A frenzy of First Class award booking has been going on over at Singapore Air. We are no stranger to the “book now, think later” approach to award booking. So of course we got in on the First Class Singapore Air award ticket booking using our United MileagePlus miles.
The frenzy was caused when KrisFlyer award availability was made available to Singapore Air’s partners including United and US Airways among others. Lucky pointed out this news last night, no doubt feeding the frenzy of First Class award bookings, including our own.
The Singapore Air First Class award is the culmination of years of United / Continental miles hoarding. We earned enough United MileagePlus miles over the last few years without setting foot on one of their planes. From the Chase Continental debit card a few years back, to the Hyatt 5,000 United Miles promotion a few years back, we’ve been hoarding through a variety of methods. Even with all of this hard work hoarding miles, we didn’t have enough miles for the First Class award.
The Singapore Air First Class award to the Maldives required 140,000 United miles per person. So we supplemented our United MileagePlus with an instant transfer of 80,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points we earned from the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Since Chase Ultimate Reward points transfer instantly to United at a 1:1 ratio, we were able to quickly move our 80,000 points to take advantage of this rare opportunity.
So when the opportunity presented itself today, we had to book our first, First Class award ticket on Singapore Air, and the results couldn’t be more exciting for us.
First Class Award Booking On Singapore
The first thing we did was determine where we wanted to go. This part was easy, we’ve always wanted to go to the Maldives, and this was our chance to ride in Singapore First class to Singapore an then in Business class to the Maldives from Singapore.
Next, we found availability that would work for our dates. For us it was a trip from San Francisco through Seoul (1 hour stop) to Singapore, then on to the Maldives. It is a little out of the way, but we are making the journey part of the experience. Not a bad experience in Singapore First Class for the entire journey.
Route Map To Maldives
Next, we priced out our tickets and booked on United’s website. We received a message indicating our tickets would be processed. Which is no guarantee since Singapore could decide to not honor the not yet ticketed award booking.
Within minutes we received a message from United that our reservation was ticketed.
It was a great sight to see our final itinerary booked with all routes on Singapore in First Class or Business Class on a two-cabin plane.
Bottom Line
We are very much looking to see how the other half lives with our Singapore Air First Class award ticket. Collecting miles and points is a fun game, and it is even more fun when you can finally redeem for an aspirational award you never thought you’d have a chance to book.
It was too hard to pass up using 280,000 United Miles to book two First Class awards on Singapore Airlines to the Maldives. The ironic thing is I fly Delta a majority of the time and rarely fly United but was able to book this award. The hardest part of the award booking will definitely be finding low availability in First Class on Delta to the west coast.
How many of you had a trip on Singapore that was too good to pass up?
Share your routing and booking class for a chance to win 1 of 5 sets of Points, Miles & Martinis cocktail napkins we are giving away to celebrate such a great day. These will come in handy for Singapore Slings, Krug champagne or any beverage of choice.
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The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
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When are you going? We booked more or less the same one way … With RDU-sfo to start. Going October. Didn’t have enough for round trip so coming back Ethad in f – not bad!!!!! Nice round the world trip
A few months back if I remember correctly I booked my mom and dad business class Cle-SFO-HKG RT (Using Div miles) and one of the legs had Singapore air I think it was sq15 or something like that. Well I recvd a confirmation # over the phone,but no email for about a week or so. I called up US airways and gave them confirmation # and they told me Singapore never ran my credit and the tickets were never confirmed. That was my experience with Singapore,but maybe everyone will luck out.
We had a complicated booking on Aeroplan with some hefty fuel surcharges going from SFO to PER. We were thrilled to get SFO – SIN (via ICN) in F, Continuing on a few days later to PER in C. We are obviously returning form Perth in C to SIN, and back to SFO in F. Not only did it work for us, but friends that were considering joining us also got the same routing! I guess the 4 of us will have fun in F together. We saved about $500 each in YQ charges.
Hi Phil – We aren’t going until next year. Etihad F sounds like a great option as well.
Hi Aznprzn – Hoping they work out as well. I received a ticket number so I think I’m all set with a confirmed ticket.
Hi WDH – Nice job. We got our tickets for 280k for both persons + $115 in taxes and fees all in. Aeroplan fuel surcharges are a killer.
I flew SIN F in 2010 and it’s still one of my favorite travel memories!
“We are very much looking to see how the other half lives with our Singapore Air First Class award ticket.” – well, chances are the whole cabin will be filled with people with FlyerTalk luggage tags. 🙂
With the help of a friend I was lucky enough to book (through US Airways and with US Airways miles) a ticket last night. My routing is CLT-SFO-SIN (three days there) all in First. Then SIN-HGK-SFO-CLT again in First. Hong Kong is my destination and I will be there three days as well. All of this cost me 120,000 miles. I am thrilled to bits.
I booked sfo-icn (sin) and icn-bkk-rgn(Thai) one way in first, bus, bus ( only 2 cabin option) for 70k ua miles. Can’t wait to experience what I have only read about for years! Back in KE first from the $400 fare booked in April
Awesome!!! That would be such a great trip. Maldives is on our list too, hopefully some day.
Can’t wait to read your trip report 🙂
Lax-Sin and Sin to Kul (biz class) Kul-Sin (biz class) with connection Sin- Sfo and Sfo – lax lst class
IAH-DME-SIN in F
SIN-EWR in J
I booked a second return on A380 in J SIN-NRT-LAX just in case i decide to drop the 2nd longest scheduled flight in the world (SIN-EWR)
Why fly Delta to the west coast,map out some options on UA or US Airways and call back within 24 hours to add the domestic portion for free.
Doing TPE-PEK-SIN-SYD, SYD-SIN-DPS, DPS-SIN-NRT-TPE for next February. Mix of biz and first class. 260K pts. Can’t wait!
I just booked (on hold) IAH-DME-SIN last night and called United this morning to ticket it. I was changing a reservation I already had. United had no issue ticketing it so then I called Singapore Air to select seats. After waiting 24 minutes to reach a reservation agent, they explained the reservation was not ticketed. I gave them the ticket numbers. They put me on hold and said the reservation is NOT ticketed and to call United. I think everyone is getting too excited. I’m calling United now and will post what they say. I’m going to be pissed if this is screwed up because after the agent confirmed this was ticketed he canceled my previous award reservation.
The United rep was completely insistent that my reservation is ticketed, confirmed and said it could take a while for the ticket to get to Singapore Air. Let’s hope she’s right. I’m pretty nervous because my original booking did not go back into inventory when I canceled so it’s going to be a pain if something happens and I need to get that reservation back.
Loving my trip: GRR-IAH-DME-SIN and SIN-HKG-SFO-CLE-GRR with all SQ F. At one point I will be in F for 22 out of a possible 24 hours flying IAH-DME-SIN. hope they load enough Dom on that flight! 🙂
almost same itinerary as you but we’re doing SFO-HKG-SIN-MLE and then back. all in SQ F and J. you should be able to tack on the free one way back to your home airport since it worked for me. btw, it’s Seoul, not Soul. 😉
Hi Marcela – We’ll share all the dirty (cocktail) details from the trip when we go next year.
Hi Oneeyejack – Thanks, updated the fatfinger error.
Milezjunkie – Please share the update on your ticket when you find out from SQ. Hope it works out.
I just checked with SQ again. I was told they are unable to verify a ticket has been issued. They saw a ticket number but said it could not be pulled (?) and as it stands I am not ticketed on those flights with SQ. United insists I’m ticketed so the SQ rep said he will escalate it and attempt to get it fixed. They promised a call back when everything is ok but it really seems odd. The reps seem even more confused!
Believe it or not, I successfully booked an LAX-MLE award for 2 on SQ in F and then cancelled it. I had an award booking for CX F already at that time, and had forgotten that it was via trade, so it would be a pain to rebook.
However, I did successfully book LAX-DPS (i.e. Bali) on SQ in F in June 2013. I didn’t want to go to Maldives then as I also want to go to Sri Lanka. Also, it’s a bit of a long routing from LAX compared to Cathay. With Sri Lanka airlines joining one world, it should make MLE a little easier.
I will get to fly SQ F and CX F with four months of each other!
I checked on Singapore Air’s website today and my reservation shows as “Confirmed” so I’m convinced now it’s ticketed. My return flight is on CX First so I can’t wait to fly on both airlines in First either!
Scored one way for two on Thai Air, including A380 F, in June 2013 from Bali DPS-BKK-FRA-BRU-EWR. 70000 UR each. Two F and two B classes. That is incredible. Looking forward to A380 F for the first time, although it does not match up to SQ A380 as I read. Yessss, Oh boy O boy.
Flight: TG432
Operated by Thai Airways.
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Fare Class: Business (I)
Meal: None
Flight: TG920
Operated by Thai Airways.
Aircraft: Airbus A380-800
Fare Class: First (O)
Meal: None
Flight: LH1004
Operated by Lufthansa.
Aircraft: Airbus A319
Fare Class: Business (I)
Meal: None
Flight: UA961
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200
Fare Class: United Global First (O)
Meal: Lunch