Shockingly, that title is not a click bait-and-switch, but it is inflated by fancy international flights π . These palaces in the sky are one of the parts of travel that my Mom loves most and I’m so happy that after shelling out $7,000 for a 1/3 off Emirates First Class ticket in 2012, I discovered the wonder of travel hacking, which has allowed us to fly in these wild cabins for almost free.
Originally I was sucked into this world of travel hacking and read all the blogs, made all the spreadsheets, and created all the plans to fly around the world in style. Then I showed my Mom how I did this and she got HOOKED! My Mom quickly surpassed me in traveling hacking prowess and at this point is the mastermind behind our travels together.
So now we’re in a new situation. My Mom and I accumulated a shitton of points in anticipation of my retirement in 2020, and after the pandemic hit we had to cancel all those plans. However, now that the pandemic seems to be winding down, those points are about to expire. So my Mom and I had to figure out how to spend them before our years of work were wasted. Enter: This Travel Spree π .
I want to give that context because it seems like we might be entering into a new world of airline points, where they are FAR less valuable. Airlines are (understandably) hurting after decreased travel during the height of the pandemic and as a result, have increased their points requirements for flights. It’s becoming much harder to use points for flights, specifically the luxury flights I’ll discuss in detail below. Overall, I’ve been finding that the (higher) amount of points required might not be worth it.
So I wanted to spell that out before explaining everything I used my points for in 2022. This might not be the most ideal way to use them, but a lot of them are expiring so it’s my last chance – and I might as well get a lovely free flight out of it π .
So with those caveats, let’s get into it and see everything I booked with points in 2022!
This year, using points I flew to:
- Phuket, Thailand (via Singapore and Abu Dhabi)
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
And booked flights with points to:
- Germany
- Singapore
- Australia
- New Zealand
- NYC
AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND TRIP
Singapore Air First Class Suites (The Original Booking)
Flight Cost: $15,129
Hours: 19 hours
Route: NYC to Singapore
Points: 243,000 Krisflyer points
Taxes: $27.30 USD
Here we go again π . If you were reading this blog in 2019 you might remember that my Mom and I booked the Etihad Apartments to go from the US to Australia for my ‘Victory Lap’ to celebrate my retirement in 2020. Obviously, that didn’t happen π .
And when the world finally opened up again, it was different both in the ways I mentioned above, but also in what flights are available for points or purchase. In fact, Etihad grounded all the A380 planes that had those First Class Apartments.
Fortunately after my lackluster experience in Etihad Business Class (Part 1 & Part 2), I’m no longer broken up about it π . So we started looking for another option that got us excited about this long flight and found this:
Mom and I just booked First Class Singapore Air Suites for 21 hours of flying timeβοΈπ. All travel hacked – we only paid $50 in taxesπ€. Am I beyond excited?! Yes I am!!!π₯°ππΎπ± pic.twitter.com/16LtHmm05s
— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) September 27, 2022
So how did this come about? We wanted to go from JFK to Sydney, Australia in this Singapore Air First Class Suite and the Singapore Air website kept showing that that wasn’t possible in First Class Suites (though it was possible in Business or Economy…). So basically website weirdness prevented us from booking the whole thing at once.
However, if you look leg by leg, this is possible in the First Class Suites so we booked two separate legs:
- JFK-SIN in First Class Suites
- SIN-SYD in Business Class (which I’ll discuss the rationale behind in the below section)
Just a heads up that this JFK-SIN leg technically has a ‘stop’ in Frankfurt, Germany, but this entire section from JFK to Singapore has the same flight number and only has you pick your seat once so we suspect this is actually a gas-up stop and that we won’t have to get off the plane at all.
Also, Singapore Air is one of the airlines that allows you to book the farthest in advance of your flight that I’ve seen – a whole 355 days. My Mom (who may be a vampire π ) was often up at 4-5am ET and found that there was the most availability for this flight during that time.
So with all that figured out, we were excited to experience this luxury:
We were booked!…Or were we? Remember when I said this shit was getting a lot harder? Well…my Mom and I also have horrible travel luck π so of course that wasn’t the end of the story unfortunately. Like many of our travel tales, there was a twist. My Mom and I booked this trip in September 2022 for our trip in September 2023. In November 2022, we received an email saying that Singapore Air had changed our seats…but that was burying the lede.
What they had actually done was pull all their A380 aircrafts (the ones with Suites) from the US completely. We were no longer in a Suite, but in a First Class seat…with no return of points for this downgrade. Surprisingly, the cost is the same between the First Class seat and a Suite ticket. Travel hacking and airline pricing is often not logical π .
After being SO excited about this trip, we were a bit gutted about the change, but quickly realized we were overreacting. We’d still never been in a First Class Singapore Air seat before and it would be a lovely new experience.
BUT THEN – my Mom got a genius idea π . She realized that while the A380 was being pulled from the US, it wasn’t being pulled from the Singapore to Sydney route we were also taking (originally in Business Class as I explained above). So we changed our flight to be in the Suites for that leg. We went from JFK to SIN in Suites and SIN to SYD in Business Class to JFK to SIN in First Class and SIN to SYD in Suites. That sounds like an upgrade overall π .
Singapore Air First Class Suites (The Changed Booking)
So our actual Suites situation now looks like this:
Flight Cost: $4,280
Hours: 7 hours, 40 minutes
Route: Singapore to Sydney
Points: 155,000 Krisflyer points
Taxes: $26.89
We upgraded our Business Class seats to the Suites for this leg, and the flight we were able to find included a 20 hour layover, which will allow me to go into Singapore and finally meet my Singapore readers that have been asking about it for a while!
Then after we had figured all that out, we received this email:
Dear Sir/Madam,
Due to operational reasons, there has been an aircraft change from an Airbus A380 to a Boeing 777-300ER for your flight.Β
As a result, there will be a change in cabin product from Suites to First Class.Β We will be contacting you to assist with any enquiries. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Yours sincerely,
Singapore Airlines
To which I thought “No shit Sherlock.” That would have been great to receive before the seat change email π . When I saw this series of email events, I got flashback to the horrible pre-flight customer service we received when trying to get our Business Class flights to Thailand set up, which I went into detail about in this post: Review: The World’s Longest Flight – 19 Hours In Singapore Air Business Class.
However, Singapore Air did do one thing I was impressed by. After all of this went down and we had figured out an alternative, they called my Mom. I’m surprised by this because of the hours and HOURS we had previously spent in early 2022 trying to get ahold of someone without success. And instead they were calling us!
They asked my Mom if she saw the flight change and if she accepted that change with the implication that if she didn’t, the person would find her another flight. I thought this was impressive given how much I said against their call centers previously. So, PHEW! We figured it out and still get to experience the suites. However, then we got an email that they had changed the plane we’re on for the return flight as well π . This excitement never stops, eh?
Singapore Air First Class
Flight Cost: $15,129
Hours: 20 hours
Route: NYC to Singapore
Points: 243,000 Krisflyer points
Taxes: $27.30
So I already went over the saga of how this happened, but now we get to both marvel that the Singapore Air Suites and First Class seats are the same price and see what this experience has in store:
Singapore Air Business Class Airbus A380-800
(The Original Booking)
Flight Cost: $2,971
Hours: 7 hrs, 40 minutes
Route: Singapore to Sydney, Australia
Points: 68,500 Krisflyer points
Taxes: $65.11
So now let’s get into the second part of this original flight to Australia. It was in Business Class, which I am still happy about because I had a lovely time flying Singapore Business Class on the Longest Flight in the World. We originally ended up having to book Business instead of First for two reasons.
One is because booking things by leg requires a lot more points than booking it all at once (even though that wasn’t even possible with First Class…) and because if we somehow were able to book that, we would have a 14 hour layover in Singapore, which wasn’t how we wanted to break up what was already about 2 days of flying. However, as I mentioned, we got over that second stipulation and are now excited to have some time to explore Singapore together.
Qantas Business Class
Flight Cost: $656
Hours: 3 hours
Route: Cairns, Australia to Sydney, Australia
Points: 41,500 Qantas points
Taxes: $31.65
We booked this flight with Qantas points that we acquired 3 years ago that are expiring at the end of this year, so we had to use them and this seemed like the only good chance we had. However, after we booked this flight we were never sent an email confirmation with the purchase.
Then we had to change the flight to a different day and time after we booked it and were told over the phone that they charge a change fee of 5,000 points (and that it costs 6,000 points to cancel the flight – WHAT?!). However, we didn’t have 5,000 points to change the flight and they didn’t let us pay it in cash. So we had to transfer points from Capital One Venture points because that transfer is instantaneous. We did that and the website updated our number of points without having to refresh, which was nice.
We finally rebooked to another day and were shown on the website that we didn’t need the 5,000 additional points to change the flight. So basically it appears that Qantas is a shitshow and I’m curious to see if that extends to our first experience flying this airline. Hopefully it’s a lovely flying experience after a lackluster customer service experience and we can use the additional points on in-flight WiFi or something before they expire. We shall see π .
Singapore Air Business Class 777-300Β
(The Changed Booking)
Flight Cost: $5,237
Hours: 37 hours
Route: Auckland, New Zealand to NYC
Points: 145,500 Krisflyer points
Taxes: $75.63
For the return flight from Down Under we’ll enjoy our beloved Singapore Air Business Class once again π . And here’s what the seat looks like on this plane configuration:
THAILAND TRIP
Etihad Business Class
Flight Cost: $3,333
Hours: 21 hours
Route: Phuket, Thailand to NYC
Points: 125,000 points
Taxes: $207.50
Now let’s talk about something that’s already happened this year π . In February I spent a month in Thailand and on the way back was able to fly Etihad Business Class. It wasn’t the Etihad Apartments that my Mom and I originally booked in 2019 (they’ve since grounded those planes…), but it was still an opportunity to try Etihad for the first time, which I had heard so much about.
If you’re interested in my review of that experience feel free to check out the posts I wrote about it:
- Review: 21 Hours In Etihad Business Class (Part 1): Phuket To Abu Dhabi On A 787 Dreamliner
- Review: 21 Hours In Etihad Business Class (Part 2): Abu Dhabi To NYC On A 787 Dreamliner
Or if you just want an overview of what it looked like, here it is π :
Singapore Air Business Class A350
Flight Cost: $6,425
Hours: 19 hours
Route: NYC to Singapore
Points: 99,000 KrisFlyer points
Taxes: $13.90
As I mentioned, I know that Singapore Air Business Class is lovely because we already enjoyed it this year and I’m excited to return π .
Singapore Air Business Class 737 MAX
Hours: 2 hours
Route: Singapore to Phuket, Thailand
And for the final flight to Thailand I got to try this new product! The points and taxes for booking it were included in the totals for the 19 hour flight above. Here is my full review if you’re interested:
And here’s what the seat looked like:
ARGENTINA TRIP
American Airlines Business Class 777-200
Flight Cost: $7,182
Hours: 22 hours
Route: Roundtrip NYC to Buenos Aires, Argentina & Buenos Aires to NYC
Points: 198,500 AAdvantage points
Taxes: $97.67
I’ve already talked about this extensively in these posts:
- Review: American Airlines Business Class 777-200 β NYC to Buenos Aires
- Review: American Airlines Business Class 777-200 β Buenos Aires to NYC
However in summary, I was able to try out the two different configurations available on this route and enjoyed both of them. Here are my Insta posts as well as videos of what everything looks like:
ADDITIONAL SAVINGS
I had TSA Pre-Check from 2014-2019 and absolutely loved it. My membership was set to expire in 2019 so I had to decide if I was going to renew or pay the extra $15 and get Global Entry, which is basically Pre-Check that also works globally when returning to the US.
I was using the Capital One Venture Card at the time and it includes up to $100 reimbursement for Global Entry or Pre-Check. Since the cost was fully covered, I went with Global Entry and I am SO glad I did!
When flying back from MΓ©xico, for example, I had a layover in Salt Lake City and 1 hour to get from my plane, through customs and immigration, back through security and to my other plane.
I was bracing myself to miss my flight and luckily be able to use my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card’s travel delay reimbursement of up to $500 to get a hotel, car and food for the night and morning before heading out on another flight like we had to do in Costa Rica (pictured below).
It turns out that none of that was necessary. I used my Global Entry pass for the first time and was through customs and immigration in UNDER A MINUTE. I was shocked. However, in Salt Lake City I was then directed to a security line that didn’t have a Pre-Check option so I was prepared to take all my electronics and liquids out and do the security theater dance, but it wasn’t necessary. The security officer handed me a giant “TSA Pre-Check” card out of nowhere and I went through like a breeze. I was at my gate with 45 minutes to spare. WOWZA. I wish I had gotten Global Entry sooner.
Also heads up: Chase is currently offering 60,000 bonus points to sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. I only got 50K when I signed up and there’s a reason this is the only credit card I have ever paid an annual fee for – I’ve had it for 7 years because of how it saves my ass at least once a year from unexpected travel costs and stress.
Conclusion
So in summary, I saved $44,667.35 by using points to book the above flights instead of buying them outright. I got that number by taking how much I would have paid for that flight and subtracting the taxes I did pay. That’s not bad at all π . I greatly enjoy international luxury flights and I’m curious to see what happens to this landscape in the future. Hopefully we can still find a way π .
Several people on Instagram have asked that I write a post about HOW I travel hack. I had assumed it was common knowledge by now given all the posts out there about it, but I’m in a weird finance nerd bubble and have been told that isn’t the case. So I’ve added that post idea to my queue and it should be coming in the new year. Stay tuned π .
Do you think travel hacking is still a viable way to have luxury experiences? Why or why not?
TravelHacking is alive and well! You should join 10xTravel on fb – a wonderful Group dedicated to make travel hacking fun. They explain how to get the most points and then post about ways to amazing suites and business class redemptions to save miles! I see your trips and I thought you were βinβ on their secret but you hacked it all on your own: Wow!
There is also an interesting product called the Round the World ticket- several airline alliances have it but check out ANA for this type of travel. They are part of the Star Alliance (United is the US partner) and so you accumulate miles and can transfer to all the partners through ANAβs site β¦ someone just posted he did a fabulous business class round the world for 125,000 miles, 7 stops. So Hack-on and Happy Travels!! Iβm trying to make my way to that wonderful place as well πππΌπ.
Oh interesting! I’ve never heard of that. I’m basically never on Facebook, but I’ll check it out the next time I am. I have heard of the Round the World ticket and actually looked into using it as a part of my retirement celebration, but it had too many rules that didn’t align with what I was trying to do unfortunately. That’s an awesome redemption for that person though!! And you’ve got this π .
You win again Purple! What an amazing group of flights, I’ve sat in first class once or twice in my entire life of business and vacation travel. I’ve never seen seats like those in your photos, just amazing. You and your mom are quite a travel hacking/optimizing team.
Haha it’s not about winning π . And yeah we make an awesome team. I’m happy that we’re able to do all this wild stuff together.
I love travel hacking too. We’ve gone to so many places we wouldn’t have been able to afford thanks to airline miles!
Two tips I wanted to share (bc I’m not sure if you are utilizing):
1. With the Target credit card, you can save 5% on all purchases including gift cards. They sell lots of travel gift cards including Airbnb. It’s very easy to add Airbnb gift cards to your account so you don’t have to worry about losing the gift card.
2. Delta and British Airways give you miles for booking Airbnb through their sites. Just google “Delta Airbnb” or “British Airways Airbnb” and you’ll find the right link.
That’s awesome! Good to know about those savings – thank you π . I had seen the Airbnb/miles possibility, but haven’t tried it yet. I did know that cards provided that kind of cash back even on those gift cards, but haven’t found 5% or similar amounts intriguing enough to pursue unfortunately. I’m getting lazy about saving in my retirement π .
Do you still have a lot of points for future use or have these redemptions depleted your balances? Are you still signing up for new credit cards for the bonus points? Since you seem to track everything (lol), I’d be interesting to know how you built up your points balances.
I have yet to transfer points to another airline from Chase or Cap One, so I haven’t had to deal with the headaches of points sitting in an airline program that I don’t use much. I’m still strategically getting through our large United and American balances because I know if I cancel I will eventually use the points (and they won’t expire).
I know the feeling too of products changing. I booked our Qatar Q-Suites trip to the Maldives 10 months out. Shortly after, the Doha-Maldives flight changed from a Q-Suites to a former Cathay Pacific plane configuration (Qatar was leasing from Cathay). It was still lie flat and 1-2-1 seating but not the famous Q-Suites. Fortunately it was only 4.5 hours versus the 15 hours from the US, so I wasn’t too bothered. At one point I did see our return flight from Doha to the US change to a non-QSuites configuration, but it was short lived and eventually went back to Q-Suites. It can be tough — we need to book way far out to get the seats but then there is no guarantee that the aircraft stays the same.
I don’t have much points left outside of Chase. I’m trying to get rid of the ones that expire ASAP. I haven’t gotten credit card in retirement – these are just the ones I’m trying to get rid of from pre-pandemic. As for my points balances, you’re giving me way to much credit π . I even talked to my Mom to try to dig up all this was accumulated and we got all confused. It was many, many cards over several years pre-2020.
Can’t wait to read about how you’re racking up all those points!
Happy to hear it!
Did you write somewhere about where you transferred the singapore miles from and etihad? Would be nice to know which credit cards you opened to earn those points and which currency you used to transfer them to the airline. Thanks! If you already wrote about this please direct to me where. π
I haven’t, but I got the cards for those points 4+ years ago and I don’t remember all of them. I transferred points in 2019 for original travel 2020 these points were used for. I do know that I got at least these cards:
– CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard (70K points)
– Capital One Venture (75K points)
You can transfer points from Capital One, Citi, Chase and AmEx cards to Singapore Air and Citi, AmEx and Capital One to Etihad. I don’t understand what you’re asking about currency unfortunately. Can you elaborate?
Do you travel hack for hotels/AirBnBs as well? Would love some pointers/experiences if you do!
I don’t, but I’d love to hear if that’s possible on airbnbs as well!
Root of good cashes in his points for air bnb gift cards, last post he cashed out $10,000 DOLLARS in giftcards.
That’s cool! It looks like they give a a 1-point-for-1-cent conversion for those gift cards, which is a lower than the valuation I usually go for, but it’s an awesome option to know about. Thank you!
π
Is travel hacking essentially flight hacking, then?
Flights and hotels yes.