Business Class from Europe to the Middle East for 25,000 Miles

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The Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Star Alliance partner award chart still has a few gems on it and one of the best is  25,000 Miles for one way Business Class flights between Europe and the Middle East:

Note that the amounts in the chart are for round trips and that one-way awards are available for half the Miles (with the exception of redemptions on SAS and TAP Portugal where only roundtrip redemptions are allowed).

Between Europe and the Middle East/North Africa Region the round trip rates are 35,000/50,000/120,000 Miles for Economy, Business Class, First Class, respectively  – so 17,500/25,000/60000 Miles one-way.

Krisflyer defines the Middle East /North Africa region as including the following countries:

and you can redeem at the above rates on any of the following Star Alliance airlines (assuming the routing makes sense!):

Surcharges charged by partner airlines are passed on when redeeming KrisFlyer Miles, unfortunately.

For context, surcharges on Turkish Business Class look to be around ~£190 from London Return (+£150 APD), whereas a one way from Dubai to London would only attract surcharges of ~£85. Lufthansa or Swiss would be over £300 (+£150 APD) Return from London, or ~£150 one-way from Dubai. First Class works out the same.

You can normally look up (most) partner availability and price out awards properly on the Singapore Airlines site these days, but it was having some technical problems at the time of writing. If it’s still down, you can use the United Airlines site to check award availability and get a rough idea of surcharges using ITA Matrix.

It is also worth pointing out that you can get a free stopover if you book a Return – a few nights in Istanbul on the way to Dubai could be fun, for example.

How to buy the Miles cheaply right now

Given that you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards Points to Singapore KrisFlyer at a 1:1 rate, that would be my preferred option, but if you don’t have any Amex MR Points, you can still acquire 25,000 KrisFlyer Miles at a reasonable price at the moment.

The next few days are the last chance (probably ever!) to buy discounted SPG Starpoints.

The sale ends on 31st May 2018, and when you purchase 5,000 or more you will save 35% compared to the normal price.

Starpoints can be transferred to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer at a 1:1 rate – with an additional 5,000 Miles bonus when you transfer in blocks of 20,000. So, if you bought 20,000 Starpoints for ~£340, you could transfer them over to KrisFlyer and receive the 25,000 KrisFlyer Miles required for a one way Business Class flight to/from the Middle East.

Bottom line

One way in Business Class back from the Middle East to the UK on Turkish can be booked for a little over £400 (including surcharges), via the SPG Starpoints sale, which is a pretty solid deal. I had the chance to finally try Turkish Business Class myself recently (only between the UK and Istanbul) and was impressed.

What’s your favourite Singapore KrisFlyer redemption?

Comments

    • Joe Deeney says

      Thanks for the correction Marvin! I somehow ended up grabbing the image from the old award chart that changed last year. Post now amended.

    • Joe Deeney says

      Not as far as I know – even on the rare occasions you can swap Miles from one programme to another (like KrisFlyer and Virgin Australia Velocity), the value tends to be terrible.

  1. Kash says

    Since April 2019, a one-way costs 29,000 miles (58,000 miles return. Also, for some reason it wouldn’t give me flight options for a one way from the Middle East to LHR, but would for return. I checked a few different dates from DXB and DOH. Ex LHR works fine. Has anyone else had this?

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