Singapore Airlines will begin direct flights to Los Angeles on 2 November, with the route replacing most of the airline’s existing flights to LA via Seoul and Tokyo.
The new non-stop flights will be operated by brand new A350-900ULR aircraft, which have an all-premium configuration of 67 business class seats (in a 1-2-1 layout) and 94 premium economy seats (in a 2-4-2 layout). There’s no first class or economy on these planes.
Los Angeles will be the second destination for the new aircraft, following the restart of direct flights to New York in October.
The Los Angeles route will quickly grow to 10 flights per week from early December.
The good news for points lovers is that Singapore Airlines has made lots of “saver” business class and premium economy award seats available on the new flights. The one-way cost is just 88,000 KrisFlyer miles in business class or 65,000 KrisFlyer miles in premium economy, plus very modest taxes and fees.
A350 business class seat
A350 premium economy
While travelling to LA via Singapore isn’t exactly the most convenient route for many Australians, it’s probably the best option for those in the West and for many in South East Asia. Singapore is also a fantastic city to enjoy a short stopover if you have the time.
Singapore Airlines is a transfer partner for quite a few flexible credit card points currencies in Australia (my favourite being American Express Membership Rewards) and also for Velocity Frequent Flyer.
It’s possible these seats can be booked using Velocity Points, but they’re not showing up on Velocity’s website, so it may require a call to Velocity’s contact centre. It’s also possible Singapore Airlines is restricting access to these seats to KrisFlyer members.
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