George84

Yes, I got notification from SQ that my seats had been changed and then when I pulled up the seat map I only have the option to book rows 11-16 or 17-27. Would be cool if the retrofit was back to JFK for my Nov 2019 departure.

ahchiu

So we have enough singapore miles for 2 adults and toddler in suites JFK-SIN roundtrip, but just wondering if it is even realistic to be able to book 3 suites using points? Not ready to commit to transferring all points to krisflyer without hearing some experiences.

few years ago, we have gotten lucky with 2 FC tickets on cathay and asiana, but with 3 seats now, it looks to be more difficult, but hopefully still possible?

callmedtop

No.

bgriff

2 suites is sometimes possible on JFK-SIN, I've done it a few times, booking just about as far in advance as possible each time. But 3 is very unlikely. You could waitlist for 3 and there's a chance you might clear, but that requires transferring your points to SQ first and is far from guaranteed. A lot of dates you probably won't even see waitlisting as an available option when searching for 3 people.

Also, once the new 6-suite config comes to JFK, this will go from "very very unlikely" to "basically impossible."

ahchiu

Appreciate the honest feedback. Guess I won't be committing all points to SQ for 3 suites. Trying to look at different options then. Would 2 in business and 1 in suites be worthwhile still? For roundtrip, we could switch and have my spouse with toddler in business, so we could both at least experience suites. Or is the drop-off to business not worth it?

bgriff

Generally speaking if you split between the cabins, the person in suites would be permitted to go visit the people in business, but the people in business would not be permitted to visit suites (to preserve the privacy of the cabin), and you would not be allowed to switch seats with your spouse mid-flight, although you could probably switch off between the JFK-FRA and FRA-SIN legs. So it would be relaxing for whoever's sitting in Suites, at least, but I'm not sure it would be the best overall experience.

In general, Suites is something special but Singapore's business class is less of a standout (and in some ways is rather underwhelming -- look up some reviews of the seat). So unless trying out Singapore Suites specifically is a bucket list priority for you, I'd take the opportunity to open up your search more broadly -- there are MANY good airline options for flying between NYC and Singapore, including SQ's nonstop from EWR, though that specific flight might not be the best idea with a toddler. Finding 3 premium cabin award seats together is always going to be a challenge but is more likely possible in business class than first.

ahchiu

Cool, SQ is kinda aspirational for us, as we're not heavy churners and won't go on many luxury flights, but was more thinking:

JFK-SIN: me in suites, spouse + kid in business
SIN-JFK: spouse in suites, me + kid in business

Would the one in suites be able to take the other + kid into the premium lounges?

bgriff

You would not be able to all go into the lounges used for Suites. You would have the option of all 3 of you going to the business class lounges.

Have you started searching for award space on the SQ website? Don't get your hopes set on this quite yet, the award space you are proposing to find is still quite rare. Including the business class space.

If your goal is simply to experience SQ Suites, you may find better luck getting to Asia another way and then looking for availability on one of the shorter A380 routes like SIN-HKG or SIN-PVG. It would obviously be much less exciting than making the long trip that way, but on the short routes there's even a chance you might occasionally be able to grab 3 Suites.

Pookynubbers

kaffir76

I asked myself the same question the 1st time I read this, but I guess only the original OP can answer the question.
Nothing infamous about this route ... IMO

BHalper

I've been researching this route and they NEVER have more than two saver suites available when the inventory gets loaded. Your best bet, if you want all three in suites and can stomach the extra 100k+ is to book the two in saver and the third in advantage. As others have said, booking as soon as inventory is loaded (355 days out) is the best odds of getting 2x saver.

th14

As a further warning as this is a route I watch regularly as well. I've only ever seen Saver waitlisted when they release the schedule. Furthermore, I've only ever seen 1 seat available for Saver waitlist.

When I search for 2 seats, it does return a positive result. But when you actually go to waitlist it, it returns an error. When I've called in, they then inform me that the inventory is not actually available and there is only 1 saver seat available to waitlist. The standard award does sometimes offer 2 seats if you're willing to pay the extra.

This saver errors has happened to be 4 times over the course of 2 years.

Along the same lines, if they only ever release one saver seat at a time, you'll never be able to book this with a child b/c you can't book a child by themselves or even waitlist a child. The normal strategy would be to waitlist one seat at a time and grab the seats as they become available. You'll need two seats to open up at once so this is a bit of no hope situation.

BHalper

Wait like 2 days and those waitlist only will often convert to instant saver availability.

th14

You and I must be looking at different dates as this has never happened for me. In fact, I just did a search for next year, for pretty much all of April and some of March and didn't find a single Saver award seat available for this route. Saver waitlist was available for most days as was Advantage. I'm assuming backing up my search by two days is the equivalent of waiting two days. And certainly I did way more than that checking the entire month.

Now, if you mean go ahead and waitlist and then it will confirm in two days, I have had that happen before. A couple of times.

But my point regarding the multiple seats he'd need for a child still stands. Can't waitlist a single child and can't waitlist two seats in saver on this route.

BHalper

Sorry, to clarify, if you look at availability AS SOON as it is put up (355 days out), it will always show as Saver Waitlist. If you look at that same date a couple of days later (now 353 days out - look at the 7-day calendar), unless someone has purchased a ticket, it will be the normal Saver option, and you can book it immediately.

Example, this is SQ25, JFK-SIN, Suites, looking at the far end of the award calendar. If you looked at the April 21st or April 22nd availability when it was first released, it would have only showed Saver waitlist, but now that a couple days have passed, they are showing normal Saver.