Redemptions for Infant Singapore VS Qantas

[provedor1]

We are travelling to AMS from PER via SIN in business. We are using redemption but could not add an infant 14 months old. Called Kris Flyer and they informed us that we must purchase a ticket for infant as they cant be on a redemption ticket. So the cost of buying a ticket for an infant with no seat allocation was $475 SGD.

We have gone ahead and booked 3 adults on redemption plus Infant.
What is of interest is the breakdown of the invoice from Sin. Security and other fees less than $50 but the biggie is the fuel surcharge around $300 each including infant. So fees were well over $1000.

We are returning from Frankfurt to Perth & Brisbane for Daughter & Infant and have access to either Qantas or Singapore

As a matter of interest we did a dummy or 2 booking with QANTAS - yes can book infant on redemption - no points charge and the fees for 1 adult and infant can vary depending on carrier - eg Frankfurt to Brisbane via Dubai infant pays taxes $500? or Perth Hong Kong - Nil: Dubai Perth - Nil: Frankfurt - Sydney via Melbourne & Hong Kong & Taxes Infant NIL on Cathay

We ended up booking Singapore FRA to BRI 1 adult & 1 Infant fees: Adult 342.78 EU PLUS 342.78 for infant - Only reasonable flight available.

=So 2 observations = Singapore cant fly infant using redemption (Buy ticket) and taxes are expensive
Qantas appears to be all over the place with taxes depending on Carrier appears to be nil on some Qantas carriers - BUT you can book infant on redemption

I will have to reconsider where my points land from now on!
John M

 

[JohnK]

I think you have just seen that SQ is terrible when it comes to fuel surcharges. From memory ~AUD600 in fuel surcharges for return award SYD-BKK/CNX. A paid airfare costs ~AUD800 so makes those 42,500 Amex MR points worth ~AUD200. That is a joke as those points are not easy to come by for me.

You have also worked out that fuel surcharges to/from HKG are very negligible so if you can somehow route an award through there then it is worth paying the extra points to save the fuel surcharges.

 

[provedor1]

We ended up booking Singapore FRA to BRI 1 adult & 1 Infant fees: Adult 342.78 EU PLUS 342.78 for infant - Only reasonable flight available.

HOLD THE PHONE

Went to pay for the infant fees on Singapore Customer Service phone line. After long wait. YOU WILL HAVE TO RING SINGAPORE IN FRANKFURT TO PURCHASE TICKET....

SO after some discussion customer service have agreed to call back within 24 hours..

Still waiting

 

[foggy]

unfortunately the only way for it to be worthwhile to travel in J class is if you have redeemed a return flight to your destination, then it is basically 10% of the cost of the commercial fare. I assume you have redeemed a 1 way ticket from PER-SIN-AMS. If you had redeemed return then the cost of the infant returned should be around 6xx SGD.

For my RETURN infant from SYD-SIN-PVG, it totalled $516.20 AUD.

For my ONE WAY PVG-SIN-SYD for the same infant, it was $3672CNY which roughly equates to $600AUD given the currency rate at the time.

Lesson learnt, never redeem one way tickets travelling in J.

But now that she is over 2, I have to redeem her a seat which is an even bigger headache because now we require 5 J savers instead of 4 which is impossible.

 

[SQ101]

First of all, congrats on your redemption of 3xJ tickets to AMS, that's hard to come by. Plus it's on the new A350.

Fuel charges are expensive on SQ and even more expensive in Australia but that's the law. HK has a regulation around that and that's why it's cheaper, or in your case, free for infants (I didn't know that).

Enjoy your flight. Business class with an infant is much better on SQ than any other airlines because of how wide the seats are, you can snooze side by side with your baby.