Can anyone help in booking flights with Krisflyer miles for August 2019?

Frequent Flyer Programs
1

Hi There,

Really hoping someone can help. I need to send my wife and daughter back to the UK in August ideally.

We use Singapore airlines once a year to do this.

In March I picked up an Amex platinum and have been doing fairly well with miles. Prior to the mileage downgrade I shifted miles to my personal Krisflyer account so that has 185,000 miles in it.

My Amex accounts have 400,000 available. My wife and daughter have around 30,000 miles in their accounts but I believe you cannot merge those into another booking.

I looked at August and it seems pretty much booked up. I thought maybe booking a normal ticket and then reducing the cost using miles might be an option but following the Krisflyer link of cash plus miles does not work.

Can anyone suggest an alternative?

Any help really appreciated.

Cheers

James

2

Hi James,

Some questions for you so we can help you better…

  1. What is your departure city? Are you willing to be flexible?

  2. Are you looking at one-way or return flights?

  3. Does it matter what cabin class they fly in? Would they be happy in economy or do you require Premium Economy/Business (or First)?

  4. Does it matter which airline they fly? Would you take availability on another Star Alliance airline such as Thai, ANA, Air China etc?

  5. Must they fly into London Heathrow or would you be happy looking at Gatwick, Manchester etc?

Let us know the answer to these questions and I’m sure we’ll be able to help you out.

3

Hi There,

Oops sorry, that was a pretty general question.

  1. Departure city is Brisbane. Flexibility is possible.

  2. Return flights

  3. Economy is fine, i guess based on the miles i have that is going to be the best I can hope for. I do have a new NAB card. So potentially another 50k miles available.

  4. As I have 185,000 miles in Krisflyer already I guess going Singapore is the way forward. However I do have 404,000 in Amex so I could go another way maybe.

  5. Gatwick is fine. Actually it is probably better. We have always preferred Singapore as a stopover and Singapore Airlines as a provider.

Looking at the premium economy options I think I might get the flights through Singapore but it seems a poor return on the miles.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Regards

James

4

Hi again,

Speaking generally…

Let’s try to use your KrisFlyer points as a first option. They have a 3-year expiry and, while you’ve still got almost 3 years to go, it’s best to use them if you’ve got them. If you were to transfer all your AmEx points to KrisFlyer, you wouldn’t quite have enough for return Business Class flights for two, but you’d have more than enough for Premium Economy or Economy.

As August is very soon, it’s not surprising that many reward seats have already been snaffled up, especially in the premium classes. However, airlines often release unsold seats within a week or so of the flight. It may be worthwhile risking that that will happen in this case. The United Airlines search engine reveals very good availability on Thai from Brisbane to London over the next week, for example.

Alternatively, you’ve got a pretty good chance of finding Economy availability now for many days in August. A quick look of the Singapore website reveals plenty of “Advantage” availability (which does cost more in points) to London in early August, and quite a bit of “Saver” availability (fewer points) from London to Brisbane in late August.

I think the next step is to have a look at what’s available on the specific dates you want. Be prepared to be flexible. Use the United Airlines website if the Singapore website is playing hard-to-get. And feel free to ask for help here again, of course!

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