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Update 12/26/21: A lot of the Singapore Airlines First Class award availability from New York to Frankfurt dried up recently, but there’s now great availability returning from Frankfurt to New York which wasn’t available previously. I doubt it’ll last long, so book ASAP if you’re interested. h/t Monkey Miles
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A few days ago, View from the Wing flagged excellent award availability in Singapore Airlines A380 First Class between New York and Frankfurt from March to August 2022. It looked like a lot of the saver availability dried up over the weekend, but today we are seeing quite a bit of availability again, even for 2 seats. In situations where there is only one seat, some will still find this attractive enough to book one saver and one “standard” award thanks to the current transfer bonus.
First class on the route between New York and Frankfurt has historically been very difficult to find. Getting a single seat can be tough in normal times; multiple seats is often a tall task. Right now, I’m still seeing a lot of midweek days with at least 2 seats in the spring (i mostly searched April, May, and June). I’ve even found a couple of dates with *three seats*. In Singapore First. What?!? I thought for sure those would be gone as soon as Gary posted this deal.
At 86,000 miles one-way for a saver price, this isn’t cheap but yet is one of the better deal for first class to Europe. However, many people have been targeted for a 20% transfer bonus on transfers to Singapore from American Express, which drops the cost to under 72K points transferred from Amex (with no fuel surcharges).
In fact, with the transfer bonus, this might even be worth it if you have two passengers and only one seat is available at the saver level. Booking one seat at 86K plus one seat at 140K would be a total of 226K Singapore miles. You’d need to transfer 189K points from Amex Membership Rewards if you have the transfer bonus. That’s less than 95K each — almost like getting two seats at the normal saver price.
Also keep in mind the current status promotion from Singapore. If you transfer points that become 250K Singapore miles, you’ll get elite status with Singapore that is good for Star Alliance Gold. That would give you access to United lounges when flying domestically which could make this deal even more attractive for some.
I find myself highly tempted by this availability since I booked a couple of European cruises next year. I could book two saver seats and one “standard” seat for what works out to be a not-crazy amount of points. Unfortunately, Frankfurt isn’t really where I need to be for my cruises and I would also have a lap infant. Singapore charges 10% of the adult revenue fare for a lap infant, which would mean $650 one-way to Europe or more than $700 on the way back. While the size of a Singapore first class seat means that he wouldn’t necessarily have to literally sit on our laps the whole time, that still seems like a steep price for a flight that doesn’t actually get us where we need to go. If I did book to Frankfurt, I’d almost surely book a night or two at the Schlosshotel Kronberg as my older son is at the age now where sleeping in castle would be incredibly exciting.
If I knew that Singapore would operate the new first class on this route, I might be tempted enough to book it….but at the moment you don’t know what you’re going to get.
Obviously there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding travel still now and there likely will continue to be some of that uncertainty moving forward. That’s another reason I’m hesitant: Singapore miles expire after 3 years regardless of activity, so while cancellation fees aren’t unreasonable, the expiration policy of the miles is so be aware of that risk going in.
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Who cares?
For a 7h flight.
I’ll pass
I am still waiting for a response about my seat assignments that were taken from me.
What’s the point of a reservation if they can just change it at will?
Well, thanks for the heads up … I did book right away and got my double-bed suite in row 2. Perfect … that is until they just switched seats on my a few days later. No explanation, presumably gave them to someone else !!
I have now been trying to get them online (no chance, just a robot that is quite useless) as well as a form to complete but that doesn’t seem to actually do anything … and I have been on hold an hour so far with no idea if they will ever answer the phone.
Any ideas how to get hold of them?
If they switched your seats, I suspect that is likely because your equipment got changed to the *new first class*. Starting from March 27, 2022 this route is getting the new first class (which looks *amazing*). If that’s what happened, you are a winner, congratulations! lol.
The one suggestion I could offer is to call the phone number for Singapore airlines in Singapore. Via Google Voice, I think it’s just a couple of cents per minute. English is widely spoken in Singapore, so you are going to get a rep who speaks English and given the time difference their lines are likely less bogged down during our daytime hours (and their call center is probably better staffed during their daytime hours). I’ve called the Singapore office in Singapore before and don’t remember needing to wait to speak with someone (pre-pandemic though of course).
Thanks for the suggestion, I will try calling them in Singapore.
No, the plane or layout didn’t change, they just moved me from row 2 (The double-bed Suite) to row 3 which does not make up as a double bed.
I would not have booked it otherwise.
I just called Singapore Airlines in Singapore because when they switched from the old style seating to the new, they assigned my wife and me to new seats, but across the aisle from each other and not double-bed-able. It took about 20 minutes on hold to get a person who then said she was going to put me on hold again:
Yes, she really implied that she was physically going somewhere to look for someone capable of assigning seats on award tickets. After a couple of minutes she returned and said that she wasn’t able to find a redemption specialist (I’ve heard that they’re chameleon-like). So she said a redemption specialist will call me back maybe as soon as tomorrow morning.
Stay tuned
Staying tuned …
So, I have been calling Singapore Airlines at various locations, Singapore, SFO, Houston at various times, even the middle of the night. Every couple of days for about 3 weeks now, staying on hold for between 1 and 2 hours before giving up. I also wrote to them via their form online. No response at all.
Now I am about ready to cancel the booking, but I suppose then I will still have to hassle them for the fees.
What a useless crowd.
Did you get anywhere, because I didn’t. So, what happens when I cancel the reservation because they took away my seats and then they charge my credit card for the luxury of not providing any service?
I am ruing the day I ever heard of this airline. I have flown it once, bus class Houston to Manchester – not impressed at all.
This was my chance to try the 1st class suites.
OK, some success (maybe). I was able to get Singapore on the phone. Called at 5:30 am. They gave me a story that passengers with babies get preference and my seats were given away for that purpose. I said that was the only reason I had booked the flight – to have the “double bed in the sky”.
The agent said that she could do nothing except find another flight or else if I cancelled I would have to pay the fee ($75 x 2) to redeposit miles. I said that was ridiculous as I did not want to change anything and it was Singapore that chose to change my seats. She checked for award space but only until the end of the month and gave up.
After some back and forth they finally agreed to the redeposit at no charge and the refund of the $11.20 on my credit card. I think I will give up on the double bed as what’s the point if it’s changeable at any time.
They said the redeposit would be immediate but the CC refund could take weeks – all fine with me.
I think I will go back to using these miles for business class seats on a partner.
So, transferring from AMEX to make a booking doesn’t always work out. Now I have to use the miles before they expire which is ??? yesterday’s news indicates they will be extended once again.
I snagged 2 suite seats for a double bed. Thanks. My miles were expiring anyway.
But if they do agree to extend them what is the penalty for cancelling in a few months?
Is there a way to add on LAX to JFK through United, without using additional points? I have Krisflyer points expiring (trip to Japan was cancelled at beginning of pandemic) and would like to use those points to get to Israel if possible There are NO saver awards available to Israel.
No.
I’m actually hoping for ONLY return space (would rather experience that luxury while awake, even though the bed is tempting) but no luck when i need it in may
@PMV — look now. It’s available! I re-booked my flight for a return and taking AF out and sleeping in J class since it’s an overnight flight.
So there is now way to book say San Francisco-New York-Frankfurt-Prague on the same itinerary ?
Not with Singapore.
So tempted by this but coming from the west coast makes it harder. Already have KLM J booked on a 787 for next summer. Is singapore first worth the hassle of connecting and only 8 hours or so in F?
What IF they cancel the Flt or lose ur luggage on the connecting FLT ??? Shocked my luggage made it 2 Vegas an hr before me,I never heard of that .
With Singapore is it BOOK in 3 years or FLY in 3 years?
Can I transfer points I can’t use for free?
Book in 3 years.
No you can’t transfer them out
Thank You !!!!!!!
I even found ‘4’ spaces… that’s unheard of but only 1 day I can find, 4/2 Saturday departure which would work perfectly as our kids spring breaks starts on 4/2. I was ready to book it after transferring a boat load of amex points (had 20% targeted bonus too) but at the end, decided not. I’ve done similar in the past where we family of 4 literally owned half of first suite cabin between SIN-MEL for 7+ hours. It was 4 of us plus 2 other passenger in the entire cabin up front. Plus, this JFK flight is also just 7 hours and it would be quite expensive to position from SEA… another 6 hours probably in economy just to get there. If there were spaces from FRA to SIN, we would be all over it. Plus no return space.
Is there any return space?
Barely any.
Could always schlep it in business class. The horror. 🙂
Truthfully, return space rarely ever matters to me unless there’s a discount for booking round trip (and there isn’t with Singapore). I don’t have to fly the same airline in both directions in order to book a trip, I’ll just hunt out the return space separately. And since flights from Europe back to the United States are typically daytime, even premium economy would be fine for me on the return.