Virgin Australia & Singapore Airlines RTW

[tuppaware]

Looks like the partnership that Virgin was tying up with Singapore is now moving to offer FTW fares .

Virgin Australia & Singapore Airlines launch Round The World fares - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller

The Virgin-SQ fares cover travel from any of Virgin Australia's ports around Australia and taps into Singapore Airlines' extensive international network, with no restrictions on the total number of stops made or minimum stays during the trip. And yes, you'll also rack up Velocity or KrisFlyer miles as you travel.

Circle Pacific fares from $1,969
Round The World fares from $2,264

I've never thought about using Virgin for a RTW, but seems like a good deal ?

 

[pythonisman]

Looks like the partnership that Virgin was tying up with Singapore is now moving to offer FTW fares .

Nothing like a good old FTW (for the win) trip :-D

 

[Fruitcake]

Nothing like a good old FTW (for the win) trip :-D

I'm fairly sure the old Virgin Blue would have used that exact marketing slogan for such a fare: "RTW FTW!"

Only time will tell if the new VA dares to be so edgy!

 

[777]

Can anyone find a site selling these or a link to the T&Cs?

 

[leemin]

This is great news! Can't wait for the details.

Can anyone find a site selling these or a link to the T&Cs?

Not me. Hopefully we'll get an email about it soon.

 

[leemin]

Found the press release from Virgin Australia:

http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/about-us/media/2012/SA-VA-ROUNDWORLD-CIRCLEPACIFIC/

 

[rtyuiop]

Details only available through travel agents? That's a bit sad...

 

[moa999]

Fares can be found on expertflyer.

Searching SYD-SYD using code SQ

HCTSQVA SQ H Round-Trip 1969.00(AUD) – Circle
HRWSQVA SQ H Round-Trip 2264.00(AUD) – RTW
DCTSQVA SQ D Round-Trip 8158.00(AUD) – Circle
DRWSQVA SQ D Round-Trip 8895.00(AUD) – RTW

Key rules (from RTW) - this is an excerpt only
A.TRAVEL MUST BE ENTIRELY ON SQ/MI/VA/DJ SERVICES.
B.TRAVEL MUST ORIGINATE AND TERMINATE IN AUSTRALIA ONLY.
C.TRAVEL MUST BE IN A CONTINUOUS EASTBOUND OR WESTBOUND GLOBAL DIRECTION.
E.NO CITY MAY BE TRANSITED MORE THAN ONCE ON THE ENTIRE RTW JOURNEY
EXCEPTION-
TRANSITING TWICE AT SINGAPORE IS PERMITTED FOR THE SIDE-TRIP TO ASIA.
TRANSITING TWICE AT THE SAME AUSTRALIA INTERNATIONAL GATEWAY IS PERMITTED
F.INTERMEDIATE SURFACE SECTORS ARE PERMITTED AT THE PASSENGERS OWN
EXPENSE PROVIDED ONWARD TRAVEL IS IN THE SAME GLOBAL DIRECTION
G.BACKTRACKING IS NOT PERMITTED EXCEPT
1.BETWEEN ANY TWO SQ ONLINE EUROPEAN CITIES
2.BETWEEN JFK AND IAH AND GRU
3.BETWEEN LAX AND SFO.
4.BETWEEN SIN AND ASIA SIDE-TRIP CITY.
5.BETWEEN AUSTRALIA DOMESTIC PORT AND
INTERNATIONAL GATEWAY.
--------------------------------------------------
BOOKING CLASSES
SQ/ MI -- BUSINESS - D, ECONOMY - H
VA -- BUSINESS - I, ECONOMY - E
DJ -- BUSINESS - O, ECONOMY - C


UNLIMITED FREE STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING
UNIT.
STOPOVER ALLOWED ONLY ONCE AT THE SAME POINT
UNLIMITED TRANSFERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT.
FARE BREAK AND EMBEDDED SURFACE SECTORS PERMITTED ON
THE FARE COMPONENT.

----

Appears interesting (particularly the unlimited stopovers and transfers) but practically limited in US/Europe by SQ's routes.

Biz Class fares are much better value than the oneworld or star equiv

 

[SeaWolf]

Looks pretty good value to me, comparable to those LH RTW fares. Good for racking up the status credits too since the SQ flights book into H, which earns Full Economy status credits.
I could see myself using it with a routing like PER-SYD-LAX|JFK-FRA|LHR-SIN-BKK-SIN-PER or something like that and then using cheap tickets to get around the USA and Europe in between the long haul flights. I'm not sure how you'd go about incorporating GRU, JNB or CPT without using separate one-way long hauls though.
Also, I dislike having to use a separate travel agent, I'd prefer to be able to just call up SQ or VA and book it directly with them.

 

[777]

Looks pretty good value to me, comparable to those LH RTW fares. Good for racking up the status credits too since the SQ flights book into H, which earns Full Economy status credits.
I could see myself using it with a routing like PER-SYD-LAX|JFK-FRA|LHR-SIN-BKK-SIN-PER or something like that and then using cheap tickets to get around the USA and Europe in between the long haul flights. I'm not sure how you'd go about incorporating GRU, JNB or CPT without using separate one-way long hauls though.
Also, I dislike having to use a separate travel agent, I'd prefer to be able to just call up SQ or VA and book it directly with them.

I would guess you will be able to book them with VA over the phone but not online. Was certainly the pattern with VAs other RTW fares - I just booked a MEL-SYD-AUH-LHR-LAX-MEL in PE with VA and VS through the call centre last week. Shame this didn't come out before as it might have swayed my options. [OTH as this flight is booked a fortnight after my requal date i will requal for VA gold within six weeks of the year].

I agree with the ABT article when it says VAs previous RTW fares were great value in PE and lousy in economy.

 

[SeaWolf]

Could anyone with access to ExpertFlyer possibly post the entire run down on this fare? Either in here or in a PM to me?

Thanks

 

[Carlous Moochous]

Key rules (from RTW) - this is an excerpt only
A.TRAVEL MUST BE ENTIRELY ON SQ/MI/VA/DJ SERVICES.

Can you use codeshare flights? E.g. SQ flight number on say US, LH or AC metal?
I'd imagine you wouldn't get far within Europe or the states without it...

 

[TtiGeR]

Sample permitted routing (provided by my agent)

Circle:
Australia Domestic ports - DJ BNE/MEL/SYD - VA - LAX - SQ - TYO (or LAX surface to SFO - SQ - HKG/SEL) - SQ - SIN (- SQ/MI side-trip to South East Asia) - SQ/MI - ADL/BNE/DRW/MEL/PER/SYD - DJ/SQ - Australia Domestic ports or v.v.

RTW:
Australia Domestic ports - DJ BNE/MEL/SYD - VA - LAX // JFK/IAH/GRU - SQ - Europe (- surface to South Africa/Middle East/SASC) SQ/MI - SIN (- SQ/MI side-trip to Asia) - SQ/MI - ADL/BNE/DRW/MEL/PER/SYD - DJ/SQ - Australia Domestic ports or v.v.

 

[justcallmeryan]

I know this is an old thread but has anyone here had any success booking one of these fares? I am a staunch VA Platinum and this August need to be in New York and London. I was considering flying return to NY from SYD and then get a return to London from NY. It's not terribly expensive but it's an awful long way to fly SYD- LAX - NYC - LON! If I could go the other way and do a RTW that would be great.

My ideal flight would be a RTW as follows:

SYD - LON
LON- NYC
NYC - SYD

I don't mind flying either SQ or VS on the westbound leg.

If anyone has any experience with one of these fares that would be great to know.

 

[juliusg]

I'm thinking the RTW is a bit pricey (well over 10 grand for J class) and a bit limited. If they could join Virgin America or Delta in there it would be better value.

LAX to JFK is on your own dime using this RTW.

 

[777]

I know this is an old thread but has anyone here had any success booking one of these fares? I am a staunch VA Platinum and this August need to be in New York and London. I was considering flying return to NY from SYD and then get a return to London from NY. It's not terribly expensive but it's an awful long way to fly SYD- LAX - NYC - LON! If I could go the other way and do a RTW that would be great.

My ideal flight would be a RTW as follows:

SYD - LON
LON- NYC
NYC - SYD

I don't mind flying either SQ or VS on the westbound leg.

If anyone has any experience with one of these fares that would be great to know.

I would consider looking at the VA/VS premium economy options if your budget stretches that far (but not all the way to J). I did MEL-SYD-AUH (PE) AUH-LHR (Y) LHR-LAX (PE) and LAX-MEL (PE) late last year for about $4k. Pretty good value i thought. As noted about you'd need to find your own way between NYC and LAX if you booked it.

 

[justcallmeryan]

I would consider looking at the VA/VS premium economy options if your budget stretches that far (but not all the way to J). I did MEL-SYD-AUH (PE) AUH-LHR (Y) LHR-LAX (PE) and LAX-MEL (PE) late last year for about $4k. Pretty good value i thought. As noted about you'd need to find your own way between NYC and LAX if you booked it.

Thanks for this. Can I ask, was this booked through the VA call centre or a travel agent? And how did you explain to them what you were after? The VA site clearly says the RTW fares are with SQ and VA, but I don't quite understand how I can get from LHR to NYC on either of those airlines, so VS would make more sense (or DL for that matter).

Appreciate your help.

 

[777]

Thanks for this. Can I ask, was this booked through the VA call centre or a travel agent? And how did you explain to them what you were after? The VA site clearly says the RTW fares are with SQ and VA, but I don't quite understand how I can get from LHR to NYC on either of those airlines, so VS would make more sense (or DL for that matter).

Appreciate your help.

I booked it through the VA call centre. It took them a bit of stuffing around but it wasn't too difficult.

 

[justcallmeryan]

I booked it through the VA call centre. It took them a bit of stuffing around but it wasn't too difficult.

Just rang the VA call centre and they can't do this booking at the moment as they don't have VS loads available in sabre yet *sigh*. It seems a bit pointless that they would try and sell me a round the world ticket without the availability to get from Europe to North America! I'll try a travel agent tomorrow and report on the progress.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Comoman]

For this fare you need to fly from JFK-FRA on SQ (or vice-versa).