Deciding on your miles redemption goal

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Possible Star Alliance round-the-world route

Possible Star Alliance round-the-world route

I recommend always having redemption goals to ‘spend’ your miles/points on for the following reasons:

  1. Miles and points depreciate over time as Airlines and Hotels make new changes to their loyalty programs. More often than not, these changes are for the worse and a lot of them come into effect without prior notice.

  2. To make better decisions on which cards to use for your spending.

  3. To calculate how long it will take to achieve your goal so that you can plan the trip ahead of time.

  4. Miles expire.

  5. Motivation to ditch cash and stop wasting time queuing at ATMs and money changers. 😛

Here’s an example:

Mike calculated that he spends an average of $1,200 a month on utilities, dining, transport, groceries and online shopping. He also forecasted that he will be spending around $2,000 on an upcoming trip to Japan. This makes a total spending of $16,400 in the next 12 months. With the right credit card usage, Mike would have accumulated at least 65,600 miles. Upon examining Singapore Airline’s Award Chart, Mike found that he would be able to redeem for a number of dream flights:

  1. 40,500 miles: One-way flight to Hong Kong in the latest Singapore Airlines First Class Suite

  2. 56,000 miles: Return flights to Christchurch in Singapore Airlines Economy Class

Or…Mike can accumulate these miles over 4 years and book an epic Star Alliance round-the-world trip in Business Class with 240,000 miles!

What if I have very low monthly spending?

Jane spends $300 a month and forecasted that she will be spending $500 for a new phone in the coming months. With the right credit card usage, Jane would have accumulated about 31,000 miles after two years. Jane plans to make either of the following redemptions with those miles:

  1. 25,000 miles: One-way flight to Japan, South Korea or Istanbul in Singapore Airlines Economy Class

  2. 28,000 miles: One-way flight to Sydney in Singapore Airlines Economy Class

  3. 30,500 miles: One-way flight to Taiwan in Singapore Airlines Business Class

  4. 30,000 miles: Return flights to Taiwan in Singapore Airlines Economy Class

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Fai

Founder & Writer at Suitesmile

Suites and miles make me smile :)

Fai has been travel hacking for over a decade, visiting 50+ countries through high-value redemptions of miles and points and helping readers save thousands on travel, including in Business and First Class flights and luxury hotels. As a recognized expert, his insights have been featured in major media publications like Channel News Asia and The Straits Times.

All reviews and recommendations come from Fai's own credit card use, travels and research, with rare sponsored articles clearly disclosed.

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