People often ask us why we bother with Avios when we live in Singapore. If you’ve never heard of them Avios points are the ‘currency’ of the British Airways frequent flyer program ‘Executive Club’ and also Aer Lingus ‘AerClub’, Iberia ‘Plus’ and Vueling ‘Club’ which are part of the same airline group.
Article Updated: 7th March 2019
Even more confusing then when we tell people we almost never use Avios to redeem flights on British Airways (with the exception of our recent First Class redemption from London to Washington). That does make it seem a peculiar scheme to be wedded to in this part of the world but we always maintain a healthy Avios balance and here are some of the reasons.
- British Airways has an excellent online search tool to help you search for and book award seats on all oneworld airlines.
- One-way redemptions are permitted using Avios, even with oneworld and partner airlines.
- Avios points never expire, provided you have earned or redeemed at least 1 Avios point in the last three years your entire balance will stay ‘alive’.
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Cathay Pacific Intra-Asia redemptions
Cathay Pacific operate an extensive network of flights within Asia, including two non-stop destinations from Singapore.
Example Redemptions
Singapore (SIN) to Bangkok (BKK) 19th July (Economy)
- CX712 (A351) Dep 13:25 (Duration 02:35)
- Cash Cost: S$239.80
- Avios: 7,500 + £42.30 (S$76.40)
- Value per point: 2.2 Singapore cents
- KrisFlyer / SQ Cost: 12,500 miles + S$49.50
Singapore (SIN) to Bangkok (BKK) 19th July (Business)
- CX712 (A351) Dep 13:25 (Duration 02:35)
- Cash Cost: S$661.80
- Avios: 15,000 + £42.30 (S$76.40)
- Value per point: 3.9 Singapore cents
- KrisFlyer / SQ Cost: 21,500 miles* + S$49.50
* Updated to 2019 redemption rate
Singapore (SIN) to Hong Kong (HKG) 12th September (Economy)
- CX652 (A351) Dep 12:55 (Duration 04:10)
- Cash Cost: S$290.90
- Avios: 10,000 + £40.30 (S$72.70)
- Value per point: 2.2 Singapore cents
- KrisFlyer / SQ Cost: 15,000 miles + S$47.30
Singapore (SIN) to Hong Kong (HKG) 12th September (Business)
- CX652 (A351) Dep 12:55 (Duration 04:10)
- Cash Cost: S$1,213.90
- Avios: 20,000 + £40.30 (S$72.70)
- Value per point: 5.7 Singapore cents
- KrisFlyer / SQ Cost: 30,500 miles* + S$47.30
* Updated to 2019 redemption rate
There are plenty of other good value Avios redemptions in the region on Cathay Pacific, like Hong Kong to Taipei for 4,500 Avios (Economy), 6,750 Avios (Premium Economy) or 9,000 Avios (Business).
Redeeming the same route on EVA Air using KrisFlyer would cost 10,000 miles (Economy) or 20,000 miles (Business), more than double the Avios levels.
The Wing and The Pier First lounges for 6,650 Avios
Avios might be your cheapest way to access Cathay Pacific’s fantastic Hong Kong First Class lounges – a redemption on Hong Kong to Taipei with Cathay Pacific in First Class will set you back 18,000 Avios + £41.60.
Alternatively if you’re short of points you can take advantage of one of the ‘part pay with Avios’ options and redeem this flight from as little as 6,650 Avios + £176.60.
Given you can spend hours in the fantastic ‘The Wing’ and ‘The Pier’ First Class lounges in Hong Kong on this redemption, including private cabanas, spa treatments, Champagne, cocktails and a la carte dining, you might well justify this cost.
See our reviews of Cathay Pacific’s First Class lounges in Hong Kong:
Remember you are also getting a 2-hour flight in Cathay Pacific’s excellent First Class seat for this price as well. Cathay is charging S$1,520 for this one-way flight to Taipei in First.
That means 8 cents per Avios point for the 18,000 Avios option, and an insane 18 cents per point for the 6,650 Avios option, assuming you’d be willing to part with the standard First Class ticket cost from Hong Kong to Taipei.
Japan Airlines domestic flights
Travelling around Japan isn’t usually a cheap affair, even using their ultra high-speed train network. While there are a few low-cost airlines their cheapest fares usually sell out quickly and prices can therefore be high especially at short notice.
Here’s where using Avios points on Japan Airlines comes in. For just 4,500 Avios for shorter flights and 7,500 for longer sectors you can redeem a one-way economy ticket on JAL using Avios. For most of these flights there are literally no taxes or fees payable, and for some others a very small ‘airport usage fee’ of around S$5.
That means as little as 4,500 Avios can save you hundreds of dollars compared with buying firm tickets on these routes.
No Taxes Means No Refund Fee
Another perk of these tickets is that they are issued by British Airways, so you are subject to the BA cancellation policy, not JALs. That’s pretty simple for most award flights – a refund fee of £35 (S$63) applies. However a little-known perk, which wouldn’t normally be of interest, this fee is capped at the taxes paid on the ticket.
Since you are paying little or no taxes on these routes, the refund is basically free. Remember of course the other important BA policy still applies, you won’t get a refund of the Avios used if you cancel less than 24 hours prior to departure (so don’t do that).
There is absolutely no harm in having a few of these domestic JAL redemptions up your sleeve as a backup plan for your trip since they will cost you nothing to refund, provided you remember to do so at least 24 hours before departure, so as not to lose the Avios points themselves.
Example Redemptions
Fukuoka (FUK) to Tokyo (HND) 2nd August 2018
- JL308 Dep 10:00 (Duration 01:40)
- Cash Cost: S$274.10
- Avios: 4,500 + £2.00 (S$3.60)
- Value per point: 6.0 Singapore cents
Tokyo (HND) to Osaka (KIX) 22nd July 2018
- JL225 Dep 13:00 (Duration 01:20)
- Cash Cost: S$175.80
- Avios: 4,500 + £2.00 (S$3.60)
- Value per point: 3.8 Singapore cents
Fukuoka (FUK) to Sapporo (CTS) 13th August 2018
- JL3512 Dep 14:10 (Duration 02:20)
- Cash Cost: S$408.40
- Avios: 7,500 + £0.00
- Value per point: 5.4 Singapore cents
Tokyo (HND) to Okinawa (OKA) 26th July 2018
- JL991 Dep 06:10 (Duration 02:25)
- Cash Cost: S$441.40
- Avios: 7,500 + £2.00 (S$3.60)
- Value per point: 5.8 Singapore cents
Generally we value Avios points at a similar level to KrisFlyer miles – around 2 Singapore cents each. As you can see in all these examples you’re getting outsized value for your Avios on JAL domestic flights.
A Snag
Here’s a snag when you try to book JAL domestic redemption tickets through the BA website. It’s programmed to always charge you the taxes via credit card payment on top of your Avios, in the same way the KrisFlyer site will charge you for the taxes there and then when you book a redemption ticket using miles.
The problem here is when you choose a city pair where no airport fee exists. Since there are no taxes levied on domestic flights in Japan the redemption is literally displayed as 4,500 Avios + £0.00 or 7,500 Avios + £0.00 in these cases, but the site is still programmed to charge you for the taxes. It will then generate an error at the payment page preventing you from ticketing the itinerary.
You can get around this by adding a charity donation of £1.00 when booking. If you call BA to book they apparently cannot issue an e-ticket for the routing, insist on a paper ticket (a what?), then charge you the offline service fee for the trouble! Not a method you should go down when adding a simple £1 charity donation will fix the issue and allow the booking to be made wholly online.
How about ANA using KrisFlyer?
Redeeming KrisFlyer miles for domestic flights with Star Alliance carrier ANA is a much poorer value proposition than using Avios to redeem on JAL. Largely this is because Japan is ‘lumped in’ with all the other ‘North Asia 2’ region countries (including China and South Korea for example) in the Star Alliance award chart, so all domestic redemptions fall into the same intra-region award rate of 12,500 KrisFlyer miles one-way in Economy Class.
That’s very expensive compared with 4,500 Avios (66% less) for a short domestic sector or 7,500 Avios (40% less) for a long domestic sector on JAL.
Another issue with using KrisFlyer miles for domestic redemptions in Japan is that they cannot be booked online, you must call to make the booking over the phone.
If you are looking at a domestic flight redemption within Japan therefore and you have both an Avios and KrisFlyer balance you can clearly see how much better value the Avios/JAL method is, not to mention how much easier it will be to book.
Qantas domestic and Trans Tasman flights
Redeeming Qantas domestic flights within Australia and between Australia and New Zealand using Avios is often a very good value redemption costing a lot less for most routes than you would pay in Qantas Frequent Flyer miles, or with KrisFlyer miles on Virgin Australia.
Since Qantas is a oneworld partner and the BA website allows you to easily search oneworld redemptions, you’d think it would be a walk in the park to search and book these seats from the comfort of your laptop.
Well for Qantas flights it is simple – but a large number of Qantas-branded services across Australia are operated by their regional subsidiary QantasLink. While you can redeem Avios on these routes they will not show up on the search results through the BA site meaning you’ll have to call to redeem.
Ideally you should find award space first using either the Qantas Frequent Flyer page (search ‘Classic Awards’) or through the American Airlines site which also shows these services. The BA phone agent should then be able to see and access this award space for you.
Remember to ensure the phone agent waives the offline service fee since the booking cannot be made online.
Example Redemptions
In most cases it’s a Business Class award which will get you the best value from your Avios points flying domestically and Trans Tasman with Qantas, but that’s not to say Economy is always a bad deal.
Where available we’ve also shown a comparison on the same routes using KrisFlyer miles to fly with Air New Zealand (ANZ) or Virgin Australia (VA). As you’ll see in all cases using Avios to fly Qantas is a lower rate, with KrisFlyer requiring up to 80% more miles on some routes.
Brisbane (BNE) to Melbourne (MEL) 26th July 2018 (Economy)
- QF635 (B738) Dep 18:00 (Duration 02:25)
- Cash Cost: S$268.20
- Avios: 7,500 + £10.50 (S$18.90)
- Value per point: 3.3 Singapore cents
- KrisFlyer / VA Cost: 11,000 miles + S$29.30
Brisbane (BNE) to Melbourne (MEL) 26th July 2018 (Business)
- QF635 (B789) Dep 07:00 (Duration 02:25)
- Cash Cost: S$1,103.30
- Avios: 15,000 + £10.50 (S$18.90)
- Value per point: 7.2 Singapore cents
- KrisFlyer / VA Cost: 21,000 miles + S$29.30
Sydney (SYD) to Auckland (AKL) 8th August (Economy)
- QF143 (A330) Dep 09:45 (Duration 03:05)
- Cash Cost: S$299.50
- Avios: 10,000 + £67.90 (S$122.50)
- Value per point: 1.8 Singapore cents
- KrisFlyer / ANZ Cost: 12,500 miles + S$123.20
- KrisFlyer / VA Cost: 18,000 miles + S$123.20
Sydney (SYD) to Auckland (AKL) 8th August (Business)
- QF149 (A330) Dep 18:30 (Duration 03:00)
- Cash Cost: S$970.00
- Avios: 20,000 + £67.90 (S$122.50)
- Value per point: 4.2 Singapore cents
- KrisFlyer / ANZ Cost: 28,000 miles + S$123.20
- KrisFlyer / VA Cost: 35,000 miles + S$123.20
Sydney (SYD) to Perth (PER) 12th September (Economy)
- QF581 (A330) Dep 10:25 (Duration 05:05)
- Cash Cost: S$351.10
- Avios: 12,500 + £13.10 (S$23.60)
- Value per point: 2.6 Singapore cents
- KrisFlyer / VA Cost: 20,000 miles + S$19.90
Sydney (SYD) to Perth (PER) 12th September (Business)
- QF575 (A330) Dep 08:25 (Duration 05:05)
- Cash Cost: S$2,443.70
- Avios: 37,500 + £13.10 (S$23.60)
- Value per point: 6.5 Singapore cents
- KrisFlyer / VA Cost: 40,000 miles + S$19.90
Other Asia Pacific Avios redemptions from Singapore
Here are a few other Avios redemptions from Singapore which look like good value compared with the KrisFlyer rates applicable on the same route. A KrisFlyer saver redemption is assumed in each case.
- Japan Airlines Economy SIN-HND 20,000 Avios (KrisFlyer 25,000 miles)
- Malaysia Airlines Economy SIN-KUL 4,500 Avios (KrisFlyer 7,500 miles)
- Malaysia Airlines Business SIN-KUL 9,000 Avios (KrisFlyer 19,000 miles*)
- Qantas Economy SIN-PER 12,500 Avios (KrisFlyer 20,000 miles)
- Qantas Economy SIN-SYD/MEL/BNE 20,000 Avios (KrisFlyer 28,000 miles)
- Sri Lankan Economy SIN-CMB 10,000 Avios (KrisFlyer 18,500 miles)
* Updated to 2019 redemption rate
Earning Avios in Singapore
It’s much easier to accrue KrisFlyer miles and Asia miles in Singapore than it is Avios points, with most major credit cards allowing you to transfer points into both of the former schemes. There are some exceptions though.
Citi
You can transfer Citi Miles from the Citi PremierMiles card 1:1 into Avios, or Citi Dollars from the Citi Prestige card or Citi Rewards card at 2.5:1. These are the same conversion ratios as you’ll get for transferring into KrisFlyer.
This is the primary way we usually top up our Avios balance.
Successful sign-ups for Citi cards pay MainlyMiles an affiliate commission.
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Amex Rewards
The American Express Rewards card is not a very exciting product, however it does currently come with an 11,666 miles sign-up bonus (subject to a minimum spend of S$500 per month in the first 3 months).
The principal benefit is the wide range of airline frequent flyer schemes you can transfer your Amex Membership Rewards points into, which include British Airways Avios and Emirates Skywards.
Note that you’ll only get the sign-up bonus for this card if you don’t already hold another Amex credit card in Singapore, and haven’t held one before.
SPG / Marriott
This hotel loyalty scheme is up for some change this year with a full merger and re-branding, however you can currently transfer SPG Starpoints 1:1 into Avios (with a 5,000 points bonus for each block of 20,000 Starpoints converted).
This will still be the case in the (as yet unnamed) new scheme, with a 1:1 Avios ratio and every block of 60,000 points (20,000 Starpoints equivalent) transferring with a 15,000 points (5,000 Starpoints equivalent) bonus.
Kaligo / Rocketmiles
We’ve done an overview of the Kaligo hotel booking site before, but here you can credit to Avios points for your bookings. Remember though that if you have a Citi PremierMiles, Prestige or ULTIMA card you’ll probably achieve a better rate crediting points to those schemes first, then onto Avios if you choose later.
Rocketmiles also allows points crediting to Avios for hotel bookings.
Mileslife
Mileslife allows you to earn extra miles on top of those you’d usually receive from your credit card spending when you use their app to make payment at a variety of merchants, primarily geared towards dining outlets in Singapore.
You can transfer these additional miles into a variety of frequent flyer programs including British Airways Avios points.
Avios is also one of the Mileslife partner frequent flyer schemes you can ‘purchase’ additional miles with during your transactions using their new ‘Miles Up!’ facility.
We did an overview of ‘Miles Up!’ recently however, and concluded it’s not worth using unless you’re desperate to top up by a small volume quickly to achieve a redemption, as it involves ‘buying’ miles at an eye-watering 3.15 Singapore cents each.
If you’re new to Mileslife and are a DBS cardholder sign up using their promotion to receive a 1,500 miles bonus – just download the app and use code 1500MILESDBS. If you’re not a DBS cardholder feel free to use our promotion code MAINLYMILES to get a 1,000 miles bonus.
Successful sign-ups for Mileslife pay MainlyMiles an affiliate commission.
On oneworld and BA partner airline flights
If you’re flying on a paid ticket with British Airways, a oneworld airline or selected partner carriers you can credit the miles earned for your flight to Avios.
See our article on where to credit miles for information on a useful tool to assist when deciding which program to credit paid flight tickets to.
Buy Avios promotions
There are regular offers for purchasing Avios points at a discount directly from British Airways or Iberia, and sometimes through other avenues like Groupon and Kaligo offers.
Note 8th July 2018: You must have at least 1 Avios point in your account to be eligible to buy additional Avios, effectively meaning you must have earned or transferred in at least 1 point. You won’t be able to simply sign-up for a new account and buy Avios straight away.
A Mileslife transaction is probably your quickest way to achieve a small balance (2-3 days transfer time). Thanks to Ken in the comments section for spotting this.
You should be looking to pay no more than 2 Singapore cents per point if you are planning to do this to top up your balance. Keep an eye on the Head for Points site where nearly all of these ‘buy Avios’ offers are featured.
Summary
Avios is one of the less commonly held points balances in Asia but if you tend to earn enough on the KrisFlyer side there are some clear advantages to also having a decent number of Avios on standby for one of these good value redemptions in the region.
Indeed if you’ve been racking up Citi Rewards as part of the Apple Pay up to 8 miles per dollar promotion (see here for details) you might well consider setting up a BA Executive Club account and moving some of those points into Avios to take advantage of these good value redemptions.
As you can see you don’t necessarily need a large Avios balance to secure some good deals.
Do you know some other good ways to earn or use Avios points in Asia? Let us know in the comments section.
(Cover Photo: Airbus)
Wow! Another excellent piece, Andrew, keep ‘em comin’!
Never, until now, did I ever want to or imagined myself signing up for BA FFP!
I’ve looked, but don’t seem to see any current BA Avios Miles on promo at moment.. Do you know of any promos going on now? Iberia seems to be running one at 45% extra bonus miles on purchase, but don’t know how easy or difficult it is to transfer over from Iberia to BA..?
I’ve also discovered that on BA Executíve Club site, when I looked into “buying Avios Miles”, I got an error message that told me that “in order to buy any Avios Miles I first need to have at least 1 Avios Mile in my account”..
It looks like my next Mileslife credit will go to BA Executive Club..
Hi Ken,
Thanks for the heads-up about needing to have earned or transferred at least 1 Avios to the scheme to be eligible to buy, this is something I didn’t know (or had long forgotten)! The article has been amended with a note about this.
The last miles purchase promo directly with BA was in late April / early May this year (50% bonus on purchased miles). At the top end that meant buying Avios for 1.9 Singapore cents each, which is quite a good rate in our opinion. The current Iberia offer is slightly more expensive at about 2.0 cents each. Bear in mind you’ll take a slight forex hit too when paying in Euros or £ with a Singapore credit card.
While you can usually transfer Avios between Iberia and BA I believe this feature is currently suspended following a huge number of people taking up a 90,000 Avios Iberia offer, so it may not be the best move to take part in an Iberia sale at the moment until the ability to transfer is clear again. Having the Avios in Iberia is not ideal as partner redemptions must be booked as return trips (no one-ways) and the search functionality is much poorer than ba.com
Hey Andrew..
I’ve also found out that Avios Miles don’t expire so long as there has been at least 1 Avios Mile transacted (redeemed, moved, bought) within 36 months, which is brilliantly fair too!
What I haven’t been able to find and hope you can help point the way.. Are there redemption charts (Y, J and F) for use of Avios Miles on JAL n CX..?
My BA Executíve Club account has been updated and I’m now just waiting to drop a token number of miles into the account and waiting for the next Avios buy promo! I’m so excited about this ‘discovery’ I’m liable to pee in my pants! Ha!
Have I mentioned this is another AWESOME write up?? I’ve actually just bought JP domestic tickets at S$342 Return, so using this hack would really translate to real and substantial savings!
Thanks Andrew! 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Thanks Ken glad it’s of use. As far as I know therve are no specific redemption ‘charts’ published for Avios partner redemptions. There appears to be a different rate for each partner airline based on routing / distance, a little like the Virgin Australia separate redemption chart for using KrisFlyer (but each oneworld carrier under Avios would have their own chart, which would be a lot of work to publish).
You can get a quote for miles needed under Avios either by making a dummy booking or via their redemption calculator tool which is mostly accurate (for non-stop routings) including the taxes payable.
Agree that if you can wind those Japan domestic cash tickets down to 4,500 / 7,500 Avios it’s a great deal.
For some unknown reason, their redemption calculator tool didn’t want to work for any of the intra-Japan flights (error message) when I attempted with a combination of FUK, KIX, NRT, HND and CTS.. making a dummy booking works fine.. it tells you how many miles are needed.. not presented as nice and neat as with calculator tool, but it does the job…
$4 coffee @ 3x Mileslife done.. that means I’ll have 11 Miles more than the required.. excessive, I know.. but also a bit paiseh to ask if they’d sell me anything for 35 cents.. 🤣
Now, I’ll just PATIENTLY wait for the next BA Avios buy-promo……….
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet???
Yes I should have mentioned the redemption calculator isn’t 100% accurate and can’t generate a miles quote for some routes for whatever reason. A dummy booking will suffice in these cases.
We’ll be sure to keep an eye out for the next Avios sale or promotion open to Singapore-based travellers and do an article when it happens, now that we’ve promoted the benefits.
Hi Ken. Turns out you only had to wait 2 weeks! Will you be buying?
Hi Andrew!
Ha! Indeed!
Should I? Shouldn’t I? Should I? Shouldn’t I?
Maybe you can help me again here..
Honestly, the QF redemptions mean nothing to me because I’m not a fan of Australia so no plans to go there at all.. I’m also not seeing the same kind of ‘value’ as you are, for the CX redemptions, namely because I wouldn’t ordinarily pay for a venue J ticket to HKG, to me, the price deferential between J and Y (even at about S$1k return using this hack), I can survive the 3.5hr flight in Y.. the $ savings can go into many many bowls at Sister Wah.. haha..
This then just boils down to JL redemptions.. These, to me, are awesome value.. almost-return SIN>HND>BKK or KUL in J @ <S$600 or intra-Japan @ <S$60 are both fantastic.. I’m already looking forward to my JL flight, an airline I haven’t flown in over 30 years! Nothing wrong w JL, of course, I’ve just mostly flown SQ for its connectivity/convenience/frequency.. But, besides these two scenarios, and this is where I hope you can help, I’m just wondering if there are other scenarios ‘out of SIN’ where great value like the above two can be had? Is there a chart somewhere you know of? This would help greatly to determine if I should jump in or not and if I do, how many miles to buy and how I can maximize the use of them..
Many thanks in advance!
Hmmm… buy now with 45% bonus or wait for 50%..?? 😬
Hi Ken,
Depends how soon you think you might need the Avios. There will *probably* be a 50% bonus before the end of 2018 but who knows.
Also bear in mind some of the benefits of waiting for 50% might be offset by exchange rate variation (for better or worse) as you’ll always be buying Avios from BA in GB£
Ahh.. Good point on Forex rates.. thanks..
Don’t need the points now as I’ve already booked my JP domestic flights for this year’s end (sigh) and at moment I don’t see any need for Japan trip until Winter 2019/20.. some ways away..
Decisions decisions…
In that case given that you won’t use the Avios on Qantas and the Cathay / MH options are of less interest to you, I’d be inclined to wait for another sale later in the year if I were you. As you say – a 50% offer could come along. If I’m not mistaken the last 50% bonus was in April this year and before that there was one in November 2017.
If you’re lucky the ‘Brexit’ crisis may have deepened by then weakening the £ further for an even more favourable forex rate too (though to be clear – I’m no expert on either topic)!
Haha.. Thanks for everything, Andrew, as always, you’ve been a gem!
I actually generally don’t buy miles/points as for most cases, when I crunch the numbers, they don’t seem to add up.
Prior to me buying 30,000 SPG Points, the only two other situations where I’m buying miles are 1) Income Tax and 2) Overseas Transactions Fees.. but aside from these two situations, and when I were to add up my annual miles-earn-rate, it’s pretty good, translating to an even better value for my redemptions, so I’m happy..
To me, the motivation to buy miles, like in this case with BA Avios, is either the more than 50% savings off domestic JP fares, or J seats at less than Y prices..
How’s korea to Japan redemptions like on Avios? Sweet spot too?
Busan to Narita is 4,500 Avios + £23 on JAL.
Seoul (Gipmo) to Haneda is 7,500 Avios + £26
Both in Economy on JAL.
Thanks! I can find nrt to pus but can’t seen to find gmp airport as a drop down though from hnd…
Hi Andrew.. I’ve attempted a dummy booking and discovered that one is only able to book Y Redemption on JL Domestic, no option for J.. Did you know? Is this just w Avios or all partner redemptions? Do you know of another partner with good redemption rates that also permit J?
Thanks!
Oh.. BTW.. In the end I did buy SPG points, with the intention of converting them to BA Avios.. but something(s) happened along the way that prevented me from doing to transfer before the Marriott merger, and now the transfer rate isn’t as attractive so I left them as 90k Marriott Points.. I’ll see if at some point in future, a Bonus Transfer promo pops up somewhere, and will do a transfer then.. no immediate need for the miles so I’m ok to sit it out til something comes up.. Thanks again, tho.. still learning.. even when I thought I’ve got KF pretty much learnt.. I still managed to bungle with linking separate flights in order to make use of $100 Stopover.. but wound up paying US$200 per person in the process.. not as great a value then.. but I guess it’s all part of the learning process and I don’t think I be making that same mistake again.. ha!
Avios is offered almost monthly by Groupon Spain, of course for Iberia. You can transfer to BA by combining Avios. So far I have bought 3 * 2000 package for less than 2 cents per Avios.
Hi Freedom.. Thanks for the info.. Yes, I am aware of Groupon / Iberia buy promos.. but, honestly, I very seldom ‘buy miles’.. in fact, the one and only time I’ve bought miles/ points outright was the 60,000 SPG points… the only other times are IRAS on HSBC and Overseas Spend that attracts Fx fees..
What I was looking for, is actually if anyone knew about the possibility of redeeming J on JAL instead of just Y… even if for short haul, it doesn’t really matter a whole lot, except for bagge allowance..
I did not mean that you should buy Avios through Groupon Spain. What I try to say is that Avios can be purchased cheaply and easily, it is not worth transferring Marriott point to it. For example, if you would like to try Qatar’s Qsuite, you can transfer Marriott point to AAvantange miles instead for cheap redemption and low tax. The lowest AAvantage price is 1.72 US cents per mile, more than 2 SG cents per mile, certainly a better deal than Avios, which can be purchased less than 2 SG cents per point. Citi miles can transfer to Avios, too. With Citi PayAll, it is around 1 SG cent per point.
Ahhh! Got it!
Thanks, Freedom.. but no fear, I’m unlikely to be transferring my Marriott points to anything, unless there’s a good enough promo that incentivizes the transfer.. like the 1:3 Amex>Hilton promo.. where even at this ‘awesome’ rate, when I calculated, it’s still a little ‘less value’ than converting to airline miles.. but given I’ve got multiple ways of earning earning miles, and not nearly so for hotel points.. and given I’ve managed to get Diamond for 2019, and probably 2020.. what the heck.. I’ll save quite a pretty penny on rooms come 2019..
Cheers!
Is BA the best one world airline to credit your miles to ? Which are the other good options and how can you find out ? Check out each airline’s redemption chart ?
I’m gonna doing a long haul trip on JAL & American Airlines. And another one on Cathay. Hope you can advise me. Thank you!
It really does depend on your routing, so yes you have to examine the oneworld redemption charts of each program to determine the best option.
Avios are good value for routings up to around 2,000 miles, above that routes to/from Asia Pacific can be better value using AAdvantage miles, but that’s just an example.
Hi Andrew. I am still confused after reading the redemption chart. Do you know how many avios points are required to redeem a CX first class flight from SG to HK?
40,000 Avios for SIN-HKG in F. Not the best value (SQ is 40,500 miles in F for the same routing).
Thanks Andrew. I have some 90k avios miles, still struggling to figure out how to use them effectively
The problem with that CX flight SIN-BKK is the lousy timing. I usually take a late flight out (TG/Jetstar/Scoot), going to the airport straight from work. And ditto, I take an early evening flight back from BKK. Taking the CX option means an extra day of leave sin-bkk and the loss of at least half a day in BKK on the return leg. The opportunity cost of that leave time outweighs any potential savings from the miles, in my opinion. I appreciate it might work well for others with more flexible timetables.
Yes definitely agree with you, a single flight per day on a route is very restrictive and will only suit some people.
SIN-HKG is better with lots of different timings through the day, better lounges at both ends and 20,000 Avios each way (SQ wants 30,500 KF miles for this route).
Hi. I do not know you have any experience of using Avios points through BA.com to book CX flight from BKK back to Singapore. Greatly appreciated if you can share.
Yes you can search availability and book these flights online using the BA Avios search.
Seems like can no longer earn Avios with Mileslife. Not sure it’s just a glitch or permanent.
Yes Mileslife states this is “temporarily unavailable”. Let’s hope it comes back as it’s an ideal way to keep your Avios account and points balance ‘alive’ via a small earnings amount.
May I know how do you pay for JAL redemption with avios in GBP? When I searched, system quotes in SHD and amount is higher than what you show on your blog?
My Avios account is UK based using my UK address which is probably causing the difference.