I want to share with you guys an interesting redemption I did recently, maybe someone will find it useful.

I redeemed Krisflyer points for HAN-KUL recently. I noticed EVA (Star Alliance partner) had a strange married segment flight they sell at a ridiculous price (RM66xx compared to RM19xx-RM23xx for competing airlines in Business). Sample: http://goo.gl/flights/ISpZ

As you can see it involves flying up from HAN to TPE (2+ hours), "layover" in TPE for 17hr (arrive afternoon and fly out early next morning), TPE to KUL (4+ hours). As far as service goes I thought the "Taiwanese" touch on EVA was a really good experience compared to the usual westernized service you get on SQ etc. For example they have a wide selection of teas from matcha milk tea, Japanese hojicha (served in an appropriate cup for it) to Pu Er/other Chinese classics. Other airlines won't even make the distinction let alone serve it in proper cups (Taiwanese take their teas very seriously). Also I got lucky and they used A330s for both my segments that day. Not the best or most advanced seat (early 00s angled flat), but gets the job done. If you have time it's not a bad way to get home. Also maybe to get out of Taoyuan airport to see Taipei a little bit. The new EVA lounges are pretty decent to spend time in, all new.

The interesting part is, HAN-KUL is technically same region on the award chart even though TPE isn't. If I redeemed HAN-TPE it would be 27.5k one way, TPE-KUL will be another 27.5k. But because of routing rules and a long layover, this particular itinerary HAN-(TPE)-KUL is 20k one way. For taxes it came to S$138.70.

Not the most amazing redemption ever, I thought there was fair value :-)

Edit: A more blatant example would be KUL-SIN via TPE http://goo.gl/flights/ROxL RM99xx "value". I really wonder if anyone buys these tickets. I didn't ticket this so I'm not even sure the agent will allow it! :-) It's even SEA1 to SEA1, so it only comes to 17.5k in J. Amazing.

This post has been edited by ignorantcow: Sep 1 2016, 01:40 PM

Yeah, but nothing like experiencing it yourself plus the reviewers are so subjective. For example the angmohs LOVE Thai, but its basically white preferential treatment at work. Gross.

Same. I probably wouldn't enjoy the "Hello Kitty" themed planes, but if I weren't paying for it...

I called in and fed the agent the exact flight numbers I wanted then he checked for availability. You can also check beforehand on many of the *A award search engines if you are traveling on a "popular" route (e.g. SIN-FRA-JFK, no thanks to bloggers). The KF hotline agents are usually pretty fast, competent and professional.

For those converting TP to KF, I recently came to know that that SQ doesn't impose ridiculous high YQ ex-MNL, so that makes it extremely worth it for med to long-haul redemptions if you're willing to take a short repositioning flight (KUL-MNL on AK is ~RM300 o/w).

Example: combined with the ridiculously low (mistake?) pricing in J to Africa, ME and Turkey, it opens up possibilities like flying to JNB on SQ's brand new A350s, for only 38k miles + $15! Not bad for a 10 hour flight plus access to Changi's lounges. Similarly you can fly to IST (11hours) which will basically get you into Europe.



I hope someone finds this useful!

Yeah unfortunately popular routes will most likely be waitlist at saver level, if available at all. SIN-FRA-JFK hasn't been available forever due to certain popular "bloggers"

One word: product.

Also I wouldn't go so far as to call Krisfyler useless. Yes it is annoying that there's high % of waitlist to popular destinations and high YQ/taxes. I think most people are aware of KF's popularity and adjusts expectations. Krisflyer's award pricing for both SQ and Star Alliance partners actually really reasonable compared to AsiaMiles or Enrich (daylight robbery) which adds to limited availability and SQ already releases extra inventory to KrisFlyer members and outright blocks programs such as United's.

Instead of just aiming for the usual London, Paris, Milan all the time, maybe can consider Manchester, Dusseldorf or Zurich, which they all fly direct to. Or closer to home, Fukuoka, Nagoya instead of Tokyo; Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra instead of MEL and SYD.

The reason why Enrich availability is so high (on MH only) is that as long as there's an available seat, it's up for redemption. Which is also why the amount of miles required is significantly higher than that of competitors'. Then you might as well redeem highly available Standard level awards from KF/SQ.