Singapore Airlines will commemorate the retirement of the legendary Boeing 747-400 from its fleet by running a special flight on the 6th of April 2012 from Singapore to Hong Kong and back. One can go ahead and make a request for booking SIN-HKG and HKG-SIN flights, I’m sure seats on the flight will be taken up very very fast so you really need ASAP.

The Packages offered for the Ex-SIN flight as mentioned on the website are:

And the ex-HKG packages as mentioned on the website are

I’m personally looking forward to be on atleast one of these flights and am sure with all the aviation enthusiasts on board it’s really going to be one hell of a ride.

Singapore Airlines has created a special website to show the journey of the 747 in its fleet right from the time of its induction in service,it’s a wonderful timeline taking you through the various phases and how it changed things for Singapore Air itself. The same can be accessed here.

Singapore Airlines is offering 50% redemption discount on online redemptions for selected Singapore Airlines and SilkAir flights in Business and Economy Class. The flights need to be booked between 26 September and 9 October 2011 and the travel needs to be completed between 1 October and 30 November 2011 to benefit from this promotion.

The available destinations for this offer are:

These discounts are available for both one-way and round-trip redemption but not for applicable for Upgrades.
For more details check out the link here

Overall I think is good promotion to grab seats one some really nice routes at a huge discount. So if you have any travel plans during the offer period or just want to experience the SQ luxury in the A380 and B777-300ER then this is your shot at it for half the price. But you will need to hurry as i doubt the seats will last for long.

As i had blogged earlier Singapore Air was taking off its A380 from the SIN-MEL route and replacing it with a Boeing 747-400, and from today’s announcement it seems the A380 will go to the SIN-FRA-JFK which was previously serviced using a Boeing 747-400.

This aircraft swap will result in a 25%capacity increase on the SIN-FRA-JFK route and the cabin product will be far superior than the dated Boeing 747 product and is the best in its class. This is a good news for Kris Flyer members as it will result in increased award redemption availability for them whereas on the flip-side other Star Alliance carriers will not be in such luck given the fact that Singapore Air is notorious for blocking First and Business class redemptions on the A380 product  for them.

Overall its a well planned move by Singapore Air as the route is much more lucrative for them than the SIN-MEL route and also in order to command premium fares on this route, the product overhaul was long due. Overall it will definitely enhance the experience for the passengers on this long haul flight and can definitely termed as better value for money compared to the older product tha’ts currently in use.

The A380 begins its operation on this SIN-FRA-JFK route from January 15, 2012 onward. So hurry and start redeeming ASAP before the availability runs out.

Ever since Qantas announced that it intended to setup a new airline which would cater to the premium traffic in Asia there have been hundreds of name floating around for the same with the most popular one being “Qantasia”.

Earlier this week in a quick application to the Australian Intellectual Property regulator, Qantas has managed to trademark “RedQ”, “RedSky” and “OneAsia”. As per the filing the company has also secured rights for the name “RedQ Executive Flyer”. This leads me to believe that Qantas plans to name its new Asian Premium airline “RedQ” and to possibly safeguard the other options under discussion they have registered the same.

The new airline is planned to specifically target the new rich and affluent class in Asia primarily the Chinese and it plans to serve them using it’s Asian hub either in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. Ironically these trademarks have neither been registered in Singapore nor Malaysia.

The planned airline in which Qantas plans to hold a minority stake has been created with the specific purpose of obtain the Asian landing rights  and help feed passengers to the Qantas hubs for further international traffic to be served by the parent airline.

In my opinion this move in itself is tactically flawed, instead of dealing with the core issue of managing it’s higher operating costs and increasing efficiency in it’s processes Qantas has chosen to add another airline brand (it already runs the low-cost Jetstar subsidiary) which will only lead to fragmentation of products instead of providing any benefits in terms of either enhanced traffic or synergies with the Oneworld partners (given that OneWorld partner Cathay Pacific would definitely be irked by this move).

The details are still sketchy at the moment so we would need to wait and watch as to how things shape what kind of strategy does the airline adopt to differentiate itself from the existing products. The main question about what benefits do the Qantas frequent flyers get out of this still remains. Let’s hope that Qantas is able to come out with the answers to all these questions soon.

As i had blogged earlier, Singapore airlines has been on a aircraft changing spree on many of it’s routes, now i hear that the new changes are going to happen on the Melbourne route. The exact reason behind these changes on this route are still unknown. I do find the change a little bit odd given that’s it’s one of the big revenue earning route for them but my suspicion is that it has got something to do with their recent changes to the Airbus A380 schedule on the Sydney route.

Starting 15 January 2012:

1. SQ227 and SQ238 will lose the Airbus A380 to be replaced with the refurbished Boeing 777-300.
2. SQ237 and SQ228 will be flown using the archaic Boeing 747 replacing the Boeing 777-300 currently being used to serve the same.
3. SQ217 and SQ218 will continue to use Boeing 777-300ER which feature the same wide, fully flat beds similar to the ones in Airbus A380 business class.

In my opinion this is a big downgrade on this route given that the Airbus A380 flat bed business class is a far superior product in comparison to the ones being offered on the Boeing 777-300 and the Boeing 747 which feature the upgraded regional business class seats and the outdated business class seats respectively.

Anybody looking to book their travel for the next year on this route should plan accordingly and if convenient try to book your travel on the flights using the Boeing 777-300ER for the best experience and comfort.

Singapore Airlines just announced today that they will be operating B777-300 on the SIN-DEL and SIN-DXB route starting this September. This is great news for travelers as these aircraft sport the latest and one of the best cabin product on offer in all the classes. The aircrafts are configured with 18 First, 49 Business and 265 Economy seats. The seat map can be found here.

This was a long pending move given the amount of traffic that is on these routes and with competing airlines giving tough competition, Singapore Air has raised the bar for others to follow. I’m planning to check out one these birds soon. Hope to get a report on the same.