We are looking to go to Phang Nga Bay while we’re in Phuket also, so it’s great to know you guys enjoyed that. Surprisingly, DH tells me he’d rather do a 18.5hr straight shot flight, then split it up with layovers, so I’ll have to look more into transferring points to Singapore Airways and the points cost. Thanks so much for the info! At least I know there’s another option to add into the equation now
Just happened to see this hence why typing this 3 weeks after your post... But I generally feel that redeeming premium economy flights with Singapore airlines is not the best use of Krisflyer miles, unless you are redeeming in circumstances (e.g. peak times or last minute) when the cost of the flight is much higher than it would be normally.
For context, I live in Singapore, the main mileage programme I use is Singapore airlines Krisflyer, and I seem to have gone deep into the credit card points / Krisflyer miles / redemption rabbit hole... And am flying SIN-JFK-MCO-EWR-SIN later this year (on premium economy for the SIN-NYC-SIN legs) so had a look into redeeming vs buying the SIN-NYC-SIN flights when I was booking this trip.
To do the math using the Singapore/New York route and premium economy:
Redeeming flights:
80.5k miles each way + tax, or 161k miles return + tax (S$96.80 or US$71.90 for return)
Buying flights with cash:
Goes as low as S$1710 SIN-NYC-SIN return or US$1360 NYC-SIN-NYC return. This assumes it is off-peak though, someone I know says they paid more than twice this to travel fairly last minute in peak season last year.
The lowest category you can book is "premium economy lite", which earns 9.5k miles each way or 19k miles return (for Krisflyer - may credit differently for other airline programmes, but Singapore airlines is Star Alliance so should be able to get some credit for Star Alliance airlines like United, and Singapore airlines also partners with Jetblue and Alaska... I've done the reverse where I've earned Krisflyer miles from flying with United/Alaska in the past, and should be earning Krisflyer miles from flying with Jetblue on my upcoming trip).
Comparing the two, and if my math isn't wrong:
Buying the flights works out to S$1613 or US$1288 more in cash price than a redemption flight, while earning 19k miles
Since a redemption flight costs 161k miles but doesn't earn any miles, effectively you would be 180k miles worse off than if the flight was paid for in cash.
This means that 180k miles translates to S$1613 (0.9 Singapore cents/mile) or US$1288 of value, which is way below my personal valuation of a Krisflyer mile. I value my miles at approx 1.5-2 Singapore cents each, so 180k miles would be worth approx S$2700-3600 to me. And for further context I recently redeemed other flights (business) on Singapore airlines where I spent just over 100k miles (+tax) for flights that would have cost me around $3-4.5k with cash, or a value of approx 3-4.5 Singapore cents/mile...
This redemption might however make sense if it was for a peak period in time with flights going for much higher than S$1710/US$1360 return! And Singapore airlines runs "spontaneous escapes" offers that occasionally include the SIN-NYC flights where you can redeem flights for less than the usual redemption cost, which would improve the value cost for redeeming flights.
So it does depend on a lot of factors! But just typing all this out in case it is helpful... and I guess I just wanted to say it's definitely worth doing the math to see whether a redemption or just buying the ticket makes more sense for premium economy on this particular route.
In the past year they have been checking it often, but it's now grown and she needs to start radiation in a few weeks. She said it'll only be 3 weeks and she'll be done before March. But I can't help but feel like this is just another sign to cancel again
