It’s now official — after a roughly 12 year hiatus, Singapore Airlines will once again offer regularly scheduled service to Canada. However, the route isn’t necessarily what you’d expect.
Continue reading: Singapore Airlines Adds Unique Route To Vancouver
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I came to the same conclusion that commenter did.
“Why announce Canada as part of VTL when there’re no nonstop flights between Singapore and Canada?
Oh… hang on… are we to expect an announcement soon?”
I was a regular traveler on the SIN-ICN-YVR route back in the early 2000s (just after they switched the route from A340 to B777) and it always had a very strange mix of passengers back then. Surprisingly a large number of Canadians traveling to/from Australia/NZ used to use this route. Also a bunch of Indians of course, even though there wasn't ideal connectivity on the return leg. It will be interesting to see how things work out for them this time.
I'm hoping for a fifth freedom route to the US from Vancouver. A YVR-JFK will fill the niche that CX Left, although AC has historically operated a 787 for YVR-EWR with "through service" to SYD- and advertised as the fastest way from NYC-SYD.
I would also love it if SQ tried SIN-YVR-BOS
SIA LAUNCHES SEASONAL FLIGHTS TO SEATTLE
AND VANCOUVER, ADDS SAN FRANCISCO TO
VACCINATED TRAVEL LANE NETWORK
Singapore Airlines (SIA) is launching four-times weekly seasonal services to
Vancouver, Canada and Seattle, the United States of America (USA), from 2
December 2021 to 15 February 2022. Two of the weekly Seattle-Vancouver-
Singapore flights will operate as Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) services, providing eligible customers quarantine-free entry into Singapore.
I wish SIA flew this route going back to even the 1990’s. Many of us in the Indian community would drive or even fly up to Vancouver from Seattle just to fly on SIA to India via SIN. It was well worth it. Of course this long before Emirates and others started flights to SEA.
Not sure if passengers can do USA pre clearance in Canada prior to continuing the journey?
so no immigration or leaving the aircraft in YVR both ways? and returning to Seattle immigration in Seattle instead of preclearance?
With only 2 weekly flights being VTL flights... I hope there's big lettering somewhere in the booking process about that. Otherwise I guarantee you we'll see people intending to travel to Singapore who accidentally book the non-VTL ones and are mad as hell when denied boarding or perhaps forced to quarantine on arrival in Singapore itself
With only 1 hour between arrival in YVR and departure for SEA there is NO WAY you can do pre-clearance come on people use your brains a bit.
As long as you are otherwise eligible - i.e. are vaccinated, been in Canada or USA for the last 14 days, had a PCR test then you can now travel on a VTL flight and connect onwards (this is a change from the initial flights from Germany) . So this scenario is pretty unlikely as I imagine most travelers are vaxxed, though the flights are marked in the SQ booking engine accordingly clearly as well
@Ben slight mistake - even if there weren't direct flights from Canada then travelers could still use a VTL - they'd just need to connect in in a VTL country - onto SQ in the US most likely & indeed are still welcome too if it's cheaper or the days work better etc
I'd guess these flights will be like Milan-Barcelona, the "thru" passengers remain onboard, no fifth freedom passengers so they don't need to worry about resetting the seats etc just a quick tidy
It’ll probably be like Cathay’s old YVR-JFK flights. YVR is already set up for these types of flights. This also means that passengers won’t be pre-cleared, and the flight arrives into SEA as an international flight. Would be nice if there was fifth freedom YVR-SEA, but even then they won’t be precleared.
Damn... we were booked on SEA-SIN this December break which got canceled and I had to be rebooked on SFO-SIN route instead and then book SEA-SFO on separate ticket on cash as there wasn't any award availability on united or alask to add onto the Singapore booking.
Now this changes the whole plan... if there are spaces for 4 and it fits the timing of onward travel from SIN. (To Phuket)
damn again.. just realized it's 4x weekly and we have to leave on weekends... oh well. 🙁
stupid me... 4x weekly doesn't means 4x weekdays only. Looks like 2 flights out of 4 are VTL designated, Thursday and Saturday departure from Seattle... which should work for us but they haven't loaded the schedule yet? I didn't see a single award space yet. And this VTL thing is a welcomed change even for transit passengers like us... we are no longer restricted to a designated holding area at Singapore... we are now free to roam the airport. I wanted to checkout the new water fall but previously told I couldn't.
You won't be able to access the Jewel unless you enter Singapore for a stopover (and only after you quarantine awaiting your PCR result). You can catch a glimpse from the transit trains if you are allowed to use those
@Eric. If SQ is gonna be nostalgic about resuming once terminated service - 5th Freedom to Chicago (ORD) would be nice.
Does it land in YVR first because if it is Seattle first then you have to go through the pain in the butt US clearance first to get to the YVR part unless you can stay on the plane.
So does this mean that a SIN-YVR passenger will need to go through the "we're flying to the paranoid US so we need extra security theatre" extra security theatre in SIN? Or will that joy be reserved for the YVR connection?
Wow, I think it’s great to see Singapore Airlines is resuming its flight to Vancouver. I will possibly consider Singapore Airline to Singapore provided its airfare is competitive with other rival airlines.
Eric, I believe that Air Canada 787 from EWR continued on to Brisbane, not Sydney. The Sydney flight originated in Toronto, as YYZ-YVR-SYD.
Seattle destined pax will probably clear US Customs & Immigration in Vancouver. It would be interesting if SQ flights arrive in the US as domestic.
I simply love this. Me n my wife make at least one business trip to Vancouver every year. With my kids that is a total of 5 trips.
This arrangement will certainly have me making more trips.
I'm actually not sure that they would. Looking at the schedule, they only plan for an hour-ish on the ground in Vancouver, so I doubt they would have both passengers and the aircraft itself clear to the transborder area. Remember, this would first require passengers clearing Canadian customs and immigration, before then going through US preclearance. I would guess Seattle passengers would remain onboard the aircraft, and that all passengers would clear in SIN as US-bound.
I took the Seattle-Singapore route once. Even though it says 16.5 hours on paper, it usually takes 17-17.5 hours and the A350 is not as comfortable as the A380 to spend that much time on it. I usually like long haul non stops, but this is one long route I'll never take again. The return trip from Singapore to Seattle is easier, just takes 13.5-14 hours but the immigration in Seattle is very slow and can take about a couple of hours. It doesn't even open until 7.30am so no point in flight reaching early.
I feel with this Singapore Airlines has basically lost the connections traffic to and from Seattle and Singapore. Seattle passengers will need to sit a couple of extra hours both ways which is not ideal on a ultra long haul 17 hour flight like this. Now imagine that for people coming from other US cities to Seattle or wanting to go to other parts of Asia from Singapore.
The Singapore Airlines connections was stealing a large chunk of traffic from Emirates for connections to South Asia but this will make it difficult. That is sad because Singapore Airlines offers much better service than the now declining Emirates.
Sorry - I’m dumb. Can just YVR-SEA be booked? I’m not seeing it available for purchase.
One of the world's best airline to Singapore from Vancouver is my hope renewed,
One of the world's best airline to Singapore from Vancouver is my hope renewed,
I and my wife have been waiting for this moment for so long, this is awesome for us to cut short the time on transit, we hope in the future this will be a consistent route instead of seasonal. Singapore airline go get'em.
Thank you, SQ. It will remove all the stress from doing COVID test at a third country. Thank you, I am so glad. SQ is the best airline I ever use.
Does anyone know whether, en route from SIN-YVR-SEA, one will be required to disembark in YVR and process through US customs? It doesn’t seem like there is enough time on the ground for that to happen?
Luckily for those landing in SEA from abroad, this: https://news.theregistryps.com/expanded-450000-sqft-international-arrivals-facility-at-sea-tac-nears-opening/
Just booked my SIN-YVR-SIN for September 2022 trip yesterday.
Glad SQ extended this service beyond February 2022
Singapore Airlines does not have traffic rights to carry passengers solely between Vancouver and Seattle, so those on board for the short hop across the border will either be Seattle-bound passengers who boarded in Singapore in the case of SQ28 or Singapore-bound ones who boarded in Seattle for SQ27.