Singapore Airlines usually makes premium cabin awards available only to their own KrisFlyer members. You can transfer points from Chase, American Express, and Citi into the KrisFlyer program, so their miles are relatively easy to get.

If you want to fly Singapore’s business or first class on more than an intra-Asia flight you aren’t going to be able to use miles from United, Aeroplan, or other Star Alliance programs — most of the time.

Six years ago there was a brief window where Singapore Airlines awards were bookable by partners but there hasn’t been anything like it since.

So it was surprising to read at One Mile at a Time that right now United and Aeroplan are able to book Singapore Airlines non-stops from Singapore to the U.S. in business class with miles.

• In fact I am not seeing the space at united.com myself
  
• However it comes up without a problem on Aeroplan’s website. Aeroplan is an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner, and the points generally post instantly.

The best Singapore Airlines availability with Singapore’s own miles is on the Los Angeles – Tokyo and Houston – Manchester routes rather than on Singapore’s Newark, Los Angeles, and San Francisco non-stops to Singapore.

And it appears that only Singapore – West Coast seats are coming up with Aeroplan miles, and only originating in Singapore. Nonetheless it’s a use of miles that hasn’t existed for some time.

Right now Singapore is discounting redemptions on its non-stop flights when redeeming KrisFlyer miles. We’ve also seen great fares. So this may not be a mistake, it may just be Singapore looking to fill empty seats on the planes. When the Newark flight first loaded into the schedule business class award space was wide open.