Wide Open Singapore Airlines Business Class Awards: Up To 8 Award Seats Per Flight To Asia! - View from the Wing

I wrote last week about wide open Singapore Airlines business class award space on the carrier’s ‘fifth freedom’ flights, like New York JFK – Frankfurt. Unexpectedly for many, there’s been a great opportunity to use your miles to bring a whole family to Europe in business class on Singapore Airlines.

So I thought I’d have a look at bringing a whole family in business class to Asia on Singapore Airlines. And right now San Francisco – Singapore non-stop has amazing award availability as well. There are numerous dates where there are 8 award seats available, when booking into the future. In fact there are days where both of Singapore’s daily A350-900 San Francisco non-stops have 8 award seats available.

This space is a nice jumping off point for travel throughout Southeast Asia, though visiting Singapore is great as well.

Singapore Airlines does a very nice job making premium cabin award seats available to its own members, often close to departure but almost certainly booked far into the future. The best availability for non-stop awards to Singapore from San Francisco is September – November right now.

Here’s a calendar of dates where two or more business class seats are available on the route:

Historically Singapore Airlines long haul premium cabin award space has only been available when booking with Singapore’s own miles. That’s no longer the case, as both Alaska Airlines and Air Canada have had access. However that inventory is not the same as what’s offered to Singapore’s members. In fact many of these dates are exclusive to Singapore’s KrisFlyer members, and certainly availability for 8 passengers is as well.

Singapore Airlines miles are some of the easiest to get for U.S. frequent flyers, since they participate as a partner of Chase, American Express, Capital One and Citi. The seats aren’t inexpensive by any measure. Singapore charges 107,000 KrisFlyer miles each way per person.

You can generally put seats on hold pending a transfer if you call – if you get told no hang up and call back – but transfers don’t take as long as they used to. In fact American Express Membership Rewards is now instant (a change in recent months, several sites purporting to show transfer times are not up to date on this).

Singapore Airlines is running a new campaign describing their product as ‘world class’ where all of the details are considered, top to bottom. You’ll get nice champagne, good (including pre-order “Book The Cook”) meals, and the carrier’s signature service. You can use United’s Polaris lounges where available from Singapore’s gateways in the U.S.

In my opinion they have a good but not great business class seat – it’s fully flat with direct aisle access, and the bulkhead offers amazing space, but you wind up angling your legs under the seat in front of you.

And since Singapore is a member of Star Alliance, it’s possible to include United Airlines domestic award seats to get to and from these flights in the U.S. using Singapore’s Star Alliance award chart if United saver space is available.