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

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.

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.

Schedule

Until 30th April 2019

* 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

* 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)