Uncategorized

Singapore Air Krisflyer Sweet Spot – Intra Asia

a woman lying in a bed

We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com and CardRatings. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Monkey Miles is also a Senior Advisor to Bilt Rewards. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.


Singapore Air Krisflyer Sweet Spot – Intra Asia

I’m going to be in Taipei at the end of year and was just looking at ways to get to Vietnam and sort of stumbled across an excellent deal with Singapore Airlines, IN FACT, I’d say it’s a Singapore Air Krisflyer Sweet Spot. I’d written a little while back about the Singapore Air Krisflyer Sweet Spot – Hong Kong which became a pretty popular article and thought I’d share this one as well. Comparing rates with other Star Alliance partners it’s look as tho Singapore Air may be the best way to book a premium ticket on certain Intra-Asia flights. Here’s a Singapore Air Krisflyer Sweet Spot – Intra Asia.

I’m looking to fly from Taipei, Taiwan ( TPE ) to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam ( SGN )

Now, I know that I could use American or Alaska to fly on Cathay or Japan Air and it would be a great deal, but I was looking to fly direct. That basically boils down the options to Vietnam Airlines (SkyTeam), China Airlines ( Sky Team), and EVA ( Star Alliance). I’ll be flying over on China Airlines Business ( SUPER STOKED) and wanted to spend a couple days in Taipei to check it out so there wasn’t a whole lot I could do with a 24 stopover, and thus…I needed to book a separate ticket.

An EVA business class flight costs $833

screen-shot-2016-10-30-at-11-24-57-pm

Look at how much it costs for a flight on Dec 30th with United Business Saver – 40k Points

screen-shot-2016-10-29-at-5-42-49-pm

The same flight with Aeroplan – 40k
screen-shot-2016-10-29-at-5-42-12-pm

Now look at Singapore Air Krisflyer for the same flight – 27,500 and just $23.72

  • Taipei is in North Asia 1 and Vietnam is South East Asia 2
    screen-shot-2016-10-29-at-5-45-13-pm
  • You can see in the below chart that shows roundtrip award prices R/T is 55k – so one way is 27,500. A 12,500 mile discount over both Aero and United for the same flight. The great thing about Singapore is I can transfer Amex, TY, and UR and drain a little bit out of each program rather than a bulk amount from one. BAZINGA!
    Singapore Air Krisflyer Sweet Spot - Intra Asia
    Singapore Air Krisflyer Sweet Spot – Intra Asia

I’ve never flown EVA ROYAL LAUREL and am super excited to try it

courtesy of EVA.com
courtesy of EVA.com
Courtesy of EVA
Courtesy of EVA – and also these are kits for overnight flights so don’t count on them for short-haul

Also…Singapore Air usually has steep fees in addition to points but on this route they come out to just $23.72 for my EVA business class flight.

Singapore Air Krisflyer miles are also some the easiest miles to accumulate

As you can see in the table below…all the major flexible currencies can transfer into Singapore Air

American Express Membership RewardsChase Ultimate RewardsCiti Thank YouSPG
AirlinesAeroMexicoBritish AirwaysCathay Pacific Aegean
Air CanadaAirFrance ( FlyingBlue)EVAAeromexico
AlitaliaKorean AIrEtihadAeroplan/Air Canada
ANASingapore AIrAir France/KLMAir Berlin
British Airways ( 1.25:1)SouthwestGaruda IndonesiaAir China
Cathay PacificUnitedMalaysia AirAir New Zealand 65:1
DeltaVirgin AtlanticQantasAlaska
El AlQatarAlitalia
EmiratesSingaporeANA
EtihadThai American
Air France: Flying BlueVirgin America 1:2Asia
Hawaiian Virgin AtlanticBritish Airways
Iberia (14:1)China Eastern
JetBlue (1.25:1)China Southern
SingaporeDelta
Virgin America (2:1)Emirates
Virgin AtlanticEtihad
HotelsChoiceHyattHiltonAir France/KLM
Hilton (1:1.5)IHGGOL
Starwood (3:1)MarriottHainan
RitzHawaiian
Japan
Jet
Korean Air
LAN
Miles and more
Qatar
Saudi Arabian
Singapore
Thai
Untied 2:1
Velocity
Virgin America
Virgin Atlantic

 

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

a blue credit card with lines and symbols

Learn More

 Affiliate link 

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that 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.

Welcome Offer

60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 3x on dining
    •  including eligible delivery services for takeout
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel Portal
  • 2x on all other travel
  • $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Chase Travel
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 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 Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
  • Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Primary rental car coverage is my favorite

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.

19 Comments

  • […] how I flew in EVA business class ( above ) intra Asia for just 27.5k miles each way by transferring and redeeming via Singapore […]

  • […] how I flew in EVA business class ( above ) intra Asia for just 27.5k miles each way by transferring and redeeming via Singapore […]

  • […] even the fees on award tickets like flying EVA with Singapore Air miles will get […]

  • […] year I’d written about Singapore Air Krisflyer having an Intra-Asia sweet spot. I stumbled upon it while searching for ways to route Dave and I through Asia. As luck would have […]

  • […] and thought it’d be interesting to see how long it takes for the points to be transferred.  ICYMI I wrote about how Singapore Air Intra Asia was a relative sweet spot for business class and I’m going to try it out this winter. So how long […]

  • Jeff November 2, 2016

    Keep in mind that this is a short-haul flight; you post pictures of the Rimowa kit and the pajamas, but the descriptions even note that they are for long-hauls/overnighters.

    By the way, it’s China AirLINES (and Vietnam AirLINES, among other mistakes) – really important to type the airline name correctly and not confuse readers.

    • Miles November 2, 2016

      Hey Jeff – Thanks for reading!

  • […] to see how long it takes for the points to be transferred. First up…Ultimate Rewards. ICYMI I wrote about how Singapore Air Intra Asia was a relative sweet spot for business class and I’m going to try it out this winter. So how […]

  • jason October 31, 2016

    I think you’re getting your hopes up….They wont be providing rimowa kits or serving Krug on these intra-asia flights. So you’re really just getting a flat-bed on a sub 3hr (airtime) which you probably wont be utilizing during the day.

  • Nancy October 31, 2016

    Great one! I booked SQ from MNL to SIN nonstop for only 17,000 miles and $11 in taxes. Not a lie-flat seat but will be better than economy for nonstop and a 3 h 40 m flight.

    • Miles October 31, 2016

      Hey Nancy! Great!!!!

  • Frankie October 30, 2016

    Vietnam Air is $350 every day for the rest of the year in biz.

    • Miles October 30, 2016

      Hey Frankie – thanks for the heads up and you’re right you can land Vietnam Air biz for that price, but I’d argue the EVA 777-300ER cabin is worth the points vs the Vietnam A321 cabin and cash but that’s just my preference

  • Andy October 30, 2016

    Krisflyer charges fuel surcharges, does it make up the difference vs United?

    • Miles October 30, 2016

      Hey Andy – I’m forgot to add that in… fuel surcharges for this route = $23.72

  • atxtravel October 30, 2016

    the surcharges and taxes on these are often half or more of what the flight costs. I’ve played around with SQ miles in Asia and they’re rarely even worth it let alone a great deal.

    • Miles October 30, 2016

      ATX – totally agree, they can be quite steep. I’ll update as I forgot to put that in the post but they come out to be $23.72

  • Gary Leff October 29, 2016

    It’s a short flight, a ticket should only cost $100 or so. It’d be a sweet spot if the tix were a good redemption value, which may be the case for more expensive routes.

    • Miles October 29, 2016

      Hey Gary – true you can find discount carriers in coach around that price, but biz are roughly a grand for a direct flight.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.