2017 was an important year for Mainly Miles, not least as we launched our blog during October, after many months of deliberation as to whether anyone would be interested in what we had to say. Turns out, quite a few of you are. We’ve had some great positive feedback, and some all-important constructive criticism too.
We’ve only been around for about three months, but what a busy three months it’s been! We’ve already talked about some key topics for Singapore Airlines, like:
- Our predictions for the SIA 787-10, forthcoming ‘king of the regional fleet’
- How we think SIA’s 777-9 order means the inevitable death of their A380s by the end of the next decade (with recent news suggesting an announcement that the curtain may be drawn on production of the superjumbo could come sooner rather than later)
- The devaluation of the KrisFlyer Star Alliance award table, and SIA’s botched attempt to bring Star Awards online through the KrisFlyer portal (which still isn’t working right)
- How we think the SilkAir brand isn’t long for this world, starting as early as next year, if our sources prove accurate.
But most importantly and excitingly for us…
Our highlight of the year
The big highlight for us in 2017 was being invited to the launch of the new Singapore Airlines A380 cabin products in November, where the new suites and business class seats for this aircraft stole the show. It proved to be a busy and exciting day as we blogged news, photos and videos, live from the event.
Time flies, literally, and those new products we learned about just a couple of months ago entered service on the latest A380 earlier this month.
Singapore to Sydney is now up and running with the new product on a daily basis, and our spies in SIA have promised we should look out for 3-weekly to London Heathrow from 2nd February, becoming daily in April, followed by the same pattern for Zurich flights from July and August respectively.
We haven’t had chance to get on board one of the new A380 flights yet, but we look forward to trying out the new business seats, and possibly even the suites cabin, sometime in 2018.
What’s coming up?
Speaking of 2018, it should be a busy year for us with a number of exciting developments and trips to look forward to:
Singapore Airlines
- We’re flying four sectors on the Singapore Airlines A350 business class in January, and will provide a full review including the SilverKris lounges at both Changi T2 and T3.
- We’ll also be on board the new SilkAir 737 MAX 8 business class, with its upgraded seats featuring extra legroom, and will be sure to share our thoughts.
- Singapore’s new ‘regional business’ class seat will be revealed at a launch event in Q1.
- The first Boeing 787-10 will be delivered to Singapore Airlines, the launch customer for the type, in Q2. This will be equipped with the new ‘regional business’ seats and we’ll be on board as soon as possible to review the product and test the long-awaited onboard Wi-Fi for the regional fleet.
- The first A350-900ULR will be delivered, and we expect it to enter service between Singapore and Los Angeles in Sep/Oct 2018, with a 2-class configuration (64 business, 94 premium economy, is the rumoured layout). Later ULRs to arrive in 2018 will reconnect Singapore with New York non-stop and some may be used to replace the current A350-900 operating to San Francisco (which currently has payload restrictions on the westbound flight).
- A possible fourth non-stop destination in North America may be announced on the A350-900ULR (Seattle, Chicago or Vancouver appear to be in the running, if rumours are to be believed).
- Four additional new A380s will arrive during 2018, replacing older aircraft returning off-lease, with the new cabin products installed, and we’ll be keeping you up to date on which routes you can find them on (cough, LHR and ZRH, cough).
- The A380 refit program for the older birds will get underway later in the year, and one or two of these aircraft could potentially be in service with the new cabin products installed by the end of 2018.
Star Alliance
- Two more Star Alliance redemption routes linking Singapore and Europe will kick off in Q2; a Lufthansa A350 flight to Munich and a LOT Polish 787 service to Warsaw.
Oneworld
- We plan to try out the new Malaysia Airlines A350 first class seats.
- Our Europe and USA trip in July should see us reviewing Cathay Pacific first class on the 777-300ER, the Cathay lounges in Hong Kong, BA’s ‘Concorde Room’ at London Heathrow and their first class product across the Atlantic, jetBlue’s US transcontinental ‘mint’ business class flat-bed product, rounded off back in Star Alliance territory with a non-stop Singapore Airlines A350 flight from San Francisco to Singapore in business class. Not to mention the many hotels and other airport lounges in between. We’ll need another holiday after writing all those reviews!
Hotels
We’ll be heading over to The Residence Bintan for their opening weekend in February, to check out their 1-bed beachfront villas with private pool. They already run some really well rated hotels in places like Mauritius and the Maldives, so we’re excited about the prospect of having such a high-end resort so close to home.
We also plan to check out the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong, Andaz Singapore and Montigo Resorts Batam, no doubt among many others.
Much of that is just the first half of the year! All will of course be interspersed with our usual collection of relevant industry news, other lounge, hotel and flight reviews, helping you choose better and travel smarter in 2018.
Thanks again for your continued support, and remember to stay tuned to the blog and our facebook page for the latest updates.
Here’s to many more miles in 2018. Happy New Year!