Originally Posted by
smiles33
Thank you so much for this very helpful reply! While I do speak Mandarin conversationally (I'm the daughter of Chinese-speaking immigrants), I don't want to be stranded in Beijing. I found that flight on the UA website but with a $2,000 price (as I'd be paying for SQ's flight on PE, only using my miles for the UA J class flight to Beijing).
Conversational Mandarin is a huge plus, because if something were to go wrong, you'd be much more likely to be able to get someone to assist you than I would.
That said, I still wouldn't book that flight. I remember your aversion to connecting flights from a previous post, and, even if everything ended up going perfectly, you'd be stressing about it from now until the moment you got onto the SQ flight. Life's too short to spend it stressed out.
Originally Posted by
smiles33
Thanks for the head's up re: SQ abbreviations. I just went with SA as I haven't been on the SQ board here and didn't know. I also didn't realize those SQ miles absolutely expire in 36 months. I'm definitely going to switch to our UA accounts!
No problem
I don't know about other boards, but this board generally uses the IATA abbreviations (International Air Transport Association -- a trade association consisting of hundreds of major airlines). You can find them
here, or also on an airlines' Wikipedia page or whatever. In this case, I was able to figure out what you meant pretty easily, but I figured I'd mention it for future reference.
Originally Posted by
smiles33
I saw that after November, UA is getting rid of the mileage award chart likely means my miles will be even more worthless. Sigh!
Unfortunately, that's true. We don't know (yet) exactly how bad it will be, but I would consider using UA miles for occasions where they make sense between now and then, including domestic travel. Taking Delta's program as a guide, I expect bad things.
Originally Posted by
smiles33
Damn, the A350 is the one SQ is flying nonstop SFO-SIN. I thought the non-Polaris UA J class seat we had going to TPE was uncomfortable (it was too narrow for me) and thought the wider seats on SQ would be far better. Are you super tall? Or was is the padding issue? The SQ website photos make the seat look so comfy!
I'm 6'0". The issue was the shape of the seat. It's very wide and was fine while I was awake. However, the cutout for your feet is small and oddly positioned -- I had to contort my body at a really strange angle to use it. There are some great pictures here:
https://thepointsguy.com/2016/10/sin...flight-review/ ; here's a FlyerTalk thread with a similar point of view:
The SQ A350 - shockingly bad J-class seat
Ultimately, it's going to come down to personal preference and (likely) height, weight, and body shape, so you may find that this is seat is great for you and your family; I just can't recommend it personally.