Which carriers does Singapore Airlines interline with?

As anyone who’s ever travelled on separate tickets before will know, an interline agreement can make all the difference between a smooth connection, and a stressful rush.  

The convenience of getting all your boarding passes at one shot and checking your bag through to the final destination should not be understated, especially if your inbound flight arrives late or if a terminal change is required.

In this post, we’ll look at what interlining is, and the agreements that Singapore Airlines has in place. 

What is interlining?

While there’s probably a more technically correct definition, I prefer to think of interlining simply as an agreement that allows Airline A to send passengers onto Airline B, without requiring them to reclaim their luggage or check-in again.

Interlining is important when dealing with flight disruptions (since an airline typically rebooks passengers onto another airline it interlines with), but is more commonly encountered when dealing with two separate tickets.

Depending on your situation, the presence of an interline agreement can either be a mild convenience, or absolute necessity. 

For example, I might redeem a Qatar Airways ticket from KUL-DOH-MXP, and then purchase a separate Singapore Airlines ticket from SIN-KUL. Since Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines interline, I could get my boarding passes in SIN and check my bag all the way through to MXP, saving me the time of clearing arrival immigration in KUL, claiming my bag, checking in and clearing departure immigration again. 

However, an interline agreement may very well determine the underlying viability of a journey in the first place. If I want to fly from A > B > C, but cannot enter Country B without a visa (and don’t intend to apply for one), then I’m counting on being able to check my bag all the way through from A to C.

I’ll talk about some caveats to interlining later in this article, but first, let’s look at the agreements that Singapore Airlines has.

Singapore Airlines’ interline agreements

At the time of writing, Singapore Airlines has interline agreements with more than 100 carriers worldwide.

The information below is extracted from the KVS Tool (a paid subscription is required to use it). 

[KVS Tool 10.4.1 – Reference: Interline Agreements [IET]: SQ]

For those of you who don’t speak airline code, here’s a summary of which code refers to what airline. 

Note that the system has some “leftovers”, such as Germanwings (since rebranded to Eurowings with a different airline code) and Indian Airlines (folded into Air India in 2011).

Caveats about interlining

Interlining on separate tickets is not a given

Interlining agreements are primarily concerned with facilitating the travel of passengers across different airlines on the same ticket. Just because two airlines have an interline agreement does not mean they’re obligated to check you through when travelling on separate tickets. 

Most of the time they should, but keep in mind this is done as a courtesy, as Cathay Pacific puts it: 

As a courtesy, Cathay Pacific will through-check you and your bags to your final destination if you are travelling on separate tickets involving connections with our interline partners. However through-check may not be possible on their return journey if your travel begins with an airline that does not to provide separate ticket through-check service.

Still, you may encounter the odd agent who is unfamiliar with the rules or unwilling to assist. I’ve been in situations where agents refused to check my bag through on the grounds that the second airline was not part of the same alliance, notwithstanding the fact an interline agreement existed.

It pays to be patient, polite, and know your stuff. MileLion community member Ray suggests a trick that can work if both airlines are on the Amadeus system, namely asking the agent to enter TGAD-XX where XX is the airline’s code. This displays a full list of interline agreements. Alternatively, entering TGAD-XX/YY will display the interline agreement between the validating carrier XX and the second carrier YY. 

All the same, there’s always some degree of risk in booking separate tickets, especially if you have luggage. 

Interlining must respect MCT

If you’re booking two separate tickets, you should make sure the Minimum Connecting Time (MCT) is satisfied.

As the name suggests, MCT is the minimum time between the scheduled arrival of one flight and the scheduled departure of another. Bangkok, for example, has the following MCTs:

• Domestic to Domestic: 1h 15 mins
• Domestic to International: 1h 15 mins
• International to Domestic: 1h 15 mins
• International to International: 1h 15 mins

This means that if you book a separate SIN-BKK and BKK-KIX ticket and the arrival of the first flight is within 1h 15 mins from the departure time of the second flight, your request to interline will be denied.

Regular customs rules still apply

Interline agreements are still subject to the standard customs restrictions.

For example, Singapore Airlines and JetBlue have an interline agreement, but US laws require passengers to collect their bags and clear customs at their first port of entry. So if you had a Singapore Airlines SIN-SFO and a JetBlue SFO-BOS ticket, you would still need to collect your bag in SFO and clear customs before sending it off again on the SFO-BOS leg. 

Similar rules apply to Australia and New Zealand, where your connecting flight is a domestic one. 

Conclusion

Interlining agreements are very important to miles collectors who intend to book separate tickets across two different frequent flyer programmes. While interlining on separate tickets is never guaranteed, it can be done more often than not.

I would, however, ensure that I had a backup plan for a worst case scenario where the agent at the first airport is unwilling or unable to check the bag through.