How Are Airpoints Redeemed on Partner Airlines?

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prat33k

182 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 31

#296016 14-May-2022 17:00

Hi All

I am so confused while currently looking for a flight and would appreciate some help regarding this matter.

I am trying to book an air ticket via Singapore Airlines (Star Alliance) and was looking to use Airpoints for the booking. I hold around 400 Airpoints. I checked with couple of local travel agents while looking to compare prices and none of them were aware of how you can redeem Airpoints with my booking.

I can see a Singapore Airlines flight on singaporeair.com but don't see an option on how I can redeem airpoints in the cost of the ticket. Air New Zealand booking website allows redemption of Airpoints but that is already expensive than prices quoted on singaporeair.com and even that flight that I am looking for isn't available on their booking site.

Does someone have any experience how the points can be used on Partner Airlines without using airnz booking portal? I tried calling Airpoints support but no one picked up after being on hold for an hour.

Any recommendations are welcome.

Thank you

Nate001

680 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 475

#2914031 14-May-2022 18:42

AFAIK - you can only redeem on flights via the air nz website. So you’ll need to pay the higher price and book via air nz website.

KiwiSurfer

1759 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1022

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Lifetime subscriber

#2914034 14-May-2022 19:17

I note you want to book Singapore Airline (SQ) flights using your airpoints. There are two general approaches you can take.

The most obvious one which I am sure you have looked into is the 'normal' way of booking flights on the Air NZ website. Singapore Airline options on the Air NZ website are limited to code share flights (i.e. NZ flight numbers on SQ operated flights such as the AKL-SIN services where the SQ operated flights have NZ flight numbers) or connections where you transfer from a flight with a NZ flight number to a flight with a SQ flight number (e.g. you fly AKL-SIN on a SQ service with a NZ flight number, then connecting onwards on a SQ service SQ flight number). As a result your options for SQ flights are rather limited via this method. E.g. you can book Auckland-Singapore-Taipei flight (i.e. a flight with a NZ flight number on a SQ service, then a connection to a SQ flight for the SIN-Taipei leg). But you can not book Singapore-Taipei on its own as Air NZ does not sell tickets between those two ports.

So sometimes the only option is to book via Air NZ's partner airlines online portal. This allows you to book (in theory) any flight with any alliance airline (in theory). The downside of this method is that each airline decides how much reward seats are released to other airlines. Often partner airlines will release very few seats especially for popular routes and make changes to the reward seat availability in response to demand. So even though SQ may be selling "cash" seats for a particular flight, they may decide not to offer reward seats. This differs from booking directly with Air NZ because Air NZ allows you to use your airpoints to buy any seat they have on sale--upside being you can book any available but the price of seats varies. Partner airline however are fixed price for each seat with limited seats released for each flight.

From what I have read, SQ is very stingy with the number of reward seats they release to other airlines so you may need to do a lot of searching for dates with availability.

rayonline

1736 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 51

#2931303 18-Jun-2022 10:49

Yes as alluded above. The real way to do it is via the AirNZ website and book a flight that is operated by SQ. Using the AirNZ airpoints logon pay it that way. People who are from overseas working in NZ that I know who prefer overseas airlines they may just use their airpoints for NZ domestic fares. Sometimes they opt for a non airpoints card ie cash back.