I spent time this holiday weekend looking for flights to Southeast Asia for early next year. I had a deadline because the Singapore Airlines award price increase went into effect on July 5th and I had to decide if I was going to book with them or was there another, better option.
I’ve searched for enough award tickets to know that I will probably not find the perfect flights on the first try. It’s going to take time going over different airlines, cities and loyalty programs to find the best deal. Knowing the various airline alliances helps when looking for award sweet spots.
After searching a few sets of city pairs, I saw almost zero business class saver award space with partner airlines. When I searched United MileagePlan for flights to Vietnam, the only options were flying the TPAC leg on United metal and connecting to either ANA, Asiana or Singapore for 180,000 miles per person. I looked at every Star Alliance partner and didn’t find any flights with award space.
I switched to look for award space with American AAdvantage. The airline’s use of married segment award tickets was maddening. For example, I found saver space on JAL for 60K miles for a flight from SEA-NRT but only for one ticket. However, if I searched for LAX-NRT, I could book two award seats for ONT-SEA-NRT traveling on the same JAL flight. AA also lets you book an LAX-SFO-NRT or SFO-LAX-NRT for 110K miles, but neither of the non-stop flights shows up for award tickets.
Forget about looking for SkyTeam, as the only flights to Asia are on Delta metal connecting to Vietnam Airlines, and those all cost 300K Skymiles.
Thanks to a search on Point.me, I found that Singapore Airlines had award space at the saver level for KrisFlyer bookings. Singapore releases more award space to its members than it makes available to partners, so it’s a viable option to look there if no other space is open. Award flights with KrisFlyer aren’t cheap, but 95K points (now 107K) for 15+ hours in business class on Singapore Airlines isn’t a bad deal. And since KrisFlyer partners with all of the major banks, earning points to use for award flights isn’t difficult.
You might end up paying 50% more than if you’d find saver space with American AAdvantage, but with that being almost non-existent, you have to learn how to find the next best option. Sometimes that involves spending a few more points than you were planning on.
Final Thoughts
While saver space isn’t dead, it’s challenging to find. When you find it, you might have to fly an unnecessary connection to get the ticket. If you have the time and don’t mind being on a plane, that might not be a problem. However, with air travel being the mess it is at the moment, there are very few people who will voluntarily put themselves in a situation where they could be stranded. Airlines know people are willing to pay more for favorable routings and they’ve now found a way to get us to spend more points for those same award tickets.
If you’re looking for saver award space, pack your patience and be willing to make some concessions. If you’re not having any luck, this may be a good time to use an award booking service.
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