There are a few changes coming to our part of the world over the next three months, with a new Singapore Airlines service from Sydney to Jakarta; resumption of Emirates flights between Brisbane and Singapore; the new ‘Capital Express’ service between Singapore, Canberra and Wellington; and an A380 upgrade on Emirates’ Sydney to Christchurch route.
Sydney to Jakarta on Singapore Airlines commences
Commences: 23 November 2016
Redeem: 55,000 KrisFlyer miles or 53,000 Velocity points for one-way Business Class
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200ER with flat-bed 1-2-1 configuration in Business Class
Frequency: 3x weekly
Competition on this route: Qantas and Garuda Indonesia
Notes: Continues on to Singapore – Singapore-Jakarta is Singapore Airlines’ busiest route, with 71 roundtrip flights per week
Business Class on this route will be similar to what is on the A380 and A350
This seems to be available to book using KrisFlyer miles now.
Brisbane to Singapore on Emirates resumes
Resumes: 1 October 2016
Redeem: 60,000 Qantas points for one-way Business or 90,000 for First
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER with angled-flat 2-3-2 configuration in Business Class and 8 First Class Suites
Frequency: Daily
Competition on this route: Qantas and Singapore Airlines
Notes: Continues on to Dubai; other Emirates services from Brisbane are direct A380 daily services to both Dubai and Auckland
Whilst the other two Emirates services from Brisbane offer direct-aisle access, this one doesn’t
Singapore to Canberra to Wellington on Singapore Airlines has commenced
We’ve written about this service here before, but here’s a recap:
Commenced: 20 September 2016
Redeem: 25,000 KrisFlyer miles or 38,000 Velocity points for one-way Business to Wellington; 55,000 KrisFlyer miles or 65,000 Velocity points to Singapore
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200 with angled-flat 2-2-2 configuration in Business Class
Frequency: 4x weekly
Competition on this route: none
Business Class on this route has angled-flat seats
Sydney to Christchurch on Emirates is upgraded
Upgrade commences: 31 October 2016
Redeem: 36,000 Qantas points for one-way Business, 54,000 for First
Aircraft: upgrades from Boeing 777-300ER to Airbus A380, changing to lie-flat 1-2-1 configuration in Business Class and 14 First Class Suites
Frequency: Daily
Competition on this route: Qantas, Air New Zealand, Virgin Australia and Jetstar
All Emirates services between Australia and New Zealand (Melbourne/Brisbane to Auckland, and Sydney to Christchurch) will now be flown by the A380
Note that Emirates is cutting the majority of its Trans-Tasman flights between July 2017 and March 2018.
Melbourne to Singapore Airlines changes back from A350 to A380
One of Melbourne’s four daily flights to Singapore has been temporarily loaned a two-cabin Airbus A350 before its launch on the new direct Singapore-San Francisco service. This loan will end on 22 October 2016, and will revert back to a four-cabin A380 service a week later.
The other three daily flight will continue to be served by Boeing 777s.
Qantas increases services to Southeast Asia and NZ over the summer
Qantas is increasing capacity to Bali, Manila, Singapore, Port Moresby and Christchurch from December to February, which we wrote about in August.
Supplementary images courtesy of respective airlines.
Community