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How we booked 3 Singapore Suites
Flying the BEST around the World was paramount to creating a once in a life experience for my mom’s 75th birthday surprise trip. How could she fly the world’s best and not fly in Singapore Suites?! Well…not only did she get to fly in them…All 3 of us got to fly in the Suites! Let me show you how Miles strategized this portion of the trip and, ultimately, how we booked 3 Singapore Suites – one of THE MOST desired ways to travel.
Here are some features of Singapore Airlines you should know, and we utilized.
These bad boys can you yours, and you could be dining like us – just follow along 🙂
1) Singapore releases these seats to their own members.
Singapore doesn’t release their Suites to partners, so if you wanna fly in them…you need their points!
2) Singapore Airlines Krisflyer is a popular transfer partner of major credit programs.
Singapore Krisflyer is one of my favorite programs because you can earn their points so easily without flying them or any of their partners. Simply earn valuable flexible credit card points and transfer into the program!
- Chase Ultimate Rewards
- Citi ThankYou
- American Express Membership Rewards
- SPG Starpoints ( Amex )
3) You can pay $100 to stopover on a one-way Saver Ticket
Yep…this is what we did. We booked tickets from Beijing to Singapore to Dubai priced as one continuous ticket with a layover in Singapore. BUT, we paid $100 and created a STOPOVER in Singapore for 8 nights. We went to Bali during that time, came back to spend a few nights in Singapore, and continue on to Dubai.
4) You can waitlist in first, but book in business, and pay the difference if you clear the waitlist
Yep! As long as you have the miles in your account you can waitlist your flight in first class, secure a spot in business class, and if they open a seat in first – you’ll be notified and you can claim your first class seat.
5) The Waitlist isn’t always right…so keep checking on your own
There are a lot of reports that the waitlist doesn’t always notify you when you clear…so you should double check your dates to see if a seat has opened up.
6) No backtracking
Singapore will let you fly Bali to Singapore to Dubai, but won’t let you fly from Singapore to Bali to Dubai as that would constitute backtracking.
So how did Miles make use of these features to book us 3 Singapore Suites?
Miles searched for availability on Singapore Air for the dates we wanted which were about 9 days apart.
- We searched as two one-ways ( it’s impossible to search and book a stopover online)
- Beijing to Singapore
- Singapore to Dubai
Then we called into Singapore to book.
As I mentioned above, and one thing many people aren’t aware of, is that you can pay $100 to stopover and book the ticket as one continuous ticket rather than two separate one ways. So while you want to search for availability as two one-ways, you want to book as one ticket. This is beneficial because if you were to book this same itinerary as two one ways it would cost 120k Singapore Miles. We were planning on flying Suites to Singapore, then take a separate trip on to Bali for several days, come back to Singapore for a few more days, and then hop back on this itinerary and fly to Dubai. Paying the $100 meant we could accomplish all of this and pay the 97.5 rate instead of the 120k.
- Beijing to Singapore to Dubai – 97.5k
- Beijing to Singapore – 50k
- Singapore to Dubai – 70k
Booking the stopover and waitlisting…
We booked these tickets before Singapore devalued ( they used to offer a 15% discount for online bookings); however, two of the tickets were waitlisted for the Singapore to Dubai legs and only opened up 2 days before we were scheduled to fly…they were repriced at the devalued rates, but the difference in taxes/fees was refunded. Our initial booking looked like this:
- Beijing to Singapore – Mom and I in First; Dad booked into Business, waitlisted in First
- Singapore to Dubai – Mom in First; Dad and I in Business, waitlisted in First
The craziest thing happened. Less than 24 hours after we booked our tickets my dad got email confirmation that his waitlist cleared for the first leg in Suites. We called into Singapore and they acknowledged that a mistake email had been sent out, but that it was their fault, and they would honor it! WHAT?! That meant in December, 3 of us had confirmed seats into Suites in April!!!!
We left on the trip, and my Dad and I were still waitlisted for the Singapore to Dubai leg of trip. While we were in Beijing…
The next serendipitous moment happened…
Two days before we were scheduled to fly to Singapore, I saw that there was a first class seat available from Singapore to Dubai, yet neither my dad nor I had been sent notification that we had cleared the waitlist. I called Singapore Air and upgraded my dad. 12 hours later, I received an email that I had cleared the waitlist. So BOTH of us got upgraded within 12 hours of another, and we had confirmed seats in Suites to Singapore and First to Dubai. However…because we were changing our business class seats to First on the Singapore to Dubai leg, the award needed to be repriced at the new devalued rates – which meant more miles ( since we the 15% discount was no longer available), but dropped the $ considerably.
This also meant we’d all have access to The Private Room
This was something I had really been hoping for…It’s Singapore’s Lounge inside a lounge inside a lounge and it’s ONLY available to those passengers flying out of Singapore in First Class. After we upgraded our tickets it meant that we’d not only all get to FLY in Singapore’s First Class from Singapore to Dubai, but we’d ALL get to experience one of the MOST EXCLUSIVE LOUNGES in the World: The Private Room.
You don’t have to stop here. Check out how we paid $5k and took a $125k Surprise trip Around The World to celebrate my Mom’s 75th
Flights:
- Boston to Beijing
- American Airlines First Class 737 Los Angeles to Boston
- Cathay Pacific First Class 777-300ER Boston to Hong Kong ($17k value)
- Cathay Pacific Business Class 777-300ER Boston to Hong Kong ($7k value)
- Cathay Pacific Business Class 777-200 Hong Kong to Beijing
- Beijing to Singapore
- Singapore Airlines Suites A380 Beijing to Singapore ($3k)
- Singapore to Bali Roundtrip
- KLM Business Class 777-200 Singapore to Bali ($400)
- KLM Business Class 777-200 Bali to Singapore
- Singapore to Dubai
- Singapore Airlines First Class 777-300ER Singapore to Dubai ($4k)
- Abu Dhabi to Cannes, France
- Etihad Airways First Class Apartment A380 Abu Dhabi to London ($8k)
- Etihad Airways Business Studio A380 Abu Dhabi to London ( $3500-5k)
- British Airways Club Europe A321 London to Nice
- Cannes, France to Dallas
- Lufthansa Business Class A321 Nice to Frankfurt ($10k)
- Lufthansa First Class A330 Frankfurt to Dallas
Hotels:
- Boston
- Intercontinental Boston ($450)
- Beijing
- JW Marriott Beijing, 1 Bedroom Suite ($450 for 5 nights)
- Club King ($250)
- Singapore
- Crowne Plaza Singapore Airport, 1 Bedroom Suite ($300)
- Bali
- Mandapa, Ritz Carlton Reserve 1 Bedroom Rice Paddy View Villa ($600/night)
- Conrad Bali 1 Bedroom Ocean View Suite ($400/night)
- Singapore
- Intercontinental Singapore ($400/night)
- Dubai
- JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, 1 Bedroom Executive Suite ($450)
- Abu Dhabi
- Ritz Carlton Abu Dhabi ($300)
- Cannes, France
- Intercontinental Carlton Cannes, France ($300)
- Dallas
- Grand Hyatt DFW ($150
- JW Marriott Beijing, 1 Bedroom Suite ($450 for 5 nights)
Lounges
- Boston
- British Airways Lounge Boston Logan
- Hong Kong
- Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge
- Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge The Wing
- Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge The Pier
- Beijing
- Air China First Class Lounge
- Singapore
- DNata Lounge
- Bali
- Garuda Indoneisa Business Class Lounge
- Premier Lounge
- Singapore
- Singapore Airlines First Class Check-In
- Singapore Airlines Business Class Lounge SIN
- Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge SIN
- Singapore Airlines Private Room SIN
- Abu Dhabi
- Etihad First Class Lounge
- Etihad Business Class Lounge
- Etihad Shave Experience
- London
- British Airways First Class Lounge LHR Terminal 5
- Nice
- Living Room Azur
- Frankfurt
- Lufthansa First Class Lounge Frankfurt Terminal A
TIPS:
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.