SFO-SIN-MEL - Krisflyer Silver Q

[cocaman]

Hi folks!

(Thanks to the admin for activating my account!)

I am a student (16 years old) who will be flying from Singapore - Melbourne every 3 months from now due to my exit permit in Singapore.

I enrolled in Krisflyer since April 2010 and achieved my ES on March 2011 (Expires on April 2012)


I need someone to advise on how to plan my flights (since you people are the true-blue frequent flyers )

*I will be traveling on a return trip from YYZ-SIN this coming MAY. I have sent an email to Krisflyer to appeal for extension for my qualification period to be extended till May. Hope it works.

If I achieve my EG Status by May (considered to be within qualification period) - when will it expires? May 2012 ??


1) I have used all my 40 000 miles to redeem a YYZ-SFO-SIN-MEL flight (1 way with SQ on SFO-SIN-MEL) , is it worth it? (and 20 hours stopover in Singapore)

2) Okay, the problem lies here ... The following months are my travel dates between Singapore - Melbourne.

Jul - Oct (July is taken care of - from YYZ-MEL for redemption flight)

Oct - Nov

Jan - April

April - July


*I got 28 000 miles in my British Air Executive Club - I can redeem a ONE-WAY Award for the above trip.

Now - should I put my miles (May trip) to A3 Miles & Bonus or Krisflyer? I would prefer to have both elite gold and a redeemable flight. A3 to Australia requires a 40 000 miles as compared to SQ for 27 000 miles (One way award)

I also cancelled my UA YYZ-SFO flight (another ticket) and was given a credit of $250 plus after a $150USD deduction fee. UA don't fly to Aussie but Hong Kong/Japan.

If I put my 20 000 miles in A3 - I can redeem a return flight from HK-SIN for my mum and use the UA Credit to purchase a return flight from HK-SIN for myself.

If I put my 20 000 miles in Krisflyer - I can redeem a ONE-WAY SIN-MEL flight on SQ but I won't get EG (if assuming EG Appeal fail).

Any suggestion on how I should plan my future trips? (If miles to A3 - need to buy a total of 3 return air tickets , if miles to Krisflyer - need to buy a total of 2.5 air tickets)

I appreciate all comments on here and would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your sincere answer.


Cheers,

[willzzz88]

Actually UA/AC DO fly to Australia!

They fly DAILY SFO-SYD and LAX-SYD on the 744 with one of the 744's in addition makes a daily round-trip SYD-MEL while in Australia. Note that due to bilateral rights between Oz/US you CANNOT book the daily SYD-MEL sector separately and must be booked in addition to a trans-pacific flight (you must route SFO-SYD-MEL or LAX-SYD-MEL) on UA/*A or YVR-SYD-MEL I believe on AC/UA.

Air Canada ALSO files DAILY to Oz now with daily YVR (Vancouver)-SYD (Sydney) flights that start in YYZ (Toronto, same B77L actually, first part is domestic sector).

They also fly to SIN daily with the continuation of YYZ/YVR/YYC/SFO/LAX/ORD/IAD-NRT-SIN and/or YYZ/YVR/SFO/ORD-HKG-SIN. Note that there will be some scheduled aircraft swaps soon but you will be protected as long as you have booked. This is FAR LONGER as it routes via East Asia versus the non-stop North America West Coast/Australia/NZ non-stops that go south-west versus west THAN south.

The fastest way to Oz on UA/AC/*A from North America is either the following from YYZ:
YYZ-LAX/SFO-SYD-MEL on UA completely
YYZ-YVR-SYD-MEL on UA/AC.

Note that ONLY Qantas flies non-stop from MEL to North America with the LAX-MEL DAILY with 4 of them weekly being an A380 the rest a 744ER.

MEL is just too far from West Coast North America for a standard 744 to run full-payload and must run with a 777/A340/A380 or Qantas special 744ER they bought to run this sector.

You shouldn't have cancelled YYZ-SFO.

Though UA doesn't have PTV's on their 744's on their SFO/LAX-SYD/MEL sectors unfortunately.

If I were you I would just book Air Canada AC33 DAILY YYZ-YVR-SYD with UA SYD-MEL or buy a tag-on on QF or Jetstar or whatever LCC is in Oz at the moment.

Note that due to competition and increased tourism/BUSINESS between Oceania and North America the FLIGHTS NON-STOP between Oz and USA/Canada and REALLY FULL at the moment and the companies are charging SKY-HIGH fares (Like Air Canada's $1500-$2000 YYZ-YVR-SYD and AC is making good profits with the B77L DAILY now!).

You can also route via NZ with ANZ flying YVR-AKL 2x/weekly and SFO-AKL 5x/weekly (744) and LAX-AKL 2x daily (one of which continues on-to London via the Western hemisphere, aka USA/Canada).

The ONLY reason and the popularity of going the long way ALL the way to East Asia transiting to Oceania is because of CHEAPER FARES. Even though competition has increased on LAX/SFO/YVR-SYD/AKL/MEL/BNE non-stops it's still capacity constrained.

That's why QF is flying the A380 MEL/SYD-LAX non-stop and 4x weekly DFW-BNE-SYD (reverse is non-stop due to head-winds, this may switch to an A380 soon).

Los Angeles-Melbourne non-stop is 15 hours IIRC.

If you want the absolute FASTEST routing time-wise it would be with OneWorld QF/AA of YYZ-LAX-MEL and reverse.

If you want to skip the USA transfer and do direct Canada-Australia you can fly AC33/34 which runs YYZ-YVR-SYD daily and buy a separate or combined PNR on-to MEL. Or go via NZ and do YYZ-YVR-AKL-MEL. Your choice.

[willzzz88]

Finally if you REALLY want to break-up the journey over the Northern and Southern Pacific oceans you can fly Hawaii:
Hawaiian/ANZ/QF/Jetstar/AirCanada/WestJet/AA/UA/DL:
YVR/YYC-HNL from Canada
LAX/SFO/SAN/PDX/SEA/OAK/SJC-HNL

and then HNL-SYD or HNL-AKL.

That breaks it up into 8-9 hour chunks.

And maybe a 24hour layover in Hawaii enjoying the pacific sun!?

I know people who do that who can't handle the 12-14 hour (mostly 13-14) non-stops of SYD/MEL/BNE/AKL-LAX/SFO/YVR non-stops.

Due to head-winds in the pacific I've seen a recent Air Canada YVR-SYD (the south-ward pacific journey) go as long as 16 hours! (Scheduled 14.5 hours!). Yes the plane Air Canada and DL fly is amazing (B777-200LR, they can max out PAYLOAD on their West Coast North America/Australia non-stops!).

[willzzz88]

BTW has anyone been successful USING SQ miles on the West coast North America/Oceania non-stops run by the various airlines in *A?

I hear these flights are HARD to redeem versus going via East Asia due to the high-load-factors and the carriers would rather SELL the seats obviously...

Though you may get lucky in the low-season...

[Kyo]

Wow, that could have been a lot more readable with specific sections or something. Bit messy, but nonetheless, I found it useful. No mention of Virgin?

[willzzz88]

Sorry was a bit busy.

And also the newest comer on the route is V Australia, the international airline of Richard Branson's V America, V Aus, V Atlantic! And they codeshare!
England, Worldwide, Australia and the USA!

Former colonial Branson airline!

Anyways they fly the following with the B77W (777-300ER, 363 seats, see seating chart: http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/V_A...77-300ER.php):
SYD-LAX daily
BNE-LAX 4x/week
MEL-LAX 3x/week

Sorry so MEL-LAX is actually 10x/weekly now.

You should just check the travel agent's favourite website:
http://www.amadeus.net, click timetable on the first drop-down and you can view global time-tables of ALL airlines published in GDS.

[coffeeblack]

If I achieve my EG Status by May (considered to be within qualification period) - when will it expires? May 2012 ??

If memory serves it expires 1 year + 1 month from qualification. Therefore it'll expire June 2012 using your example. Correct me if I'm wrong...

[cocaman]

Hi folks!

Thanks for your replies!

I have redeemed my air ticket from YYZ - SF0 (SQ15) - SIN - MEL.

My main motive is to have a stopover of about 24 hours in Singapore (I'm a Singaporean studying overseas!)

In total it costs me 40,000miles for this whole one way trip.

Do you guys think I should 'upgrade' to business class???

I've got 21,1155 miles left in my KF*G Account.

Worth it to rebook a Biz class with my remaining 21155k miles and topup a few more miles??

Please advise!

*No wait - can you guys suggest a route that goes from YYZ - SIN - MEL? Prefer to have SQ Flight and better J class too a longer flight will be better

[SMK77]

You are a Singaporean that has to leave Singapore every three months due to an exit permit... Quite frankly: You would be the very first!

[cocaman]

HAHAHAHA! Very first for ? (Being a frequent flyer because of that and in Sqtalk? )

Nah, I've 2 Singaporean friends studying in the same school w me in Canada and they've got to fly back every 3 months too..

Just that they flew CX (which is cheaper too) while I fly Air Canada (and got a connection flight thru SQ - and that's when I got addicted to SQ )

I miscalculated man ! 40k+ 21 1155miles = 61k miles - still short of 19k miles to top up to business class..

Else I can use the 21 1155miles for one way flight from MEL-SIN..

Any suggestion if I should topup miles for biz or redeem for MEL-SIN ?

[SQflyergirl]

Dunno how youre going to get business saver on sq015 though ......

[cocaman]

ya that's not available

Unless I call Customer Service and ask for flights from London or something .. :S

[SQflyergirl]

ya that's not available

Unless I call Customer Service and ask for flights from London or something .. :S

London? Tell you what young man, do have a read up on Krisflyer, what can and cannot be done (there is a wealth of information right here on SQTalk) - I promise you everything you need to know is there if you look

[cocaman]

haha it's my honor to talk to the founder

Yupp, 777-300ER/A380 and the all biz metal is not available ..

A look at the Star Alliance Chart (N.America - S.W Pacific) costs 70k miles for single trip.

And by looking at e S.Alliance web - there are other airlines flights too..

Which one is not too bad? O.o - def not united though (:

[willzzz88]

Try to deem your miles on AC33/34 to SYD. Air Canada's 777's are all <5 years old with AVOD + pods like Delta, VS and ANZ.