What is the best way to use Amex points and Skyward miles to fly business class to Cape Town?

Dear point-hackers,

I’ve been doing a fair bit of reading and have spent hours researching about the best possible ways of utilising my FF points + Amex membership points for an upcoming trip to Cape Town. I feel I’m totally overwhelmed by the complexity of different FF schemes and point transfer scenarios so reaching out to the experts in this forum for some advice and suggestions.

Myself and the wife would be flying to Cape Town sometime in July-September and we’d love to fly Business Class at least one way or some legs of the journey. We have flown international mostly to Asia and a couple times to Europe and Middle East but eveytime it had been in the economy class so flying in a class above would most definitely be a satisfying experience.

Our FF and Amex point status is as follows:
We have 100K+ Amex membership points each (+ 2 x $400 Amex Explorer credits if that too could be utilised in some way)
We both have around 32K Emirates Skywards points (I know this is not much so we are happy to fly with a non-Skywards FF Airline if the Amex points could be used in a better way)

From the research I’ve done so far my understanding is that Skywards do not give you the best value per point compared to Krisflyer and others so should I look into Singapore or another Krisflyer partner airline with flights to Cape Town or combine my Amex + Skywards and try with Emirates or South African Airlines for a better deal and a upgrade?

Or should I forget about flying Business altogether and use my Amex points and credit for hotel bookings etc.?

Thank you so much for reading my post and your valuable advice.

  • Jase

Hi Jase,

If you manage to redeem your flights before 24 Jan, it costs 78k Krisflyer miles for one way SYD-SIN-JNB-CPT. From 24 Jan onwards, it will costs 86k miles.

104k Amex Gateway points will transfer to 78k Krisflyer miles.

114,667 Amex Gateway points will transfer to 86k Krisflyer miles.

Best to check award space on Singapore Airlines website before transferring your Amex points.

Good luck.