SQ Tips, Trips and Tales

[mel-world]

Award seats are released each day at 10am Syd/Mel time (11am during daylight savings time).

Many thanks. A very civilised hour to be looking.

 

[boomy]

TPR and SKF are finally open!

First look: Inside Singapore Airlines' new Changi Airport lounges

Singapore Airlines raises the curtain on its new flagship lounges at Changi Airport: and Point Hacks is in The Lion City for a first look.

www.pointhacks.com.au

Inside Singapore Airlines’ new First Class lounge, The Private Room

These two all-new flagship first class lounges cap an extensive SGD$50m makeover for the airline’s SilverKris lounge hub.

www.executivetraveller.com

 

[boomy]

“the biggest addition is a new wing of nap rooms. Available for two hours at a time, they’re the perfect place for travellers on longer transits.”

Was hoping SQ will introduce proper nap rooms like in QR or LX F lounges but limiting them to two hours is disappointing.

 

[Pointy Bird]

TPR and SKF are finally open!

First look: Inside Singapore Airlines' new Changi Airport lounges

Singapore Airlines raises the curtain on its new flagship lounges at Changi Airport: and Point Hacks is in The Lion City for a first look.

www.pointhacks.com.au

Inside Singapore Airlines’ new First Class lounge, The Private Room

These two all-new flagship first class lounges cap an extensive SGD$50m makeover for the airline’s SilverKris lounge hub.

www.executivetraveller.com

Both Cruiser and I missed it by one day!
I will give it a test run in12 days.

 

[boomy]

Both Cruiser and I missed it by one day!
I will give it a test run in12 days.

Yea me too, I was there last night!

 

[kyle]

What's with the J airfares? They are nearly doubled compared to when I booked in April for July to Europe. Everyone just decided to go a month or two out?

 

[Tejas]

What's with the J airfares? They are nearly doubled compared to when I booked in April for July to Europe. Everyone just decided to go a month or two out?

even Y is astronomical. I booked a solo trip to LHR and due to some changes the other half could not come when i booked, but can now. even in Y the return cost is $3500 - less than what i paid for my entire trip including hotel!

 

[Phoenix-1]

Is there a big difference in the experience/seats on the regional A350 vs the other aircraft? Originally I was going to just fly from ADL but wondering if it's worth flying from elsewhere in Australia. Will be my first international J flight (booking with velocity points).

 

[dajop]

What's with the J airfares? They are nearly doubled compared to when I booked in April for July to Europe. Everyone just decided to go a month or two out?

What happened? Both Australia and Singapore lifted pre-departure testing requirement in April for inbound travel. This meant a lot more people willing to travel, for both business and leisure. A huge upswing in business travel. On the leisure side induced an many Australians to travel, and even moreso Singaporeans & residents wanting to escape the 730 sq. km island after 2 years. Noticable upswing in airfares around the same time.

 

[boomy]

What happened? Both Australia and Singapore lifted pre-departure testing requirement in April for inbound travel. This meant a lot more people willing to travel, for both business and leisure. A huge upswing in business travel. On the leisure side induced an many Australians to travel, and even moreso Singaporeans & residents wanting to escape the 730 sq. km island after 2 years. Noticable upswing in airfares around the same time.

That plus the fact that SQ is not yet back to full capacity.
Hopefully MEL will swap 350s for 777s as planned by the 3rd quarter of this year and maybe another 380 or at least 777 for SYD while China and Japan remain closed.

 

[dajop]

That plus the fact that SQ is not yet back to full capacity.
Hopefully MEL will swap 350s for 777s as planned by the 3rd quarter of this year and maybe another 380 or at least 777 for SYD while China and Japan remain closed.

Although SQ are getting close to pre-COVID capacity on Australia and Europe routes (and exceeding on US routes). But cabin crew remains a huge challenge.

With MEL, as of June, back to 4 flights a day (missing the WLG flight). Changing the two of the three regional 350's to 77W's would see an overall capacity decrease of 78 seats a day, although you would see 8 more F seats, 6 more J seats and 56 more PE seats, with a loss of 158 Y seats.

I wonder if the slow return of 777's to service is crew related. They kept flying the A350's and 787's throughout the pandemic, but only sporadic 777 flights.

 

[boomy]

I wonder if the slow return of 777's to service is crew related. They kept flying the A350's and 787's throughout the pandemic, but only sporadic 777 flights.

One of reasons could be lack of competition on the Asian market which allows SQ to get away with flying 350 and 787 regional config with inferior J product (and no F) to premium destinations such as MEL and SYD.

 

[theblank]

i have noticed a sudden and massive drop on redemption Saver fares locally in SEA for flights to/from Singapore in mid/late July i think it was early last week they literally disappeared when i was looking at the screen - mostly no waitlist options either.

the only saver fares left are the ones that really suck (for me, long transit)

i ended up having to book BNE>SIN>CGK as two bookings, BNE>SIN on a saver, and SIN>CGK on Advantage, which sucks as that 2nd flight is technically free.

 

[Quickstatus]

slow return of 777's to service is crew related.

Seems to be. I read somewhere that lot of people moved on from the airline and their are relying on goodwill of existing crew to fill the holes

 

[drron]

Is there a big difference in the experience/seats on the regional A350 vs the other aircraft? Originally I was going to just fly from ADL but wondering if it's worth flying from elsewhere in Australia. Will be my first international J flight (booking with velocity points).

Absolutely OK if a day time flight. I could lie flat on the regional seat so I would be PK with it if I had to take an ON flight.
However you really can't be quaranteed which aircraft you are going to get. When i initially booked our last flight SIN-BNE leaving at 0945 it was an international config. however a bit later when checking it was the regional config so I changed seats. 2 days before leaving SIN it was still a regional bird. On boarding it was an international config and we had lost our seats and put in the last row of J.

When looking at the BNE -SIN leg you can check the equipment. there is no one flight that has all regional or all international. A bit of pot luck on the day.

 

[Andrew Curran]

Is there a big difference in the experience/seats on the regional A350 vs the other aircraft? Originally I was going to just fly from ADL but wondering if it's worth flying from elsewhere in Australia. Will be my first international J flight (booking with velocity points).

I'm out of ADL tomorrow in J so will let you know

 

[dajop]

Also - the A350s I assume are much cheaper to run than 777s. So until a lot of the Asia services really ramp up they will continue using these on Australia routes. Once Japan and Korea ramp up and if HKG and mainland China ever come back, then you will see the regional A350s redeployed and 777s reentering service.

 

[woodyren]

We returned home on the regional J setup a few weeks ago. I'm 6ft 2in and managed to sleep well*.
*Champagne may have helped.

Sure the seats are not as good as the two other J configurations we have experienced and if all things were equal I would chose the other options but if the regional is all that is available it would not be an issue for us.

 

[Phoenix-1]

Thanks all for the advice.

 

[mel-world]

SUCCESS - It can be done.

2 x Saver Award tickets booked in R - SYD-SIN-LHR in May 2023 on SQ222/308, giving us an overnight in Singapore on the way. Both flights currently on the A380 (but changes could occur) - 2A and 2F reserved on both flights, thanks to advice on this Thread.

I have been looking for a few days but got the date I really wanted. Flying mid-week looks easier than at weekends.

I've been saving these miles for ages, all earned from flights. Now to get the returns in 6 weeks or so. Thanks again to Ken1 - I searched at 1000 today.