Author: Shane

Best National Day Offers from Klook and Trip.com: Bonus dining credits, 1-for-1s, and more

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Klook and Trip.com have lined up their best offers for the National Day weekend sale. Here’s our top picks on what you should grab. Klook and Trip.com have both kicked off their National Day flash sales, both running from 5 to 9 Aug 2021. Together they have put up more than a dozen hotels on offer, so here’s some of the top picks. Klook sale Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay – $350, COLLECTION Club Room Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay is offering two club-level rooms for this sale: the COLLECTION Club room for S$350 nett, or the Urban Suite with COLLECTION Lounge entitlements at S$400. Book Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay here! For both room types, you get: 1-night accommodation at PARKROYAL Collection Marina Bay Daily buffet breakfast for 2 from 7am to 10.30am Afternoon Tea for 2 from 2.30pm to 4pm Evening Cocktails for 2 from 6pm to 8pm 20% discount for hotel-operated restaurants (except for eve of PH and public holidays, blackout dates apply) Pan Pacific Cares Pack Complimentary parking Newly refurbished, the former Marina Mandarin …

Fifth freedom flights and Singapore Airlines: What next?

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In recent months, Singapore Airlines and its low-cost subsidiary Scoot made news with some of its more innovative fifth freedom service within Europe. Singapore Airlines first announced the resumption of its Rome service, but via Copenhagen as a tag-on service. Shortly after, Scoot announced that its original two European destination – Athens in Greece and Berlin in Germany – will be combined into a single service (Singapore-Athens-Berlin) later this month. The move has led many industry observers say that this was a tactic for SIA to tap on the liberalisation of borders and Covid-19 controls within the EU, given that Asia Pacific was still pretty much closed up even as the rest of the world are easing restrictions as vaccination rates are going up. Singapore Airlines’ past fifth freedom flights As a purely international aircraft with no domestic market to tap on, Singapore Airlines has to think creatively to tap on other revenue markets. While Singapore is geographically advantaged when it comes to serving Asia Pacific as a region, it doesn’t have the same edge …

Singapore looking to lift quarantine requirements from September 2021 for vaccinated travellers

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From September, travel-starved Singapore residents may be able to venture out to some countries and return to Singapore sans quarantine In parliament today (26 Jul 2021), Multi-ministry Task Force (MTF) co-chair Lawrence Wong, who’s the finance minister of Singapore, said that the government is planning to relook its border control measures for selected countries. It intends to set up travel corridors with certain countries that have good Covid-19 control measures, and allow only vaccinated travellers to venture out and come back into Singapore with testing measures in place. This is the full excerpt of what was spelt out in Parliament: It will start by setting up travel corridors with countries or regions that have “managed COVID-19 well”, and where the infection is under control.  “So fully vaccinated persons will then be able to travel to these countries or regions without needing to serve the full 14-day stay-home notice in a hotel when they return,” Mr Wong said. Depending on the risk level of the country they visit, the stay-home notice will be replaced with a …

Scoot resuming Berlin flights from 10 Aug

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Service will operate via Athens, allowing Scoot to tap on intra-Europe demand as EU opens up Scoot’s new fifth freedom service between Athens and Berlin will see it tap into the intra-Europe travel market from August 2021. The service is an extension of Scoot’s current thrice weekly Singapore-Athens service, with the tag-on of the Athens-Berlin leg. The service remains three times weekly, but there are changes to the flight numbers and timings. The last Singapore-Berlin service was on 20 March 2020, right before the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. That flight departed Berlin Tegel International Airport (IATA: TXL), which has since been replaced by Brandenburg Airport (IATA: BER) which opened just months ago in June 2021. Full schedule For those who are interested, this is the schedule of the Singapore-Athens-Berlin service with effect from 10 Aug 2021: Service Flight No. Days of Operations Depart Arrive Flight Time Aircraft Singapore – Athens TR722 Tue, Thu, Sat 0110 0750 11h 40m B787-8 Athens – Berlin TR722 Tue, Thu, Sat 0950 1150 3h B787-8 Berlin – Athens TR723 …

Cathay Pacific to merge Asia Miles and Marco Polo Club in new programme to launch in 2022

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No more confusing differences between the two programmes, hooray! In a seemingly fluffy email sent out by Cathay Pacific today, the airline announced a new lifestyle brand named ‘Cathay’. More importantly, Cathay Pacific’s somewhat confusing two loyalty programmes – Asia Miles & Marco Polo Club – will be merged into a single programme in the first half of 2022. What is Cathay? Cathay is touted as the airline’s new master brand, which it said “represents much more than airline travel”, and “seeks to become a premium travel lifestyle brand, consisting of a host of complementary categories – flights, hotels, shopping, dining, wellness, credit cards”. What this essentially means is that Cathay Pacific will now focus on non-flying businesses that traditionally complement travel, held together by a central currency of miles and points. In whole, this is considered an entire ‘travel lifestyle proposition‘. For a start, Cathay will only being rolled out to Hong Kong-based customers. Customers outside of Hong Kong will continue to see Cathay Pacific as the airline and master brand, as it will …