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Quick Tip: Route through Hong Kong to save on Singapore Air
I’m looking to take a trip over New Years and surveying possible locations. I’ve been looking at Russia, South America, and Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia is high on the list because my buddy Dave and I still have award tickets booked for a Thanksgiving trip to Southeast Asia that we can no longer take. The itinerary has us in First Class to Hong Kong on Singapore Air and then Hanoi to LAX on Japan Air First ( pre-deval 67.5). I’d love to experience both products, especially JAL at 67.5, and see more of Southeast Asia. Dave has also mentioned that he’d like a couple more custom suits from Singapore so I’ve been looking to get us there. I was surveying options today when I was reminded that you can route through Hong Kong to save on Singapore Air taxes and fees.
Southeast Asia is very cool
I had a blast in Singapore, KL, and Thailand a few years back ( I even got to stay in the Peninsula Suite in Bangkok), and would love to check out other areas in the region. A couple of months ago I wrote a quick article on the hidden cities near Ankor Wat, Cambodia. I’d love to see those places first hand.
Dave and I are both Hyatt Diamonds with quite a few suite upgrades between us to burn. We’d love to check out the Park Hyatt Saigon, Park Hyatt Siem Reap, and go back to the Grand Hyatt Singapore. Originally, we were going to kick it in Hong Kong for a couple of days, but now with Dave’s suit requests, I think we’ll revisit Singapore before hitting up Cambodia and Vietnam.
Knowing that we need to get to Singapore created different options for routing.
The new SFO-SIN route got me looking
Who isn’t intrigued by this new route?! It’s on the A350, it’s a quasi new product, but the whole experience would be DOOOOOOOOPE. Flying between Christmas and New Years would mean flying a route that is less than 3 months old. BAZAM! However, as I was surveying the booking options, I was struck with how much cheaper it would be to fly through Hong Kong. We could even spend $100 and stay there for a couple of days if we wanted. After all, we both have IHG credit cards and free nights to use: can someone say Intercontinental Hong Kong WAYYYYOOOOOO! Regardless… This provides a very cool way to get to Singapore and save some dough:
Here is SFO to SIN:
These are Standard prices but it gives you a feel. The fees for Saver are the same except it only requires 68,000 Points
Compare that to SFO-HKG-SIN: $253 vs $44
Now this would be on a 777 to Hong Kong instead of an A350 to SIN, but both feature the new business class cabin. The flight would take longer, but it would also be timed through the night…which I think is nice. It also saves $200 per ticket. That’s a great deal. I’d also be able to fly into San Fran the day of my flight. With the direct flight to SIN I’d more than likely have to fly in the night before and stay at the Hyatt Regency at SFO because it leaves early in the morning.
Overall:
At this point the flights that we want aren’t even available, but Hong Kong provides a very good option that saves money. Unless you are already in San Fran, routing through Hong Kong may not even cost you any more time, and could potentially save you even more money and points because you don’t need a hotel in San Fran the night before. Either way, choice is power.
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
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card went through a major refresh in 2026 adding new bonus categories, travel protections, statement credits, and remains one of the best travel starter cards in the market. It earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott. Note that Hyatt is now a 4:3 transfer partner
Welcome Offer
Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Earn
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on gas and EV charging
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on vacation homes at top brands
- Cardmembers will earn 3x points on vacation homes at these top brands: Airbnb, Vrbo, Plu Guide, HomeAway, Homestay.com and Vacasa.
- 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)
- 2x on all other travel
- 1x on everyday purchases
- 5x points on Lyft rides Earn 5x total points on eligible Lyft rides including ride share, bike and scooter rides and subscription and membership products through September 30, 2027.
- 5x total points on Peloton equipment Earn 5x total points on eligible Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 through December 31, 2027.
Benefits and Credits
- $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- NEW: $120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS fee credit Cardmembers will receive one statement credit of up to $120 every four years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to the card.
- NEW: Complimentary Apple TV subscription for one year
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Complimentary DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees & lower service fees for a min. of one year when you activate by 12/31/27. Plus, a $10 promo each month on non-restaurant orders
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® Card is great 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: Chase Ink Business Cash® , Chase Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into the Sapphire Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee remains quite low at $95 a year and if you use the $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠ you’ll wipe out that annual fee every year. It has great bonus categories and other useful statement credits to enhance your travel.
One thing that is a bummer is Chase lowered the transfer ratio to World of Hyatt from 1:1 to 4:3.
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