The Lev

Next March I have to go from Toronto to Melbourne and as thinking of giving SQ a try even though it would be somewhat longer than other alternatives. I'm thinking of buying a Y/B fare and trying to use Star Alliance points to upgrade. I have a number of routings available to me and I'm wondering in your experience if one or more routes is easier for upgrading (or am I dreaming). Options appear to include:
LHR - SIN on A380 (SQ317/308)
LHR - SIN on 777 (SQ305/306 or 322)
FRA - SIN on A380 (SQ25/26)
LAX-NRT-SIN on A380 (SQ11/12)

I'd be leaving Toronto on Friday Mar 20, returning from MEL on Saturday Mar 28.

crazycrab955

No Y->J Star Alliance upgrades are made available on the A380 or 77W (save for a very rare system glitch), so your chances are essentially nil.

In general, the only way to upgrade Y->J on the A380 or 77W is to use KrisFlyer miles to do so.

chisquared

I was doing research on this recently, and what seems to be the case is that you CAN upgrade from economy into business on the A380 or 77W, you just have to make sure to buy an economy class ticket in the right fare class: Y/B.

A couple of issues with that, though:

The first is that Y/B-class tickets on the A380/77W seem to be almost impossible to come by via the SQ website, even when you try to book a Flexi fare (which will usually be in E-class). This means you'll need to find a travel agent to issue you a ticket in Y/B.

Then you get to the second, more serious impediment, which is what I discovered when I tried to get a travel agent to see how much a Y/B-class ticket cost. The Y/B fare is even more expensive than a C/D-class fare, so you'd be spending less money booking yourself straight into business class, rather than using Star Alliance miles to upgrade.

On the other hand, even discounted business class tickets (i.e. D) are eligible for Star Alliance upgrade awards, so it might make more sense to use Star Alliance miles for those.

The Lev

I can find lots of Y/B fares on the SQ site for my itinerary for under US$3,500 - roughly one third of what it quotes for business class.

chisquared

Huh, looks like you're right. In principle you should be able to upgrade those fares then, but that's subject to SQ releasing upgrade award inventory to *A. Last time I emailed them, they claimed to do so, but everyone else seems to think they don't for 77Ws and A380s, so YMMV.

jonsoloway

Hi, not sure if you're still after information, but I've been trying to upgrade a SQ flight of mine for the past 5 months, and finally had some success, so it is possible!

I'm flying MEL - SIN - LHR tonight, and finally managed to use my *A miles to upgrade from Economy to Business Class on the MEL-SIN (SQ218) leg on the M&M website.

I also intentionally booked B class tickets in hope of being able to upgrade (and were only around A$50 more). After months of trying, and countless calling to M&M/SQ, I actually ended up getting the upgrade directly on the M&M upgrade page, just after OLCI opened yesterday. It's on a 77W.

Unfortunately I've been unable to upgrade the SIN-LHR leg (SQ308) on A380, and looks unlikely to happen.

So just to let you know - it definitely IS possible to use *A points to upgrade SQ flights on 77W. Maybe I just got lucky, who knows...

Hope this helps.

malgudi

Ok ... this is encouraging.

I have a "Y" fare (SIN-SYD, on the 777) and will try to upgrade using *A miles in a few weeks time.

Guy Betsy

SQ only allows M&M and TAM members to upgrade to its 77W and A380 flights.

It doesn't seem to work on other airlines' FFP.

Note that on SQ, you can also buy S class fares.

lingua101

I heard from my Travel Agent that SQ is no longer selling S class (at least ex-SIN).

Only E/B/Y for now

Kiwi Flyer

S is being re-used for premium economy to cater for codeshares on NZ AKL-SIN.