Singapore becomes an all-Qsuite route for Qatar Airways in March 2019

Earlier this month Qatar Airways started flying the Airbus A350-1000 on one of its three times daily services between Singapore and Doha. It was the first time the route was regularly operated with the latest Qsuite Business Class cabin.

A second daily flight on this route began featuring the Qsuites last weekend, and it has now been revealed that all three Qatar flights from Changi will be served by the A350-1000 with this new cabin product from 31st March 2019.

The schedule

Currently two of the three daily Qatar Airways flights between Singapore and Doha use the Airbus A350-1000 with the new Qsuite cabin.

Originally the second daily Qsuite option was supposed to commence from Saturday this week (1st December), however Qatar brought that forward and started flying the A350-1000 on the QR946/947 flight last weekend, meaning we already have two such services per day.

The following tables show the flight schedules, with Qsuite-equipped aircraft highlighted in maroon colour. Note that from the northern summer season after 31st March 2019 some minor timing changes also occur on these flights.

Singapore to Doha

Current Schedule

* Next day

From 31st March 2019

* Next day

Doha to Singapore

Current Schedule

* Next day

From 31st March 2019

* Next day

Review

We boarded a Qatar Airbus A350-1000 in September on a flight from Frankfurt to Doha, a couple of months before it debuted on the Singapore route, to check out the Qsuite experience for ourselves.

Click here to read our full review of the Qsuite

The service and the food weren’t perfect, but the seat steals the show here and we would definitely recommend trying to secure a Qsuite-equipped aircraft if you’re lucky enough to fly Qatar Business Class to or from Singapore in the coming months.

Award redemptions

We certainly hope one additional perk to arise from three of these large Airbus A350-1000 plying this route each day from March next year is that award availability in Business Class should be decent.

138 Qsuites will be flying this route each day in each direction (compared to 108 of Qatar’s regular A350-900 Business Class seats per day before the A350-1000s joined the route). Let’s hope improved award space is indeed one of the consequences.

The following table shows how many miles or points you’ll need to redeem a Qsuite between Singapore and Doha with a variety of frequent flyer programs.

Qatar Qsuites redemption Singapore-Doha
FFP used	Business
	67,500
	50,000
	60,000
	65,000
	40,000

Remember that Qatar generally releases more award seats for connecting itineraries than for individual sectors (so called ‘married segment’ awards).

For example you may easily find a number of award seats from Singapore to Frankfurt on a particular pair of flights, but find there are no award seats on the same first flight on that itinerary – i.e. just between Singapore and Doha.

It’s how several hub-and-spoke carriers manage their inventory for both revenue and award tickets. The key here is don’t check Singapore to Doha in isolation, find no award seats available, then give up. You might well find a redemption on a connecting itinerary.

If you’re continuing your journey from Doha on an award ticket some frequent flyer schemes, like British Airways Avios, will charge you for another sector from their distance-based zone chart, while others like American AAdvantage will apply the respective zone-to-zone rate for a combined itinerary. That can change the number of miles required substantially.

For example under Avios you’ll pay an extra 60,000 points to reach London from Doha (total 120,000 SIN-DOH-LHR). With AAdvantage you’ll just pay a total of 75,000 points – the ‘Asia 2’ to ‘Europe’ rate on their oneworld redemption chart.

Summary

It’s just the QR942/943 flight pairing to avoid now between Singapore and Doha to ensure you’ll get the excellent new Qsuite product on this route with Qatar Airways.

From 31st March 2019 all three daily flights are rostered with the new seats, making Singapore an exclusive Qsuite route for the airline (joining at least four others – Frankfurt, Washington, Canberra (via Sydney) and Shanghai).

Many flights from Doha to other destinations in Europe and the USA, like London and New York, also feature flights with the Qsuite, so you have even more opportunity for a complete Qsuite experience from start to finish with this new schedule.

Don’t forget, award availability to and from Doha is irrelevant unless that’s your final destination. Qatar’s award space works on a married segment basis, so if you intend to redeem further on the Qatar network from Doha, more award inventory is usually available.

Check as many routings as you think might suit you, and a redemption ticket may well appear for the whole itinerary.

(Cover Photo: MainlyMiles)