Top Tips in maximising Frequent Flyer miles

The Basics of Frequent Flying

  • Use an airline figuring most often in your travel plans, especially Star Alliance or One World members.
  • Avoid those where you can’t redeem over Black out periods, e.g. over New Year.
  • Watch for online discounts (Singapore Airlines has an incredible 15%)

Beyond the basics

  • Choose the credit card with the most miles & pay for everything with it (e.g. utilities)
  • Is excess spend available for future use? Yes, for Singapore Air.
  • Your main airline usually allows credits on other airlines it owns, so use this.
  • Use Kaligo & Rocketmiles with great airline credits for hotel bookings
  • Don’t let your miles expire.
  • Some Budget carriers have just started an alliance (U-Fly in Asia)
  • Convert points you get from frequent usage from petrol pumps etc into miles.
  • Join the program with any airline you fly, you may start using them often.

I joined the Singapore Airlines Krisflyer program when I moved to Singapore & have never looked back. It hits all the buttons in my top tips.

Bang for the Frequent Flyer Miles Buck – Singapore Air vs Qatar Airways

Today I compared how much one needs to spend to get a free Singapore-London return economy flight using miles. The base was buying tickets on night flights from each location on same dates. On Singapore Air you spend U$8840, on Qatar U$9328 and takes 3-4 hours longer due to the Doha transit (v good from my experience, even with kids).

There are many factors in arriving at this. The 2 key things are each Qatar ticket cost less than Singapore Air, but Qatar needs more miles to get a free ticket than Singapore Air, so you need to buy more tickets to get enough points. If you fly often, Singapore Air is better. Else better to save a bit and fly Qatar.

Go Forth and Frequent Flyer “Mile-Up”!