You can now redeem Alaska MileagePlan miles for worldwide travel on Singapore Airlines. How does award space access compare to Singapore’s other partners and Singapore’s own KrisFlyer program?
After announcing a partnership in 2017, Alaska MileagePlan members can finally redeem miles for travel on Singapore Airlines.
Which Regions Can You Use Your Alaska Miles For Travel On Singapore Airlines?
Put simply, flights between the USA and Europe are off-limits as stand-alone Fifth Freedom flights, but everything else is theoretically bookable. Singapore offers two Fifth Freedom flights between the USA and Europe including Houston (IAH) to Manchester (MAN) and New York (JFK) to Frankfurt (FRA).
Meanwhile, prices to other regions to/from the USA are on the high side for Singapore Airlines. This is especially true when you compare the cost of other Alaska partners like Cathay Pacific, which require far fewer miles and consider that Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles are quite easy to come by compared to Alaska miles. That said, there are some sweet spots on the award chart.
Alaska Airlines Award Charts For Travel On Singapore Airlines
USA ⇄ Asia
US ⇄ Africa
US ⇄ South Pacific
US ⇄ India
US ⇄ Middle East
Asia ⇄ Asia
Asia ⇄ Middle East
Asia ⇄ South Pacific
Europee ⇄ Asia
Europe ⇄ South Pacific
Is Singapore Airlines Blocking Award Space To Alaska MileagePlan Members?
I still have not flown Singapore’s new A380 first class product and was interested to see if Alaska had access to the same premium cabin space as Singapore’s own KrisFlyer members did.
In my research, the answer is no. While award space is more generous than what Singapore releases to StarNet (its Star Alliance partners), it is still more limited than what it offers to its own members.
Let’s take Shanghai to Singapore as an example, one of the easiest routes for scoring award space on the new A380 in first class.
On October 22nd, Singapore Airlines has released saver space on SQ833 to its own members. It also has saver business and first class space on every single flight from Shanghai to Singapore.
Meanwhile, Alaska Airlines has access to most flights, even in first class, but not SQ833.
Still, Alaska’s access is far better than United’s (or other Star Alliance partners) which have no access to first class and access to business class on only one of the five flights.
Thus, Singapore miles continue to give the best access to seats on Singapore. But in terms of partner access, Alaska has better access than United.
CONCLUSION
While not as lucrative as other partners, the ability to use Alaska miles for travel on Singapore Airlines further strengthens the value of MileagePlan. Award redemptions within Asia are a particularly good deal, considering Alaska allows stopovers on one-way awards. Overall, though, I’ll still be using Singapore miles for award travel on Singapore Airlines.
Will you be using your Alaska miles for travel on Singapore Airlines?
Great article and I wanted to point out Alaska website is not calculating some of the mileage correctly. For example Houston to India for example it shows 130K in business versus the 100K. Temp glitch or is it charging extra 30K for flights out of Houston lord alone knows.
SQ flies SFO-HKG as 5th freedom also.
Correct, and LAX-NRT?