PSA: Singapore Airlines award seats temporarily unavailable at T-355 days

Most frequent flyers should know that Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer award space is loaded each day at 8 a.m Singapore time (GMT+8), 355 days before departure, when the airline loads flights into its reservations system.

Since award space, especially Saver, disappears quickly, camping on the website is the best strategy to snag seats on popular routes. Wake up too late and you might have to pay Advantage prices, or deal with the uncertainty of the waitlist.

However, every year there are two periods in April and November where I suddenly get a lot of messages from readers telling me that Singapore Airlines has changed its policy, because award space is no longer being released at the T-355 mark.

That’s the case this morning, as a quick search of the website shows that award seats 355 days from today (26 October 2025) have not been released, no matter which route you check. 

Don’t panic. Nothing has changed. This is just a temporary phenomenon that will be resolved over the next couple of days. 

Singapore Airlines award seats no longer loading at T-355 mark

To understand what’s going on, you first need to know about the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Northern Summer and Northern Winter schedules.

IATA divides the aviation calendar into two main scheduling seasons, referred to as the Northern Summer and Northern Winter schedules. These schedules help standardise planning for airlines globally, including departure and arrival slots, frequency of flights, and seasonal route adjustments.

355 days from today is 26 October 2025, the last Sunday in October 2025, which coincides with the start of the 2025/26 Northern Winter season. 

What’s causing the bottleneck is that Singapore Airlines simply hasn’t loaded any flights for this season yet, which runs from 26 October 2025 to 28 March 2026.

This affects both award and commercial seats, so you won’t be able to book a commercial ticket with Singapore Airlines from 26 October 2025 onwards until the schedule is loaded. 

By the way, this is a phenomenon that happens in both April and November; the former because of the lag in loading the Northern Summer schedule, the latter because of the delay in loading the Northern Winter schedule. 

What happens now?

All we can do is wait. 

Obviously, Singapore Airlines wants to start selling tickets on its planes as soon as it can, so it’s in their interest to load inventory sooner rather than later. However, there is no fixed date or time when it comes to loading the new schedule.

When that happens, there will be a “dump” of award and commercial space into the system, and you’ll be able to book seats up till 355 days from whenever that date is.

For reference:

• In April 2024, award seats for T-355 stopped getting loaded on 9 April 2024, and were restored around lunchtime on 11 April 2024
• In November 2023, award seats for T-355 stopped getting loaded on 6 November 2023, and were restored around lunchtime on 9 November 2023

So if you’re eyeing a redemption on a popular route, your best bet is to keep checking the Singapore Airlines website for updates. I’ll also drop a note in the MileLion Roars Telegram channel when that happens, so be sure to join. 

What’s the usual schedule?

Outside of this twice-a-year bottleneck, Singapore Airlines award seats are loaded at 8 a.m Singapore time (GMT+8), 355 days before departure.

However, there is an exception for USA destinations, which follow a different schedule:

• New York (EWR/JFK):1 p.m Singapore time (GMT+8), 355 days before departure
• Houston (IAH): 2 p.m Singapore time (GMT+8), 355 days before departure
• All others (LAX/SEA/SFO): 4 p.m Singapore time (GMT+8), 355 days before departure

If you’re wondering when you should start camping on the website, a simple tool to add 355 days from today can be found here.

Conclusion

Singapore Airlines has stopped loading new award and commercial seats 355 days in advance of departure. This is only temporary, and is due to the switchover to the IATA Northern Winter schedule from 26 October 2025.

We can usually expect the bottleneck to be cleared within the next few days, but there’s no knowing for sure when exactly that will happen. So if you’re eyeing travel in late 2025, you’ll need to monitor the website and keep checking back.

Good luck!