Cheapest ways to fly between Singapore and North Asia using Miles/Points from Singapore cards

Have you been accumulating a lot of miles/points by using the best cards for your spending? In this article, I’ll be ranking the cheapest award flights to/from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China that you can redeem your hard-earned credit card miles/points for.

Related: Cheapest ways to fly between Singapore and Europe using Miles/Points from Singapore cards

Singapore Credit Card Transfer Partners

Miles/Points from most credit cards can be transferred to KrisFlyer and Asia Miles. However, as shown in the table below, Citibank cards have many more transfer partners than most others, giving cardholders fantastic flexibility when redeeming for an award flight.

In the Miles Game, flexibility is very important. For this reason, when deciding which card to transact with (between cards with similar earn rates), I recommend picking Citi, HSBC and Standard Chartered cards over the others.

P.S. Although AMEX has many transfer partners too, they do not have any good cards for earning miles/points.

Frequent Flyer Program	Citibank	HSBC	OCBC	DBS	UOB	Maybank	American Express	Standard Chartered
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands		(TravelOne)
Qatar Airways Privilege Club		(TravelOne, via BA Executive Club)
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles		(TravelOne)
KLM/Air France Flying Blue		(TravelOne)
British Airways Executive Club		(TravelOne)
Qantas Frequent Flyer		(TravelOne)
Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus		(TravelOne)
Etihad Guest		(TravelOne)
Malaysia Airlines Enrich
Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles		(TravelOne)
Air Canada Aeroplan		(TravelOne)
United Airlines MileagePlus		(TravelOne)
Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club		(TravelOne)
Vistara Club Vistara		(TravelOne)
Japan Airlines Mileage Bank		(TravelOne)
Emirates Skywards
China Airlines Dynasty Flyer
Marriott Bonvoy		(TravelOne)
Hilton Honors
Accor Live Limitless		(TravelOne)
IHG One Rewards		(TravelOne)
= Poor transfer ratio

Frequent Flyer Programs and Partner Airlines

The following are the top 5 Frequent Flyer Programs (FFPs) that Singapore credit cardholders should consider, when booking award flights between Singapore and North Asia.

Check for award availability on these pages:

Frequent Flyer Program	Alliance	Booking Link
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer	Star Alliance	All airlines
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles	oneworld	All airlines
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles	Star Alliance	Star Alliance
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands	Star Alliance	EVA Air Star Alliance
KLM/Air France Flying Blue	SkyTeam	All airlines

Miles/Points from every airline’s FFP can also be redeemed for flights on partner airlines.

For example, miles in EVA Air MileageLands can be redeemed for flights on its Star Alliance partners like Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways and All Nippon Airways.

Star Alliance

Here are some Star Alliance airlines that you can fly in, between Singapore and North Asia:

• Singapore Airlines
• EVA Air
• Thai Airways
• All Nippon Airways
• Asiana

oneworld

Here are some oneworld airlines that you can fly in, between Singapore and North Asia:

• Cathay Pacific
• Malaysia Airlines
• Japan Airlines

SkyTeam

Here are some SkyTeam airlines that you can fly in, between Singapore and North Asia:

• China Airlines
• Korean Air
• Vietnam Airlines

Cheapest ways to fly between Singapore and North Asia

The award rates shown below are only for the lowest rates available on each FFP, ignoring low-value “Advantage” or “non-promotional” rates that some FFPs offer.

Economy Class

Travellers are usually advised against redeeming miles/points for Economy Class flights as they can often get far better value on Premium classes. For example, Business Class flights from Singapore to North Asia cost as much as 400% more in cash (vs Economy), but only require as little as 43% more in miles.

However, travellers who can only travel during peak holiday seasons (when Business Class availability is bad), or have a large family to redeem for can still get good value by redeeming their miles/points for Economy Class flights on some airlines/FFPs, especially when the cash fares are very high.

Here are the cheapest ways to travel between Singapore and North Asia, in Economy Class, with miles/points from Singapore credit cards:

Frequent Flyer Program	Airline	Miles (one-way, Economy)		Taxes/ Fees (estimated)
		Hong Kong, Taiwan, China	Japan, Korea
Infinity Mileage- Lands	EVA Air	17.5k	17.5k	~S$100 – S$150
Infinity Mileage- Lands	Singapore Airlines	20k – 25k	25k	~S$65
Infinity Mileage- Lands	Star Alliance	20k – 25k	25k	~S$190 – S$250
Asia Miles	oneworld	10k – 27k	20k – 27k	~S$85 – S$280
Flying Blue	China Airlines, Korean Air	14.5k – 29.5k	24k – 29.5k	~S$65 – S$150
Miles& Smiles	Singapore Airlines	20k	20k	~S$65
Miles& Smiles	Star Alliance	20k	20k	~S$190 – S$250
KrisFlyer	Singapore Airlines	16.5k – 21.5k	27k	~S$65
KrisFlyer	Star Alliance	16.5k – 27k	27k	~S$190 – S$250

Premium Economy

This is a smaller list, as not all airlines have Premium Economy seats on flights to/from Singapore. On top of that, not all FFPs have the Premium Economy class listed in their award charts.

Here are the cheapest ways to travel between Singapore and North Asia, in Premium Economy Class, with miles/points from Singapore credit cards:

Frequent Flyer Program	Airline	Miles (one-way, Premium Economy)		Taxes/ Fees (estimated)
		Hong Kong, Taiwan, China	Japan, Korea
Infinity Mileage- Lands	EVA Air	20k	20k	~S$100 – S$150
Asia Miles	Cathay Pacific	23k – 38k	38k	~S$100 – S$180
KrisFlyer	Singapore Airlines	26.5k – 34.5k	37.5k	~S$65

Business Class

Here are the cheapest ways to travel between Singapore and North Asia, in Business Class, with miles/points from Singapore credit cards:

Frequent Flyer Program	Airline	Miles (one-way, Business)		Taxes/ Fees (estimated)
		Hong Kong, Taiwan, China	Japan, Korea
Infinity Mileage- Lands	EVA Air	25k	25k	~S$100 – S$150
Infinity Mileage- Lands	Singapore Airlines	35k – 40k	40k	~S$65
Infinity Mileage- Lands	Star Alliance	35k – 40k	40k	~S$190 – S$250
Flying Blue	China Airlines	28.5k – 59k	54k – 60k	~S$100 – S$150
Miles& Smiles	Singapore Airlines	35k	–	~S$65
Miles& Smiles	Star Alliance	35k	35k	~S$190 – S$250
Asia Miles	oneworld	32k – 63k	58k – 63k	~S$100 – S$280
KrisFlyer	Singapore Airlines	34k – 43k	52k	~S$65
KrisFlyer	Star Alliance	46k – 52.5k	52.5k	~S$190 – S$250

First Class

This is also a small list as not all airlines have First Class seats on flights to/from Singapore, and not all FFPs allow booking of First Class awards for partner airlines.

Here are the cheapest ways to travel between Singapore and North Asia, in First Class, with miles/points from Singapore credit cards:

Frequent Flyer Program	Airline	Miles (one-way, First)		Taxes/ Fees (estimated)
		Hong Kong, Taiwan, China	Japan, Korea
Infinity Mileage- Lands	Singapore Airlines	62.5k	62.5k	~S$65
KrisFlyer	Singapore Airlines	45k – 58.5k	77k	~S$65

Why are some taxes/fees so high?

The taxes and fees on award flights depend on a number of factors:

1. Airport fees
2. Whether the airline carries fuel surcharges (e.g. Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines do not)
3. Whether the FFP passes on fuel surcharges (e.g. KrisFlyer does not, but only on Singapore Airlines flights)
4. The amount of fuel surcharges (e.g. EVA Air has fairly low fuel surcharges but Thai Airways has much more, for the same flight distance)
5. Other additional FFP/airline fees

Should you only aim for redemptions with low taxes/fees? The short answer is no.

In some cases, the FFP-airline combination that has low taxes/fees, also has a much higher mileage requirement.

For example, to travel to Tokyo in Business Class, a traveller can redeem just 25k miles + ~S$150 in taxes/fees for EVA Air flights with Infinity MileageLands. With KrisFlyer, the traveller needs 52k miles + ~S$62. That’s S$88 less cash for 27k more miles (worth S$430)!

While Infinity MileageLands looks like a clear winner here, there are also other factors that can influence your decision, as everyone’s a different traveller:

1. Do you care about the values of miles?
2. Is there award availability for your preferred route/date?
3. Do you only want to fly direct?
4. Are you earning miles much faster than you have time to redeem them?
5. Do you only want to fly for (close to) free?
6. Does the airline fly to your preferred destination?
7. Do you have miles that are expiring very soon?
8. Are there any special transfer bonus or award discount offers?
9. Do you prefer the seat/food/service on some airlines?
10. Do you feel the need to “make good use” of your airline status by sticking to a particular airline/alliance?

How to search for award space

To check if there is award availability, travellers can visit the respective FFPs’ website. However, most of them are slow as they only allow users to search date-by-date or week-by-week.

Search faster with calendar views

For oneworld flights, travellers can search for partner award availability much faster through the calendar view on American Airlines’ website.

For Star Alliance, this can be done on Avianca Lifemiles’ website. However, I do not find the calendar view to be very accurate in displaying award availability.

Use these websites only as a guide and ignore the mileage requirements that are listed. When you see availability, repeat the search on the website of your preferred FFP.

Do note that some FFPs, like KrisFlyer and Infinity MileageLands, may release more award seats on their own airlines. This means that members will not be able to see the additional award availability on partner websites like AAdvantage or Lifemiles.

Independent award search engines

Travellers can also find near-term award availability across different FFPs, airlines or alliances through independent search engines like seats.aero and awardfares.com.

Again, use these websites only as a guide and repeat the search on the website of your preferred FFPs.

Get alerted when there is award space

Travellers can also receive alerts when there is award availability on their preferred date and route, with paid services from websites like expertflyer.com and seatspy.com.

Bottom line

The “best” award redemption depends almost entirely on your preferences. There is no right answer, as everyone’s a different traveller.

I hope that this article gave you the required knowledge to make the best decisions to suit your travel needs, when redeeming miles/points for flights between Singapore and North Asia.