Velocity reinstates Singapore Airlines redemptions

[andye]

With Singapore and QATAR opening up there reward availability a good month before Virgin does anyone know if Singapore "reserve" any premium cabins for virgin, or in peak periods are they all gone before Virgin has access to them.
Just deciding whether I should transfer my points to krisflyer to ensure availability. Thanks

Almost certain they don't do VA any favours with award availability (and why would they)

 

[Jezza1222]

Another thing to note is that if you see availability on KrisFlyer for SQ seats but not on VA website you can call VA and they may be able to book them.
For our upcoming trip to Asia SQ I was chasing 4x J tickets SIN-BKK and SQ where showing 4 flight options whereas VA was only showing 1 option and that departure time didn’t suit. I called VA Plat line and was able to choose 1 of the other flights. I don’t know if this always works or what inventory VA has access to but was happy with the outcome this time. All up from dialling up to booking and paying was about 6 minutes total. All up cost me 104k VA points plus $228 in fees. If I had booked with SQ it would have cost 96k miles plus $228 in fees but to get the 96k miles I would’ve needed to convert 148k of VA points

Do you know if the works for something that is available on Singapore Airlines 355 days to 330 days in advance, as on the virgin website it only shows 330 days in advance? eg call Virgin and try to book a reward flight 350 days in advance

 

[jase05]

Do you know if the works for something that is available on Singapore Airlines 355 days to 330 days in advance, as on the virgin website it only shows 330 days in advance? eg call Virgin and try to book a reward flight 350 days in advance

I do not honestly know. I just thought I would give it a try this time and it worked

 

[ketsuzei]

Do you know if the works for something that is available on Singapore Airlines 355 days to 330 days in advance, as on the virgin website it only shows 330 days in advance? eg call Virgin and try to book a reward flight 350 days in advance

Unlikely given that Virgin has to issue the tickets.

 

[RAM]

Slightly tangential but perhaps not...

I thought I'd recheck how much revenue tickets for SYD MUC rtn in early 2022 on SIA now cost for Y. Was feeling sad at paying the most since 2005 (just under $2k) for the flights (bought this July), prompted by Kris points redemption for mid 2023 J seats before points charges increased.

Same flights now > $4,500. Business was > $14,000 vs under 7k

Got me to thinking - since AJ announced cutting more flights to 'improve' flying availability etc - just how much of the delay by airlines to increase capacity is due to pilot/cabin crew shortages/issues and how much is to massively increase their margins (7 fold in my case)?

The speed with which new VFF & partner award seats are being snapped up should clearly indicate to senior mgmt at both airlines just how much latent demand there is for roughly one year out (compared with past award redemption history). Those redemption reports are available adhoc as well as regularly scheduled reporting/analysis.

 

[cvmceg]

Another thing to note is that if you see availability on KrisFlyer for SQ seats but not on VA website you can call VA and they may be able to book them.
For our upcoming trip to Asia SQ I was chasing 4x J tickets SIN-BKK and SQ where showing 4 flight options whereas VA was only showing 1 option and that departure time didn’t suit. I called VA Plat line and was able to choose 1 of the other flights. I don’t know if this always works or what inventory VA has access to but was happy with the outcome this time. All up from dialling up to booking and paying was about 6 minutes total. All up cost me 104k VA points plus $228 in fees. If I had booked with SQ it would have cost 96k miles plus $228 in fees but to get the 96k miles I would’ve needed to convert 148k of VA points

Just bumping this. Has anyone else had success doing this? On SQ website I can see availability for certain J flights e.g SQ242 SYD-SIN, however I can't see it through Velocity website, VA call centre said they can't see it either. (I'm VA Gold fwiw)

 

[Mon]

Just bumping this. Has anyone else had success doing this? On SQ website I can see availability for certain J flights e.g SQ242 SYD-SIN, however I can't see it through Velocity website, VA call centre said they can't see it either. (I'm VA Gold fwiw)

Great question. Would be great if Velocity call centre could book ahead of website release or match SQ KrisFlyer rewards that don't show on Velocity.

I'm at a fork in the road as Amex MR transfer to Velocity bonus expiring very soon, still think I'll transfer to KrisFlyer as cannot risk missing availability on this one and stress too high - SQ Business availability on Velocity (looking Aus-Italy) seems very, very thin. Will have to buy the extra KrisFlyer miles which is beyond terrible but much cheaper than cash ticket and, for peace of mind, solid availability with KF direct.

Does anyone know how often (if at all) there's an Amex MR to KrisFlyer transfer bonus offering?

 

[RAM]

Great question. Would be great if Velocity call centre could book ahead of website release or match SQ KrisFlyer rewards that don't show on Velocity.

I'm at a fork in the road as Amex MR transfer to Velocity bonus expiring very soon, still think I'll transfer to KrisFlyer as cannot risk missing availability on this one and stress too high - SQ Business availability on Velocity (looking Aus-Italy) seems very, very thin. Will have to buy the extra KrisFlyer miles which is beyond terrible but much cheaper than cash ticket and, for peace of mind, solid availability with KF direct.

Does anyone know how often (if at all) there's an Amex MR to KrisFlyer transfer bonus offering?

You've probably seen it already but IIRC the Amex MR exchange rate is soon going to got from 2:1 to 3:1 (by October I think it is).

Exactly the opposite to your question in May - I hope Amex wasn't listening...

 

[mos]

Hi all, I'm looking to book flights on SQ from PER to SIN in Y next year, and even <330 days out there are flights with 3 Saver award seats available through Krisflyer that are not showing as having any Reward seats available through Velocity. I'm happy to call and sit on hold with Velocity to check if the call centre can see anything different, but is this a known issue that others have encountered? I'll make the transfer from Velocity to Krisflyer and wear the exchange rate if it's pointless trying to find multiple international Reward seats on SQ via Velocity. Thanks in advance

 

[Mattg]

Hi all, I'm looking to book flights on SQ from PER to SIN in Y next year, and even <330 days out there are flights with 3 Saver award seats available through Krisflyer that are not showing as having any Reward seats available through Velocity. I'm happy to call and sit on hold with Velocity to check if the call centre can see anything different, but is this a known issue that others have encountered? I'll make the transfer from Velocity to Krisflyer and wear the exchange rate if it's pointless trying to find multiple international Reward seats on SQ via Velocity. Thanks in advance

You could try calling Velocity, but it is possible that the seats just aren't available through Velocity. In which case, transferring to KrisFlyer would be the next-best course of action.

Can't hurt to call Velocity and ask first, though.

 

[mos]

You could try calling Velocity, but it is possible that the seats just aren't available through Velocity. In which case, transferring to KrisFlyer would be the next-best course of action.

Can't hurt to call Velocity and ask first, though.

Thanks Matt - I'll give them a call before I pay the transfer tax

 

[Mr H]

Hi all, I'm looking to book flights on SQ from PER to SIN in Y next year, and even <330 days out there are flights with 3 Saver award seats available through Krisflyer that are not showing as having any Reward seats available through Velocity. I'm happy to call and sit on hold with Velocity to check if the call centre can see anything different, but is this a known issue that others have encountered? I'll make the transfer from Velocity to Krisflyer and wear the exchange rate if it's pointless trying to find multiple international Reward seats on SQ via Velocity. Thanks in advance

Yes, this is a thing. SQ have inventory for KrisFlyer members and inventory that they make available to Star Alliance partners. Possibly the Star Alliance stock is a subset of the KF stock, or possibly it is totally separate. I am imagining that Velocity gets access to the Star Alliance stock but not the KF stock.

 

[Mattg]

Yes, this is a thing. SQ have inventory for KrisFlyer members and inventory that they make available to Star Alliance partners. Possibly the Star Alliance stock is a subset of the KF stock, or possibly it is totally separate. I am imagining that Velocity gets access to the Star Alliance stock but not the KF stock.

Velocity seems to get access to more availability than general Star Alliance partners, but it still doesn't match KF availability exactly. Seems to be somewhere in between.

 

[Digicola]

Yes, this is a thing. SQ have inventory for KrisFlyer members and inventory that they make available to Star Alliance partners. Possibly the Star Alliance stock is a subset of the KF stock, or possibly it is totally separate. I am imagining that Velocity gets access to the Star Alliance stock but not the KF stock.

There was some discussion on SQ forums a few months ago where partners were still showing availability where there was none when booking through KF. KF maintains separate availability, at least partially, for itself and partners.

They seem to operate a tiered system with the bare minimum afforded to Star Alliance (they don’t even make business available IIRC) and then a tier above for preferential partners (read those that pay to have access to more) which is where VA seems to sit.

 

[Mattg]

There was some discussion on SQ forums a few months ago where partners were still showing availability where there was none when booking through KF. KF maintains separate availability, at least partially, for itself and partners.

They seem to operate a tiered system with the bare minimum afforded to Star Alliance (they don’t even make business available IIRC) and then a tier above for preferential partners (read those that pay to have access to more) which is where VA seems to sit.

Star Alliance partners (other than Aeroplan) seem to get similar access to SQ Y availability and J on short-haul/regional flights. But SQ doesn't seem to release long-haul J to most partners.

Velocity and Aeroplan members do get access to long-haul J on SQ, but not all it seems.

 

[aspro2]

They seem to operate a tiered system with the bare minimum afforded to Star Alliance (they don’t even make business available IIRC) and then a tier above for preferential partners (read those that pay to have access to more) which is where VA seems to sit.

Does Aeroplan have greater access? Just curious, because some award-seat-search platforms return a fair bit of Aeroplan SQ availability where there's nothing via VA, but I haven't paid attention to the points (knowing that Aeroplan has horrible variable pricing), as I don't have Aeroplan points.

 

[Mon]

You've probably seen it already but IIRC the Amex MR exchange rate is soon going to got from 2:1 to 3:1 (by October I think it is).

Exactly the opposite to your question in May - I hope Amex wasn't listening...

Yup. Devastating.

Crikey, getting availability on SQ (via KF) LHR-SYD July next year is competitive as heck (as expected). Was on at 10am a year in advance as the date was released, all gone when I checked a little later. Slightly off-topic: KF seemed not to release any Business award seats on that route, that departs LHR on a Friday in July. Departing Wednesday, had decent availability (and they opened Saver on both A380s, LHR-SIN, SIN-SYD, which I was after and which is rare, according to my availability stalking) but not departing on a Thursday, that was 777 and some other combos. Friday departure, I could see nothing at all released at 10am when they opened a year in advance, Saver or Advantage. Guess it's a popular one.

I had to laugh at Emirates, though. With a price of ~202k miles one-way Aus-IT (know they prefer return), they price themselves right out of the redemptions, and now it'll go to 3:1 from Amx. Farewell, Skywards.

 

[Mr H]

My experience is that some dates or days of the week are blacked out. I have been looking at SIN-CGK in F, for example. The two afternoon flights appear to be available as a saver Monday to Thursday - but not Friday to Sunday. This has been a pattern for a few weeks.

The change of pricing for redemptions hurts, but it is a better, fairer way to deal with inflation than changing the award pricing matrix which also devalues existing points balances. But the jump from 2:1 to 3:1 is a brutal step change - it might have felt less painful if it had gone through 2.5:1 on the way.

 

[deangelj]

Does Aeroplan have greater access? Just curious, because some award-seat-search platforms return a fair bit of Aeroplan SQ availability where there's nothing via VA, but I haven't paid attention to the points (knowing that Aeroplan has horrible variable pricing), as I don't have Aeroplan points.

Just going through this now with my Aeroplan points. Got direct J tickets Milan->SIN->SYD for June next year. Going over I wanted SYD->Palermo in May 24, ended up with a stopover in Dubai as nothing else was coming up so did a separate SYD->SIN booking (J), then a SIN->DXB->IST->PMO (J) with SQ and TK. There's not much there but you can find them. Relevant to this thread though, I've booked the outward legs as flexible fares as I'm hoping for some VA rewards to come up!

 

[Mon]

My experience is that some dates or days of the week are blacked out. I have been looking at SIN-CGK in F, for example. The two afternoon flights appear to be available as a saver Monday to Thursday - but not Friday to Sunday. This has been a pattern for a few weeks.

The change of pricing for redemptions hurts, but it is a better, fairer way to deal with inflation than changing the award pricing matrix which also devalues existing points balances. But the jump from 2:1 to 3:1 is a brutal step change - it might have felt less painful if it had gone through 2.5:1 on the way.

Very interesting, indeed, re: the availability. Thanks for sharing your insights.