All posts filed under: Fly

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 That flight departed Berlin Tegel International Airport (IATA: TXL), which has since been replaced by Brandenburg Airport (IATA: BER) which opened just months ago in June 2021.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 …

Plaza Premium lounges part ways with Priority Pass from 1 July; launches own PPL Pass

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Plaza Premium has announced that it will stop accepting Priority Pass entries at most of its lounges worldwide from 1 Jul 2021, and will be introducing its own PPL Pass Why this matters? Priority Pass is the world’s largest network of independent airport lounges, with over 1,300 lounges around the world. All kinds of premium credit cards offer a Priority Pass membership, which is a great way to get lounge access when traveling. Priority Pass doesn’t operate lounges as such, but rather has partner lounges that it pays when a member visits. Plaza Premium operates the world’s largest collection of independent airport lounges, with 180 locations across nearly 50 airports. You can’t directly buy a Plaza Premium lounge membership, but rather Plaza Premium acts as a contract lounge provider for premium airline passengers, and for other lounge access programs. Historically you’ve been able to visit virtually all Plaza Premium lounges with a Priority Pass membership, but that will soon be changing. There will be a handful of lounges that will continue to accept Priority Pass …

Singapore to restart travel bubble arrangement with Hong Kong from 26 May

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Will it be a second time lucky? The long awaited Air Travel Bubble (ATB) between Singapore and Hong Kong is finally set to take off from 26 May 2021, announced by both Singapore and Hong Kong on 26 Apr. This comes almost six months after the plans for the quarantine-free all-purpose travel arrangement was delayed just hours before its launch in November, and subsequently scuppered in December last year, due to a reflux of local cases in Hong Kong as new infections occured. What are the new requirements? By and large, the requirements remain the same as what was proposed last year, including: Travellers must have stayed in Singapore or Hong Kong wholly for the preceding 14 days before travel. This excludes select groups of foreign workers (Holders of Work Permits or S Passes working in the construction, marine shipyard and process sectors), as requested by the Hong Kong government. Travellers must take mutually recognised COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and will need to have negative test results. Travellers will not be subject to any quarantine …