With every redemption, there comes a new strategy. In this case, the goal was to get my family overseas from Canada to Singapore. After several weeks of searching, I came up with a redemption that offers outsized value and comfort for the family. It also offers something that’s made my travel partners really excited about. Read on to see what we ended up redeeming.

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This post is one chapter on a trip with my 82 yr old mom from Canada to Singapore. For informaton on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Air Canada Aeroplan and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Trip Introduction: Singapore & Ko Samui, Thailand via Singapore Airlines & Air Canada Business Class

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I had been accumulating Air Canada Aeroplan miles through work and some personal travel on Air Canada, within the Star Alliance network. This was complimented through credit card spend through the Toronto Dominion Air Canada Aeroplan Visa Card and by using the American Express Business Platinum Charge Card.

After our last large Air Canada Aeroplan redemption several years back to Zanzibar and the Seychelles, it was time to plan our next Aeroplan redemption.

The Travel Objective:

North America to South East Asia in Style… for three people.

Based far away from my home in Vancouver, Canada, the other part of the family lives in Singapore. I’ve been fortunate to have visited Singapore several times throughout my life, and it’s always felt like a second home to me. With several aunts, uncles and cousins in the country, it would be great to re-visit them and reconnect.

With my last visit to South East Asia in the year 2015, the pandemic hastened my travel plans to return to Singapore. With my aging mother having not travelled back home in several years, I was looking for a way to get her overseas form Canada to Singapore in comfort. Given that she was in her eighties, I would plan on travelling with her “accompanied” so she wouldn’t get lost in the wide world of travel.

I couldn’t leave MrsWT73 at home, so the objective became for the three of us to get to Singapore in Business Class.

Since Asia was among the last regions in the world to re-open after the pandemic, and with the limited travel to and from China, there haven’t been as many paid business class fares available for purchase. At the time of this booking, Cathay Pacific hadn’t really restarted travel, with a substantial cut in both flight frequencies and reward space availability.

At the time of this post, paid fares were averaging around $4,800 CAD on Phillipines Airlines via Manila, with ANA typically offering fares for $5,500 CAD through Narita, Japan. While not impossible, a paid trip would make a large dent in the wallet for three people.

On the redemption side, mileage redemption opportunities had almost completely dried up. My usual “go to” Star Alliance carriers of Asiana Airlines and Thai Airways offered almost no reward availability. MrsWT73 had put a hard “no” on flying internationally with Air India, despite there being a lot of reward space available throughout the calendar on the Vancouver – New Delhi Boeing 777-300LR route. I wasn’t even able to tempt her with an Air India First Class cabin. As a result, I had to look for other options.

Air Canada introduced a new Vancouver – Singapore non stop route earlier this year. Unfortunately, they offered out outrageous redemption rates on their aircraft, with each ticket coming in at about 150,000 to 225,000 per direction in business class if the ticket required use of their aircraft. This seemed to be a bit greedy on their part, but an unfortunate reality of their new Aeroplan dynamic pricing award program.

Identifying the Redemption Strategy:

I was able to study the Star Alliance business reward availability release patterns, and I discovered that Lufthansa was typically releasing limited business class award space at about 14 days out, if capacity was soft. These combinations offered terrible nine hour layovers in Germany, and came at a higher 115,000 Aeroplan miles each due to the longer distance. While not ideal, this offered an option to connect on the longer Vancouver – Munich – Singapore.

While I could typically find space going out to Singapore, I had some challenges finding space coming back. Given work commitments, I wasn’t all that comfortable taking an open ended approach to this by booking a one way ticket and chancing the return. Nor was I really into last minute travel, also as a result of those work commitments and projects.

Redeeming for Coveted Singapore Airlines:

As I was working this problem, it eventually struck me to search the business class saver award calendar in a different manner. Instead of searching for “in close” availability, I searched for availability at the opening of the award calendar at about 315 – 330 days out.

I happened to find a substantial amount of Singapore Airlines Business Class award availability. Typically, these were two or four seats on flights to and from the America’s on their non stop to Singapore from their San Francisco and Los Angeles portals.

Even better, these flights were available for 87,500 Aeroplan Miles and $130 CAD each, in their business saver award availability award bucket.

This was at a lower price point than Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer offered the same flight. As a Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer member, the same flight would cost 107,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles each way in their Saver Award inventory. Score!

Redeeming the Miles:

I ended up working the calendar and identifying a two week bank of dates that would allow the three of us to travel overseas on the same date in Singapore Airlines Business Class.

While I was not able to get all three of us on the same flight, I was able to get us all on the same travel days. I would aim on purchasing paid positioning tickets in the future to get to our departure cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles.

For the most part, I was only able to book the Singapore Airlines metal, but I was able to get MrsWT73 all the way back from Singapore to Vancouver in business class using a combination of Singapore Airlines and Air Canada metal.

In the end, I was able to book my mom and I on Singapore Airlines Business Class San Francisco – Singapore and Singapore Airlines Business Class Singapore – Los Angeles for both directions in the saver category for 350,000 Aeroplan miles round trip, and $337.40 in taxes and fees. This routing also allowed me to get in to take a look at the spectacular United Airlines Polaris Lounge San Francisco, which had some how escaped me up to this point.

I was able to ticket MrsWT73 on a similar routing for half the amount, at 175,000 round trip.

I had to top off my Air Canada Aeroplan account with a small amount of points from American Express Membership Rewards in order to make this happen. The transfer took approximately fifteen minute and was seamless.

This redemption would allow us to travel in comfort and reasonable luxury on the fourteen hour flight from the America’s, to my adopted second home in South East Asia.

It would also mark the first time my mother, who has been travelling for sixty years throughout her adult life, would get to fly in International Business Class. Needless to say, she’s pretty curious and excited to get to travel with her son, all that way in reasonable comfort.

Constructing the Trip:

I was not able to get the required Air Canada segments in saver reward space to the departure and arrival cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles. As a result, I ended up purchasing two positioning flights from Vancouver to the Singapore Airlines gateway cities in Air Canada Business Class. I ended up with Air Canada Business Class Vancouver – San Francisco, and Air Canada Business Class Los Angeles – Vancouver.

Playing it safe when travelling with an 82-year-old, we flew down a day earlier to avoid any mis connects. I booked an overnight at the Westin San Francisco and the Marriott LAX; both properties which I have stayed at before.

For the Thailand portion of the trip, we decided to visit Ko Samui – Thailand. We had debated returning to the Maldives. However, it was rainy season in the Maldives. It didn’t make sense to fly five hours to Malé, followed by another sea plane and boat connection for a short holiday. We debated against Bali – Indonesia (which we had previously visited) and Langkawi -Malaysia (which we have not yet visited). The W Ko Samui looked to be so attractive so we ended up deciding on Thailand.

The Ko Samui airport has a monopoly on flights. Since the airport is owned and operated by Bangkok airways, there are limited carriers that fly in and out. Departing from Singapore, only Bangkok Airways and low cost carrier Singapore Airlines Scoot operate this route.

Comparing between the two, Bangkok Airways offered the more competitive fare as seat selection and checked baggage was included, whereas scoot offered seat selection and baggage as an additional add-on fee. We would end up purchasing a Bangkok Airways ticket and crediting the flight mileage to Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios.

Planning Hotels:

Being fans of the Marriott bonvoy program, we reviewed a number of Marriott properties in Ko Samui. The luxury collection Vanabel property looked appealing however it looked a little bit older for our tastes. There was also a Ritz Carlton but we ended up staying at the fantastic W Ko Samui.

We were able to obtain a great cash and points points saver redemption at the W Ko Samui for six nights and 282,000 points. We would end up applying a nightly upgrade award into a fantastic Ocean Front Villa that offered tremendous space along with a private pool.

My Thoughts on My Latest Redemption: Singapore Airlines Business Class

I am pretty stoked to get a redemption in Singapore Airlines Business Class. The cherry on top is the fact I was able to get it for the saver award price of 87,500 Aeroplan miles for each ticket; an even better price than within the Singapore Airlines Krisflyer program which offers the same seat for 107,000 KrisFlyer miles each.

My mom is really looking forward to this trip and the opportunity to fly international business class on Singapore Airlines for the first time in her life, despite travelling for over sixty years.

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Have you redeemed for Singapore Airlines Business Class using Aeroplan miles ?

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