With the United States lifting restrictions on vaccinated travelers as of early November 2021, Singapore Airlines will resume two additional fifth freedom flights to the United States. I first wrote about this a couple of days ago, but wanted to note that award seats have now been loaded, for anyone who wants to redeem miles for these flights.
Singapore Airlines’ New York to Frankfurt flight returns
As of November 1, 2021, Singapore Airlines will resume its Singapore to Frankfurt to New York route. The flight will operate daily with the following schedule:
SQ26 Singapore to Frankfurt departing 11:55PM arriving 6:20AM (+1 day)
SQ26 Frankfurt to New York departing 8:20AM arriving 12:15PM
SQ25 New York to Frankfurt departing 9:15PM arriving 9:50AM (+1 day)
SQ25 Frankfurt to Singapore departing 11:40AM arriving 6:50AM (+1 day)
Singapore Airlines will use a Boeing 777-300ER for the route, featuring a total of 264 seats, including four first class seats, 48 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, and 184 economy seats.
This is a route that Singapore Airlines operated for a long time pre-pandemic. The airline used to operate an Airbus A380 in the market, and for that matter it was the only route to the United States to feature an Airbus A380. Unfortunately I wouldn’t expect to see an A380 on the route in the foreseeable future. Singapore Airlines is retiring seven of its 19 Airbus A380s, and I don’t see this being at the top of the list of routes to get A380s back.
Nonetheless this is an awesome option to once again have when crossing the Atlantic. Singapore Airlines’ other transatlantic fifth freedom route, between Houston and Manchester, hasn’t yet been resumed, and there’s no updated timeline for when we can expect that.
Singapore Airlines’ San Francisco to Hong Kong flight returns
As of November 2, 2021, Singapore Airlines will resume its Singapore to Hong Kong to San Francisco route. The flight will operate 3x weekly with the following schedule:
SQ8 Singapore to Hong Kong departing 8:25AM arriving 12:25PM
SQ8 Hong Kong to San Francisco departing 1:40PM arriving 10:40AM
SQ7 San Francisco to Hong Kong departing 1:00PM arriving 7:00PM (+1 day)
SQ7 Hong Kong to Singapore departing 8:40PM arriving 12:40AM (+1 day)
Singapore Airlines will use a Boeing 777-300ER for the route, featuring a total of 264 seats, including four first class seats, 48 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, and 184 economy seats.
This is also a route that Singapore Airlines operated pre-pandemic. Personally I’m surprised to see this route restarting so quickly — most of Asia continues to remain closed to vaccinated Americans, and other than China, no other countries in the region were impacted by the United States’ travel ban. So for the most part this route will be reliant on people looking to travel from Asia to the United States, rather than the other way around.
This is the third transpacific fifth freedom flight that Singapore Airlines has launched in recent months — the airline resumed its Tokyo to Los Angeles flight as of June 2021, and also added a Taipei to Los Angeles flight as of August 2021 (that’s a route the airline hadn’t operated for many years).
I would have to imagine that these transpacific fifth freedom flights are mostly reliant on cargo, because otherwise I can’t really make sense of where the huge demand increase is coming from.
Want to redeem miles for these flights?
If you want to redeem miles for Singapore Airlines’ premium cabins on long haul flights, you’ll want to book directly through the KrisFlyer program, since the airline doesn’t make these seats available to most partner programs.
The good news is that KrisFlyer is transfer partners with all major transferable points currencies, making the points easy to earn. On top of that, at the moment Singapore Airlines will give you Star Alliance Gold status if you transfer 250,000 bank points to the KrisFlyer program.
If you want to redeem miles for these flights, you can expect to pay the following one-way between New York and Frankfurt at the lowest award levels:
- Economy costs 22,500 KrisFlyer miles
- Premium economy costs 47,000 KrisFlyer miles
- Business class costs 72,000 KrisFlyer miles
- First class costs 86,000 KrisFlyer miles
Between San Francisco and Hong Kong, you can expect to pay the following number of miles one-way at the lowest award levels:
- Economy costs 33,000 KrisFlyer miles
- Premium economy costs 63,000 KrisFlyer miles
- Business class costs 89,000 KrisFlyer miles
- First class costs 104,000 KrisFlyer miles
Singapore Airlines has now loaded award seats for these flights, and they’re readily available. I’ll focus on the transatlantic route, since that will be open to vaccinated travelers on both sides of the Atlantic. Singapore Airlines has excellent business class award availability virtually every day on this route, so you can book that for just 72,000 transferable points.
First class is a different story — there are no dates with the lowest saver level award availability, but award seats at the advantage level are wide open, and that costs 140,000 miles one-way. This isn’t surprising when you consider that there are only four first class seats in the cabin.
I suspect we might see some saver award seats open up closer to departure if the cabin remains empty. As an alternative, you can always waitlist an award through KrisFlyer, and hope it clears.
Bottom line
Singapore Airlines will be resuming two more of its fifth freedom flights to the United States, including the New York to Frankfurt and San Francisco to Hong Kong flights. The former will be especially useful for many, while the latter will probably be of limited use, given travel restrictions that continue to remain in place.
Singapore Airlines is a great option for crossing the Atlantic between the United States and Germany. And if you want to redeem miles, award space is wide open in business class. It’s just a shame that the route won’t be operated by an A380, and for that matter I’d be surprised if we ever see A380 service back on the route.
What do you make of Singapore Airlines resuming these fifth freedom flights?
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