Planning an uncomplicated (1st) International Trip using miles / points

[lucknowrox]

Dear TF Community,

I’m finally planning an international trip using miles and points for 2 adults and a 3 year old kid. Since its going to be a first such stint I wanted to take in suggestions on how to plan it. We have usually travelled through agencies like Thomas Cook in the past for international destinations and the experience has been usually great but none that we planned and executed ourselves. Also how do we go about applying for VISA for these destinations.

Month: September/October
Location: Preferably Singapore/ 2nd Preference : Hong Kong / Any other simple destination
Duration: Maximum 7 Nights

Current point status:
Accor ALL: 1.25 Lac + points
Infinia : 2 Lac + points
M4B : 50k points
EPM : 20k points

International Hotel or Flight Status / Membership - None

Any and all suggestions are welcome.
Thanks

 

[sahilgulati5]

Use Infinia to book flights.
Use Accor for your hotels stays.

 

[Lalit]

For Singapore visa, you have to apply through an authorized agent. We applied through Akbar Travels

 

[taskmaster]

I think you should first check how the weather will be at that time in singapore i think its mostly monsoon season at that time. Might not be the best idea to go there. Singapore is a very easy destination imo. You can get the visa easily either apply yourself or through an agent. For flights, you can use your infinia points and accor for hotels as someone mentioned. For visiting various destinations inside the city itself, since you have a kid public transport might be out of question else they have a very good network of that. Taxis can be a bit expensive in singapore but you can book Uber or grab easily, youll need to get a local sim for that. You can check klook to see about tour packages or tickets to sentosa or other places of attractions there. You can book tickets to universal studios, marina sands bay etc directly there.

 

[telescope]

I think you should first check how the weather will be at that time in singapore i think its mostly monsoon season at that time. Might not be the best idea to go there. Singapore is a very easy destination imo. You can get the visa easily either apply yourself or through an agent. For flights, you can use your infinia points and accor for hotels as someone mentioned. For visiting various destinations inside the city itself, since you have a kid public transport might be out of question else they have a very good network of that. Taxis can be a bit expensive in singapore but you can book Uber or grab easily, youll need to get a local sim for that. You can check klook to see about tour packages or tickets to sentosa or other places of attractions there. You can book tickets to universal studios, marina sands bay etc directly there.

Good points but few corrections.

Singapore visa has to be applied through agent or through someone who is singaporean/permanent resident holding sing pass account. Otherwise self applying is not possible.

Grab can be booked without local sim.

 

[taskmaster]

Good points but few corrections.

Singapore visa has to be applied through agent or through someone who is singaporean/permanent resident holding sing pass account. Otherwise self applying is not possible.

Grab can be booked without local sim.

I see. Thanks for correcting me. I went a while back and the visa i didnt handle myself. I think i saw MMT and some other app do offer it so maybe apply through that.
For Grab you can register with an indian sim?

 

[telescope]

I see. Thanks for correcting me. I went a while back and the visa i didnt handle myself. I think i saw MMT and some other app do offer it so maybe apply through that.
For Grab you can register with an indian sim?

Yes both grab and gojek I used with Indian Sim. Same grab account works across many countries in South East Asia

 

[Vas2398]

Is Singapore weather good in August then?
What I read is by July, Summer holidays will be finished in Japan and there will be less crowd.
Though it rains in August, it is not as much like in Nov to January.
But why I got confused is August has less crowds than November even though August is drier with less rainfall.
Pls correct me if required.

I think you should first check how the weather will be at that time in singapore i think its mostly monsoon season at that time. Might not be the best idea to go there. Singapore is a very easy destination imo. You can get the visa easily either apply yourself or through an agent. For flights, you can use your infinia points and accor for hotels as someone mentioned. For visiting various destinations inside the city itself, since you have a kid public transport might be out of question else they have a very good network of that. Taxis can be a bit expensive in singapore but you can book Uber or grab easily, youll need to get a local sim for that. You can check klook to see about tour packages or tickets to sentosa or other places of attractions there. You can book tickets to universal studios, marina sands bay etc directly there.

 

[rafzy]

Dear TF Community,

I’m finally planning an international trip using miles and points for 2 adults and a 3 year old kid. Since its going to be a first such stint I wanted to take in suggestions on how to plan it. We have usually travelled through agencies like Thomas Cook in the past for international destinations and the experience has been usually great but none that we planned and executed ourselves. Also how do we go about applying for VISA for these destinations.

Month: September/October
Location: Preferably Singapore/ 2nd Preference : Hong Kong / Any other simple destination
Duration: Maximum 7 Nights

Current point status:
Accor ALL: 1.25 Lac + points
Infinia : 2 Lac + points
M4B : 50k points
EPM : 20k points

International Hotel or Flight Status / Membership - None

Any and all suggestions are welcome.
Thanks

Visa via agent in India
Your points can take care of flights and hotel. I'd suggest singapore airlines. Excellent service and good flights.
Best part is, you can book all attractions using your krisflyer miles via pelago.com
I traveled last year with a 3yr old and a 8yr old. Used only buses. Their buses are excellent and has facility to roll in and roll out baby strollers.
Use citymapper app to use the bus services as is uses youe currect location and gives exact times of buses. Play around with the app and you'll get the hang of it.
Food is very very very expensive. So ensure to carry enough biscuts and water for yourselves and the baby.
The climate there is usually humid and hot, so your baby might start crying because of the heat. But you have enough malls to get into and cool down. Keep that in mind.
Wear a very comfortable walking shoes as you'll be clocking 10k steps on a bare minimum, in a day.
Use free version of wanderlog app/site to plan the days. Play around with it and you'll get to know it better.
Any more doubts, dm me
Peace ✌️

 

[vishalgupta2]

Visa via agent in India
Your points can take care of flights and hotel. I'd suggest singapore airlines. Excellent service and good flights.
Best part is, you can book all attractions using your krisflyer miles via pelago.com
I traveled last year with a 3yr old and a 8yr old. Used only buses. Their buses are excellent and has facility to roll in and roll out baby strollers.
Use citymapper app to use the bus services as is uses youe currect location and gives exact times of buses. Play around with the app and you'll get the hang of it.
Food is very very very expensive. So ensure to carry enough biscuts and water for yourselves and the baby.
The climate there is usually humid and hot, so your baby might start crying because of the heat. But you have enough malls to get into and cool down. Keep that in mind.
Wear a very comfortable walking shoes as you'll be clocking 10k steps on a bare minimum, in a day.
Use free version of wanderlog app/site to plan the days. Play around with it and you'll get to know it better.
Any more doubts, dm me
Peace ✌️

+1
We used Akbar travels for our last visa and it took just 3 days (but better to apply aboutv15 days prior to travel)
Singapore arrival immigration is now fully automated and super quick.

I would agree that food is expensive but very very very might be overstated. I think it's Indian food which is crazy expensive other cuisines are OK.

Public transport is efficient for most purpose, but as a backup keep the cdg app installed and configured.

MRT has a 7 day card which is discounted and is available at most 7x11s etc. Check if that works well for you. You can also tap any visa card at turnstile both in bus and MRT.

If you end up flying SQ, check if Kris flyer privileges get you better prices over klook for attractions. When calculating, keep in mind that klook charges in INR so no FTF.

For an Indian family HKG may not be best for 7 days, as it doesn't have enough things to do for 7 days. But it has an edge in that it has disney which is more attractive to younger kids over Universal. Also no visa needed.

Send me a DM if you need info about any attraction in SG/HKG.

 

[Vinay13]

August is fine for Singapore. Actually no month is safe to travel to SG. Rain can come anytime anywhere but mostly last few hours ..wont hamper the trip ..try to do indoor activities in rain.

 

[Avatar Aang]

Singapore is a good choice for first tour using miles.
Singapore Visa needs to be applied through authorised agent. You can check out MMT and other travel agents for the same.
You have decent Accor points. Use them for hotel bookings.
For flight bookings check out miles requirement for Krisflyer. You'll generally get the best value of miles by flying business class. You can transfer points to krisflyer from M4B and Infinia. If you prefer economy then you can directly book using your Infinia points.
You can use public transport in Singapore along with Grab or Gojek.
We had a Singapore trip two years back. had to walk a lot and couldn't find any free drinking water spots. That's when the we got to know about the Casino at Marina Bay sands it offers free entry to foreign nationals and free soft drinks.