Redemption help needed. Amex MR and Velocity points. SYD/SIN/JFK//EWR/BUF/SFO/HNL/SYD

[MicoPico]

I am scratching my head to help my friend to plan for his trip. Hope the experts in AFF can help out a little...

Friend has 40k AMEX MR and 280k velocity in the bank.

wants to travel F or J where possible.

start/finish in SYD.

stops: Singapore, New York, Niagara Falls, San Francisco, Honolulu.

appreciate in any tips on maximizing the points and experience given the very tricky set of stops/destination.

initial thought: use Krisflyer for SQ F SYD-sin-fra-JFK one way.
then Krisflyer partner one way award EWR-BUF-ORD (transit)-SFO-HNL-ICN (transit)-SYD and pay $300US for 3 stop. But sq call Centre is not very confident this is a valid itinerary and got various reasons for not ticketing.

thanks!

 

[JohnK]

Re: Redemption help needed. Amex MR and Velocity points. SYD/SIN/JFK//EWR/BUF/SFO/HNL

Another option could be the KrisFlyer version of a round the world award. Not sure of the exact number of miles required for premium cabins but includes up to 7 stops.

Might need to Google for further information.

 

[MicoPico]

Re: Redemption help needed. Amex MR and Velocity points. SYD/SIN/JFK//EWR/BUF/SFO/HNL

Thanks JohnK.

Friend has eased up the wish list slightly by going with Washington instead of Niagara.

so looks like he can do SQ F using about 117k KF: SYD-SIN-xFRA-JFK
train to Washington
IAD-SFO on UA one way N America award using 20k KF miles in J.
SFO-HNL on UA one way N America-Hawaii award using 30k KF in J.
HNL-SYD on HA one way J using 78k Velocity

Even better if IAD-SFO-HNL can be ticketed as one award to save some miles.

alternatively he can do:
SYD-SIN-SFO-JFK//train to Washington//IAD-HNL-ICN-SYD, hopefully as one *A return award between Aus and N America at 255k KF in F.

will call KF to see what's valid.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Re: Redemption help needed. Amex MR and Velocity points. SYD/SIN/JFK//EWR/BUF/SFO/HNL

IAD-SFO on UA one way N America award using 20k KF miles in J.
SFO-HNL on UA one way N America-Hawaii award using 30k KF in J.
HNL-SYD on HA one way J using 78k Velocity

Even better if IAD-SFO-HNL can be ticketed as one award to save some miles.

Velocity is not *A and so cannot be bundled with *A carrier/s. Velocity is a KF partner airline.

 

[MicoPico]

Re: Redemption help needed. Amex MR and Velocity points. SYD/SIN/JFK//EWR/BUF/SFO/HNL

Velocity is not *A and so cannot be bundled with *A carrier/s. Velocity is a KF partner airline.

You are right. So what i meant is for him to do 4 awards:
1. Syd-sin-Fra-jfk in SQ F using ~117k KF miles. He can transfer 40k Amex MR into KF and then top up with KF miles by transferring his Velocity points
2. EWR-SFO in UA J using 20k KF miles. He will need to transfer 27k velocity to get 20k KF.
3. Likewise SFO-HNL in UA J using 30k KF miles, by transferring 40500 velocity to KF.
4. Hnl-syd on Hawaiian J. This is 78000 velocity points using Velocity directly

so all up he would be using 40k MR and about 250k Velocity to achieve the above.

btw, I called KF and they said stopovers are not permitted in *A one way awards, so EWR-SFO-HNL needs to be on 2 separate awards.

the alternative is to ticket the entire itinerary as a Aus-N America round trip award. KF said this is valid:
Syd-Sin-xFra-jfk// Ewr-sfo-hnl-(icn or hnd or akl)-syd because sin-Fra-jfk is counted as one segment, so the whole trip does not exceed the 6 segment limit. Round trip *A award has one complimentary stopover, so he would need to pay $200US extra for the 2 additional stops. First class is 255k KF, J is 195k. Ticketing this way is a little simpler than the 4-award method, but feels is a little wasteful because there is no international F in the 2nd half of the itinerary.

 

[Spizz]

Re: Redemption help needed. Amex MR and Velocity points. SYD/SIN/JFK//EWR/BUF/SFO/HNL

Finding award seat availability is going to be fun in J & F with SQ so I would tell them to start looking from now.