Making the best use of the Krisflyer points I have

[Jude Starr]

OK, so I have some KF points that are due to expire, as does my husband. He has more points than I do, as he has the Westpac cards attached to his account. So, we decided to use the points and book a trip. We thought we would treat ourselves to a business class trip to Singapore. The problem is, I have enough points for one way business class, and he has enough for return business class, but the amount he has left after that is agonisingly short of the 50% required to be able to buy the remaining amount for the one way fare. I have been wracking my brain trying to figure if it can be sorted some way, but I suspect it can't. Any suggestions would be greatly accepted (but be gentle with me...I am a newbie both to this site and to the frequent flyer world - have never redeemed points before).

 

[lovetravellingoz]

You don't mention when they are due to expire.

Rather than buy points from SQ.....getting Amex with sign on points of 30K_75K would be cheaper. However that may take 3-4 months to show up.
Citibank 60K will transfer 40K to SQ...but is lucky dip how quick the points will transfer.


If you do get say an Amex..and should only take say a fornight or so....as it earns at 1.5 points per and transfers at 1:1 to SQ if you needed say 30K of points quickly you could buy say 20K of giftcards to get the 30K which will post straight away and will transfer in about a day or so.

DSE sell a range of gift cards..but the Wish Card you can then use to get your groceries , petrol etc.

From others stores you can buy Coles gift cards etc too.

This would be a lot cheaper than buying points. Just means that you will effectively be pre-paying for say 6 months of shopping!!!

Also with you Amex....another tactic you can do if you need a quick surge in points is to prepay any bills that you can pay with Amex. Look at your rates etc...and pay several months worth in adavnce.

Downside is the extra interest cost lost from say offsetting your home loan. But is still better than buying points from SQ.

 

[Jude Starr]

Thanx for the reply. Some interesting things you say. We already have the Westpac Amex, attached to husband's KF account, which is why he has more points than me (mine are all just from actually previous flights). I don't earn enough to be the primary cardholder so we have it in my husband's name, with me as an additional cardholder. The points you made about building up points quickly are food for thought though, and I will file them away for future reference. :mrgreen:

As it stands, because this is my first time redeeming points for flights, I had made some assumptions that turned out not to be true, such as thinking we could just pool our points and redeem all the flights out of the total, which of course is not the case...if it had worked that way we wouldn't have had to buy any points at all. The points we have that are due to expire will do so next month, but I know we can extend them for 6 months if necessary. It's just that we really wanted to go in August to celebrate my husband's birthday (yeah, I know, short notice, but husband, much as I love him, seems clinically unable to make decisions about these sorts of things...it's like pulling teeth sometimes! LOL!).

Anyway, I think I have figured out a way to get what we want...it's all a matter of what order I book the flights in to make sure that for the last one I do have more than 50% of the total fare in points so I can buy the required points. I spent ages puzzling it all out last night to no avail and finally gave up, and then it came to me just as I was falling asleep in bed...ain't it always the way?

 

[kamchatsky]

OK, so I have some KF points that are due to expire, as does my husband. He has more points than I do, as he has the Westpac cards attached to his account. So, we decided to use the points and book a trip. We thought we would treat ourselves to a business class trip to Singapore. The problem is, I have enough points for one way business class, and he has enough for return business class, but the amount he has left after that is agonisingly short of the 50% required to be able to buy the remaining amount for the one way fare. I have been wracking my brain trying to figure if it can be sorted some way, but I suspect it can't. Any suggestions would be greatly accepted (but be gentle with me...I am a newbie both to this site and to the frequent flyer world - have never redeemed points before).

Don't forget that if you book award online you get 15% off points required. So you may already have enough points for those awards!

How many points are you short?

 

[Jude Starr]

Yep, booked online to get the 15%! Trip is booked now...looking forward to our first time in business class. Thanx for the replies.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Yep, booked online to get the 15%! Trip is booked now...looking forward to our first time in business class. Thanx for the replies.

Good one. Where are you staying in Singapore ?

 

[Jude Starr]

We decided to push the boat out and stay somewhere a bit flash, a) because I am a bit fussy when it comes to accommodation and b) because it is my husband's 50th birthday and we wanted to do something special, so we are staying at Conrad Centennial.

Looking forward to it! :mrgreen:

 

[Chesty]

We decided to push the boat out and stay somewhere a bit flash, a) because I am a bit fussy when it comes to accommodation and b) because it is my husband's 50th birthday and we wanted to do something special, so we are staying at Conrad Centennial.

Looking forward to it! :mrgreen:

We stayed at the Conrad in 2009 in a Executive Room and it was excellent. You have made a great choice with the Conrad. My favourite hotel in Singapore. The breakfasts are the best I have had anywhere in the world! The staff are excellent also.

 

[creeno]

We stayed at the Conrad in 2009 in a Executive Room and it was excellent. You have made a great choice with the Conrad. My favourite hotel in Singapore. The breakfasts are the best I have had anywhere in the world! The staff are excellent also.

I second the comment on the breakfast! Down in the main restaurant, the waffles with homemade vanilla bean ice cream were sublime! Have a great time!

 

[Jude Starr]

Waffles? Did somebody say waffles? Bring it on!!!!!! :mrgreen:

 

[albatross710]

+1 Conrad. The teddy is cute.

The Conrad has an excellent gym and the refreshments for 'after workout' are high quality.