Singapore Airlines makes business and first class award seats available mostly to their own KrisFlyer members. It is very rare to be able to book these seats with miles in partner programs like United MileagePlus or Air Canada Aeroplan. Right now though you can book Singapore Suites on at least one route using partner miles!

To be sure Singapore miles are fairly easy to get for US frequent flyers because they’re a transfer partner of Chase, American Express, Citibank, and Capital One.

First class awards are tougher than business, at least from the United States. I often write about fantastic first class award space on Singapore Airlines Los Angeles – Tokyo. That’s on Singapore’s older Boeing 777 first class product.

Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER First Class

The only flight from the U.S. operated by a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 is New York JFK – Frankfurt – Singapore. That’s a tough Suites award to get. However occasionally you can find saver award space on a married segment basis, flying beyond Singapore when you’re searching for inventory.

If you want Singapore Airlines A380 Suites awards using Singapore’s own miles they’re actually common on many other routes.

Singapore has a new Suites product that’s rolled out on some of their A380s, and it’s amazing.

Singapore’s older suites product which is still – a decade on – one of the best first class offerings in the world.

Right now what’s unique is that at least on the Singapore – Auckland route it’s possible to book Suites saver awards using miles with some partner frequent flyer programs. It’s not the wide open mistake where all of their inventory became available to partners in 2012, but it’s still useful.

Here’s a search for Singapore – Auckland with 2 first class saver awards available in November using Singapore miles:

When the seats on this route are bookable with Singapore miles it appears you can also book via Aeroplan, which is an American Express transfer partner.

United’s website is, I believe, coded not to show Singapore Airlines first class award space when searching non-stop routes to and from Singapore. However you can bring up the space as part of connecting itineraries. Here’s Guam to Auckland and Singapore Airlines first class is bookable this way.

In addition to November you’ll find availability also in March and October at least. Make sure you are booking SQ285 and 286 if you want the Airbus A380 Suites versus Singapore’s 777 First Class.

(HT: therossinator via Dan’s Deals)