SQ no longer release business award (I) on SIN-CHC-SIN routes?
 

It seems SQ no longer release (I) business award seats on the SIN-CHC-SIN routes, not even any (I) seats within 2 weeks from the current date. SIN-CHC-SIN (I) seats used to be very easy to get. If you couldn't get it far out, you still had pretty good chance to get it when departure date comes close, like within 2 weeks. SQ had been very generous in releasing (I) seats in the last minute on this route, but what happens nowadays? Does anyone know? It seems it is almost impossible to get any I award space. Probably it has something to do with the AKL-SIN-AKL routes that has been taken over by NZ for months? Maybe SQ has agreement with NZ for not releasing any I award on the ONLY SIN-New Zealand-SIN routes operated by SQ ?

SQ still fly SIN-AKL-SIN as SQ285/SQ286.

Just looked at SQ298 CHC-SIN on 14 May. There is J Saver available.

Which FFP are you using? KF?

Because this route is now operated by a refurbished 772 with 1-2-1 seating, and hence might not be available for partner redemptions anymore....?

Well, I've just searched again by using both ANA and Aeroplan search engines but they both show nothing in award business inbound and outbound SIN-CHC 2 weeks from today. Award business used to be very easy to get on this route, but it's no longer like it used to be. I'm talking about 6 or 7 months back. Now there are only some award Y seats available but it's not I'm looking for.
WLG Base, you are right, SQ still fly SIN-AKL-SIN with SQ285/SQ286, but since NZ also started flying SIN-AKL-SIN routes with NZ281/NZ282, the award business seats on SQ SIN-CHC-SIN have been disappeared.

GRUflyer, I'm trying to use my UA miles for redemption. UA website doesn't show anymore SQ award flights, but it's still bookable through UA phone agent. I need to search from ANA and AC Aeroplan search engines for SQ award seats to see which date and flight is available before I make a call to UA phone agent to get the seats.

The last SQ business award I had on SIN-CHC-SIN was back in September last year and the business class configuration was 1-2-1. I'm not sure if the J seat was the new business class seat.

That is the problem right there!

1-2-1 is their Longhaul business class only redeemable by KF, and sometimes AV and LH.

While they were reconfiguring their 777-200ER they had hot blocked the seats. Now apparently they have.

I am a kind of confused. I am sure the award business class I took in September last year (CHC-SIN-CHC) was 1-2-1 configuration, and the seat was huge. Does it mean that the J seat I took last September wasn't the newest? Are there newer J seats in 1-2-1 configuration?

Ther are newer seats at the 77WN.

But that seat you flew in is actually their current J seat of 85% of their LH fleet.

They were updating the seats last year. Once that was done, I believe they blocked the redemptions. Back then, it was a matter of luck: you could either get a reffurbished bird or not. Now, they are all refurbished with the longhaul J seat, hence no availability for most Star partners.

Now I want to know if SQ releases SQ285 SIN-AKL business award. Anyone had luck on it?

I got a First Saver redemption on SQ285/SQ286 over Christmas 2015.

My wait listed business flights for two weeks ago never cleared.

Thanks! I tried to find availability by using my AC aeroplan account but didn't find anything, not even a single business class seat. Strange!

In March I waitlisted two Business Class round trips from Hong Kong to Christchurch for August, on four seperate Saver Awards, in two different Krisflyer accounts. My own account (PPS) and my wife's account (Elite Gold). Since we are each others Redemption Nominees, I waitlisted as many combinations of flights as possible for both of us in both accounts, on two departure and two return dates. We both ended up with a lot of waitlists in our accounts!

Two waitlisted identical return itineraries from Christchurch to Hong Kong cleared a few days after each other half April. In May two waitlisted itineraries from Hong Kong to Christchurch on the same date cleared within a few days after each other, but on different outgoing flights from Hong Kong to Singapore.

I booked them anyway and called the Krisflyer Contact Center in Singapore to waitlist myself for the Hong Kong to Singapore flight that my wife was booked on and vice versa. To my surprise they were able to confirm me on my wife's flight immediately, so now we have two identical separate bookings.

What I have noticed in the whole process is that the waitlists from my PPS account always cleared a few days before the waitlists in my wife's Elite Gold account. I don't know if the many waitlisted flight combinations on two different dates in both our accounts has speeded up the process, but I was surprised how fast they all cleared.

From what I experienced with friends & family, Singapore Airlines nowadays seems to clear waitlisted flights faster when it's a waitlist from a Krisflyer account. Friends with high status at Star Alliance partner airlines could not get waitlisted flights cleared, while others who are Krisflyer Blue & Silver did manage to get Saver Awards on these same flights. It seems that Singapore Airlines gives their own Krisflyer members some sort of preferential treatment, regardless of status in their program.

I was using my KrisFlyer account.

That's because SQ does not release awards in premium cabins to partners on long haul routes. You have to book through Krisflyer.

It feels like everyone is saying something different here.

For routes operated by 1-2-1 aircraft are generally not bookable to anyone other than SQ KF. A small number of exceptions exist (AKL/CHC is not one of them)

If you're using SQ KF, any route should be bookable and all of them have space to varying degrees.