Just after posting that utterly sour entry about not being able to experience the filming, guess what I received in my mailbox.
" Celebrate KrisFlyer’s 10th Anniversary!
This month marks the start of celebrations for our 10th Anniversary, with exclusive redemption promotions and some very special offers from our partners. Click on the links below or here to find out more"
To cut a long story short, Krisflyer is offering a 25% discount on miles redemption for flights, and 50% discount on selected flights. To cut a short story shorter, Auckland is one of the destinations for the 50% discount!
Check out the offer below... (Click the pic for full screen or go to to this link
http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_UK/content/krisflyer/redeem_miles/KFAnniversaryRedemption.jsp)
Check out the dates, random for May filmings, and the miles required. The usual is 55,000. So 27,500 is 50%!
That means I've actually got enough miles to go on 4 return trips if it's on a 50% discount perpetually. But what a coincidence Auckland is eligible for 50% in May. So should I go?
Some friends have questioned why sometimes I insist on paying slightly more expensive fares to accumulate miles. This is my justification. My last Auckland trip, I paid full fare and earned 13,068 miles.
27,500 miles isn't too difficult to accumulate.
Sign up for AMEX Krisflyer card - 5,000 miles
Sign up for Citi PremierMiles card - 5,000 miles
Renew your PremierMiles annual subscription at $180 - 10,000 miles.
Not to mention the miscellaneous spending and accumulating miles... you get my drift.
I really hope I get to make full use of this opportunity. Shall await LM reply on May filming schedule and then it's off to check work schedule. If things fall in place, I think I shan't wait. With the NZD low now, it looks like my trip could be cheaper than budgeted. Anyone else interested haha?
Wish me luck!
7 comments:
seize the day! the airline is on your side.
May filmings form part of the GFX which is going to be HUUUGGEE! DEFINITELY do it - May 1-2 are the dates of the GFX which is all the filmings/parties everything all in one - that's all confirmed so book away!
Go ZJ! Even if you can't form a Singapore contingent! Wanna catch u on video again haha
Go for it! Keep the ball rolling bro.
Congrates on earning a trip to NZ with your accumulated KF points. I’m intrigued by the amount of money you spent just to earn the free miles. I defer to agree with you that this is a more “economical” way to travel by redeeming KF points than simply pay for the air ticket.
Here’s the reason:
Full fare to Auckland is $1,800 to earn air miles of 13,068. (Current promo fare at 2 to go is $1,200 with no KF points of cos). To get to the 27,500 one needs to 1) go on another trip and pay the full fare at $1,800 to earn 13,068 and still can’t hit the current promo of 27,500 air miles. 2) renew PremierMiles to earn 10,000 still can’t meet 27,500. (Also who pay for credit card subscription fee nowadays?) 3) ok, there’s some miscellaneous spending to accumulate points. Take the simple one at $1 for 1 KF point. One needs to spend another $4,432 to earn the balanced miles. Using this calculation one already spent $6,412 ($1800 + $180 + $4,432).
Taking away all the hassle of accumulating KF points, I prefer to pay a promo price of $1,200 (don’t mind paying full fare at $1,800 as well). Also I don’t have the habit to pay subscription fee for credit card and that will give me a saving of $180. Now I only need to pay $1620 ($1800 - $180) for the air ticket. =)
Don’t think there’s a need to calculate the non KF promo rate at 55,000 points.
With the spending you had done, the banks and / Singapore airlines are obviously more than happy to throw in a free trip to you every year. Thank you for spurring the Singapore economy as well! =P
i don't usually reply to comments, but i guess the effort in the comment warrants a reply.
to clarify, what i mentioned in the post about attaining the 27,500 miles by paying full fare/signing up for credit cards etc, was a tip on how to earn more miles faster.
i have done my sums over and over again. i do need to spend a certain sum of $ every year - if i'm going to spend this $ every year, i might as well get some perks (miles) out of it right?
i have done homework on redemptions, and have discovered that redemption for SIN-AKL gives the best value in miles terms. For each redemption done in economy class, compared against the price, each mile is worth S$0.0385. For business class, each mile is worth ~S$0.0824.
$1 spent = 1.2miles on CitiPremier Miles, that means a 4.62% discount for each $1 spent charged to card assuming if I utilise miles to redeem SIN-AKL.
Going by the same calculation, 10,000 miles = $385. I don't pay subscription fees for any of my credit cards, but I will choose to pay $180 for the 10,000 miles for CitiPremier Miles renewal. This is the reason why.
So far, I have already redeemed one SIN-AKL trip and I'm sitting on many more miles because I have maximised the perks (miles) on my required spending. I have seen how fast miles can be accumulated, so I know it can work to our favour. Hence I charge everything I possibly can to credit cards.
Let's face it, we never beat the banks/airlines. I work in a bank myself, I would know.
But in a 'losing situation', is there a way where we lose less?
*I used to be an analyst, so I do have a few spreadsheets and working models detailing redemption rates and mileage maximisation. Call me weird, but what thrills me is not the redemption, but the mere calculations.
If it were money you had to spend anyways and not spent just to accumulate pts, then it makes sense to do optimise 'returns'. Plus it spurs you to travel area, without lousy feel of forkg out direct fr your pocket. So why not? Hv loads of fun!
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