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Singapore Krisflyer is out with its monthly Spontaneous Escapes and this month the New York JFK-Frankfurt route makes the list in both premium economy and business class. You’ll have to book by the end of March for travel during April 2024, but keep in mind that these awards are totally nonrefundable / non-changeable, so I’m not sure the savings is worth it here.
The Deal
- Singapore Airlines is out with its Spontaneous Escapes list of discounted award redemptions that are available for booking from March 15-31, 2024 and valid for travel from April 1-30, 2024
- Direct link to this deal
Key Terms
- Valid for booking between March 15-31, 2024
- Valid for travel from April 1-30, 2024
- Spontaneous Escapes are totally nonrefundable and not changeable
- Waitlist redemption is not available for all flights offered in this Promotion.
- See landing page for full terms
Quick Thoughts
It used to be that the primary reason to book through Singapore Krisflyer was that you couldn’t really find Singapore Airlines business or first class space through any of their partner airlines. Booking through Krisflyer and oftentimes paying a premium over what other airlines would charge made sense because it was often the only way to book premium cabin travel on Singapore.
These days, Air Canada Aeroplan has access to a lot of Singapore Airlines premium cabin space. While the Spontaneous Escapes pricing will allow you to book business class from New York to Frankfurt for a discounted rate of 56.400 miles, that’s only a very modest discount over the price that Air Canada Aeroplan would charge for the same route (which would be 60,000 miles). With Aeroplan, you would then have the option to continue on with other partners (paying more miles if you travel into the next distance band of course). More importantly, you would have the ability to cancel and get your miles back for $150 CAD (about $111 USD). With a Singapore Spontaneous Escapes award, you have no ability to cancel or change the award.
For me, the complete inflexibility is a non-starter. I would have to be saving a ton over normal prices to book an award where I’m totally out of the miles if one of us gets sick and has to cancel the trip. If I were a young solo traveler, maybe I’d be more willing to gamble.
If you’re an economy class traveler, paying 17,500 miles for New York to Frankfurt certainly isn’t bad and premium economy for 36,400 miles doesn’t sound like a terrible deal on that route, either.
Keep in mind that New York to Frankfurt isn’t the only deal on the list — there are plenty of other deals that may be of interest. If you want to maximize your premium cabin flight time to mileage used, consider the nearly 10hr flight from Singapore to Christchurch for just under 48K miles in business class or the 14hr flight from Brussels to Singapore for 56,700 miles in business. That last one is nearly double the flight time of New York to Frankfurt for the same number of miles!
H/T: One Mile at a Time
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If you got sick wouldn’t travel insurance cover your points cost on a non refundable award booking. Agreed though the conditions are too inflexible.
Not trying to be argumentative here, just curious: What form of travel insurance “covers” the points cost of a ticket? (And how?)
The travel insurance I have with my ANZ bank Visa card when I put at least 50% of the prepaid expenses on states the following in the case of cancellation:
“1.1 Cancellation of Journey
If Your Journey is cancelled, rescheduled or shortened
because of circumstances that were not expected or intended
by You and are outside Your control, We will reimburse You:
b) for the value of frequent flyer points, air miles, loyalty card
points, redeemable vouchers or other similar schemes
lost by You as a result of cancelling the services paid
for or obtained with those points, air miles, vouchers
or schemes, but only if You cannot recover Your loss in
any other way. We calculate the amount We pay You
as follows:
i) for frequent flyer points, air miles or loyalty card points:
the cost of an equivalent booking based on the same
advance booking period as Your original booking
less any payment You made toward the booking,
multiplied by the total number of points or air miles
lost, divided by the total number of points or air miles
used to make the booking.
ii) for vouchers, the face value of the voucher or current
market value of an equivalent booking whichever is
the lesser.”
The travel insurance is underwritten by Allianz insurance company.