Who do I buy miles from and which airline do I search through for reward bookings?

[NZflygirl]

I'd like to fly QR, EY and SQ on reward bookings in the future.

I was thinking of buying from AA for QR and EY given it's a partner of both? and Avianca or UA for SQ? I should look into miles/points expiry but I'm hoping they're around the 3 yr mark.

Which airlines have the best search functions for finding award availability for these carriers?

From what I've read I gather if I were to find an award seat on QR or EY or SQ's own website searches that this doesn't mean it's actually available to partner airlines. Is an expert flyer subscription useful to buy for searches?

Being NZ based, SQ is the only one I can funnel AMEX points into. I think these carriers are all available via SPG.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[scwappy]

Re: Who do I buy miles from and which airline do I search through for reward bookings

SQ pretty much only releases premium cabins to KrisFlyer, not UA and life miles. For one world ba is a reasonable search tool. AA is a good option for QR and EY bookings. Less AA points to Europe from NZ with QR as EY will price as NZ-AUH-EUR whereas QR will price as NZ- EUR.

 

[dajop]

Re: Who do I buy miles from and which airline do I search through for reward bookings

SQ pretty much only releases premium cabins to KrisFlyer, not UA and life miles. .

SQ don't release first class or any 1-2-1 configured business class with fully flat seats to UA or life miles. They do release regional configured (2-2-2 angled lie flat product). Ex-ANZ that means you can get out of PER, AKL, BNE, CBR, WLG & CHC, and occasionally MEL (less likely now since recent aircraft type changes) but not SYD and AKL. Also don't release any long haul services beyond SIN (Europe, North America).

Lastly UA don't show any SQ availability online - need to call - I think reasonably well correlated though to what you can see online through Aeroplan, and you can almost forget lifemiles - even when Aerioplan is showing seats lifemiles probably won't be.

 

[NZflygirl]

Re: Who do I buy miles from and which airline do I search through for reward bookings

Cheers.

I guess I should add I'm happy flying via or ex Aus as I'd be going in a westerly direction anyway.

 

[Mattg]

Re: Who do I buy miles from and which airline do I search through for reward bookings

I'd funnel your Amex points to KrisFlyer and use those to book on SQ. And buy AA miles for EY and QR.

You won't be able to find EY or QR availability on the American Airlines website - have to call to book these seats. But you should be able to find availability on QR by searching on either the QF or BA websites. For EY availability, this should be loosely related to the "GuestSeat" availability on Etihad's own website.

As dajop has said, UA doesn't show SQ availability online so need to call to book. You can however use the ANA or Air Canada Aeroplan websites to check for availability.

 

[NZflygirl]

Re: Who do I buy miles from and which airline do I search through for reward bookings

So with that AA bonus that's on just now, I just signed up to AA and there doesn't look to be any exclusion criteria for the bonus eg not being a member for a month.
I looked at QR miles required for Y to J upgrades or awards which seem to be at least 102-150,000 miles or more but AA seem to be less if I'm reading the award charts right eg ex Aus or Asia (region 2? eg SIN) to Europe. Maybe 115,000 at most. Seems weird to have an airline partner have better rates than your own!

But I should proceed with the transfer from SPG and I can probably keep the AA accounts alive with say - like a car rental??

Although you can earn EK miles on JQ it doesn't look like I could earn AA miles which is a pity.