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Singapore Airlines Business Class is incredible, and by putting together a couple of deals you can experience it between Frankfurt and New York for an incredible price too!

Yes, you will have to travel to/from Frankfurt (Singapore Airlines have fifth freedom rights on that route, which means they can pick up and drop off passengers before the plane carries on to Singapore/NYC), but Frankfurt is easy and cheap to get to from most major UK airports (and Newquay… £16.00 Return apparently!).

I have written before about the fantastic value you can get by redeeming Virgin America Elevate Miles on this route so won’t go into too much detail here. Essentially, all you need to know is the number of Miles required, and how to get them:

Frankfurt-New York (JFK) One-Way

• Economy: 12,000 Miles
• Business Class: 35,400 Miles
• First Class: 54,000 Miles

Frankfurt-New York (JFK) Return

• Economy: 20,000 Miles (equivalent to 10,000 each way)
• Business Class: 59,000 Miles (equivalent to 29,500 each way)
• First Class: 90,000 Miles (equivalent to 45,000 each way)

As you can see, the Elevate programme is a bit unusual in that it allows one-ways, but charges more than 50% of the Miles required for a Return.

For crossing the Atlantic, most frequent flyer programmes require 20,000+ Miles/Avios in Economy, 50,000+  in Business and 80,000+ in First Class one-way. 

In other words, these awards are half the price of other frequent flyer programmes.

The best bit though is that there aren’t any expensive ‘surcharges’ either. All classes of travel attract taxes of just ~ £52.00 ($75.00) one-way or ~£102.00 ($147.00) Return.

Yeah great – I don’t have any Elevate Miles though, this is a stupid article…

Worry not, dear reader!

Until 3rd June, you can buy Elevate Miles for about 1.25p each, via the current SPG Starpoints sale – just follow the instructions in this post.

Before you go buying though, remember that for the next few days you can pick up 2,750 completely free Elevate Miles for a couple of minutes work!

Time for the fun bit, let’s crunch some numbers:

I’m going to assume everyone grabs the 2,750 free Miles (why wouldn’t you?), and will stick with my calculation that you can buy Elevate Miles at the moment for roughly 1.25p each (it’s a bit more complicated than that, but not really – read the article).

I’m also assuming you will need to get home, so I have only priced Return flights here – you can use the one-way mileage requirements above to work it out for yourself if you only need a one-way.

Economy: (20,000 – 2,750) 17,250 Miles x 1.25p = £215.63 + £102.00 taxes = £317.63

Business: (59,000 – 2,750) 56,250 Miles x 1.25p = £703.13 + £102.00 taxes = £805.13

First: (90,000 – 2,750) 87,250 Miles x 1.25p = £1,090.63 + £102.00 taxes = £1,192. 63

~ £320.00 for Economy between Europe and New York is pretty good, but not exceptional and when you factor in having to get to/from Frankfurt, unlikely to be worth the hassle.

~ £1200.00 for Singapore Airlines ‘Suites Class’ (what they call their flagship First Class product on their Airbus A380s) is a very good price in theory, but finding award space is a nightmare. Also, it’s still £1,200 for a couple of 8 hour flights – the fact they usually charge £4,000+ doesn’t change that.

~ £805.00 for Business Class is the pick of the crop here for me. Singapore Airlines Business Class is one of the very best in the world (in fact, it’s better than most First Class products flying between Europe and America. Yes, I’m looking at you BA and AA!). Even when you factor in getting to Frankfurt and back, it’s still likely to be cheaper than buying a Business Class ticket on any other airline between Europe and America (including La Compagnie).

Singapore Airlines charge £2,000+ if you wanted to buy a ticket directly.

Spending £1,500+ more than what a convenient Economy ticket might cost just isn’t something that I can justify personally, and certainly not for such a relatively short flight. I’d quite happily pay an extra ~ £150.00 each way though (which is roughly what this works out as)!