lsquare

I can't imagine UA will tolerate this in light of this announcement by the Singaporean government. This reminds me of a situation last year where I think the US DoT placed restrictions on Chinese and Indian airlines as retaliation since they restricted American carriers from flying to those countries or something along the line of that. In terms of fairness and reciprocity, I think it's only a matter of time before UA will be able to operate VTL flights.

bpk6h

Other airlines are operating (or are scheduled to operate) VTL routes including LH, BA, AF, OZ and KE. SQ has not announced SFO-SIN as a VTL route which leaves this open for UA - time will tell if that's the agreed reciprocity? It was reported that VP Harris raised the topic of travel access to SG during her recent visit.

lsquare

Source? I don't recall seeing that being reported.

I'm probably more hopeful that it'll happen now than I was a week ago.

david_oz

Does anybody know how this works for those who don't fit into this network? I got my vaccination at Kroger in Houston. I don't have a login, electronic access, or anything beyond the CDC card. I'm guessing there are a ton of people who are in the same boat as me. I hit a total brick wall in terms of figuring out how to get one of these smart passes. Like one of the posters above, I'm hesitant to put the time and effort into planning something right now given there's a lot which could derail it

bpk6h

Slight misread on my part...the article says the US has been pushing 'since before VP Harris' visit.'

​​​​​​U.S. Pushing Singapore to Let American Visitors Enter Freely https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...s-enter-freely

WineCountryUA

General questions about Singapore's reopening are best handled in
Singapore destination forum and
The road to COVID-19 reopen starts
Traveling to Singapore
How do the new Singapore COVID entry requirements work?

Likewise general questions of vaccine passports or other digital record systems are best in Coronavirus and travel forum
such as Proof of vaccination - CDC card alternatives
Converting the US CDC Vaccine card to EU Immunization Pass with QR Code


Let's just focus here on UA operations to SIN and it is not even clear at this time if UA will be eligible as a VTL airline

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

uastarflyer

The only silver lining is each passing day increases the chance of a real Polaris 789 instead of the ghetto bird version.

UA_Flyer

Let’s hope there is enough demand and UA will apply for designated VTL flight.

I am going to fly from SIN back to the US just before Thanksgiving and hope I don’t have to connect through ICN or NRT to get on a UA flight back to the US.

paperwastage

Right now SIN isn't showing UA as an airline
(If you look at the list, BA and others are on the list, even if BA hasnt publicly announced the routes/flight numbers yet. Similarly OZ and KE are expected to announce flight numbers, just not yet)

That can change of course, go talk to UA

https://safetravel.ica.gov.sg/sc-pr/vtl

Canada [To be announced]
Republic of Korea Asiana AirlinesKorean AirSingapore Airlines
United States Singapore Airlines


VTL is only for flights to Singapore.

If you are leaving SIN (to USA), you can connect anywhere you like. Only caveat is, if you need to return back to SIN, travel history for past 14days needs to be clean(only VTL countries or Singapore) , otherwise you won't qualify for VTL into Singapore

And of course, roundtrip on same airline would likely be cheaper than separate tickets. Unless you do mileage redemption

SPN Lifer

Let us collectively do everything we can to encourage United Air Lines to apply to Singapore for designation to serve in the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL).

lsquare

Sounds like a catch-22 situation.

Boraxo

This is always a great flight for business travelers, but usually too expensive as a leisure route v. comparable connections. Alas there are few biz travelers right now (which make the flight profitable) so I don't see a rush to bring it back. SIN is rather dull as a tourist destination for Americans, most stopover on the way to Thailand, Indonesia, etc. And well heeled travelers aren't knocking down the door to Asia right now, the focus seems to be on Europe (for those not content with Hawaii/Central America).

So I'm happy to see SIN finally taking a rationale approach to travel, but it will only slightly move the needle for now. Baby steps...

nichojo

Same boat. Myself and the family are going back SIN-NRT-DFW-PNS mid Nov and currently booked on SQ SFO-SIN (non-VTL) mid Dec. Waitlisted on SQ23 JFK-SIN (VTL). Wouldn't mind UA1 if they open up Saver J and call it VTL.

N1120A

How super scientific :-/

bpk6h

SQ33 (SFO-SIN) is now a VTL flight. It was added a day after the initial announcement. As for UA, it's hard to see the downside in also pursuing a VTL option. The airline is not required to operate the route exclusively as a VTL flight. Thus, for example, if UA were to launch 4x weekly service they could choose to have 2 VTL and 2 non-VTL.