Singapore Airlines has opened the business-class award floodgates on its fifth-freedom flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Frankfurt Airport (FRA).
At the time of writing, there’s widespread business-class award space in February, March, early May, late September, November and December. On many of these dates, four or more business-class seats are available. This award space was first reported by View from the Wing.
Business-class award tickets on this flight cost 81,000 KrisFlyer miles with business saver space and 87,500 KrisFlyer miles on dates with advantage saver space. However, if you book by Jan. 31 and fly between Feb. 1 and 28, Singapore Airlines offers Spontaneous Escapes promotional pricing on this route. This drops award prices by 30% to just 56,700 KrisFlyer miles one-way.
Here’s what you need to know about this deal.
The deal
Airline: Singapore Airlines.
Route: JFK-FRA.
Cost: From 56,700 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles plus $5.60 taxes and fees one-way in business class.
Dates: February, March, early May, late September, November and December.
Pay taxes/fees with: The Platinum Card® from American Express (5 points per dollar on airfare booked directly with the airline, on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year), Chase Sapphire Reserve (3 points per dollar on travel) or Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (2 points per dollar on travel) for travel protections on the award flight.
Sample Itineraries
These flights have at least four available seats. There are plenty of other dates with award space, too. Here’s a preview.
New York to Frankfurt in February with Spontaneous Escape award pricing
New York to Singapore in March, May, September, November and December
Related: 7 takeaways from my 1st Singapore Airlines business-class experience
Earning the miles to book this award
Thankfully, it’s relatively easy to earn Singapore miles. You can transfer points or miles from American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One, Citi ThankYou and Chase Ultimate Rewards to Singapore KrisFlyer at a 1:1 transfer ratio. While transfers from Capital One to KrisFlyer are generally instantaneous, transfers from Amex, Citi and Chase may take up to 24 hours.
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Thankfully, you can call KrisFlyer to hold award seats while your credit card points transfer. This will lock in your award seats, so you won’t need to worry about disappearing inventory. KrisFlyer generally charges 25 Singapore dollars (about $20) or 2,500 miles to hold award seats.
Unfortunately, even though Singapore Airlines is a member of Star Alliance, it doesn’t release its long-haul business-class award space to most of its Star Alliance partners. That means you won’t be able to use currencies like United MileagePlus miles to book these award tickets. Recently, however, Singapore Airlines expanded its partnership with Air Canada Aeroplan, so you might find award space with Aeroplan on some dates.
Our tests only found scattered Aeroplan award space on the dates with saver KrisFlyer awards.
Whether you use KrisFlyer or Aeroplan to book your ticket, pay award taxes and fees with a card that earns bonus points on airfare and offers travel protections. Some cards that fit the bill include The Platinum Card from American Express, Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.
Related: It doesn’t get much better than this: Singapore Airlines’ A380 in business class from Frankfurt to New York
Bottom line
While Singapore Airlines has an aging business-class hard product that’s now 10 years old, the soft product (i.e., service, amenities and food) is still one of the best in the sky. In fact, when TPG reviewed Singapore Airlines’ A380 business class from Frankfurt to JFK last year, we were left saying, “It doesn’t get much better than this.” And with so much open award space, now’s your chance to try it for yourself.
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