Adelaide gets upgraded Singapore Airlines Business Class product (finally!): award availability plentiful

For 53,000 Velocity Points, South Australians can at last fly in comfort to the Lion City.

Routes, aircraft and cabin

There are two planes with essentially the same product, designed for flights of up to eight hours in duration:

• Boeing 787 Dreamliner
• Airbus A350-900 (medium-haul configuration)

Note that there is a different product on the long-haul configuration of the A350-900.

There are 36/40 Business Class seats (787/A350) in a 1-2-1 configuration, providing direct aisle access to every passenger:

with each seat converting into a lie-flat bed, important for overnight flights:

These aircraft are more passenger-friendly with larger windows and increased air circulation to reduce jetlag.

You will find the seats snugger than those on the long-haul A350 and 777-300ERs:

but far superior to the older Airbus A330 currently flying to/from Adelaide:

The angled-flat seat on the A330 and 777-200

There is no Premium Economy.

Economy Class is in a 3-3-3 configuration.

Singapore Airlines A350 & 787 Economy Class

There is wifi onboard.

The airline has around 40 aircraft on order each for both the 787 and A350, and you can expect to see them introduced progressively on routes currently flown by A330 and 777-200s.

The 787 is already flying between Singapore and Perth, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Bangkok and Bali, with Adelaide the launch destination for the medium-haul A350 from 17 December 2018. Brisbane will get this aircraft from 7 January 2019.

With the timings of the flights, onward connections to Europe are lengthy but those throughout Asia are good. Note that there are extra flights on the older A330 in busy January travel period.

How to use your points to make a booking

Using the simple award.flights tool to save time navigating around the clunky KrisFlyer website, I can see at least two Business Class seats available on the new aircraft between Adelaide and Singapore in both directions for the first month of operation (except for the first week of January). Judging by this, availability should be good through the rest of the calendar.

For a one-way Business Class flight between Singapore and these destinations, you are looking at the following prices:

In neither case does it make sense to transfer your Velocity Points to KrisFlyer (or vice versa).

You can also use other Star Alliance currencies like United MileagePlus miles for these flights.

Taxes are ~AU$85 departing Australia and ~SG$55 returning from Singapore.

Taxes and award availability are similar across the two programs.

You can make this booking online through the KrisFlyer or Velocity websites. Make sure you check the flight numbers and aircraft type when you book.

Summing up

Singapore Airlines plans to progressively introduce this aircraft and updated Business Class product onto regional flights of about eight hours or less.

Using KrisFlyer miles or Velocity Points for an award flight on this aircraft is a great use of points.

Supplementary images courtesy Singapore Airlines.