who like to or inadvertently hoard points.

I read that apparently if you had both Krisflyer & Kris+, you can exchange the Krisflyer miles & the KrisPay miles (1:1 rate), which resets/extends the expiry date. Is this in one direction (KrisPay -> KrisFlyer only), or if there's a limit to the number of exchanges, or is this actually a work-around to have the KrisFlyer miles indefinitely?
Otherwise I'd guess the best way is to have the miles store in Velocity points until you'd want to fly Singapore Airlines.

 

[Cynicor]

Everyone new always wants to “upgrade” and I have no idea why. Book the class you want outright, nearly always, unless someone else is paying for the base fare and an upgrade is guaranteed.
Get a bunch of points asap and Book 330 days out.
From Perth it’s a cheaper and shorter flight and I’ve never even notice what product I’m on in J on it

 

[Bundy Bear]

The difference between economy and business is bigger than the type of aircraft which is small. Fly from Perth.

 

[ThePointyEnd]

Everyone new always wants to “upgrade” and I have no idea why. Book the class you want outright, nearly always, unless someone else is paying for the base fare and an upgrade is guaranteed.
Get a bunch of points asap and Book 330 days out.
From Perth it’s a cheaper and shorter flight and I’ve never even notice what product I’m on in J on it

Very sound advice. The only advantage of the A380 lies in its suites. These are magnificently superior to regular First. But you can book the A380 and get an airplane swap and so have only regular First but with no compo!

 

[a8wc9isbe]

Everyone new always wants to “upgrade” and I have no idea why. Book the class you want outright, nearly always, unless someone else is paying for the base fare and an upgrade is guaranteed.
Get a bunch of points asap and Book 330 days out.
From Perth it’s a cheaper and shorter flight and I’ve never even notice what product I’m on in J on it

Thanks for the advice. In that case, yeah, Perth it is. For me at least, I didn't think I can spend quickly enough to get to ~250,000+ KrisFlyer miles by late May/early June (which was my initial guess of a soft deadline), so had thought that an upgrade would be the ideal mix.

It seems like there's not much chance to fly to Singapore via KrisFlyer miles, so I guess a follow-up question is; can you directly get a partner airline's (Virgin Australia or Star Alliance) points when booking with Singapore Airlines, as KrisMiles has a hard deadline of 3 years? From some quick Googling, it seems possible, but you'd have to book via Virgin's page? Feels kinda sus, so would like confirmation from someone more knowledgeable. Also, is there a difference in 'treatment' if booking via a partner airline?
Thanks in advance.

 

[ThePointyEnd]

Thanks for the advice. In that case, yeah, Perth it is. For me at least, I didn't think I can spend quickly enough to get to ~250,000+ KrisFlyer miles by late May/early June (which was my initial guess of a soft deadline), so had thought that an upgrade would be the ideal mix.

It seems like there's not much chance to fly to Singapore via KrisFlyer miles, so I guess a follow-up question is; can you directly get a partner airline's (Virgin Australia or Star Alliance) points when booking with Singapore Airlines, as KrisMiles has a hard deadline of 3 years? From some quick Googling, it seems possible, but you'd have to book via Virgin's page? Feels kinda sus, so would like confirmation from someone more knowledgeable. Also, is there a difference in 'treatment' if booking via a partner airline?
Thanks in advance.

I think SQ has reasonable availability of redemption seats. I have recently booked a SIN return in First that I'm now looking to adjust, and there was adequate availability around my original booking.
If I understand you correctly, yes, you can add your Star Alliance or other SQ partner airline's FF number to your SQ booking, or vice versa.

 

[Cynicor]

To be honest, 6-8 weeks away is probably your deadline for boomings in peak periods.
Upgrades just aren’t a real thing. In fact with SQ they cost as much as the award outright anyway, or near enough.
Airlines sell enough business seats directly that they don’t need to do too many redemption upgrades except on pretty low selling/economy heavy routes

 

[wchiri]

SQ released no business class seats over DEC/JAN 2024/2025 for Per-Sin or Sin-Per. All waitlisted immediately on release. I’ve checked daily.
Only today did they have a couple available for the flight Jan 13.

 

[nthd_nthd]

I am paying attention to how Velocity release SQ Flights and notice they do have decent access to SQ seats. At one point, I could see 4 Business seats from Syd to Sin during a school holiday period - but I am not sure about Dec/Jan. I was debating between transferring my points to SQ or Velocity. They do have more reward seats however they have hard expiry date for points and 3 to 1 points instead of 2 to 1 as Velocity. Velocity would be better fit for me to accumulate points for future redemption. Worst case, then I can transfer from Velocity to SQ - of course subject to conversion rate too but I could avoid the rush of using it because of expiry date. Just my 2c.

 

[mokuni]

SQ released no business class seats over DEC/JAN 2024/2025 for Per-Sin or Sin-Per. All waitlisted immediately on release. I’ve checked daily.
Only today did they have a couple available for the flight Jan 13.

I was like you and where this was majority of the case. There was however pockets that did appear for me. I did managed to get 2 pax HND SIN PER on 30/12/24.

OP something to consider, the amount of points PER to SIN is the same as PER to HK via SIN.

 

[nthd_nthd]

the amount of points PER to SIN is the same as PER to HK via SIN

That's great to know. Thanks