KrisFlyer News Singapore Airlines

More Bali flights get the Singapore Airlines ‘Dreamliner’ from May

If you want to fly from Singapore to Bali in style, SIA's newest Regional Business Class is the way to do it. From May, there will be twice as many options.

Seat 11A

Following the announcement earlier today that Seoul would become an all flat-bed Business Class route for Singapore Airlines from 1st May this year, it’s also been revealed that additional Bali flights will receive the ‘Dreamliner’ treatment from the same date.

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Two of SIA’s Bali flights will be flown using the Boeing 787 from May 2019

This extra flight, on top of the morning service which has already been operating with the 787 since July 2018, will provide an evening option from Singapore to Bali and a late night return to Singapore, with the new 2018 Regional Business Class seats.

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Schedule

Until 30th April 2019
Flight From / To Aircraft Seats
SQ938 SIN0820 – DPS1100 333 2009 RJ
SQ942 SIN0915 – DPS1155 787 2018 RJ
SQ946 SIN1610 – DPS1905 333 2009 RJ
SQ948 SIN1820 – DPS2050 333 2009 RJ
SQ939 DPS1155 – SIN1435 333 2009 RJ
SQ943 DPS1305 – SIN1550 787 2018 RJ
SQ947 DPS2000 – SIN2240 333 2009 RJ
SQ949 DPS2145 – SIN0020* 333 2009 RJ

* Next day

From 1st May 2019 the SQ946/947 swaps to the Boeing 787-10, for a second daily flight with the 2018 Regional Business Class seats as highlighted below.

From 1st May 2019
Flight From / To Aircraft Days
SQ938 SIN0820 – DPS1100 333 2009 RJ
SQ942 SIN0915 – DPS1155 787 2018 RJ
SQ946 SIN1610 – DPS1905 787 2018 RJ
SQ948 SIN1820 – DPS2050 333 2009 RJ
SQ939 DPS1155 – SIN1435 333 2009 RJ
SQ943 DPS1305 – SIN1550 787 2018 RJ
SQ947 DPS2000 – SIN2240 787 2018 RJ
SQ949 DPS2145 – SIN0020* 333 2009 RJ

* Next day

That means you can really maximise your stay at both ends of a Bali trip without sacrificing the Business Class experience at one end of the journey, or head down to Bali in maximum comfort after squeezing in most of a workday in Singapore.

If the 2018 RJ seat is new to you, see our full review of the product for more details.

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A 337-seat Boeing 787-10 will be used to replace an older A330 on an evening Bali flight from May 2019. (Photo: Singapore Airlines)

This aircraft upgrade will also provide six more Business Class seats and 46 more Economy Class seats per day on the Singapore – Bali route, so let’s hope this boosts award availability and, who knows, even encourages Singapore Airlines to get Bali back on the Spontaneous Escapes list for May (announced in mid-April).

It’s a great value route to try the 2018 RJ seat with 30% off, but has been missing from Spontaneous Escapes offers since the December 2018 list.

Redemption rates

Here are the KrisFlyer redemption rates you’ll pay by cabin on this route.

KF Logo trans

KrisFlyer Redemption Singapore – Bali
Saver Advantage
Economy 7,500 15,000
Business 19,000 35,000

As we mentioned in our article earlier today about changes to the Seoul route in May, Singapore Airlines tends to remove access to award availability in its latest Business Class products from Star Alliance and partner frequent flyer schemes.

For the morning Bali Boeing 787-10 service (SQ942/943), this has already long been the case, however as with the new Seoul flights it does not yet apply to this new 787-10 service (the SQ946/947). These flights are still widely available for booking through other partner schemes such as Lifemiles.

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You can’t use Lifemiles to redeem the early Boeing 787 flight to Bali in Business Class, but it takes them time to catch up with the system rules and this new 787 service can still be redeemed through partner programs.

The award rate through Lifemiles is terrible at 30,000 miles one-way, but it does differ from program to program (e.g. Miles & More is 27,500) and if you have miles you just want to get rid of there are probably worse ways to do it.

It’s also less than SIA’s Business Advantage rate on this route, and while it’s rare for there to be Star Awards available on a Singapore Airlines flight with no KrisFlyer Saver awards showing, these are different redemption ‘buckets’ and it does happen occasionally.

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Other 2018 RJ routes

We’ve fully updated our 2018 RJ Tracker page today to reflect these additional Bali and Seoul flights. There you can see all the routes Singapore Airlines is flying these new seats on, or starting to fly them on in the near future.

Overview 2.jpg
Middle pairs on Singapore Airlines’ 2018 RJ product alternate between ‘couple’ and ‘divorce’ seats. A large privacy divider removes any awkwardness. See our special review of the middle pairs. (Photo: MainlyMiles)

Interestingly with this latest batch of 787-10s SIA seems to be concentrating on increasing 2018 RJ presence on existing routes (which already have at least one flight per day with the product), rather than expanding it to new destinations.

If that trend continues we could see other cities like Taipei and Manila, which have a mix of 2009 RJ and 2018 RJ services, get more of the newer seats in the coming months.

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Bangkok increases

In other news, one of the daily Singapore – Bangkok services also sees a 787 replacing an A330 flight from 1st May 2019 (SQ970/973). That means Bangkok will then see three out of six daily flights featuring the 2018 RJ product from that date.

It’s also included in our 2018 RJ Tracker. Thanks to KS in the comments section for spotting it.

Summary

SIA’s 2018 Regional Business Class on the 787-10 is probably the best way to get to or from Bali at the moment (though the KLM option we reviewed recently is worth a look).

This additional evening flight from Singapore, returning the same night, effectively doubles your options for experiencing this fantastic new seat on a decent length flight.

One major benefit of the SQ947 service back to Singapore is that it gives you the whole last day of your trip in Bali, but still returns you to Changi at a reasonable 10.40pm so you can rest in time for work the next day. This is one we’ll certainly be taking advantage of soon ourselves.

Fingers crossed we see the Bali route including these 787 flights on Spontaneous Escapes again soon.

(Cover Photo: MainlyMiles)

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4 comments

  1. Considering all of these new flights with the 787-10 – two questions come to mind:

    1) Where will the 2 A350’s sitting in TLS & XFW go when they are delivered (guessing that will occur soon)
    2) How many A330’s does SIA need to fly this schedule? Might we see a bunch of retirements/return to lessor in April/May

    Thanks for all your insight

    1. Hi Emily,

      1) Assume you’re referring to -SHE and -SHF in TLS and XFW respectively? These aircraft won’t deliver until April and May in turn. The March delivery (SHD) is already committed to an extra BNE flight (SQ255/236 from Sunday this week). The April delivery (SHE) is already committed to support 10x weekly Bengaluru flights with the A350R from mid-May. For -SHF, we don’t know yet! Probably something from June. Keep an eye on our 2018 RJ tracker page for the latest. It’s updated almost daily lately!

      2) Our understanding is that the remaining A330s (17 operating) will be progressively returned to their respective leasing companies between now and approximately September 2020, at an average rate of around 1 per month. There should be no A330s in the fleet by late 2020, meaning the vast majority of A350(R) and 787-10 deliveries over the next 18 months will be set to replace these models (and the odd 777 here and there).

      SIA retains the flexibility to extend A330 leases or postpone 777 (owned) retirements as required, and this may come into play with recent SilkAir 737 MAX issues and, according to our source, all is not well with the 787-10 engines which could lead to some shuffling in that fleet.

      Hope it helps.

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