Hi everyone. I’m looking to travel to Ho Chi Minh City in January from Melbourne and recently signed up to the Amex Explorer card with 100,000 points and was wondering the best way to use these for business class flights return either by full points purchase or upgrade from economy or premium economy. I don’t mind layovers and any help would be great as I’m totally new to this world of FF points! Thanks!
Hey there,
Good to see that you’re taking advantage of the promo!
If you wanted to go down the path of purchasing a full-fare economy or premium fare to then possibly request an upgrade, your best bet flying from melbourne would be to take Qantas as far Bangkok or Singapore, although neither of these routes are served by an aircraft with a premium economy cabin at this stage. Keep in mind thought that upgrades are determined in no small part due to your status, meaning that if you’re Silver or above you might fancy your chances in January school holidays, but bronze frequent flyers are last in line and probably wouldn’t stand much chance.
Just did a quick search and after about the 7th or 8th there is really good availability in Jetstars “star-class” either on the flight via Sydney or via Singapore from Melbourne, but that is more in-line with premium economy than business class. Nice big seats, loads of legroom, upgraded meals and service, but no lounge access on award seats and of-course not a lie-flat by any means.
As far as I can see there doesn’t appear to be much with a carrier that could offer a fully-flat bed or a true premium cabin; to be expected during such a peak school holiday season. Any seats that any of Qantas or it’s partner airlines released would have been snapped up pretty quickly I’d imagine, but the Star-class is still a great option to do it in relative comfort on the cheap compared to a cash-fare during peak season.
Hope that helps!
Hi Jimmy Mcpoints. Thanks for the reply! Is there any way to, say, pay cash and points mixed for a Singapore Airlines flight? I’m looking at 20/01/18 to 03/02/18. Is there a calculator on their site to help with this as I cannot locate one…
I do this trip flying Singapore Airlines around 4 times a year in business class using points.
From memory 1 Amex explore credit card is worth .75 points so you’d have 75,0000 krsflyer miles ( Singapore Airline Miles ) assuming you don’t accumulate any more points.
business is 58,000 points from Melbourne to HCM one way or 116,000 return.
i would suggest one of the following:
option 1: fly business class one way and economy using points.
Total required 83,000 krisflyer Miles
( assuming you do a bit of spending between now and when you fly )
Option 2
Singapore Airlines offers the option to use Miles and then top up the remainder using cash.
So if you have 75,000 krisflyer Miles and want to fly business return ( 116,000 Miles ) then you can pay the remaining points required using cash. Note this is not great value. I would suggest against this unless your 5000 Miles or less short of what is required.
Asian miles is another good FF program however there Miles calculator can be misleading until you have the Miles in the account and then go to checkout.
My advice would would to get the Singapore Airlines app and sign up for free to their KRISFLYER PROGRAM and look at the options available. It’s very easy to use straight forward.
Jetstar (don’t laugh) fly direct on a daytime Dreamliner flight. Fares are usually cheap in both J and Y. I’d take that, save your points for the trip back, where connecting on a real airline at a time of your choosing is probably preferable to the Jetstar red-eye where fares (at least in J) are usually not cheap.