What to do with 2.5 million Krisflyer miles?

[Gunners]

I would like to thank everyone on the interesting debate on how to accumulate Krisflyer points. There are clearly some entrepreneurial and creative people amongst us.

It is easy to collect points from business partners, credit cards usage, car/hotel partner programs and from employees etc.

The purpose of my question was to consider the most effective way of using Krisflyer Points and secondary whether it is a good idea to "disrupt" the airline business model.

It seems that the best value for money from any frequent user program is to be to use the points earned on the product of the specific program. The Krisflyer program seems to be skewed to promote the point end (business first) product. Notwithstanding economy class redemptions obviously use less points.

Therefore, from a value perspective it would seem logical to use points to buy airfares for members of a charity group under the nonimate a friend (limit of 5 per person) via redemption. I would like to know if "friend A" received some Krisflyer Points whether that friend A can then nominate another five friends within a charity group so that they can be used by a number of employees within a chairty. Charities could have some of the airfares paid for using points (they have to pay tax and airfuel)

Alternatively the ponts could be auctioned at a business function (eg business airfare return to Europe) and the proceeds donated to charity. Not sure on the legality and how many times a friend can be nominated.

I am not sure how many times you can change redepmtion nominees or whether points received from another Krisflyer member can be transferrred to other members.

I also have this dilemma. More Krisflyer or even Qantas points could easily be collected from business colleauges to used for charitable purposes.

However, if I became serious in collecting points and giving them to charities, this approach may be disruptive to the airline business model.

From reading other threads it would seem that that there is a limited amount of redemption inventory and a serious appoach to collecting points and providing them to charity for flights may be detrimental to the airline and other Krisflyer members. Also as I believe that the points system is set up so PAX can experience the ponty end. I am not sure if collecting points for charities would be a concern to SIA or not.

There could be legal implications. I must stress I love SIA and many of my employees and colleauges regularly fly with SIA. I do not wish to do anything that would upset our business relationship with the airline.

I guess I need to research these mattters more.

Thanks for your previous comments.

Gunners.

[pavion]

Or you could be the World's First Person to spend 882,000 miles on a one way flight from Australia to New York in First Class for the hell of it!

[jhm]

Trust me, it's not that easy.

It's not easy (or else we'd all be doing it) but not as impossible as some of the above posts in this thread seem to imply.

Personally, I'm not bothered like some of the obsessive compulsive BA miles collectors who (e.g.) in the past would go to the extreme of doing a tour of half a dozen local Tescos each morning (with the route programmed into their GPS units) so as to buy up the daily stock of boiled beef in each store for which there was a special offer (and then give away the beef or buy a freezer to hold it all to slowly eat up!).

However, I did once order for home delivery a total of about 200 mini bottles of cheap nasty wine where the cash cost was much less than the miles I obtained (due to a special promotion). And free delivery due to another special promotion. And kudos from others to whom I gave away the nasty wine!

[jhm]

I had heard a story thirteen years ago, from my first boss, a native of Philadelphia, that with that 'special' Platinum (or whatever else it was) AmEx he could buy anything - there was no limit at all.

You're probably talking about the Centurion card which is not that rare. And of course there's a limit even for that card but just that - as with all the Amex chargecards - Amex just don't openly tell you what it is. In any event, you can if you want for a big purchase pay in advance on to your card and then spend using it - Amex will be more than happy to take their X% percentage cut of the purchase price.

[N_Architect]

Just out of curiosity, can one actually buy a property with a credit card?

Properties are in general purchased through other means, and in many countries it is generally not possible to buy such an 'item' by using a credit card (I believe Greece is one of them and perhaps you would know if the same applies for The Republic of Korea).

Having said that though, I believe that the U.S. is a place where this is indeed possible. I had heard a story thirteen years ago, from my first boss, a native of Philadelphia, that with that 'special' Platinum (or whatever else it was) AmEx he could buy anything - there was no limit at all. For example it is not rare that such a card can be used to buy a car, for example.

I do not have such a card (yet!) but am sure there will be someone here in the boards who will know more on this, or even own such a card (of course whether they would like to talk about it is rightfully a different issue).

[phaleesy]

SQJunkie, you're such a detective.

[SQJunkie]

Carrying on with the doubtful speculation in this thread seems like sour grapes to me.

No need to speculate. Answer is here it would seem:

http://www.sqtalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9108

Like many other fans of SIA I have been collecting Krisflyer points through a variety of means including credit cards, flights, hotels and hire cars.

(Man Flyer, I'm surprised you missed that one. )

[lee_apromise]

Even at 3 years, with just 56,000 miles flown from June to January, what's he been buying, houses ?.

Just out of curiosity, can one actually buy a property with a credit card? If so, will they make you to pay some sort of surcharge? I have always wanted to know but could not find an answer for that.

[spw21]

This might be slightly OT but what is the ratio of spending:miles for the SQ Amex card? (For example SGD2:1 KF mile). If one can get over a million miles in 2-3 years, the ratio must be really good, or he/she's a big spender. (Not to step on anyone's toes here )

[phaleesy]

A $2.5 million expenditure is small change for some...

Carrying on with the doubtful speculation in this thread seems like sour grapes to me.

[SMK77]

I have accumulated just over 2.5 million Krisflyer Miles. Is it possible to donate the miles to charity so that can benefit a charity? Life is more about giving that carrying on about travelling in first class.

Gunnners

That's a great thought and I hope that you will be able to make this come true.

A word of warning though: Airlines turning miles into donations will apply a very very low value per mile - the airlines I know would give less then 1 US-Cent per mile to the charity and that doesn't feel right to me.

Unless you find a charity yourself that SQ authorizes to use the points, this will be difficult.

Best way to maximise the money for the charity is to find up to five nominees who can use miles for their own use and in return give the money to your desired charity.

[HUGE AL]

This thread just got good

hahahahaha I was skeptical...up until post #4.

[man, this j-keyboard is hard to type on!]

I don't know about KF miles but with other miles, it's easily possible to accumulate a few million in a few years with supermarket spend, churning by topping up prepay cards, paying taxes and other scheme current/in the past.

Trust me, it's not that easy.

[pavion]

There are also ways of earning through other cards such as the Citibank Premier Miles or DBS Altitude, where each one would require about 2million dollars in spending to get that many miles

[kapitan]

I just watch the George Clooney film during flight back last night, well, he earned 10 million miles... hahhaa

[Pinkfloyd]

Even at 3 years, with just 56,000 miles flown from June to January, what's he been buying, houses ?.

A leading stake in Imelda Marcos's Shoe Museum, perhaps?