Singapore Airlines A350 Upgrade for Cairns

SQ Singapore A350
Singapore Airlines will soon fly Airbus A350s to Cairns. Photo: Singapore Airlines.

Singapore Airlines will fly Airbus A350-900s to Cairns from 31 March 2024. The wide-body jet will replace the Boeing 737-8 MAX on the Singapore-Cairns route.

This is great news for Cairns-based flyers as the capacity increase is likely to lower airfares and result in greater award availability. This is especially the case for Business Class, as Singapore Airlines will soon offer 160 return Business seats on the route each week – a 313% increase over the current 50 seats per week!

Following this change, the number of weekly Cairns-Singapore flights will drop from five to four as the Saturday service will no longer be offered. However, the larger aircraft will result in an overall capacity increase on the route.

The larger Airbus A350 aircraft also flies faster than the Boeing 737, reducing flight times between Cairns and Singapore by around 20 minutes each way.

Singapore Airlines’ Singapore-Cairns service leaves Singapore in the morning, and returns from Cairns to Singapore in the late afternoon. The flights are perfectly timed to connect via Singapore with destinations in Europe and South Africa.

Lots of Business Saver award availability

If you’d like to redeem points or miles for a Business Class seat on the Cairns-Singapore route, we can currently see up to four award seats available on many dates.

You’ll be flying in Singapore Airlines’ regional Business Class product, with a lie-flat bed.

Singapore Airlines Business Class on the Airbus A350 regional configuration
Singapore Airlines Business Class on the regional Airbus A350-900 regional configuration. Photo: Matt Graham.

If you have Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles, you could book a seat for 68,500 KrisFlyer miles + $106.36 in taxes per person, one-way.

CNS-SIN award availability on the Singapore Airlines website
There is plenty of award availability in Singapore Airlines Business Class from Cairns to Singapore. Screenshot from the Singapore Airlines website.

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Seats are also available to book using Virgin Australia Velocity points. A Velocity Reward Seat on the Cairns-Singapore route requires fewer points than an equivalent KrisFlyer award booking. However, Velocity adds a Singapore Airlines carrier charge so the cash co-payment is a bit higher.

Velocity CNS-SIN award availability
You can redeem Velocity points for Singapore Airlines flights. Screenshot from the Virgin Australia website.

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Singapore Airlines is a member of Star Alliance. If you have points or miles with another Star Alliance frequent flyer program, such as United MileagePlus or Air Canada Aeroplan, you could also use those to book a Singapore Airlines Business Class seat between Cairns and Singapore.

Aeroplan CNS-SIN award availability
You could redeem Aeroplan points for Singapore Airlines flights. Screenshot from the Air Canada website.

There is also plenty of award availability in Economy Class, which is a comfortable option on the Airbus A350.

Singapore Airlines A350-900 Economy Class Seating
Singapore Airlines A350-900 Economy Class. Photo: Wilson McTaggart.

Other Singapore Airlines service increases to Australia

From the end of March 2024, Singapore Airlines will also boost services to several other Australian cities. This is what else is changing:

  • Darwin-Singapore will increase from 5x weekly to a daily service
  • Singapore Airlines will permanently add a fifth daily Melbourne-Singapore service
  • One of the four daily Sydney-Singapore flights will be upgraded from an Airbus A350 to a Boeing 777-300ER, meaning all Sydney-Singapore flights will have First Class available
  • Adelaide-Singapore is switching from an Airbus A350 to a Boeing 787-10 service
  • Perth-Singapore will get an extra three weekly flights, bringing frequency on the route to 4x daily

That’s in addition to some seasonal service increases over the upcoming Australian summer.

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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Community Comments

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Great that the capacity has increased but although I have never flown on their Maxy the J seats look ok and surely can’t be worse than the horrible A350 J seats.

Reply Like

Great that the capacity has increased but although I have never flown on their Maxy the J seats look ok and surely can’t be worse than the horrible A350 J seats.

I flew A350 J (LH and SH) and I don't find it that horrible ..... Why do you think it is so bad?

Reply 2 Likes

They must have CNS in the wrong Zone for the Advantage Award redemption charts. Zone 9 to Zone 11 redemption is correctly showing Saver awards at 130,500 per pax for J, but is is showing 213,000 pts required for Advantage Award redemption in J instead of the advertised154,000. I emailed their feedback, and they mustn't have known what Reward Redemptions meant, because they just quoted that the difference may have been because of "Airport taxes, fees and other charges apply, and may vary based on travel dates and flights, as well as on fluctuations in exchange rates."
The only redemption rate I can see on the chart at the 213,000 pts value is Zone 6 to Zone 9 Suites/First Advantage redemption, so I'm not sure where they are getting that value from for (e.g LHR-CNS) Advantage redemptions. Anyone got any idea? Anyone got a contact at SQ they can flag this error in their system configuration for CNS?

Reply 3 Likes

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They must have CNS in the wrong Zone for the Advantage Award redemption charts. Zone 9 to Zone 11 redemption is correctly showing Saver awards at 130,500 per pax for J, but is is showing 213,000 pts required for Advantage Award redemption in J instead of the advertised154,000. I emailed their feedback, and they mustn't have known what Reward Redemptions meant, because they just quoted that the difference may have been because of "Airport taxes, fees and other charges apply, and may vary based on travel dates and flights, as well as on fluctuations in exchange rates."
The only redemption rate I can see on the chart at the 213,000 pts value is Zone 6 to Zone 9 Suites/First Advantage redemption, so I'm not sure where they are getting that value from for (e.g LHR-CNS) Advantage redemptions. Anyone got any idea? Anyone got a contact at SQ they can flag this error in their system configuration for CNS?

This is a good pick-up. As far as I can see, the Advantage Award pricing for both Economy and Business redemptions to/from Cairns is incorrect for Zones 10, 11, 12 and 13.

I've passed on your feedback to someone at Singapore Airlines.

Reply 6 Likes

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Anyone been the new lounge on this A350 flight yet. The old reef lounge has been fitted out and rebranded as the Escape Lounge. The only photo I could find was this one on the Cairns airport website:

View image at the forums

Reply Like

I’m on the 350 as I type in 12A.

I found there is minimal storage space and the seats are quite hard and hurting my back. I find this disappointing as I am an SQ fan, generally.

Reply 1 Like

They must have CNS in the wrong Zone for the Advantage Award redemption charts. Zone 9 to Zone 11 redemption is correctly showing Saver awards at 130,500 per pax for J, but is is showing 213,000 pts required for Advantage Award redemption in J instead of the advertised154,000. I emailed their feedback, and they mustn't have known what Reward Redemptions meant, because they just quoted that the difference may have been because of "Airport taxes, fees and other charges apply, and may vary based on travel dates and flights, as well as on fluctuations in exchange rates."
The only redemption rate I can see on the chart at the 213,000 pts value is Zone 6 to Zone 9 Suites/First Advantage redemption, so I'm not sure where they are getting that value from for (e.g LHR-CNS) Advantage redemptions. Anyone got any idea? Anyone got a contact at SQ they can flag this error in their system configuration for CNS?

I was just looking for information about this! I have searched CNS-IST and it has offered an Advantage award at 193,500 in J!
So seems it hasn't yet been addressed.

Reply Like

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