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HeyMax FlyAnywhere guide: Redeem Max Miles for any seat, any airline, anywhere

FlyAnywhere lets you offset commercial air tickets with Max Miles at 2 cents each, making Economy Class or even budget flights worthwhile redemptions.

HeyMax offers one of the most versatile rewards currencies in Singapore, with 28 airline and hotel partners to choose from.

While Iโ€™ve historically redeemed most of my Max Miles for Accor points, World of Hyatt points and on occasion, American AAdvantage miles (First Class to Japan for 40,000 miles!), Iโ€™ve recently taken a liking to FlyAnywhere.

At first glance, FlyAnywhere commits one of the cardinal sins of the miles game: converting miles into cashback. But thereโ€™s far more nuance to it, and even if you wouldnโ€™t dream of anything other than a First Class redemption, itโ€™s still something to be familiar with.

๐Ÿ‘ 250 Max Miles joining bonus
Sign up for a HeyMax account and get up to 250 Max Miles as a welcome bonus
250 bonus Max Miles

How does FlyAnywhere work?

FlyAnywhere allows you to use Max Miles to offset the cost of any commercial air ticket โ€”domestic or international, any airline, any cabin class โ€”to anywhere in the world.

Hereโ€™s how it works:

  1. Book your air tickets however you like: through the airlineโ€™s official website, an OTA, or even a traditional brick-and-mortar travel agency.
  2. Submit a FlyAnywhere redemption request and upload the receipt
  3. Get reimbursed for your flight in cash, via PayNow, at a rate of S$0.02 per Max Mile
โš ๏ธ Important Note
FlyAnywhere usually offers S$0.018 per Max Mile, but the value is now upsized to S$0.02. This is a limited-time offer that ends on 7 July 2025, but a further extension may yet happen.

Here are a few important things to note.

  • Redemptions can be made on behalf of anyone
  • Requests can be submitted for any flight booked within the past one month (whether or not itโ€™s already been flown)
  • Only commercial tickets are eligible; if you book an award ticket, you cannot submit a request to redeem Max Miles for the cash component
  • Both budget and full service carriers are supported, with no airline restrictions
  • Tickets in foreign currency will be converted into SGD at the current spot rate to calculate the Max Miles deduction
  • If you use a non-cash instrument to pay for part of your commercial ticket, e.g. United TravelBank or some other airline credits, Max Miles can only be redeemed for the remaining component paid in cash

FlyAnywhere redemptions require a minimum of 1,000 Max Miles (S$20), but itโ€™s up to you how much you want to redeem above that threshold.

For example, if you have 20,000 Max Miles in your account and a S$200 air ticket, you can choose to redeem only 5,000 Max Miles (S$100), and keep the remaining 15,000 Max Miles for other redemptions. 

What I like about FlyAnywhere

Book your tickets wherever you want

Book your tickets anywhere you wish and take advantage of offers like 50% off Economy Class flights to Taipei with DBS x Starlux

FlyAnywhere gives you the freedom to book your air tickets wherever you like, which allows you to hunt down the absolute lowest fare.

  • You can book via an OTA, if itโ€™s offering the same tickets cheaper
  • You can book via the official website and use a promo code for extra savings
  • You can book via the AMEX International Airline Programme portal
  • You can book via a cashback portal, or even the HeyMax portal itself (which offers milesback on AirAsia, Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways, to name a few)

Itโ€™s really up to you. 

Earn miles and elite status credits

Since youโ€™re buying a commercial air ticket, youโ€™ll be eligible to earn frequent flyer miles and elite status credits such as PPS Value or Elite miles, where applicable.

In contrast, award tickets are usually ineligible to earn either (with very limited exceptions).

Earn credit card miles

FlyAnywhere reimburses you in cash, so you basically get to earn credit card miles for free on your purchase.

2025 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Air Tickets

This can be useful when you need to meet the minimum spend for a welcome offer, or if youโ€™re trying to spend the AMEX Platinum Chargeโ€™s airline statement credits.

Fair conversion rates

If your ticket is purchased in foreign currency, HeyMax uses the dayโ€™s spot rate to convert the amount into SGD. No FX shenanigans here.

Fast processing time

Iโ€™ve been very impressed with the speed at which HeyMax processes FlyAnywhere submissions. In recent weeks Iโ€™ve made two requests:

Request #1 was for a pair of Canada to USA tickets that cost US$581.06. HeyMax converted the amount into S$756.21 (pretty much the spot rate) and processed my redemption within 90 minutes (meaning the cash was in my account).

Request #2 was for a Singapore to Bangkok ticket that cost S$167.15. HeyMax processed the redemption within one hour. 

Redemptions can be made for anyone

FlyAnywhere redemptions can be made for anyone you like. Thereโ€™s no requirement that the HeyMax accountholder be part of the travelling party.

So if you feel like cashing in your Max Miles for 2 cents each, just ask a friend or family member to forward you their recent flight booking.

When to use FlyAnywhere

Budget & Economy Class flights

FlyAnywhere can offer great value for budget carrier redemptions

FlyAnywhere is particularly useful for those just concerned with getting from point A to point B, who would normally buy budget airfares or redeem their miles for Economy Class tickets โ€” redemptions for which traditional frequent flyer programmes usually offer very poor value.

For example, suppose I want to fly to Bangkok. If I were to redeem an award via KrisFlyer, Iโ€™d need to pay 27,000 miles + S$98 for an Economy Class award, hardly great value. But with FlyAnywhere, I could fly with Scoot and pay just 6,750 Max Miles.

Of course there are qualitative differences between the Scoot and Singapore Airlines flight, but if you just want to get there in the cheapest possible way, then FlyAnywhere is the solution.

Come to think of it, even if you needed the comforts of a full-service carrier, then redeeming Singapore Airlines via FlyAnywhere would cost you just 13,100 Max Miles, half of what KrisFlyer requires. Not to mention: no restrictions on seats, and you can earn miles on your ticket.

So FlyAnywhere helps to address those situations where all you need is Economy, but find it poor value to redeem miles via traditional frequent flyer programmes.

Business Class fare sales

In general, itโ€™s not good value to use FlyAnywhere for First or Business Class tickets, because the number of Max Miles required would usually be cost prohibitive. 

For example, if you wanted to fly Business Class from Singapore to Helsinki on Finnair, a commercial ticket that costs S$5,698 would require 284,900 Max Miles for redemption. In contrast, you could transfer Max Miles to British Airways Executive Club and redeem the same ticket for 125,000 Max Miles plus taxes.

Of course, some might argue that this isnโ€™t a fair comparison, because FlyAnywhere lets you book any available commercial seat, while traditional redemptions are limited to award seats only. Thatโ€™s certainly true, but to the extent that both are available, the traditional route is much better value.

However, if youโ€™re able to find a Business Class fare deal, then FlyAnywhere might still be a good option. For example, Saudia often has good value Business Class fares out of Singapore, like this S$1,426 fare between Singapore and Munich. 

If redeemed via FlyAnywhere, this would cost just 71,300 Max Miles, versus 80,000 EVA Infinity MileageLands miles or 103,500 KrisFlyer miles.

Letโ€™s not forget that the award tickets will have further fuel surcharges (in the case of EVA Air) and airport taxes, which must be paid in cash, as well as inventory restrictions that may prevent you from getting exactly the date you want.

Moreover, youโ€™ll be able to earn miles on the Saudia ticket, which you can credit to the SkyTeam programme of your choice. 

What else can you do with Max Miles?

Max Miles can be converted to 28 airline and hotel loyalty programmes at a 1:1 ratio, without any fees.

โœˆ๏ธ HeyMax Airline Partners
  • Air Canada Aeroplan
  • Air France-KLM Flying Blue
  • Air India Maharaja Club
  • Alaska Mileage Plan
  • American Airlines AAdvantage
  • Avianca LifeMiles
  • British Airways Executive Club
  • Emirates Skywards
  • Etihad Guest
  • EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
  • Frontier Miles
  • GarudaMiles
  • Hainan Fortune Wings Club
  • Qantas Frequent Flyer
  • Qatar Privilege Club
  • THAI Royal Orchid Plus
  • Turkish Miles&Smiles
  • United MileagePlus
  • Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles
  • Velocity Frequent Flyer
๐Ÿจ  HeyMax Hotel Partners
  • Accor Live Limitless
  • Hilton Honors
  • IHG One Rewards
  • Marriott Bonvoy
  • Radisson Rewards
  • Shangri-La Circle
  • World of Hyatt
  • Wyndham Rewards

While there are some very lucrative sweet spots to be had here, not everyone will be able to accumulate the critical mass of Max Miles required to redeem them. 

In that sense, FlyAnywhere offers a useful alternative, since redemptions start from just 1,000 Max Miles. And even if you have no interest in FlyAnywhere, its very existence means that you shouldnโ€™t accept anything less than 2 cents per Max Mile, regardless of which loyalty programme you choose. 

Thatโ€™s actually why I advised against converting Max Miles into KrisFlyer miles, during a recent promotion where it was possible to do so via yuu Rewards Club (my value of a KrisFlyer mile is around 1.5 cents).

Conclusion

๐Ÿ‘ 250 Max Miles joining bonus
Sign up for a HeyMax account and get up to 250 Max Miles as a welcome bonus
250 bonus Max Miles

HeyMaxโ€™s FlyAnywhere feature isnโ€™t meant for aspirational redemptions, but who says every redemption has to be aspirational? If you have a more utilitarian approach towards miles, then FlyAnywhere enables you to get good value for budget or Economy Class awards.

If nothing else, it sets a floor value of 2 cents per Max Mile, which then affects which airline or hotel loyalty programmes you choose to convert Max Miles to.

Hopefully this rate will be maintained even after 7 July 2025, because itโ€™s a great tool to have.

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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Lifshitz

How did you manage to acquire 40k Max Miles? I find that practically all my Shopee / Amazon purchases nowadays donโ€™t get any Max bonus, and while the choc card was good while it lasted, it didnโ€™t exactly last longโ€ฆ.

unknown

he has a lot of referrals

Lifshitz

Not a very generic strategy issit ๐Ÿ™‚
I think a general spending card, uncapped, with 0 FCY fees would be a real option. SGs card system is ripe for a FCY-free general spending card, even if it is only 1mpd. Even if it excludes EUR spending (canโ€™t make money from interchange there)

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