Selected destinations only, fly between 1 March and 30 April.

Singapore Airlines have launched a very interesting promotion, offering 50% extra miles for business class trips to select destinations in Europe and USA.

The fares will have to be booked in Business Flexi fare (J, C, Z class), which are the three highest fare classes in the business cabin.

Which routes are eligible for this bonus?

Only the following destinations are eligible for the 50% bonus:

• Europe: Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, London, Munich and Zurich
• USA: New York (Newark) and San Francisco

Are Business Flexi fares worth it?

Given that you are buying essentially a flexible fare which are typically more expensive, expect to shell out up to 50% more than the lite fare.

Also, if you typically clock miles through corporate travel, your company travel policy may not allow you to buy into a higher fare class as required by the promotion, so be sure to check.

For ease of comparison, here are some sample fares in April to all the destinations, based on a weekday departure and 7-days stay overseas:

Destination	Business Lite fare (S$)	Business Flexi fare (S$)	Fare diff	Base miles (based on Lite fare)	Bonus miles (Flexi fare 20% bonus + 50%)	CPM for bonus (S$)
Amsterdam	6,039	8,585	2,546	16,330	11,431	0.222
Paris	5,445	7,837	2,392	16,658	11,661	0.205
Frankfurt	5,961	7,926	1,965	15,968	11,178	0.176
London	5,707	8,638	2,931	16,904	11,833	0.248
Munich	6,039	8,439	2,400	15,626	10,938	0.219
Zurich	5,952	8,352	2,400	16,008	11,206	0.214
Newark	7,341	9,751	2,410	23,824	16,677	0.145
San Francisco	6,726	9,951	3,225	21,100	14,770	0.218
San Francisco (via HKG)	6,786	10,011	3,225	21,274	14,892	0.217

As exemplified above, the cost per additional mile ranges between 14.5 cents to 24.8 cents, which is a poor value. The 50% bonus miles also do not count towards elite status, so you won’t get your Elite Gold any faster with this promotion. While you will still get bonus miles for the extra spending on your credit card (e.g. clocking 4mpd on your OCBC 90N), that will bring down your CPM to about 11.6 cents, which is still an extremely high cost.

Ironically, it’s actually cheaper to buy miles directly from Krisflyer, at a rate of USD40 (SGD56) per 1,000 miles block. At that rate, 12,000 miles will set you back by USD480 (SGD672), and you will also earn points on that spend if you use the right credit card (e.g. 3mpd on the DBS Altitude Visa).

Final thoughts

You should only do it if you are travelling on someone else’s money (e.g. your company), and that you are able to switch it up without forking out more money.

You are better off deferring that additional spending, and set it towards another business class ticket in the future.

This is obviously a very poor value promotion, which is of little to almost no value for leisure travellers who are spending their own money to get the extra miles. The incentive to up-sell to a better yielding fare class is just not there – especially when the fare difference is so large.

Singapore Airlines might simply fare better if they had thrown in a one-time free visit to the first class lounge for this promotion, perhaps?