In November of 2017, Singapore Airlines announced their intention to make Star Alliance partner award tickets available online starting December 7th, 2017. With this announcement comes the ability to book United award flights with Singapore KrisFlyer miles online.
Per the image below, Singapore Airlines is progressively rolling out redemptions with their Star Alliance partner airlines. However, the ability to book United award flights with Singapore KrisFlyer miles online is now live.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles are some of the easiest points and miles to come by. They are transferable from all four of the major transferable points currencies; American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, & Citi ThankYou Rewards at a 1:1 transfer ratio and Marriott Rewards at a 3:1 ratio.
You can easily transfer the bonus miles from credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve into your KrisFlyer account to book award tickets on Singapore or partner airlines like United.
Better United Award Pricing
The biggest advantage to booking United award flights with Singapore KrisFlyer miles is that award pricing can be much better than United's for the exact same flights. For example, I found award availability on the flight pictured below from Los Angeles to Honolulu, Hawaii for a week in October. If I were to use United Airlines miles to pay for this flight, it would cost me 45,000 miles and $11.20.
I was able to find award availability for the exact same United flight while searching on the Singapore KrisFlyer website. As you can see, I am able to book this for 35,000 KrisFlyer miles. This is 10,000 miles less than I would have paid for the same flight on United's website. This example is for an economy ticket but you should be able to find first/business class availability for fewer miles on Singapore as well.
How to Book United Awards With Singapore Airlines
Use United.com to find your award space – You will first want to search for the United route you are interested in on United.com. Make sure you are not logged into your United MileagePlus account as this can potentially show you availability that will not be available on the Singapore website.
Find the same flight on Singapore's website – When you get to Singaporeair.com you will need to navigate to the “Book a trip” tab. You will then need to click on “Redeem flights” as this is the only way to select an airport that Singapore doesn't have service into. From here, you will enter in the routing from your search on the United website. I had the best luck searching for routes originating on the west coast.
Transfer points into your Singapore KrisFlyer account – Assuming you do not have enough miles to book the routing you found, you will need to transfer the points into your account. As mentioned above, you can transfer into Singapore's KrisFlyer program from all four of the major transferable points currencies.
Make sure to budget a few days of transfer time – None of the transfers from the four major transfer currencies will be instant. Because of this, there is a chance that your award might be gone by the time you are able to book.
Book the award ticket – Once the miles are in your Singapore KrisFlyer account from the step above. You can book your award ticket.
Bottom Line
The Star Alliance partnership between United Airlines and Singapore Airlines offers a great way to save valuable points & miles on a United award ticket. Singapore KrisFlyer miles are incredibly easy to come by as they are transferable from all four of the major transferable points currencies. Need Singapore KrisFlyer miles? Visit our Top Credit Cards page.
I’m following the steps above to book a flight on the West Coast of the USA but I keep getting the error –
Invalid flight sector for the selected carrier. Any advice?
Hey Paul, this may mean that there is no availability through Singapore. Not all flights that are available on United will be bookable via Singapore unfortunately. If it is showing on Singapore’s website, you may have to call them to book.
When you wrote, “if it is showing on Singapore’s website”,
did you mean to write “if it is NOT showing”?
ie, can you call them if it doesnt appear on the website?
If it’s not showing there is no award space. If it is showing there is award space. He wasn’t able to complete the booking online so in this case a call may be warranted
I have miles from my chase United card, can I transfer those points to Kris flyer?
Hi Dave, unfortunately no. This won’t work. Singapore miles are transferable from all five major bank point currencies though (Amex, Chase, Capital One, Citi, Marriott)
Ty!
Can I use Kris Flyer miles to book flights on Air Canada?
I’m not seeing it showed on their site when searching.
Will calling help?
I don’t believe this is possible.
I have been unable to find ANY United flights whatsoever when searching for flights on the Singapore website. Singapore only seems to be showing their reward flights at the moment. Is this a website glitch, a browser glitch or something else as I have been easily able to see United, Lufthansa, and Swiss reward flights when I have searched in the past.
It’s hard to say for sure. In order for there to be availability, United has to release partner award space which can go in waves.
Have you had any luck booking connecting flights? My home airport is RDU which typically connects through a larger airport for long haul and international flights.
Hi Steve. You’ll likely have more luck searching from a United hub.
does this service LAX to IAD? i see no flights
Using the steps outlined, I found an award flight on UA for IAD-LAX, but when I went to SA to redeem points for the same date, there is no availability (using the options of Star Alliance and Other Partners). Doesn’t seem to work no matter what dates I choose. Economy or Business Class. Is this best to call Singapore Airlines to book?
PR, I am encountering the same issue. I emailed with Singapore/KrisFlyer customer service a few times and the award flight I want does not come up on their system (though it’s available on the United site, even when i’m not logged in). Would love to hear if you have more info. Thanks!
Can you book one way flights or do they have to be RT?