italdesign
Level 2 Member
This is just a reflection of why, until now, redeeming KrisFlyer miles for SQ J/F, or AS miles for CX F, made no sense for me. The answer: I don't live in a gateway city, and AA pre-deval was always better.
Earlier this year, when AA already deval'ed and KF was about to "devaluate", I redeemed 68k KF for SQ J LAX-SIN-xxx. Pre-deval AA cost the same - for CX F. But wait, I am paying $300 in fees with the SQ J redemption. That's not all - I also have to position myself to LAX (since I was on a SQ-only booking). And I am staying overnight in LAX, which isn't cheap. I'm burning a Marriott cat5 cert.
So let's recap - I can either use AA miles to fly CX F (or JAL F), OR I can spend the same amount of KF miles to fly SQ J, but I also have to pay $300 cash + positioning flight + overnight hotel stay + extra hassle. It's a no brainer. In fact, even in the post-deval AA world, I'm shaking my head at what a terrible redemption the SQ J is. And the availability was terrible too, even 10 months out (no F, so only J, and not even on the day I wanted). Back in the days CX and JAL had way better availability. I could have paid 70k AA miles and skipped all the other fees - if AA could get me to my destination, which it can't in this case (no oneworld presence), so that makes me feel a bit better.
As for using AS miles, it didn't fly out of my airport so I'd have to position myself too. Now it does, and it's much cheaper for CX F, so I just snagged one. I've missed my cocoon of 2A!
Earlier this year, when AA already deval'ed and KF was about to "devaluate", I redeemed 68k KF for SQ J LAX-SIN-xxx. Pre-deval AA cost the same - for CX F. But wait, I am paying $300 in fees with the SQ J redemption. That's not all - I also have to position myself to LAX (since I was on a SQ-only booking). And I am staying overnight in LAX, which isn't cheap. I'm burning a Marriott cat5 cert.
So let's recap - I can either use AA miles to fly CX F (or JAL F), OR I can spend the same amount of KF miles to fly SQ J, but I also have to pay $300 cash + positioning flight + overnight hotel stay + extra hassle. It's a no brainer. In fact, even in the post-deval AA world, I'm shaking my head at what a terrible redemption the SQ J is. And the availability was terrible too, even 10 months out (no F, so only J, and not even on the day I wanted). Back in the days CX and JAL had way better availability. I could have paid 70k AA miles and skipped all the other fees - if AA could get me to my destination, which it can't in this case (no oneworld presence), so that makes me feel a bit better.
As for using AS miles, it didn't fly out of my airport so I'd have to position myself too. Now it does, and it's much cheaper for CX F, so I just snagged one. I've missed my cocoon of 2A!