Singapore Airlines

[ethanegcc]

One possible explanation for the healthy state of bookings around that time Ethan could be the start of the Ashes in Australia in late November / early December? Usually a good few thousand will be travelling out for that.

That's true, but looking at tomorrow's seat map (above) it looks pretty healthy!

 

[Dobbo]

I have booked three itineraries from MAN to Australia / New Zealand over the last couple of days. There is a family wedding coming up in Sydney, and relatives delegate me to organise all the flight arrangements for them! One of these involves SIA [MAN-SIN-SYD ; PER-SIN-MAN]. What surprised me was how heavily booked those two MAN sectors already are ... the SIN-MAN service in particular (early Dec) had very few Y seats left to choose from, and no window-seats unoccupied at all. The MAN-SIN had slightly more availability but the booked numbers are again very impressive for this far ahead (Nov).

Meanwhile, touching on discussions in another thread, another itinerary required inclusion of CHC (Christchurch NZ) and PER as well as SYD for tagged-on visits to other friends. Only EMIRATES could accommodate this itinerary on one inclusive fare, the Australian domestic connections with (codeshare partner) QANTAS and the UAE CHC-SYD sector clinching this. No other in-house airline booking system could offer a solution.

Out of interest, the Emirates itinerary MAN-DXB-BKK-SYD-CHC-SYD-PER-DXB-MAN came in at £1094. Pretty good I thought. The four SIA sectors above came to £813.64. Further flights supporting this itinerary were booked on a standalone basis and paid separately. Around a month ago I also organised a Cathay Pacific itinerary to include HKG stopovers [MAN-HKG-SYD-HKG-MAN] for two other family members. I forget the exact figure but this came in at around £690 each. Obviously, there was some advantage in being able to make this booking earlier due to their holiday dates having already been confirmed.

There are some good deals out there ... well worth a look. But if New Zealand is part of a combined journey including Australia, Emirates are out on their own.

One other thought reference that article linked in another thread [QANTAS working towards LHR-SYD non-stop flights]. I don't care what range-extending technology they come up with. They can keep them. And if in some alternate reality they were to offer MAN-SYD non-stop they can keep that too. I just wouldn't contemplate booking such a long flight for myself ever and I would never recommend it to family or friends ... not ever. And QANTAS believe they'll be able to charge a premium for this? They'd have to pay me to go on it and I'd have to be dragged on kicking and screaming even then. Why do they suppose that large volumes of pax desire to ignore and overfly all the wonderful en route stopover options and instead put themselves through 24 hours of unrelenting claustrophobic DVT-inducing torture? If they're banking on us all choosing to book that they could be in for a big shock. It is reminiscent of the mobile phone manufacturers who made phones smaller and smaller simply because technology advances allowed them to keep doing that ... eventually customers with a bit of common sense started saying: "Hang on! We want a bigger screen and a handset which is comfortable to hold!"

Re New Zealand trips: SQ outbound is fine with a good connection to AKL. You arrive late (NZ time) and if you want to arrive at CHC (which I recommend) you are in for a long wait and EK is best. If SQ had a night departure (9pm is MAN time) you would hit the bank of morning arrivals into Aus and NZ.

Promising for SQ. I wonder whether the MAN-IAH sector is holding back MAN-SIN (albeit includes SIN-IAH traffic).

 

[Dobbo]

P.s. Be interesting to see the next tranche of CAA stats.

 

[Land23R]

Looking at the seatmap for tomorrow's SIN flight: no economy tickets are available, only premium economy of which the cabin has just three seats available. In Business class, two out of 44 seats available.

Ethan, how far into the booking process did you go before accessing the seat map? With the US carriers, you can go into 'seats' as soon as it comes up with flights for a particular route and date. (as long as it's operated by their own a/c and not a code share e.g. MAN-ATL when it's a Virgin a/c).

 

[ethanegcc]

Ethan, how far into the booking process did you go before accessing the seat map? With the US carriers, you can go into 'seats' as soon as it comes up with flights for a particular route and date. (as long as it's operated by their own a/c and not a code share e.g. MAN-ATL when it's a Virgin a/c).

You have to put your name and email address in and then onto the next step

 

[groobs]

Do a dummy booking on the US version of Expedia and they allow you to see seatmaps

 

[User001]

Today's SQ52 was canx at MAN so have an A350 staying overnight.

 

[Dobbo]

Any reason for the cancellation? Tech?

 

[User001]

Tech, looks like an engine issue.

 

[Dobbo]

They'll be some interesting rebooking of PAX no doubt...

... and the possibility of three on the ground tomorrow...

 

[ethanegcc]

Interesting SilkAir route map, for May 2017:

 

[ethanegcc]

View attachment 5025
Manchester becoming terminator service? Houston being routed via FRA and JFK via DME? A big shake up- a vote of no confidence in the UK-US transatlantic market?

3/4 weekly A350 terminator?

Worth noting that this route map is correct in showing the new BCN A350 terminator service, after being decoupled from MXP (announced other day)

 

[Jerry]

Manchester becoming terminator service? Houston being routed via FRA and JFK via DME? A big shake up- a vote of no confidence in the UK-US transatlantic market?

Probably more of an indicator of the MAN-HOU traffic than the whole transatlantic market from the UK. FRA is a Star Alliance hub so would offer more connection options for their HOU flights.

 

[ethanegcc]

Probably more of an indicator of the MAN-HOU traffic than the whole transatlantic market from the UK. FRA is a Star Alliance hub so would offer more connection options for their HOU flights.

I fear that TATL from the UK may just get worse, with the laptop ban being rumoured to be rolled out to UK passengers travelling to the US. I am not confident about the future at all

 

[Dobbo]

I think its just an error - it has been pointed out there are two lines to MAN which makes no sense.

 

[Land23R]

MAN-IAH still showing flights in November 5 x weekly on the SQ web site

 

[ethanegcc]

MAN-IAH still showing flights in November 5 x weekly on the SQ web site

Hmm we will have to wait and see on this one. Weird how there's two lines from MAN, there is currently no TATL route from DME, and the FRA transit is to JFK! And the new ARN tag on from Moscow isn't shown

 

[Jerry]

I fear that TATL from the UK may just get worse, with the laptop ban being rumoured to be rolled out to UK passengers travelling to the US. I am not confident about the future at all

Yeah i heard that rumour but people will adapt and the airlines will adapt. You can still take your phone with you and they are practically computers and airlines may adapt with their business class product and supply or integrate laptops into the seats themselves. Plus i can't see it just being the UK if it happens it'll probably be European wide or more than likely the US3 will lodge an appeal in the courts and get it overturned!

 

[Dobbo]

Seems like SQ are having some tech issues with the A359, which is impacting the route through MAN.

 

[Dobbo]

FlyBe code now being offered to Exeter and Edinburgh via MAN. Frankly, I thought this was already in operation!

http://www.routesonline.com/news/38...rlines-flybe-expands-codeshare-routes-in-s17/