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Last week, I re-published my guide to using Singapore miles to book United flights to Hawaii. The idea is that you are better off using Singapore miles than United miles to book the United flights because both can access the same award space, but Singapore charges fewer miles, and its miles are easier to get. Understanding scenarios like that one are key to becoming an intermediate player of the miles game, so I really recommend you check out the post even if you don’t want to go to Hawaii.
The post generated a comment that showed another very common beginner misunderstanding of how miles work.
“If I am planning to use Singapore Air to Hawaii in 16 months, should I transfer my Thank You points to Virgin Atlantic, get the 25% premium, and still use Singapore Air to Hawaii because they are a VA partner or am I missing a step?”
The commenter is asking if he can use his Virgin Atlantic miles to get in on the deal, since Virgin Atlantic partners with Singapore. The answer is a resounding “No.” Your miles need to partner with the airline flying the plane, which in the case of the deal to Hawaii is United. Your airline partnering with a partner of the airline flying the plane is irrelevant.
Below are Virgin Atlantic’s airline partners. United is not on the list, so you cannot use Virgin Atlantic miles to book United flights.
Virgin Atlantic does partner with several Star Alliance carriers–Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Singapore, and South African Airways. If you had any of those miles, you could book United flights, since all Star Alliance miles can book any other Star Alliance carriers’ flights.
Furthermore there is no way to transfer Virgin Atlantic miles to Singapore miles even though they are partners. One airline’s miles can never become another airline’s miles. (The only things that transfer are transferable points like ThankYou Points, which transfer to Virgin Atlantic miles or Singapore miles.)
Bottom Line
There is no transitive property of miles. This statement is false: Virgin Atlantic miles can book Singapore flights, and Singapore miles can book United flights, so Virgin Atlantic miles can book United flights.
To book a partner with your flights, that partner needs to be listed as a partner on the partner page of the miles you’re using.
You can never transfer one airline’s miles to another airline’s miles.
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I used Air Canada, Aeroplan, miles foe a United award. Earlier this year I got a one way business class United ticket from the USA to Brazil for 47,500 Aeroplan miles. On United the same ticket cost 55,000 miles. I transferred Starwood points to Aeroplan because, like now, Aeroplan was offering bonus miles for transfers from other mileage programs. I transferred more miles than needed to maximize my bonuses from Starwood and Areoplan. I thought that I would use my 30,000 mile Aeroplan balance in the future since I travel to Brazil often. Only now the same USA to Brazil award is 95,000 with Aeroplan miles while still only 55,000 on United. Go figure. Hopefully I will travel to Canada soon and those miles will still be useful to me. The point is, award rules are changing all the time so take what you can when it is available. Try to keep miles in accounts where you can transfer them to where you need them when you need them.
I like this message and your first award, but one thing is dead wrong.
USA to Brazil in Business is still 47,500 Aeroplan miles one way. Here is the award chart, showing 95k ROUNDTRIP. One ways are available for half price –> https://www3.aeroplan.com/FlightRewardChart.do
WOW Scott. I blew that. Thank you for correcting me.
Alex
Hmmm. I read his comment differently. To me it sounds like he is based in Singapore and wants to use Singapore airlines to fly to Hawaii. He thus wants to know if he should transfer miles to VA to fly SQ since they are partners and he is right. He never asked about United, and just because your example was about flying UA to Hawaii might have made you think he was making that error?
The comment is a bit ambiguous, but I don’t think that’s what he meant. Singapore doesn’t fly to Hawaii. Either way, I’m glad I wrote this post because it has cleared up a source of confusion for a lot of people, judging by the comments.
I had this same misconception.
I was trying to use my BA miles to book an AA saver award that was using Hawaiian Airline metal. No can do.
Or maybe I’m mistaken?
To use British Air points on Hawaiian, British themselves must partner with Hawaiian.
Go to ba.com and see if British partners with Hawaiian. If yes you’re in luck. If no, you can’t book Hawaiian operated flights with British Airways Avios points.
(I can’t remember whether BA and Hawaiian are partners.)
American has nothing to do with the British-Hawaiian partnership (or possible lack thereof).
Agree completely. I just thought that since I could book an AA flight with my BA miles and since AA was showing availability (using HA metal), I could book it. But that’s obviously not the case,.
Yep, now you’re getting it. BA can book flights AA operates, not all the flights AA miles can book.
Correct. And BA and Hawaiian are not partners, so BA miles cannot book Hawaiian Airlines flights even though AA miles can.
Where can I find the redemption chart for VS partners? Like how much would it cost in miles + YQ + taxes to fly in SQ Suites from JFK-FRA?
Only Singapore miles can book Singapore Suites. That’s one of those products that doesn’t get released to partners. It even says this on Virgin Atlantic’s Singapore award chart: “Redemptions in Business Class and First Class on their A380, 777-300ER and A340-500 aircraft types are not available.”
This page has all the award charts for Virgin Atlantic: http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/eu/en/flying-club/flying-club-partners/airlines.html
Click the partner whose chart you want to see and then click “Spend miles.”
BA miles can become IB miles.
SQ miles can become Virgin Australia miles.
Isn’t that correct?
British Airways miles can become Iberia miles. That’s a rare exception because both airlines are the same company and both use Avios. https://milevalu.wpengine.com/sweetspot-new-iberia-chart-offers-34000-miles-transatlantic-business-class/
I don’t think Singapore miles can become Virgin Australia miles. Link?
Singapore miles can be transferred to Virgin Australia miles.
Link:
https://www.singaporeair.com:443/en_UK/ppsclub-krisflyer/miles-conversion/
Singapore miles can be transferred to Virgin Australia points and vice versa.
Link:
https://www.velocityfrequentflyer.com/content/ProgramBenefits/LatestNews/va-singapore-conversion/
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing. I had no idea. Now I have to see if Virgin Australia has good deals.
Not really for US residents. You have far better FFPs than us here down under. Velocity (VA’s FFP) is designed to compete with Qantas, which is one of the world’s worst program. So VA ain’t much better. But for us poor Aussies, because VA points are so easy to earn, it’s ability to transfer to KF miles was a big advantage.
The only thing I can think of, is that VA runs promotion 1-2x/year by offering 15% discounts on award redemptions on VA metals. During the promotion, the redemption rate becomes competitive with US programs, eg. SYD/BNE to LAX becomes 79900 one way plus A$104 in tax (~ $80 USD).
The other good feature is the ability to redeem Etihad flights as one award from AUS to Europe/US east coast. But redemption rate is quite high compared to AA. It will cost 125k one way in J, and 187.5k in F. (The 15% promotion doesn’t apply cuz it’s EY flights) To us Aussies who can’t get AA miles easily for free, it is our only “cheap” way to get on EY apartments. Compare to AA that charges 150k for F from JFK-SYD, 187.5k in VA isn’t too bad given how easy it is for us to earn VA points here. (Not sure about AA’s rate for J, maybe comparable?)
So if one day DL decided to depreciate skypeso more, perhaps VA will have value to US resident.
Addition: that 79900 SYD/BNE-LAX is in J obviously. You can redeem for premium economy for 59900 (which you can’t with DL) or economy for 39900 during the promotion.
I was wondering if it possible to do any of the following on the same award ticket (coach)
EWR-FRA (stopover)
FRA-MCT
MLE-BOM (open jaw)
BOM-EWR
EWR-HNL (free OW)
EWR-FRA (stopover)
FRA-BOM
MLE-EWR (open jaw)
EWR-HNL
EWR-BOM
MLE-FRA (open jaw)
FRA-EWR
EWR-HNL
Thanks for the advice!
You didn’t specify the miles being used. I’ll assume United. United allows one stopover per roundtrip in addition to your destination, so you can’t have a stopover en route and then a later free one way because those require a stopover at your home airport.
“Your miles need to partner with the airline flying the plane”
How does that work for code shares? Could you use Virgin Atlantic miles to fly Lufthansa Munich-Singapore since Singapore has a codeshare agreement on that flight?
No. The partner “FLYING THE PLANE” is what matters. Lufthansa is flying that plane and Virgin Atlantic doesn’t partner with Lufthansa.
[…] Since November 2014, you can transfer 1 Singapore KrisFlyer miles to 1.35 Virgin Australia Velocity Points or vice versa. I had no idea until Michael Kao let us know in the comments of yesterday’s post about which partners you can book with your miles. […]
[…] Since November 2014, you can transfer 1 Singapore KrisFlyer miles to 1.35 Virgin Australia Velocity Points or vice versa. I had no idea until Michael Kao let us know in the comments of yesterday’s post about which partners you can book with your miles. […]