bpk6h

Checked in online for my VTL flight....51 of 67 J seats occupied (6 seats blocked by SQ, 10 seats still available).
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bpk6h

As mentioned above, it's primarily just December that has been zeroed out.

sam_goh

GL with your trip. I just had to cancel my SQ flight without the chance to rebook. Have to go a different route

riotpoofcity

It looks like capacity for December flights is being restored for some flights, about 2-3 days prior to departure. The AMS-SIN SQ VTL flight I had been looking at for this Saturday did not have availability yesterday, but is now open for booking. But AMS-SIN SQ VTL flights later in the week are still unavailable. It is hard for me not to read into this. There was a TON of availability on AMS-SIN through Mid December just a day or two ago.

bdubs7

To clarify- when you say it's hard not to read into this- what is your assumption then?

riotpoofcity

I just assume that there must be some explanation (regulatory? operational? political?) for this. Someone on a Singapore facebook group said that he reached SQ and was told that VTL flight bookings originating in Europe + US are not possible until Jan due to "operational reasons" or something to this effect. I can't remember the precise language. So for the time being, SQ is just handing VTL business over to BA, Finnair, Lufthansa, Swiss, etc. We know that the SQ flights are not full, as it is still possible to book a transfer flight in which the first leg originating in Europe is on a VTL flight.

Perhaps as was suggested earlier SQ is just tapping the brakes...

sbs2716g

Guess SIN gov ask SQ to stop accepting new booking on December VTL flights to limit the number of the VTL paxes coming in from Europe n USA.

They can’t officially announced a new quota or what. so do it the unofficial way.

and They open up seats up within the 3 days so as to accommodate last min paxes who are SC or PR or Some VTP holder who might wan to change the date. As now can only apply for VTP for new 9/dec to 15/dec.

paperwastage

I know this thread is about SQ, but did anyone notice the same fare bucket depression on non-sq vtl flights?


EdIt: i see sq325 is unavailable dec5 till eoy, lh778 is available though (fra-sin vtl)

roc83

the vtp application is restricted coz they had issues with system stability after opening vtl to malaysia and indonesia. so i guess they limit the dates that system can handle number of requests and people who need vtp urgently can get it

roc83

its the same what has been observed - most vtl flights from eu and us ar not available for booking in dec and early jan as sq zeroed the availability but only sq did so - not clear why they did

davidj1

If garmen wanted to can vtls wouldn’t SIA just convert VTL flights to standard flights?

By zeroing seat buckets they are effectively cancelling flights, which seems more like an operational decision rather than garmen policy.

bdubs7

Sorry, can you clarify what you mean by "garmen"?

bpk6h

Usually "gahmen"...Singaporean for "Government"

I don't see this as effectively cancelling flights...it is effectively temporarily throttling the quarantine free entrance to SG. Given Omicron and VTL w/Malaysia it's understandable.

sbs2716g

basically, they did not want to stop the VTL but want to impose a limit on number of Tourists coming in via VTL this month. (remember they implement some measures for December to buy some time to know the variant better).

Imagine if they stop and cancel the flights now , how many paxes will be affected ? And what will they think?
A lot of booking have to be cancel and a lot of long term pass holder might be stuck oversea.

so they ask SQ to stop selling seats for these Dec VTL flights. So if SQ317 have already sold 400 out of 460 for the A380 for a particular day that it. No more additional ticket for sales.

the gov will allow the 400 paxes to come in.
these paxes will be happy. And other (who won’t visit this forum), usually will think that the VTL flights are sold out if they can’t find the flights on SQ website.

as for other carriers, the gov won’t be telling them what to do. And with lesser frequency, usually the number of paxes will be lesser.

roots

Ah crap! I need to book SFO - SIN at the end of December for a quick meeting that unfortunately cannot be done online. Up until Monday evening, my desired date (Dec 27 or 28) were available. But Tuesday afternoon when I was going to purchase the ticket, they were already gone

So what are you guys doing given the unknown? I've looked at KE, but they have long layover 12+ hrs at ICN both ways. OZ only has 2 flights per week and the dates won't work.