Revealed: What time SIA’s A380 Restaurant tickets go live, and which credit card to use

With overseas travel still off the cards after the best part of 7 months for most of our readers in Singapore, one of the most anticipated upcoming events without a doubt is SIA’s new “Restaurant A380 @Changi” concept, running over two days in late October.

This promises to be a memorable occasion for those lucky enough to secure a ticket, with time to enjoy lunch on board one of the carrier’s ‘Version 3’ Airbus A380s, sporting the newest cabin products and decked out with the latest entertainment systems from nose-to-tail.

The experience will also include a showcase of SIA’s cabin crew uniforms through the years, KrisShop discounts and a limited edition goodie bag. There will even be an exclusive pre-lunch tour of the airline’s flagship superjumbo, for a lucky few.

How much?

Pricing for the “Restaurant A380 @Changi” tickets was revealed earlier this week, starting at just S$50 + GST in Economy Class and S$90 + GST in Premium Economy Class, but quickly rising if you prefer a seat in the airline’s renowned Business or Suites Class.

Dining seat	Price	KrisFlyer Miles
Economy (incl. GST)	S$50 (S$53.50)	6,250 (6,687)
Premium Economy (incl. GST)	S$90 (S$96.30)	11,250 (12,037)
Business (incl. GST)	S$300 (S$321.00)	37,500 (40,125)
Suites (incl. GST)	S$600 (S$642.00)	75,000 (80,250)

Note that KrisFlyer miles can be used at KrisShop to offset the cash cost (including GST) at a fixed rate of 0.8 cents per mile. You can choose to pay none, part, or all of the GST-inclusive cost of any KrisShop purchase with KrisFlyer miles.

For example, a dining experience in Business Class will set you back 40,125 KrisFlyer miles if you don’t want to part with any cash.

  When will it go on sale?

Singapore Airlines announced that sales for the “Restaurant A380 @Changi” experience will go on sale on 12th October 2020, however with strong interest in the event it’s important for you to know exactly when that will happen.

The airline confirmed to Mainly Miles that it will be opened for bookings at midnight.

Ticket Sales Start: 12:00am 12th October 2020

The event runs on 24th and 25th October 2020, and we understand there may be more than one “sitting” to choose from each day, to give more people the opportunity to attend.

Similarly, the SIA@Home menu delivery service should become available for ordering at midnight tonight (i.e. 12:00am on Monday 5th October).

  Most people should be using cash

Unless you generate more KrisFlyer miles than you can ever spend, you won’t want to be using your frequent flyer stash to pay for these dining deals because of the poor 0.8 cents per mile value KrisShop gives you as a ‘default rate’ to offset cash purchases.

There’s almost no way it’s worth parting with 75,000 KrisFlyer miles, for example, instead of paying S$600 for the Suites experience. That’s enough miles for a 7-hour First Class or Suites Class flight from Singapore to Japan as a saver award, or for two people to fly from Singapore to Perth in Business Class.

Note: In reality you’ll actually pay 80,250 miles for the Suites Restaurant experience, as shown in the table above, because you’ll have to settle the GST-inclusive total of S$642 with miles (unless you use 75,000 miles and choose to pay the S$42 GST in cash).

  Which credit card to use

You’ll earn 1.5 mpd on net spend at KrisShop.com, transferred into your KrisFlyer account “up to 30 business days” after the transaction.

In reality though, any miles from KrisShop.com transactions take just 24 hours to post to your account, which means this method even makes it on to our list of instant and quick ways to transfer miles into the programme.

What you’ll then be wanting to do, especially if you’re aiming for the more expensive Suites or Business Class dining cabins, is maximise your credit card miles or points earning for the transaction, to earn even more rewards.

KrisShop.com transactions are online purchases processed under MCC 5309: Duty Free Stores.

That means you can tap into some 4 mpd earn rates with a variety of credit cards, subject to their monthly requirements and spending caps.

Here’s an example of cards we know will give you upwards of 4 mpd for KrisShop transactions, the equivalent of earning almost 5.5 mpd in total for the Restaurant A380 @Changi experience (since the KrisShop isn’t paying 1.5 mpd on the GST component, it will never quite hit 5.5 mpd overall).

Card	Mpd	Monthly cap
Citi Rewards	4.0	S$1,000
DBS WWMC	4.0	S$2,000
HSBC Revo	4.0	S$1,000
UOB PPV	4.0	S$1,110
KrisFlyer UOB	3.0	No cap
Amex KF Blue	2.0	No cap
Amex KF Ascend	2.0	No cap

For example if you haven’t used your HSBC Revolution card (see our review) in October and therefore still have your monthly S$1,000 cap available, you can use it to purchase the Business Class dining experience for two of you at S$321 each (S$642 total) and earn miles as follows:

• S$600 (net) x 1.5 mpd = 900 KrisFlyer miles from KrisShop
• S$642 x 4 mpd = 2,568 miles from HSBC
• 3,468 miles total

That’s the equivalent of 5.4 mpd for the transaction, and given that we value KrisFlyer miles at 1.9 cents each (when redeemed sensibly, i.e. not at KrisShop!), you’re getting about S$65 ‘value-back’ from this transaction (around 10%).

It’s also around 1,800 miles more than you’ll earn using a more mundane 1.2 mpd card for general local spend, like the Citi PremierMiles.

Summary

Between the three “Discover Your Singapore Airlines” experiences offered, there’s almost no doubt that the Airbus A380 dining option will be the most popular, and we expect it to sell out fast.

For the very best chance of securing a slot in the cabin class of your choice, it will be vital in our opinion to log on and book as soon as tickets become available, which Singapore Airlines has confirmed to us will be promptly at midnight (12.00am) on Monday 12th October 2020.

That means staying up late next Sunday night (11th October) and attaching yourself to your laptop or phone to purchase as soon as the clock strikes 23:59:59…

We never like to see potential miles go to waste, so if you’re holding one of the cards offering between 2 mpd and 4 mpd for KrisShop.com purchases, have that standing by when you reach the payment stage to maximise your miles earning, especially if you’re focussed on the more expensive Business Class or Suites options.

(Cover Photo: Agent Wolf / Shutterstock)