You can now redeem Qantas Points for Bangkok Airways flights

Australian airline Qantas has announced a new partnership with Thailand’s boutique carrier Bangkok Airways, expanding its longstanding codeshare arrangement to a full frequent flyer partnership, which now allows Qantas Frequent Flyer members to redeem points for Bangkok Airways flights.

This is another useful option for Singapore-based travellers trying to avoid high fares on Bangkok Airways’ daily flights between Changi and the popular holiday resort island of Koh Samui, a non-stop route on which the carrier now has a monopoly, since SilkAir ended services there.

Bangkok Airways award space is also loaded onto the Qantas Frequent Flyer portal, with online booking functionality, so even if you’re planning to use an alternative programme to secure tickets, like Asia Miles, this should be a useful indication of which flights have award availability in advance of having to call.

Singapore – Koh Samui schedule

Bangkok Airways currently operates non-stop Singapore – Koh Samui flights on a daily basis, with evening service in both directions.

1st November 2022 – 30th November 2022

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	PG962 A319
SIN 20:10		USM 21:15
	PG961 A319
USM 16:25		SIN 19:20

From 1st December 2022, Bangkok Airways is restoring pre-COVID frequencies on its Singapore – Koh Samui route, with the addition of its PG968/963 flights, operating daily in addition to the current services but three hours earlier.

1st December 2022 – 25th March 2023

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	PG968 A319
SIN 17:10		USM 18:15
	PG962 A319
SIN 20:10		USM 21:15
	PG963 A319
USM 13:25		SIN 16:20
	PG961 A319
USM 16:25		SIN 19:20

These extra flights offer a nicer arrival schedule into Koh Samui, which should see you at your hotel in time for dinner, while the lunchtime departure from Koh Samui to Singapore may be ideal for those who need to check out of their accommodation by midday and simply want to head home.

Qantas award rates

You can now use your Qantas Points to redeem on all Bangkok Airways routes, but here are the rates between Singapore and Koh Samui that we’re focusing on in this article.

Singapore – Koh Samui Award Rates
on Bangkok Airways

You can transfer credit card points accrued in Singapore from American Express, Citi, DBS and Standard Chartered into Qantas Points.

Fares on this popular route can reach S$1,200+ for a return trip at the moment, but here’s an example for a pair of flights next month which is also redeemable using Qantas Points.

In total, you’ll part with 28,000 Qantas Points + S$91 when redeeming this flight through Qantas Frequent Flyer, so your net saving is S$496 (S$587 – S$91).

That values your Qantas Points at 1.77 cents each when used to redeem this itinerary, a decent value per mile for Economy Class travel.

Here’s the full route map for Bangkok Airways as of November 2022, all of which you can now access with Qantas Frequent Flyer points at these Classic Reward rates, with some routes (like Bangkok to Krabi) available for 10,000 points.

It’s worth noting that Bangkok Airways is a full-service airline, meaning their economy fares, including award seats, come with checked baggage and on-board catering thrown in.

We’ve flown with the airline before on the Koh Samui route and you can see why it has a great reputation for service – this certainly isn’t to be confused with your average low-cost carrier like Scoot or AirAsia!

Other FFPs

Aside from this new option of using the Qantas loyalty scheme, you can redeem Economy Class award seats on Bangkok Airways flights between Singapore and Koh Samui with the following frequent flyer programmes (one-way miles rates shown):

• Air France/KLM Flying Blue: 10,000 miles
• Asia Miles: 10,000 miles
• Bangkok Airways FlyerBonus: 9,000 miles
• British Airways Executive Club: 15,000 miles (via Qatar Privilege Club)
• Etihad Guest: 15,000 miles
• Emirates Skywards: 14,000 miles
• JAL Mileage Bank: 12,000 miles
• Qatar Privilege Club: 15,000 miles

As you can see some of these come out as more competitive options than Qantas Frequent Flyer, especially Asia Miles, which are widely held by our readers.

In the above example of a S$587 return trip also redeemable using miles, a total outlay of 20,000 Asia Miles (instead of 28,000 Qantas Points) + S$91 gives your Asia Miles a value of 2.48 cents each when used to redeem.

Online booking

The great thing about this new Qantas – Bangkok Airways award partnership is that you can search availability and book online via the Qantas website, which isn’t possible using most other FFPs.

As you can see, on this date I tried for travel in January 2023, both Bangkok Airways flights from Singapore to Koh Samui have at least two award seats available.

In fact apart from Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year periods, we found award availability to be quite good on this route, with almost every day of the week having at least two award seats available.

Theoretically, this should match the award space Bangkok Airways offers to other partner frequent flyer programmes, like Etihad Guest, Asia Miles and Emirates Skywards, if you’re actually looking to redeem those instead on this route.

That should save you time by allowing you to find the award seats you want before calling to redeem, since those programmes do not offer online search or booking functionality for Bangkok Airways services at the time of writing.

If you’re a Qantas Frequent Flyer member, you can now redeem 14,000 miles to fly from Singapore to Koh Samui on Bangkok Airways flights, potentially a great redemption given the sky-high fares on this route, with the airline now the sole operator of services.

Online search and booking is another great plus, which also allows you to scope out dates with award space available before calling up some other FFPs to book using alternative currencies too.

Speaking of different currencies, don’t forget that 14,000 Qantas Points each way actually isn’t the most competitive option on this route, with schemes like Asia Miles offering a cheaper redemption.

(Cover Photo: Nieuwland Photography / Shutterstock)