One of the best ways to access a decent supply of KrisFlyer awards on Singapore Airlines flights is to book well in advance, and there’s often no better time to do so than as soon as the space is loaded, just under a year ahead of departure.

That happens at ‘T-355 days’, or 355 days before the departure date for each flight, but the exact timing isn’t quite as simple as you might think.

When does Singapore Airlines load fresh award space each day?

As most of our regular readers will know, this happens each day at 8am Singapore Time… right?

Well, yes in most cases that’s true – both revenue and award space on SIA flights is added at 00:00 GMT (which is 08:00 SGT) each day, 355 days in advance.

There are some exceptions though, as I discovered in 2022 when locking in two Business Class Saver awards for a USA trip.

Redeeming from Singapore to San Francisco was no issue – 2 Saver awards appeared as usual at 8am Singapore Time on both of the airline’s daily flights on this route, and I locked a pair in for the evening SQ34 departure.

Doing so for the way back is what became a confusing matter.

It was then I realised there’s an exception to the 8am SGT rule – and it applies only to flights departing from five US cities – New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco.

At 8am Singapore Time it is still only mid-afternoon the previous calendar day in the USA, so if SIA loaded award space for those departures at that time it would effectively mean doing so 356 days in advance, which for whatever reason they don’t want to do.

Instead for these locations SIA loads up fresh revenue and award space at 00:00h (midnight) local time at the departure city, 355 days prior to the scheduled flight departure date.

Here’s how that looks.

KrisFlyer ‘fresh’ award space timings
(355 days before departure)

Departing from:
Singapore and non-US cities	New York (EWR/JFK)	US West Coast (LAX/SEA/SFO)
8am SGT (00:00 GMT)	1pm SGT (00:00 EST)	4pm SGT (00:00 PST)

Departing from:	Seats loaded:
Singapore and non-US cities	8am SGT (00:00 GMT)
New York (EWR/JFK)	1pm SGT (00:00 EST)
US West Coast (LAX/SEA/SFO)	4pm SGT (00:00 PST)

Previously there was also a separate time to check for fresh award redemptions on SIA’s flights from Houston to Manchester and Houston to Singapore via Manchester, however this route is ceasing with the last departure on 30th March 2025.

As a result, booking award seats for this route 355 days in advance is no longer an option.

If you’re not too adept at deducting 355 days from a particular date to determine when the new award space will come online for your desired flight, especially when there’s a leap year in play, don’t worry – we’ve got a handy calculator below for you to use.

f calculating 355 days from a specific date to find when new award space becomes available for your desired flight feels tricky – especially with a leap year occasionally in the mix – don’t worry. We’ve provided a handy calculator below to simplify the process.

For example, if your desired flight is departing out of Los Angeles on 14th January 2026, you’ll need to be online to book on 24th January 2025 at 4pm (16:00) Singapore Time to get access to the first release of both revenue and award seats.

Finally for our international readers, here is the current date and time in Singapore for reference.

🇸🇬 Singapore Date and Time

Is award space guaranteed at T-355?

Unlike some frequent flyer programmes, KrisFlyer doesn’t guarantee any award space at the T-355 days mark, and certainly for First Class, Suites and even popular holiday periods in Business Class you may see only Advantage space initially loaded.

That said, the T-355 window is often perfect timing for snagging a pair of Saver Business Class awards even on some of the carrier’s most popular long-haul flights like Singapore to London or non-stop services to the USA.

Even the popular Singapore – London route often has upwards of 15 immediately confirmable Saver Business Class awards on a single day when you book 355 days in advance, based on our recent searches, though this does vary based on the season.

Closer to home it’s typically even more generous – for example you can snag 6 Saver Business Class awards on each of 5 Singapore – Bali flight 355 days from now, plus 4 Saver Business awards on the smaller 737 MAX flight, so effectively at least 34 people can lock in this routing using miles at the lowest rate in that cabin on the same day.

We’ve used this strategy in the past, even as basic KrisFlyer members, to redeem a pair of Singapore Airlines Saver Business Class awards to Cape Town and back, and to the UK and back, so it’s worth considering if you can make reasonably certain travel plans almost a year in advance.

Good strategy for expiring miles

Booking almost a year in advance is potentially a great strategy if you have expiring miles, an issue which sadly began to rear its ugly head again from July 2023. That’s because you can use expiring miles to book future flights, even if they would have long expired by the time you actually step on board.

As you can see from our recent analysis of what to do with expiring miles, a flight redemption is almost always the best value way to ‘cash out’, especially in premium cabins, so do consider whether you can plan a trip 355 days in advance and try to lock in a redemption as soon as it becomes available.

Award space is added progressively

Grabbing award space on Singapore Airlines flights a year in advance is a great tactic, because most of the time the airline will offer a decent initial selection of redemption seats at this stage.

However, one of the most common misconceptions we hear about KrisFlyer award space on Singapore Airlines flights is the old adage “once it’s gone, it’s gone”.

This simply isn’t true.

For example, while there’s certainly no guarantee that once there are no more Saver Business Class awards on your desired flight that Singapore Airlines will load more closer to the departure time, the airline does actually load more in many cases.

Award space is dynamic and progressively loaded based on a number of factors that include booked cabin loads, number of days to departure and predicted occupancy / revenue management.

For the flight to San Francisco on which I recently booked two Saver Business Class seats at T-355 days, my booking had the effect of switching the next available redemption in this cabin only to the more expensive Advantage rate (not even waitlist for Saver).

However, one immediately confirmable Saver Business award seat was then been loaded on the same service just a few days later – so there is simply no such thing as “all the saver award seats are gone”.

Keep checking is always our advice here – award space comes and goes.

Remember there is also a necessary element of randomness with KrisFlyer award space, so that predictable patterns of redemption availability don’t emerge, which is why you’ll sometimes see no award space offered, even on flights with almost empty cabins.

How late can you book?

Since we’re discussing how early award bookings become available on Singapore Airlines, for the sake of completeness we should also mention how late you can book too.

Commercial seats and KrisFlyer award seats may be available until your flight is closed for commercial sale. That happens 2 hours prior to the scheduled departure time.

You may think there will be no award space at that late stage, but there sometimes still is. At the time of writing, for example, I can book six Saver Business Class awards on SQ438 to Male in the Maldives, leaving less than three hours from now!

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One effective way to circumvent limited KrisFlyer award availability is to secure redemptions as soon as they’re released. Singapore Airlines often provides generous initial award space at the T-355 days mark, making this strategy ideal for those able to plan their travels well in advance.

8am Singapore Time (00:00 GMT) has always been the golden rule, and while that remains true for most cities there’s actually a slight nuance in that flights departing from the USA get progressively loaded through the afternoon (Singapore Time).

Even if your strategy is not successful, or you missed the first release of award seats, do keep checking for space as the airline often adds more as the departure date approaches.

(Cover Photo: MainlyMiles)

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