Has SQ Stopped all MEL/SYD Business Awards from Velocity

[goldenhorn]

I too am finding it very challenging to find rewards from Asia back to the east coast of Australia. I guess I've taken it for granted that it was never an issue to get an SQ flight from SIN to BNE, SYD, or MEL to get home after a trip to Asia.

I'm checking daily on seats.aero for SQ. Ideally, I want to get one back from Japan, but I could always buy a ZipAir flight to SIN and then get an SQ J rewards back from there. But even that is looking problematic at the moment.

Most of the very few options I can see are for a single seat with SQ.

 

[ozstamps]

Yes finding ONE seat to and from SYD was tough for next year ... and TWO near impossible.
PREMIUM economy was often available I saw.

On an Airbus 380 for a shortish flight (from here anyway it is shortish) that private cabin on those looked pretty tolerable to me if no sleep was planned.

Singapore Airlines A380 | Making Every Journey Personal

 

[goldenhorn]

I spoke too soon - just got an alert from seats.aero this morning for 2 J seats on SQ SIN-BNE on the date I wanted so grabbed them.

Now to try and get to SIN from Japan (preferably from KIX), but I think that might not be as challenging.

UPDATE - I just set up another alert for KIX-SIN and got an immediate alert that there were 2 J seats on SQ to get us to Singapore. BOOKED! Yay

 

[MelbFlyer]

...is the key point...there is none MEL-SIN.

That was also true for SYD-SIN when this thread first kicked off...so hopefully things are improving.

If it took transitting in SYD for a few hours for business, compared to sitting in economy for a direct flight, I'd take the transit option.

If I had children with me, different story.

At the least with VFF points, you can transfer them to KF points even despite being at a somewhat poor ratio of 1.55:1. I'd estimate you'd need 30-50% additional points to redeem the same seat on SQ direct, compared to via VFF.

Taxes are a lot cheaper direct though, so I guess it's a question of points vs taxes - which is more useful to the user.

My gripe with VFF is that in addition to no calendar view (like QFF), you can't book a multi-leg booking online.

 

[Rayesfeg]

My gripe with VFF is that in addition to no calendar view (like QFF), you can't book a multi-leg booking online.

Yes, this is very frustrating! I have encountered this in the past where 2 flights (SYD-SIN, and SIN-LHR) were available to book as a rewards booking separately, but not on the same ticket.
Both flights were available to book on the same ticket as a cash fare through Virgin.

 

[ben95]

Both flights were available to book on the same ticket as a cash fare through Virgin.

Have seen this creep up specifically when it’s between a city pair where you can book a cash fare on a VA codeshare. Have not seen this problem when it’s not a destination VA also sells cash ticket to.

It seems like VA when selling codeshare on partner has rules on which flight can connect to which flight and that even to a particular destination not all flight operated by partner carry the VA code. When rewards availability exist on one of those not coded by VA the booking engine doesn’t seem to be able to make that “connection”.