rl290

Hello,

I am certain this will be answered somewhere else.. but I just can't find it...

I am searching for reward flight availability to Singapore. There is lots of availability in economy for the coming 12 months, with lots of options each month. However, in all other cabins, availability falls off a cliff in August.

Is this because BA has just to determine which plane to fly on this route after then? Any idea when they might open up availability?

Thanks
R

Tofino87

Might have something to do with the recent 50% off sale... not sure. Couple that with the supposed pent-up demand for travel, which many bloggers allude to and that may be the perfect recipe for limited availability!

rl290

Thanks Tofino - I made good use of the 50% sale

For clarity, there is lots and lots of availability up to August in all flight classes. Then they all disappear except for Economy. But there is a random single day of availability here and there. It is very odd - I've never seen reward availability look like this before!

R

TraumaDoc

By the sounds of things you'll be lucky to be allowed into Singapore before August! They're currently only open to 5 countries and taking things exceptionally cautiously.

Maybe people have bought all the tickets later in the year, hence leaving lots of availability early on. Although the sharp drop off would indicate that they've probably restricted availability too.

sammyg901

This is "BAU" for Singapore , the flights are usually very busy and CW hard to come by. There has also been a downgauge from A380/77W combo to 77W/787 so one would expect less award seats to be available once demand returns towards normal.

That said in my experience being slightly flexible on date and being patient usually results in a seat - set up some alerts on BA Redemption finder or such like.

But I do agree with the other poster, Singapore has pretty much eradicated COVID-19 in its population and has taken an extremely strict approach to border control and I wouldn't bet on being able to freely travel there next year from Europe/US for tourism, as a contributer to GDP it just isn't significant enough to introduce any risk of infection.

Restricted business travel more likely in some form once you are vaccinated.

Starship73

In 2017 tourism officially made up 4.1% of Singapore’s GDP - whether that qualifies as ‘significant’ is somewhat subjective I would argue. Perhaps we can agree it is ‘not insignificant’?

sammyg901

This is global though, opening up to China/Vietnam/Aus/NZ/HK/Japan/S Korea etc (as will hopefully start in Jan with the HK travel bubble) will replace most of this without having to open borders to countries still struggling with high infection rates (that is what I meant, sorry if not clear)

rl290

Thanks all for the notes. I'll keep checking regularly (+ the alerts from RFF / Seatspy).Surely the 'trick' here is to make several of reward bookings and then just cancel as needed - I have a couple of pairs of reward seats to Singapore booked in the next 6 months. If you wait until until the future is certain, then the opportunity to snag attractive reward seats will have passed.

I'm not inferring that you were suggesting not booking... just pointing out that Singapore's policy will change (e.g. if you can prove you've been vaccinated or have had negative tests), and it's usually better to pre-empt these things.

R

TraumaDoc

Agree. Having had a couple of Singapore trips cancelled myself it gets a tad painful though!

Still

Not sure if it’s relevant, if you want a Y redemption to SIN, why not try BCN—SIN in WTP for under £800, similar amount of money or less to rewards cost

(avios 70k plus tax£250 on peak dates)