If you’ve been in this game for a while, you’ll know that occasionally there are times when stuff that never happens, happens. And right now is one of those times.
Specifically, Singapore Suites is bookable on Aeroplan between Singapore and Auckland, in both directions. The available dates are sporadic throughout January to March 2019, but there are quite a few dates scattered throughout.
Singapore Suites, only available on the airline’s A380 aircraft, is widely considered one of the best First Class products in the world. The cabin consists of 12 ultra-private suites, the onboard catering is considered one of the best in the realm of commercial aviation, and the service is exemplary as well.
The Auckland route doesn’t have Singapore’s new Suites Class installed yet, so these seats will be the older but still excellent models.
Singapore Suites
Furthermore, as a Singapore Suites passenger, you get access to the acclaimed Singapore Airlines Private Room at Changi Airport, one of the world’s finest First Class lounges.
Normally the airline only makes these coveted seats available to members of their own frequent flyer program, KrisFlyer. This meant that it’s always been relatively difficult for Canadians to book Singapore Suites, since you’d have to either get involved with US credit cards or transfer a large volume of points over from Starwood/Marriott in order to earn KrisFlyer miles.
But it seems that a few seats between Singapore and Auckland have been made available to Aeroplan, United, and other partners, so this represents a great opportunity if you’re interested in trying one of the best First Class products in the world.
This opportunity won’t make sense for everyone, since the number of available seats is rather limited. However, if you’re already planning a trip to Australia or New Zealand around early 2019 and you’re interested in flying First Class on the way there, then this is something you should jump on immediately.
What’s the Best Way to Book?
Booking a simple one-way First Class award between Singapore and Auckland would run you 95,000 Aeroplan miles. That’s a pretty steep price to pay, so ideally you would book the flight as part of a larger itinerary. The problem is that there’s no telling how long this availability will last, so it might make sense to simply book the Suites leg first and then make changes to your itinerary later.
If you were to do that, you’d eventually pay 110,000 Aeroplan miles in total for a one-way First Class journey from North America to Australia, which is a pretty sweet deal considering the amount of flying you’re doing, and the possibility to integrate other awesome First Class products like Lufthansa or ANA into the same routing.
If you have miles with United MileagePlus, it might make sense to use those miles as well, since they only charge 65,000 miles between Singapore and Auckland.
Here’s the tough part: there seems to only be one available seat on each flight throughout the January–March period. If you’re travelling as a duo, there’s enough pairs of adjacent dates with availability that might allow you to travel on neighbouring dates.
Hopes of enjoying the “double bed in the sky” via this deal might therefore be dashed, although you can always enjoy it on your own if the seat next to you is vacant 😉
The best way to search for availability on these flights is through ExpertFlyer (remember, you can get a five-day free trial), which accurately captures real-time availability. Using the Aeroplan and United search engines runs the risk of encountering phantom availability –indeed, after I booked a Suites flight on a certain date, I was still able to see that flight in the Aeroplan search engine, even though it had already been booked up (and ExpertFlyer confirmed it).
What Did I Book?
A Prince of Travel reader, Brian, notified me about these open award seats around 5pm today. I had been out and about, and my phone died shortly thereafter, so I spent the entire journey home mulling over the possibilities.
That’s when I remembered that I was scheduled to be in Perth, Australia in late January as part of my crazy round-the-world trip! Normally I’d question whether it was worth it to plan a trip solely for the sake of a deal like this, but since I was already going to be in the area, I simply could not let this opportunity pass me by.
So as soon as I got home, I began to figure out if I could nest a Singapore Suites flight in-between my crazy round-the-world flights.
It turns out the availability wasn’t there for my desired dates, but rather there was space on Auckland–Singapore a few days after my original departure from Perth. I figured I could easily make a change to my round-the-world trip in order to put an open-jaw between Perth and Singapore (rather than simply having Perth as my destination).
I could then “fill the gap” by combining a Perth–Auckland redemption in Air New Zealand economy class with the Auckland–Singapore Suites flight.
The mantra with these types of deals is always to book first and then ask questions later, so once I figured out in my head that such a plan was indeed workable, I immediately set out to book the Suites flight. Indeed, all went smoothly, and I could not be more excited to step onboard the Singapore Airlines A380 next February.
As an extra bonus, I now get to spend a few days in Auckland as part of my trip, and most importantly, I’ll still arrive in Beijing in time for dinner on the eve of Chinese New Year!
Conclusion
Remember, this award space likely won’t last, so if you’ve been thinking about a trip to Oceania and wanted to splurge for First Class, this could be a golden opportunity. It might be worthwhile to simply book the Suites leg and then make changes later to perfect the itinerary – in fact, the mere possibility of flying in Singapore Suites ought to outweigh the relatively paltry cancellation fee if things don’t work out. Hopefully, this helps some of you guys jump on this opportunity and attain one of the most luxurious First Class experiences out there.
