Searching for a Y fare LHR-SGN-LHR for next March.

Any searches I do on SG website inform me that there are no special fares found and that an unrestricted fare at GBP4,135 (Seems a bit steep )

Searches through travel agents reveal a fare of around �658 inc Tax - which is pretty much in line with what SG charge through their website for flights in Sept/October (GBP585+tax). Do SG hold back on special fares for the first x months and would I get a different answer if I called SG direct.

Phil (Buffy)

 

I have had similar experiences with SQ17/18 YVR-SIN-YVR. On the carrier's site, it seems that no discounted coach fares are ever available for this route, only a full fare Y can be quoted which turns out to be an astronomical CDN $4,000 +. However when I contact the local TA's, they are able to discount such fares to only CDN $1,400. I'm assuming in my case, it's because these flights operate only 3x/weekly due to agreements/restrictions by the Canadian govt; therefore, they're always chock a block resulting in the discounted coach fare to be sold out quickly.

In your case; however, I'm assuming that you are booking flights that are way too far in advance. Legaly you may book them in advance, but since the date of departure is still months ahead from current time, SQ has not circulated the special fares yet for their site. I would suggest you check back in Nov or Dec when the specials may be released. Or if you are rather inpatient, then you may book them now through your indicated TA.

 

Actually, I have found that the SQ website seems to have problems. I tried looking at fares from SIN to DPS and could find very limited or no availability. However, if I checked on the same dates BKK to DPS (Via SIN of course) I found that a number of flights from SIN to DPS were in fact available. I just could not book them if I requested availability from just SIN to DPS. However, when I called SQ reservations they had no problem getting the flights I wanted (SIN-DPS).

As a side note I considered booking through Travelocity but the same flights/dates/class of service were consistently $200 more than what SQ actually sells for.

 

A tip for getting flights you want on SQ website.

Select multi-city and enter preferred time of day (morning/afternoon/evening) for each leg.

Amazing how many more options this brings up than the default (no time selected).

 

Thanks Kiwi, I'll try that next time. I did try putting in times on the regular (single city pair) form but it did not help. Yet when I input BKK/DPS without a time it gave me many options. Weird.

 

Well it is possible there's only availability for connecting pax and not those originating in SIN. Which is why sometimes get odd results - eg AKL-HKG via SIN cheaper than AKL-SIN alone.

 

I understand the price issues with different cities. I dont understand why the website would show availability for pax connecting from BKK and no availability for pax originating in SIN. That does not make any sence to me. In the end SQ reservations department in the US had no trouble booking the flights.

 

They're connected.

Say a particular flight SIN-DPS is the best connecting for pax arriving from BKK, Oz, Europe, whatever? Then yield management (not sure what name SQ uses) may decide to hold open x seats to sell to connecting pax, as the other flights SIN-DPS have really horrid connections and possibly require SQ to put the pax in hotel overnight. Pax originating at SIN could go on any flight (in theory) without any added expense for SQ.

 

Okay, maybe that makes some sence except that the flights were available on Travelocity (albeit at a higher fare). Ah.....maybe that is to compensate SQ for the lost revenue from BKK connecting pax?

 

I have found the same thing very odd. I ended up flying TG to BKK in Business Class (domestic) for only US$80 and then BKK-SIN-DPS-SIN on SQ for US$350 in Y-class.

 

I hope I'm seeing the wrong figure when you quoted $80 USD. $80 USD at most gets me a rt. ticket on Southwest for BUR-LAS. I don't recall any international coach tickets costing that cheap, let alone a Business one.

 

I flew Thai Airways in Business Class from VTSP (Phuket) to BKK in a A333 and paid $80 for the ticket. Gave me access to the lounge and priority luggage.

I travelled overland from Singapore thru Malaysia to Thailand and saw Tioman Islands, Kuala Lumpur, Perhentian Islands and stayed two nights in Hat Yai in southern Thailand also.

 

Wow! You must have gotten an extremely discounted biz fare for that. ^

 

I agree that the website sometimes comes up with ridiculously high fares for some routes/times. As a rule when it's working right it is generally supposed to be slightly cheaper than SQ reservations, as when I call SQ for a flight they tell me it 'should' be about 75 GBP cheaper on singaporeair.co.uk.

However as someone who is a pain for changing flights around I find the flexibility of holding a booking with SQ reservations worth the 75 GBP extra.

 

My experiences back up rejunivated's comment that special fares come out closer to the departure date. Except for Christmas season, I wouldn't search more than six months before departure.

Another 'trick' that has worked for me when I had difficulty finding restricted fares was to search travelocity, and when I found a low fare, use those specific times in the SQ booking engine. For my last trip, this method located the �400ish mileage-earning fare that seemed to have disappeared.