Last week Singapore Airlines released a ton of award space to their Star Alliance partners as they switched over their reservations systems, and many of you were able to take advantage of that.
While many of you wanted to fly Singapore Airlines Airbus 380 first class, that unfortunately isn’t bookable on miles at the saver level, given that they don’t even have a first class product on the Airbus 380, but rather “Suites Class.” In a follow up post I made the following suggestion:
Your only hope if you’re hell bent on flying Suites Class on the Airbus 380 is to book a route for a flight far out which you think has a high probability of being switched to an Airbus 380.
If I had to guess, I’d say there are two especially good candidates:
- London to Singapore on the once daily 777-300ER service. Singapore Airlines has four daily flights to London. Three of them are operated by an Airbus 380, and one of them is operated by a 777-300ER. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the 777-300ER upgraded to an Airbus 380 sometime down the road.
- Singapore Airlines has been quoted as saying they plan to “operate as many Airbus 380s as [they] can to Sydney and Melbourne,” and that it “wants to put on a second superjumbo on the Melbourne route by the end of the year.” Folks, if you’re chasing the Airbus 380, they can’t be a lot more direct than that. Book Singapore to Melbourne.
If you took my advice and booked Singapore to Melbourne in first class, you may be in for a pleasant surprise. As of August 16, 2012, Singapore is adding a second daily Airbus 380 on their Singapore to Melbourne route, as follows:
SQ217 SIN0955 – 1915MEL 388 D
SQ227 SIN2100 – 0620+1MEL 388 D
SQ237 SIN2355 – 0915+1MEL 773 DSQ218 MEL0005 – 0555SIN 388 D
SQ238 MEL1025 – 1615SIN 773 D
SQ228 MEL1545 – 2145SIN 388 D
So if you booked SQ217/218 in first class, check your itineraries, because you should now be confirmed in Suites Class. I’ve already received an email from a reader whose reservation was “upgraded” to Suites Class, so hopefully he’s not the only one.
So, who else is in the same boat? Leave a comment below so the rest of us can be jealous!
@ Geoff -- There's a chance, though they're not taking delivery of many more Airbus 380s, so unless they take it off another route they'd have a hard time with the upgrade.
@ boxo -- Congrats!
My itin shows MEL-SIN in R!
Lucky, on the SIN-SYD route do you think SQ would upgrade the 330 or the 777 to the 380?
@Adam: I have the same problem and I was told by the Singapore Airlines agent that the eTicket has not yet been issued in SQ system and if it is not ticketed within the time limit, the reservation could be canceled. So I checked back with United agent and he said everything is fine. Does anyone know what is going on? All I can do now is to check my reservation now and then on Singaporeair.com. But so far it still says my SQ booking reference couldn't be found.
@ Adam -- Yep, you can definitely accept!
One more question: on my reservation page on United.com I'm seeing
"! There has been a schedule change to your reservation. Please see the change in red in Flight Details. "
and then blow the reservation:
"By selecting the Continue option, I acknowledge and accept the schedule change explained above. "
No issue accepting this right? I've managed to see the new flight on the A380 on Singapore.com and select seats. Don't want to ruin anything now!!
I'm showing Business (R) on United MEL-SIN SQ218...woo hoo!
One thing is that I can't get access to the seat map on singaporeair.com. Anyone else having this issue?
Now, how about they swap in an A380 for SQ1/2? :)
Wuhoo! Booked 2 seats for SIN-MEL flights for next May and bet on the morning flight and coming out a winner! Showing R class (Business) on United as well. Made me pause for a second but glad everyone else is seeing the same thing.
Scored three tickets that became Suites. 3A available on all my flights...
Update: Though neither StarAlliance.com nor SQ's website are reflecting the change (at least not as of yet for my dates), my USAirways reservation page has changed my class of service on the MEL-SIN leg to "R" from "O." To say my wife and I are excited about 3C/D is an understatement!!!!
@Ari I doubt SQ will change back to it's Boeing 777-300ER as they're focusing on the Kangaroo route heavily. Malaysia Airlines' Head of Social Media & Innovations just told me that their KUL-MEL route is awaiting official announcement & KUL-SYD route is on its way. It will be great to see a competitive market here.
got rocked - picked the wrong flight in both directions, still on the 777.
Woooohooooo!!!! Though there's no change on my online (SQ site) reservation yet, I'm extatic! The Mrs. and I aren't flying until mid-February - so I hope SQ doesn't change it back - but I can't wait!!!
@lucky On a contrary, when are you coming Down Under? Remember you & I had some great Aussie tweets few months back. Lol...
Im gonna be lucky since I'm based in Melbourne. Anyone else based in Melbourne or a Melburnian here?
Now confirmed in Suites Class! :)
It looks like Singapore will receive its last A380 next week and will be used in this route. So no more new A380 routes??
Aargh! I'm on SQ237, so no dice unless SQ switches that to an A380 in the future as well.
Damn ! I'm flying singapore melbourne in 1st next week
@ Rohan -- Yep, that's suites class! Congrats!
I got it! My itin shows a schedule change and the class now shows "Business (R)" — I assume United's systems don't know what R class is.
Not me!
Congrats to those who scored, hoping your LHR-388 vision comes true.
@ Daniel -- Also a very good chance, though no guarantee unfortunately.
Rats,I booked SIN-SYD instead of to Melbourne? Any odds of any A380 in late December?