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Hi
Has anyone got any experience of booking award flights on SQ? I am looking at SIN-DPS but I read somewhere that SQ only offer certain routes for VS awards and economy only. Economy is fine but wondering if we knew what these “certain routes” are and if that’s even correct. And finally, are these tickets flexible?
Cash tickets aren’t expensive but I want to avoid Air Asia due to the transit to T4 so just looking at this as an option especially with the miles buy bonus.
Thanks
Generally, premium cabins on long haul are blocked. You’ll be fine with the DPS flight. I remember someone (froggee I think) who redeemed VS points on this route recently.
Yes, they are flexible subject to the cancellation fees.Yeah – I got my mum to book herself on that route.
As long as you’re booking far ahead there is plenty of availability.
And better value than booking with SQ as (from memory) it is 35,000 Virgin points vs 45,000 Krisflyer mikes return in business.
In my experience, you can check availability by doing a dummy redemption booking with United. No need to register there.
Thanks, I’ll be combining with an Avios to SIN and back from KUL so I’ll be booking very far in advance 🙂
Oh – and I meant to say that when you do book it, make sure you also get the SQ booking reference as the Virgin one isn’t recognised by SQ when you try to manage your booking.
I was all for doing this in Economy but the SQ regional J class product looks great and perhaps coming off the LHR-SIN, I’ll appreciate the shower in the SQ lounge… Seems like buying VS in the sale is flat out better value than a revenue SQ ticket.
I was all for doing this in Economy but the SQ regional J class product looks great and perhaps coming off the LHR-SIN, I’ll appreciate the shower in the SQ lounge… Seems like buying VS in the sale is flat out better value than a revenue SQ ticket.
It is certainly a lot more civilised!
I was all for doing this in Economy but the SQ regional J class product looks great and perhaps coming off the LHR-SIN, I’ll appreciate the shower in the SQ lounge… Seems like buying VS in the sale is flat out better value than a revenue SQ ticket.
Are you sure you are happy with the 737 max J? Also there is a possibility it can be the old J seat.
Loaded question.
I think J on the 737MAX looks great as a product. Is it not?
Am I happy with a 737 MAX in general? I think so though I’d rather not….
Old J? Yes, that would be rubbish.
Sorry to jump on this thread…but quick q
When you call Virgin to book singapore flights do you need to tell them to do anything specific to bookit/isit a case of hanging up and call again?
Because I wanted to find Cairns-SIN availability for June in economy and they told me no availability at all and I kept asking them to check every date in June and they said none available which for me doesn’t sound right especially as I can see availability on other star alliance members (United and TK)…now obviously virgin is only a SQ partner but anyone got any advice??
If it’s on a wide body plane, it’s likely blocked by SQ.
VS and SQ block the premium reward inventory for each other. Partners in name only.If it’s on a wide body plane, it’s likely blocked by SQ.
VS and SQ block the premium reward inventory for each other. Partners in name only.Ye true but this was economy seats and also I don’t think CNS-SIN is wide body aircraft
Have you checked the United wedsite for availability using miles?
Edit: you have!
No clue then. Try again?
also I don’t think CNS-SIN is wide body aircraft
It’s a 6.5 hours flight – why would it be a narrow body aircraft?
Obviously it’s an A350.also I don’t think CNS-SIN is wide body aircraft
It’s a 6.5 hours flight – why would it be a narrow body aircraft?
Obviously it’s an A350.It’s a b737 so not wide body
Both. But you’re quite right that’s it’s a 737 now. So it’s “obviously” not always an A350.
Did you specify the exact date and flight number when talking to Virgin?
Did you specify the exact date and flight number when talking to Virgin?
Yep abd they checked around 10 dates and all said no availability….I don’t know if its because SQ doesn’t open up the availability or because the VA agent doesn’t know what they’re doing
VS helpline staff don’t try to deny that booking points seats for SQ is difficult when using their points as availability is heavily restricted.
We can hope that VS will invest heavily in their website so that looking for reward availability on their partner airlines and other SkyTeam airlines isn’t like it is right now, where a phone call must be made.
On a plus note, at least many of us will hardly need to be making any phone calls to BA’s csa department for fiddly bookings in the coming future, it’s taken them long enough to invest in their website, but they’ve finally recently announced a complete rebuild (near-enough) of the current systemWe can hope that VS will invest heavily in their website so that looking for reward availability on their partner airlines and other SkyTeam airlines isn’t like it is right now, where a phone call must be made.
Their own systems are crap, forget about investing for partner availability.
Couple of changes to the itinerary and we couldn’t check in at the airport. The staff took 30 mins to sort it out.
Their own systems are crap, forget about investing for partner availability.
Couple of changes to the itinerary and we couldn’t check in at the airport. The staff took 30 mins to sort it out.[/quote]
We can hope that Shai will focus on the IT systems one day, since he tries hard to make a success of the airline. Although it’d require a lot of money being spent, it’d heavily reduce the amount of cs staff needed in Swansea
Things like it taking the airport staff 30 minutes to sort is unfortunate but part and parcel of old IT systems – occasionally
We did KLM Sin-dps in J, it was a great flight
Is the reward inventory/availability bookable via Virgin for Singapore Airlines flights shared with other partners such as United? In other words if United have availability will Virgin also have the same? Conversely if United rewards on SQ are unavailable will Virgin similarly have no Singapore Airlines reward availability?
@rosswill this has been my experience but I cannot categorically confirm it!
Following up on my previous question I have now completed a number of SQ bookings with Flying Club miles. I was booking 4 seats in business class for each flight 11 months out. Inventory wise this is what I have deduced.
KrisFlyer inventory is better than partner award availability, unsurprisingly. In all cases availability existed for all flight options on the days I was booking. Sadly I dont have any points to spend though.
United availably was next best, however did not include every flight on every date. Expertflyer showed 1 or in another case 2 business class seats allocated for these flights although 9+Z class seats on sale.
Virgin had no availability for dates where United had no availability, but had even less award availability on at least 2 flights than United were showing.
Maybe there is a lag for availability to be updated across all FF programs or perhaps SQ allocate a different number of seats to different partners?
I was only able to try and actually progress the booking to the final stages with Virgin due to the miles I have available. This process whilst ultimately successful, albeit with my second choice of flights for the days in question, was pleasant enough but painful. Virgin cannot appear to see reward availability without attempting to place an actual booking with all passenger names and dates of birth, and only then on a flight by flight basis one at a time. Call hold times were 45mins+ to reach an agent and there were payment processing issues meaning the whole process took around 90 minutes to complete every time.Thankfully this is not something I intend to do often.
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