All posts filed under: Fly

Qantas’ refurbished A380 takes to the skies

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After more than 18 months since Qantas announced a refurbishment programme for its A380 fleet, the first of the refreshed birds is finally out of the factory and back in the skies. The first of Qantas’ twelve refurbished Airbus A380 will begin flying the flagship Sydney-Singapore-London route next week, following an extensive make-over which includes a modernisation of the first class cabin and installation of the airline’s latest business class seats, along with two new upper deck lounges. What has changed? The multimillion-dollar upgrade most significantly features an upgraded business class cabin featuring their flagship business suites, as well as their latest premium economy product. The upper deck is also now exclusively premium, with all economy class seats now moved to the lower deck. The on-board lounge has also been redesigned.  Don’t expect to see a brand new first class product on the Qantas A380 – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing given that the product actually works (see my review here!) and remains pretty luxurious even a decade after it was first rolled out.  …

Scoot removes all payment processing fees with immediate effect

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From today onwards, Scoot will no longer be charging a payment processing fee for its airfares. You’ll no longer need to pay any additional fees regardless of which method of payment you choose to use, whichever sector you buy, and from which city you booked it from. Singapore customers were previously charged S$10 per person, per flight for payment made through selected credit cards and PayPal, so that means that if you were booking a return ticket, you would have to spend an additional $20 on top of whatever fare and add-ons you chose. With this change, Jetstar and AirAsia, two of the other key low cost carriers, remain to be the only ones still charging a ‘convenience’ fee for using credit card payments – it remains to be seen if they will follow suit.

Singapore Airlines to take over Silkair’s Singapore-Busan services

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The daily A330-300 service will see an increase of 76% in seat capacity between the two cities. Singapore Airlines will operate an A330-300 service between Singapore and Busan, taking over the existing SilkAir service from 28 October 2019. The transfer will enable Singapore Airlines to increase seat capacity on the route by 76% to meet the growing travel demand. SIA will operate flights to Busan four times per week, maintaining SilkAir’s current flight frequency. The revised schedule will be as follow: Route Flight Departure Arrival Flight time Days Aircraft SIN-PUS SQ616 2310 0635(+1) 6h 45m Mon, Fri, Sat Airbus A330-300 2310 0630(+1) 6h 40m Wed Airbus A330-300 PUS-SIN SQ615 0800 1325 6h 25m Tue, Thu, Sat Airbus A330-300 0810 1325 6h 15m Sun Airbus A330-300 The route will be served with the A330-300 aircraft with 285 seats, consisting 30 Business Class and 255 Economy Class seats. The A330s can accommodate up to 123 more passengers per flight than SilkAir’s 162-seat Boeing 737-800s which currently serve the Singapore-Busan route. If you are familiar with SIA’s A330, you …

PSA: 10 days to use your Qantas Points before the new chart kicks in

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Back in June 2019, Qantas made a big announcement on how the Qantas Frequent Flyer programme was going to be ‘enhanced’, unlocking ‘more benefits’ for members. It was a particularly interesting announcement insofar as the award charts are concerned: while the premium cabins (premium economy, business and first) redemption requirements are going up between 12.9% and 15% from 18 September 2019, those for economy have actually been reduced immediately since the announcement by up to 10%. Of course, the increase comes with a slight decrease in the charges and fees you have to pay on top of the points, although it’s nowhere as low as what Krisflyer charges in terms of fees. I want to fly business or first class. Is it worth redeeming now or later? If you have plans to travel within the next year, it’s definitely better to redeem them now, even though the fees associated are higher now. For Singapore to any Australian destinations on the east (Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney) on Qantas or Emirates, you will need to fork out 8,400 …

Singapore Airlines to operate A350s on Singapore-Melbourne-Wellington service

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Travellers going to Wellington on Singapore Airlines can now look forward to a new generation aircraft when the airline switches over to the A350-900 long haul version from 31 October 2019. This switch will see the phasing out of the older regional business class product on this mid-haul service, which has long been a sore point for many travellers on this route. SIA currently operates the Singapore-Wellington service, via Melbourne, four times a week. From 1 January 2020, SIA will increase it to five times daily. The full schedule is as follow, effective 31 October 2019: Flight Route Depart Arrive Day of week Aircraft SQ247 SIN-MEL 2005 0630(+1) Mon, Wed*, Thu, Fri, Sat A350-900 SQ247 MEL-WLG 0750 1310 Tue, Thu*, Fri, Sat, Sun A350-900 SQ248 WLG-MEL 1430 1630 Tue, Thu*, Fri, Sat, Sun A350-900 SQ248 MEL-SIN 1755 2245 Tue, Thu*, Fri, Sat, Sun A350-900 *from 1 Jan 2020 New aircraft The 3-class A350 is a vast improvement over the B777-200. In business class, there are four more seats than the existing B777-200. Economy class has …