I recently traveled from Atlanta to Frankfurt, Germany completely in First and International Business class for less than $150 out of pocket thanks to a generous signup bonus and transfer promotion from American Express. Keep reading to see how I did it!
Full Disclosure: I receive a referral bonus from some of the application links that I share within this post. As always, I will let you know how good the offer is, and if there is currently a higher offer available via a different link. As much as I love referral bonuses, I want each and every one of you to get the best deal possible!
Booking the Flights
Booking an airline’s best Product (e.g. Singapore Airlines Suites, Emirates First Class, Lufthansa First Class) can be extremely difficult to do, so it requires a lot of patience, flexibility, and good timing. These airlines regularly charge $10,000-$15,000 for flights when passengers pay cash, so they tend to have extremely limited “award” availability.
Possibly the only good thing to come from the pandemic is that airlines became more flexible with both change/cancellation fees, and opened up additional award availability due to low demand for cash fares. This, combined with a fantastic mile transfer promotion from American Express combined to make this trip possible. In early December 2021, my absolute favorite travel site, One Mile at a Time published an article stating that Singapore Airlines had opened up Suites availability for flights from New York to Frankfurt throughout the Summer of 2022. Given the turbulent Covid-19 situation, I opted to search for the latest flights I could, and managed to find a flight with availability at the very end of July, and best of all, it was at the “saver” cost level of only 86,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles plus $5.60 in taxes and fees. I couldn’t find saver level award availability in Singapore Suites on the flight home, so I opted to fly back in their new Business Class seat for another 72,000 KrisFlyer miles plus €117.97.
Singapore’s A380, the massive jet which operates with the Suites product onboard, has a very limited route network, so I was going to have to fly to New York JFK to catch my ride. Luckily, I still didn’t have to pay cash to get there as Virgin Atlantic allows me to book Delta-operated Domestic First Class seats for a much better deal than Delta’s own Skymiles program. I snagged a Roundtrip flight from ATL-JFK for 55,000 Virgin Atlantic Points plus $11.20 in taxes and fees.
Yeah, but how did you get those KrisFlyer and Virgin Atlantic Miles?
Great question, as I rarely pay cash for my flights, I have to “earn” the miles another way. Luckily, the three largest players in the Credit Card market, American Express, Chase, and Citibank, all partner with both of the programs I needed miles in, and fairly routinely offer transfer bonuses which give me even more value when I do choose to transfer. In this case, I only needed to redeem 132,000 Amex Membership Rewards points to cover the Singapore Airlines flights due to a 20% transfer bonus, and 40,000 Amex Membership Rewards points for the Delta flights due to a 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic.172,000 Amex Membership Rewards points may sound like a lot, and it is, but they are easier than ever to earn! I was able to earn enough points in one year thanks to the Amex Platinum’s generous 100,000 point sign up bonus for spending $6,000 in the first 6 months of having the card. That combined with the 5X Membership Rewards per dollar earning rate for Airline Tickets purchased from Amex Travel or directly with the airline and Prepaid Hotels through Amex Travel made it easy to earn them quickly. Now, the Amex Platinum Card doesn’t come cheap. The annual fee is a whopping $695 a year. But the card features benefits far beyond the point earning which make this much easier to pay. That being said, if you want another solid option with a more modest annual fee, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is a fantastic option as it earns 3X Ultimate Rewards Points per dollar spent on Dining, Travel, and online grocery delivery/pickup purchases like InstaCart and Publix In-Store Pickup. It also offers 5X points per dollar on travel booked through Chase Travel, similar to the Amex Platinum. Finally, you receive a 10% rebate on points earned each year on the card (excluding the signup bonus). This card currently offers a 60,000 Ultimate Rewards Points signup bonus when you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months of having the card. We have seen 80,000 and even 100,000 point (once) signup offers on this card before, but banks seem to be tightening up their signup offers due to rising interest rates.
One Important Note About Transferring Amex, Chase, or Citi Rewards Points to Airlines is that these transfers are final, so you can’t get your points back. Airlines in particular also have a nasty habit of devaluing their miles (I’m looking at you, Delta) frequently, so you don’t want to transfer them unless you have travel plans and/or there is a transfer bonus too good to pass up.
Traveling in Style
I’m going to get right to it. SIngapore Airlines Suites is the best airline product in the world, and their Business class is a close second. I knew it was going to be great, but I was not prepared for just how good it ended up being. Below are some images of the Suites product, including onboard dining which is hand-prepared for you by their signature “Book the Cook” program. In the spirit of keeping this post short, I will save the details about the service in both Singapore Airlines Suites and Business Class, including lounge access, amenity kits, and more for the next post, which should be up soon.
Ramblin' Rewards 