How to Redeem Business Class Flights from Singapore to Japan

Everyone from Singapore is either in Japan right now, or planning to visit Japan in the coming months to take advantage of the cheap Yen. Tourism in Japan hit record levels in 2023 following the country’s reopening from the pandemic.

Imagine paying 20% lower prices for a high-quality Omakase meal. Sign me up immediately! Side note, our favourite Omakase restaurant in Tokyo is the Instagram-famous Mantensushi! At 8,800Y for dinner, that’s only S$74.81 per person for an incredible night of sushi and sashimi.

When we are planning our trips to Japan, the single biggest cost is often the flight ticket. This is especially so during peak travel seasons like December or March when round-trip tickets on budget airlines to Japan can surge to more than S$1,000 a piece.

Despite being a medium-haul flight, we’ll explore if we can save some money and redeem our hard-earned miles for a more comfortable business-class flight to Japan.

Redeeming Business Class Flights From Singapore to Japan

You can obtain a business class ticket for this 5-7 hour flight in many ways. The miles and fees needed vary greatly depending on the airline you’re flying with and the program you’re booking with.

These are programs and airlines that we found actual flight availabilities for.

Airline	Frequent Flyer Program	Miles Needed (1-way)	Taxes and Fees
EVA Airlines	EVA Infinity MileageLand	25,000	S$126.38 (US$93.78)
Singapore Airlines / ANA	EVA Infinity Mileageland	40,000	S$65 to S$220 depending on the airline
Singapore Airlines	Air Canada Aeroplan	45,000	S$125.30 (US$92.98)
Singapore Airlines	KrisFlyer	52,000	S$65.20 (US$48.38)
ANA	KrisFlyer	52,500	S$216.70 (US$160.80)
Japan Airlines	British Airways Avios	62,000	S$219.10 (US$162.59)
Japan Airlines	Cathay Pacific Asia miles	63,000	S$219.17 (US$162.63)

Our favourite programs for this route are EVA Air’s Infinity MileageLand program and Air Canada’s Aeroplan program for their low redemption rates and reasonable fees. As you can see from the chart above, the miles needed range from 25,000 to a whopping 63,000.

We cannot overlook the impact of taxes and fees on redemption as some can be significant. Spending S$219, that’s almost the same as a 1-way flight ticket on a budget airline to Japan. Whether it’s worth it to you ultimately depends on how much you value the business class flight compared to an economy class or budget airline flight.

Redeeming Flights to Japan with EVA Air Mileageland

From the chart, you can see that flying with EVA Air requires significantly fewer miles and only a reasonable fee charged. It is possible to fly from Singapore to Sapporo during the winter season.

This is our favourite way to fly from Singapore to Japan. We’ve already booked 2 flight itineraries to Japan next year with EVA.

However, it is also the only non-direct flight in this list. Depending on the Japanese city you’re flying to, it can be quite inconvenient to fly with EVA.

This is a typical flight itinerary when redeeming your miles for an EVA air flight to Japan. You’ll first fly in the afternoon to Taipei, then take your second leg a day later to Japan. This means that you’ll have to stay a night in Taipei. For us, this is perfect as it gives us 1 additional day to explore Taipei.

Also, note that the Airports are different in this itinerary. You’re first arriving at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport, then departing from Taipei Songshan Airport.

To some, this might be a major inconvenience because of the additional day added to your travel plan. Ultimately, you have to decide if the miles saved and the experience are worth it.

Alternatively, if you prefer to fly directly to Japan, you can also redeem EVA Air Mileageland miles for Singapore Airlines flights as they are both part of the Star Alliance. It will cost you 40,000 EVA Air miles which is still much lower than KrisFlyer’s 52,000 miles needed.

Redeeming Flights to Japan with Air Canada Aeroplan

Air Canada’s Aeroplan program is another of our favourite programs to redeem for flights to Japan. It only costs 45,000 Aeroplan Points to redeem for a 1-way flight from Singapore to Tokyo with very reasonable taxes and fees.

As Air Canada is also a Star Alliance airline, you’ll typically fly on Singapore Airlines or ANA (though we couldn’t find any availability) for your redemption.

From our observations, there’s often slightly less availability on Air Canada than on Singapore Airlines directly.

If you’re a slightly more advanced travel hacker, you can even take advantage of Aeroplan’s stopover trick to fly from Tokyo to Singapore to Bangkok for just 50,000 Aeroplan Points in total.

Redeeming Flights to Japan with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

The most common way to redeem a flight from Singapore to Japan for Singapore residents will be Singapore Airlines’s KrisFlyer program. It is the easiest program to understand and earn miles for.

As a result of its popularity and ease of use, we find that it is generally very difficult to find availability for Saver business awards on KrisFlyer. This is especially the case during peak travel seasons like school holidays or Japanese travel season.

If you’re able to travel outside of these times, you’ll still be able to snag up a ticket or two.

If you’re not particular about where you’re flying to, you can consider less popular cities like Fukuoka or Nagoya. There are a lot more Saver awards available for those routes.

How Do I Earn the Miles for Redemption?

Now that you know how many miles you need for the redemption, you’re probably thinking how do you get miles for those frequent flyer programs? It is actually a lot easier to earn miles for those programs than you think.

Flying

The most straightforward method to earn miles or points on a frequent flyer program is to fly with the airline. When you purchase a flight with cash on the airline, you can input your frequent flyer number into your booking. Depending on the class of your booking, the route and sometimes the price, you’ll earn a certain amount of miles for the flight.

Did you know that you can earn miles for a different program than the airline you’re flying from? This is often possible due to airline alliances and airline partnerships.

As Air Canada, EVA Air and Singapore Airlines are part of the Star Alliance, you can earn Air Canada’s Aeroplan points when you fly on Singapore Airlines and vice versa. The same goes for British Airways, Cathay Pacific and American Airlines which are part of the oneworld alliance.

However, as travel hackers, this is not our primary method of earning miles for travel as it’s often too slow and expensive to earn miles from flying.

Transfer from Credit Card Points

Our favourite method of earning miles for flight redemption is through credit card points.

When we spend on credit cards, we’ll typically earn credit card points from the bank which can be transferred to a frequent flyer program (FFP) for redemptions. This is a chart of the FFPs mentioned above and the bank programs that transfer to them.

Frequent Flyer Program	Banks
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer	American Express DBS Citibank HSBC OCBC Standard Chartered UOB
EVA Air Mileageland	American Express Citibank HSBC
Air Canada Aeroplan	HSBC*
British Airways Avios	American Express Citibank HSBC OCBC*
Cathay Pacific Asiamiles	American Express DBS Citibank HSBC OCBC Standard Chartered UOB

* Subpar redemption rate

As we can tell from the chart, it’s a lot easier to earn Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles and Cathay Pacific’s Asiamiles than Air Canada Aeroplan points.

Some of our favourite credit cards to earn miles include the Citi Rewards credit card and the UOB Lady’s credit card.

Heymax.ai

A start-up that recently emerged in Singapore, heymax.ai initially started as a platform for you to check the best credit cards to use for each merchant.

In recent months, they’ve expanded to provide “miles back” when you make online purchases through them in the form of max miles. These max miles can then be converted into various airline’s FFP miles at no additional cost.

Heymax currently boasts a list of 25 partners that you can transfer to. Notably in the context of this article, you can transfer your max miles to Air Canada’s Aeroplan Points and British Airways’s Avios.

If you’re interested in Heymax, you can sign up with our referral link here.

Purchase Miles

If you lack just a bit of miles for your redemption or you have already decided to pay for your tickets, you can consider purchasing miles instead. Frequent flyer programs often have promotions which makes purchasing miles a viable option.

An example is the recent Air Canada Aeroplan promotion where you can purchase Aeroplan points for as little as 2 Singapore cents each. At 45,000 points for a flight, that works out to S$900 + S$125.30(taxes and fees) each way to Japan on business class.

That’s cheaper than outright purchasing a business class ticket from Singapore Airlines.

When Should You Redeem for Your Flight?

The rule of thumb for flight redemptions is to redeem as early as possible. For Singapore Airlines flights, flight availabilities are released 355 days in advance. As for EVA Air, it is 360 days in advance. Therefore, if you’re able to confirm your travel plans as early as possible, that will significantly increase your chances of redeeming a business class ticket.

However, all hope is not lost if your desired travel plans are slightly earlier. As of the time of writing in July 2024, there are still available flights from Singapore to Tokyo on EVA Air in January 2025 for the ski season and March 2025 for the cherry blossom season!

You might have tougher luck with Singapore Airlines as there are no more business Saver awards in January and March 2025 when we checked. There are some waitlists available but we do not recommend those as it’s unlikely you’ll get them cleared for such a popular route.

Is It Worth Redeeming My Miles For Japan?

The worthiness of a flight redemption is a very subjective question. Different people have different ways to determine if a flight redemption is worth it to them.

Miles to Flight Time

If we’re talking about miles to flight time, then this route is mid (as the younger people would say).

Route	Miles needed (KrisFlyer Saver)	Flight time	Miles per flight minute (lower the better)
Singapore to Capetown	56,500	13 hours 55 minutes (1 hour in JNB)	67
Singapore to Istanbul	56,500	11 hours	85
Singapore to New York	111,500	18 hours 40 minutes	99
Singapore to Taipei	34,000	4 hours 50 minutes	117
Singapore to Auckland	68,500 (saver)	9 hours 35 minutes	119
Singapore to Tokyo	52,000	6 hours 55 minutes	125
Singapore to London	103,500	13 hours 40 minutes	126
Singapore to Seoul	52,000	6 hours 25 minutes	135
Singapore to Bangkok	24,000	2 hours 25 minutes	137
Singapore to Sydney	68,500	7 hours 35 minutes	150

The Singapore to Tokyo route costs 125 miles per flight minute which is decent. You’re not going to get significant value, but it’s not as high as shorter-haul flights.

Miles to Cash Price

Route	Miles needed (KrisFlyer Saver)	Price (1-way)1	Cents value per mile (higher the better)
Singapore to Capetown	56,500	S$3,387	5.9
Singapore to Istanbul	56,500	S$3,229.50	5.7
Singapore to Auckland	68,500	S$3,280.50	4.7
Singapore to New York	111,500	S$4,327.5	3.8
Singapore to London	103,500	S$3,638	3.5
Singapore to Sydney	68,500	S$2,346	3.4
Singapore to Taipei	34,000	S$1,169.50	3.4
Singapore to Tokyo	52,000	S$1,743	3.3
Singapore to Bangkok	24,000	S$687.50	2.8
Singapore to Seoul	52,000	S$1,295	2.4

1. The price is computed from a round trip ticket on Singapore Airlines from 4th June 2024 to 7th June 2024 divided by 2. ↩︎

When we compute the miles needed with the cash price needed to purchase the same flight, Japan becomes a less enticing option. You’re getting less bang for your buck in that sense.

However, we typically advise against using cash price as a metric for deciding the worthiness of a redemption. There are too many factors that affect the cash price of a flight. It can be due to the seasonality of the location or the availability of alternative flights that can affect the cash price. It changes from day to day, so it’s hard to make a fair comparison here.

Final Thoughts

Japan is one of our favourite countries to visit. We love Japanese cuisine and culture and will fly there in a heartbeat if we can! Given the current weak yen situation, it has made us even more excited to visit the country.

Even though it’s only a short flight away from Singapore, we’ll want to explore the different ways to redeem business-class flight tickets to Japan and determine if it’s even worth it to do so. Turns out, there are plenty of options available and it can be a decent way to spend your hard-earned miles.

If you don’t mind the longer commute time and inconvenience of staying a night in Taipei, EVA Air provides incredible value for your miles. In addition, you can even experience EVA Air’s amazing Laurel business-class product on the flight from Taipei to Tokyo.

We have already booked 2 trips to Japan for next year so stop procrastinating and start booking your flights to Japan now!

When booking your Japan activities on Klook, use SHRUGKLOOK to get 5% off your booking. You can find more information about the promotion here.