Singapore Airlines’ new A380 cabin products will be launched on the London and Hong Kong routes from the middle of February, making it three destinations in total served by the new A380s.
Fred had a chance to review SQ’s new suites around Christmas, and I’m hoping to do my own review around March. In the meantime though, here’s two more routes on which you might want to hunt for award space:
London
SQ’s press release is confusingly worded and omits certain details, so I’m going to try to explain things in the form of a table:
| Starting date in bracket | Singapore to London | London to Singapore |
| Monday | SQ305 (19 Feb-2 Apr) SQ317 (9 Apr) | |
| Tuesday | ||
| Wednesday | SQ322 (21 Feb) | |
| Thursday | SQ305 (22 Feb-5 Apr) SQ317 (12 Apr) | |
| Friday | SQ322 (16 Feb) | |
| Saturday | SQ305 (17 Feb- 31 Mar) SQ317 (7 Apr) | |
| Sunday | SQ322 (18 Feb) |
- SQ322 departs from SIN at 2345 and arrives in LHR at 0555 the following day
- SQ305 departs from LHR at 0910 and arrives in SIN at 0605 the following day
- SQ317 departs from LHR at 1055 and arrives in SIN at 0750 the following day
Hong Kong
| Starting date in bracket | Singapore to Hong Kong | Hong Kong to Singapore |
| Monday | ||
| Tuesday | SQ860 (20 Feb-3 Apr) SQ856 (10 Apr) | SQ863 (20 Feb-3 Apr) SQ861 (10 Apr) |
| Wednesday | SQ860 (21 Feb-4 Apr) SQ856 (11 Apr) | SQ863 (21 Feb-4 Apr) SQ861 (11 Apr) |
| Thursday | ||
| Friday | SQ860 (23 Feb-6 Apr) SQ856 (13 Apr) | SQ863 (23 Feb-6 Apr) SQ861 (13 Apr) |
| Saturday | ||
| Sunday | SQ860 (18 Feb- 1 Apr) SQ856 (8 Apr) | SQ863 (18 Feb-1 Apr) SQ861 (8 Apr) |
- SQ856 departs from SIN at 0955 and arrives in HKG at 1355
- SQ860 departs from SIN at 0825 and arrives in HKG at 1225
- SQ861 departs from HKG at 1545 and arrives in SIN at 1945
- SQ863 departs from HKG at 1410 and arrives in SIN at 1810
What’s the award space situation like?
First and business class Saver space are all but absent on the London route. It’s actually been known for a while that SQ would indeed select London for its new A380 products, and saver space was accordingly blocked. If you look hard enough, you can find the odd date with First Saver space available for waitlist, but this is the exception rather than the rule. If you’re willing to splurge for Standard, you’ll find much better availability.
The good news is that if you’re willing to have a shorter cabin experience, Hong Kong space seems to be wide open especially in business class. We were able to find numerous dates with instantly confirmable saver space:
I’m thinking of booking a short trip to Hong Kong for the express purpose of reviewing the new business class, followed by a review of the new Suites to Sydney around end March. I’ve gone on record as saying I’m not completely overwhelmed by SQ’s new suites, but that doesn’t mean I’m not excited to try them.
The good news is that if you’re able to do things last minute, and I really mean last minute, saver waitlist seems to open up for SQ221 to Sydney about a day beforehand. For example I can see saver space for tonight’s flight to Sydney. I suppose you’d need to waitlist and call them right away to get it cleared but still…
Does this mean that SQ322 will sometimes return as SQ305 and sometimes as SQ317? Conversely, this means the SQ306 will then return as the other flight?
What happens during those dates in the gap: 3-8 Apr on Mondays, 6-11 Apr on Thursdays and 1-6 Apr on Saturdays? Surely the A380 that goes out as SQ322 has to come back as one of the flights?
yes, it means that sq317 only gets the new product from 7 april. the numbering conventions don’t always match up on some routes, confusingly, eg sq306 may not return as 305
regarding your second question, 3-8 april has no monday, 6-11 april has no thursday, 1-6 april has no saturday.
Wow I’m lucky. Already booked on SQ 860 to fly in August thinking it would be the old A380 (which is fine with me since I’ve never flown) and now with this new news, looks like it would be the new one!
Damn it, looks like i will miss out on the new suite by a few months 🙁
( I am flying SQ305 in mid July )
Thanks!