CZM has to take a 2 weeks compliance leaves every year and we were planning where to go this time round (we went to London, Iceland and Paris last year). Being a KPO and CFO, in view of the huge expenses last year and next year (wedding + travelling to US for honeymoon), I decided to impose a travel restriction this year.
So my heart melted and I said travel within Asia. We were deciding between Korea or Hokkaido since we have not been to both places yet but eventually settled for Hong Kong because the flights were too expensive in the eyes of a KPO. Few months later...
What else can I do but to give in further? Fortunately, Singapore Airlines to the rescue! I received an email from them with the below promotion:
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| But CZM gave me this look... |
So my heart melted and I said travel within Asia. We were deciding between Korea or Hokkaido since we have not been to both places yet but eventually settled for Hong Kong because the flights were too expensive in the eyes of a KPO. Few months later...
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| CZM said she has nothing to look forward to even with 2 weeks leave... |
What else can I do but to give in further? Fortunately, Singapore Airlines to the rescue! I received an email from them with the below promotion:
CZM and I have successfully accumulated KrisFlyer miles in excess of what is needed to fly to US in SQ Suite class next year! So I was thinking we might as well use the access miles to book our flights for this year since we will not be able to accumulate sufficient miles for a return trip next year ever since SIA devalued/removed the 15% discount for miles redemption.
After looking through the long list of 53 destinations and googling "what to do in XXX", we have decided to travel to Indonesia, Bandung! So I went to SIA site and attempt to book a normal Economy ticket to see what is the actual price. Normally, if our travel date is flexible, we would book the cheapest ticket. However, in order to get the "most value" out of the miles redemption, we decided to go for the more/most expensive tickets since the miles required do not change.
I signed in to my KrisFlyer account and proceed to "redeem flights" for the travel period (23rd Sep - 28th Sep) and the total cost is 7,500 miles + $47.40. KPO then took out his calculator and calculate the rebate he is getting. Assuming miles are generated at a rate of 4 miles per dollar [I would need to spend $1,875 to earn 7,500 miles]: (282.40 - 47.40) / (7,500 / 4) = 12.5%
WOW. That is such a high rebate! KPO then remembered his shifu/master (Milelion) teachings that Economy ticket rebate is between 3 - 4% - What is the value of a mile? KPO decided to investigate further and went to SilkAir website and attempt to book another flight for the same travel period.
Wait a minute, I can get a cheaper ticket for the same flight at $168.40?! KPO punched in the new numbers into his calculator: (168.40 - 47.40) / (7,500 / 4) = 6.5%
Getting 6.5% rebate is still pretty impressive since none of the cashback credit card is capable of giving out such high rebate, teachings of my shifu once again - The ugly truth of cashback cards banks dont want you to know. CZM then reminded me that the rebate higher because of the above 50% promotion, otherwise the rebate would have been 3.25% ((168.40 - 47.40) / (15,000 / 4)).
Some interesting observations made by KPO:
- If we were to compare apple to apple, the Economy Saver of SilkAir cost $267.40 vs the Economy Saver of SIA which is $282.40. (the difference between Economy Super Saver and Economy Saver is in the KrisFlyer miles accrued for your flight - 10% vs 50%)
- You will be paying a premium of $15 for the SIA brand since the ticket issued is SQ 5192 instead of MI 192 for the exact same flight.
With that, we have decided to redeem our flights to Bandung! More adventures, lesser money to invest...
After looking through the long list of 53 destinations and googling "what to do in XXX", we have decided to travel to Indonesia, Bandung! So I went to SIA site and attempt to book a normal Economy ticket to see what is the actual price. Normally, if our travel date is flexible, we would book the cheapest ticket. However, in order to get the "most value" out of the miles redemption, we decided to go for the more/most expensive tickets since the miles required do not change.
 |
| Cheapest tickets are denoted with a top left orange arrow while the best value tickets are highlighted in yellow. |
I signed in to my KrisFlyer account and proceed to "redeem flights" for the travel period (23rd Sep - 28th Sep) and the total cost is 7,500 miles + $47.40. KPO then took out his calculator and calculate the rebate he is getting. Assuming miles are generated at a rate of 4 miles per dollar [I would need to spend $1,875 to earn 7,500 miles]: (282.40 - 47.40) / (7,500 / 4) = 12.5%
 |
| 12.5%?!?! |
WOW. That is such a high rebate! KPO then remembered his shifu/master (Milelion) teachings that Economy ticket rebate is between 3 - 4% - What is the value of a mile? KPO decided to investigate further and went to SilkAir website and attempt to book another flight for the same travel period.
 |
| Cheaper ticket!!! |
Wait a minute, I can get a cheaper ticket for the same flight at $168.40?! KPO punched in the new numbers into his calculator: (168.40 - 47.40) / (7,500 / 4) = 6.5%
Getting 6.5% rebate is still pretty impressive since none of the cashback credit card is capable of giving out such high rebate, teachings of my shifu once again - The ugly truth of cashback cards banks dont want you to know. CZM then reminded me that the rebate higher because of the above 50% promotion, otherwise the rebate would have been 3.25% ((168.40 - 47.40) / (15,000 / 4)).
Some interesting observations made by KPO:
- If we were to compare apple to apple, the Economy Saver of SilkAir cost $267.40 vs the Economy Saver of SIA which is $282.40. (the difference between Economy Super Saver and Economy Saver is in the KrisFlyer miles accrued for your flight - 10% vs 50%)
- You will be paying a premium of $15 for the SIA brand since the ticket issued is SQ 5192 instead of MI 192 for the exact same flight.
With that, we have decided to redeem our flights to Bandung! More adventures, lesser money to invest...
I like the last sentence! It sums up your feelings!!
ReplyDeleteHi Cheryl,
DeleteHahahaha! You are right! Glad that you enjoyed the post/the last sentence :)