As I wrote about earlier, it seemed like Singapore Airlines will be launching nonstop flights between Singapore and San Francisco as of later this year. Initially Singapore Airlines was going to relaunch nonstop flights between Singapore and the US in 2018 when they take delivery of their first A350-900ULR, but it seems that they’re feeling the pressure after United recently announced a new San Francisco to Singapore route.
Now Singapore Airlines has confirmed two new US routes, and also announced some changes to other routes to the Americas.
San Francisco to Singapore launching as of October 23, 2016
Singapore Airlines will be launching daily Airbus A350-900 flights between Singapore and San Francisco as of October 23, 2016. The flight will be operated by a standard configuration A350, featuring 253 seats — this includes 42 business class, 24 premium economy, and 187 economy seats. This plane doesn’t feature a first class cabin.
Singapore Airlines presently has two flights to San Francisco. Singapore Airlines will continue to operate the San Francisco to Hong Kong to Singapore route, though will be cutting their San Francisco to Seoul Incheon to Singapore route as of the same date.
Los Angeles to Seoul to Singapore launching as of October 23, 2016
As mentioned above, Singapore Airlines is canceling their San Francisco to Seoul Incheon to Singapore flight, and will instead be “rerouting” the aircraft to fly from Los Angeles to Seoul Incheon to Singapore as of October 23, 2016.
This complements Singapore Airlines’ existing flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo Narita to Singapore. However, the Los Angeles to Tokyo to Singapore flight will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER, rather than the Airbus A380 which presently operates the route.
Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class
Barcelona to Sao Paulo service being cut
Completely unrelated, but this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Singapore Airlines presently operates a flight from Singapore to Barcelona to Sao Paulo, which they’ll also be cutting as of October 20, 2016. The Singapore to Barcelona flight will continue to operate, so it’s just the 3x weekly tag flight which is being cut.
Bye bye Sao Paulo!
Bottom line
I have mixed feelings about these changes. Objectively this is an all around better schedule, in the sense that we’ll now have 2x daily flights out of both Los Angeles and San Francisco. At the same time, the best use of KrisFlyer miles is for first class. In this case, the A350 doesn’t have a first class cabin, and we’re seeing the A380 being taken off the LAX route. The only US route which will continue to feature the A380 will be New York to Frankfurt.
All flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco operated by the 777-300ER will feature Singapore Airlines’ new business & first class cabins, though the downside to that is that the 777-300ER first class cabin is being reduced from eight seats to four seats.
I’ll post again once these routes are bookable, in particular about award availability.
What do you make of these US service changes at Singapore Airlines?
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