Singapore Airlines Star Alliance Award Space Changes

Lucky -- thanks for this. It seems like this fall has been a slew of changes for those of us used to the Star Alliance status quo.

On Monday I booked a Singapore flight from SYD to SIN in J on two cabin 777-200ER refitted. Can't believe how good my timing was on that.

Just curious if you or anyone else has flown that product -- not tons of info available online, it seems it is basically the A380 hard product, but not the brand new 77W hard product... does that sound right?

Hi Lucky,
So if I want to fly from SFO or so to BKK how would I book on Singapore with United Miles? (what site?) thanks Darla

Lucky- United normally pays 40% of the cost of a ticket to book it on a partner airline. This is pretty standard in the industry. You might be dead on that Singapore wants more money. Maybe a response to United raising the miles requirement?

That's a bummer, but at least Thai has really good F availability from BKK to SYD.

In fact if you book before 2/1/14, one of the sweetest spots in UA award chart is from Japan to Australia/New Zealand. That costs 40,000 miles for business and 55,000 in first. I manage snag a Thai F HND-BKK--SYD award in May. For comparison sake, if you originate in PEK or HKG the same award would cost 65,000 and 60,000 miles, respectively.

The 40% quoted is not confirmed. I think it is just an opinion or estimate. If it was exactly 40%, they would have made that more transparent as costs increased.
On FT there are threads that UA was paying LH 300-400$ for a TATL bz class.
So it may not be a case of losing money, but just not getting enough profit from the FF program to the parent airline

This is awful for *A members based in Australia/NZ.

NZ already has no awards in business (other than AKL-PVG and sometimes AKL-NRT).

UA premium awards to/from Australia have dried up.

With this move by SQ, there is only TG and OZ (plus NZ's AKL-PVG) for premium awards booked more than a fortnight in advance.

Does any other united partner offer connections to Maldives via Asia? Was thinking about using my miles for LA - MLE - ICN - LA

@ Zed -- Haven't flown it yet, but should be an identical product to what I reviewed here (basically the "current" 777-300ER/A380 product):
https://onemileatatime.com/four-continents-and-37000-miles-in-two-weeks-star-alliance-lounge-los-angeles-singapore-airlines-business-class-los-angeles-to-tokyo-to-singapore-ana-business-class-lounge-tokyo/

@ Darla -- In first or business class you can't, as they don't release space between the US and Asia. If you want to fly Singapore then you have to redeem through their own KrisFlyer program.

@ Paul -- Having recently been "exposed" to partner airline reimbursements, 40% for a premium cabin ticket is *way* on the high side. A few hundred dollars is more in line for what airlines are getting reimbursed for a one-way business class ticket, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if Singapore wanted more.

@ pw -- Not via Asia, sadly.

@Paul
So you are telling me United paid partners $25K for my two partner redemptions this year? No chance. At all. Ever.

Seeing all this, I consider myself extremely lucky to have been able to use my UA miles to fly on SQ in August. I was able to book CPH-SIN-AKL about 5 weeks out. CPH-SIN was the new configuration on the 777-200 and it was fabulous. But, SIN-AKL was in the old layout. You could tell that even the crew couldn't wait for the upgraded cabin.

Hmm makes me wonder if this is all related to LifeMiles awards and hacker "tricks" that have been exploited to the max by flyers over there....

A data point: called US Dividend Miles today to enquire about a simple Business redemption between Australia and Singapore next May on the SQ A330 regional product.

From previous experience and as most Australians in the FF game will know, SQ A330 Business availability is typically plentiful. And if you can't find availability today, you can often find it tomorrow, and if not for a week, then the aliens have invaded.

Got onto US DM and immediately the space found was Economy only. I asked for Business and the agent could not find any availability for May or a month either side. The same for all flights over the same period in the opposite direction.

We all know the aliens haven't invaded.

Looks like this is it.......

My opinion is that the change was because SQ has been disingenuous in its *A "membership." Since SQ almost never has anything except economy award seats, SQ connections were making the United award calendar display look wrong. That is, "mixed cabin" almost always meant that the long-haul segment on SQ was not available.

An SQ spokesperson has now laid the blame squarely on UA.

is it possible to book an SQ award through the UA phone center if the space is visible on lifemiles please?
thanks.

@ Mr. Cool -- Lifemiles has access to more award space than many other Star Alliance partners, so just because you see it there doesn't mean it's bookable via United.

@lucky thanks for the fast reply. interesting.. what if the award flight is available on the SQ website @ the saver level.. safe to assume i can book it using UA miles by calling UA? thanks

@ Mr. Cool -- Nope, Singapore also releases more space to their own members than United members, so that wouldn't be accurate either.

@lucky i see. bit of a conundrum. in your opinion, what is the best way to search for SQ award space to be booked with UA miles plz? thanks again

@ Mr. Cool -- Best place to accurately search space is ANA or Aeroplan's websites. United should have access to similar award space.