Singapore Airlines has made an important switch on its Shanghai route for the upcoming winter season, with the carrier’s flagship Airbus A380 retained on a daily basis between late October 2024 and late March 2025, but with a shift to the more sociable daytime departure timings in both directions.

This comes after we noted last month that the airline was not selling any First Class seats at all on its SQ826/827 Shanghai flights, originally planned for the Airbus A380 this winter, leading us to fear that the superjumbo wouldn’t appear on the route at all from late October onwards.

While that flight has indeed been switched to the two-class Boeing 787-10, the great news is that SQ830/833 flights will be operated by the A380 instead, in a continuation of the summer schedule that sees this aircraft rejoin the route from early August.

There are also Saver awards available in both Suites and Business Class, allowing KrisFlyer members to redeem the airline’s flagship cabin products on between Singapore and Shanghai right through to March 2025.

The schedule

A380 services to and from Shanghai in the northern winter 2024 season were originally due to operate on an overnight Singapore – Shanghai flight, with a morning flight in the return direction, the SQ826/827 rotation.

That service has a rather unsociable 1.15am departure from Changi in the outbound direction, landing into Shanghai at 6.30am – probably not the best timing for an A380 Suites experience.

Thankfully, Singapore Airlines has shifted the superjumbo to its former daytime slot for the entirety of the winter season, the same SQ830/833 flight pairing that the aircraft will operate on when it returns to the route from early August.

Here’s how the summer 2024 schedule for Shanghai looks, including A380 services.

Singapore Shanghai
Now – 26th October 2024

All services operate daily

			Aircraft	Dates
	SQ826		359 MH A350 MH	Now – 31 Aug
SIN 01:15		PVG 06:35	787 787-10	1 Sep – 26 Oct
	SQ828		359 LH A350 LH	All
SIN 07:55		PVG 13:25
	SQ830		77W 777-300ER	Now – 4 Aug 15 Sep – 14 Oct
SIN 09:30		PVG 15:05	388 A380	5 Aug – 14 Sep 15 Oct – 26 Oct
	SQ832		359 LH A350 LH	All
SIN 12:45		PVG 18:05
	SQ836		787 787-10	All
SIN 17:25		PVG 22:45

Shanghai Singapore
Now – 26th October 2024

All services operate daily

			Aircraft	Dates
	SQ825		787 787-10	All
PVG 00:35		SIN 05:55
	SQ827		359 MH A350 MH	Now – 31 Aug
PVG 08:05		SIN 13:25	787 787-10	1 Sep – 26 Oct
	SQ831		359 LH A350 LH	All
PVG 14:30		SIN 19:50
	SQ833		77W 777-300ER	Now – 4 Aug 15 Sep – 14 Oct
PVG 16:50		SIN 22:20	388 A380	5 Aug – 14 Sep 15 Oct – 26 Oct
	SQ835		359 LH A350 LH	All
PVG 19:10		SIN 00:30*

* Next day

Do note that while the A380 is back on Shanghai flights from 5th August 2024, there is a one-month downgauge to the Boeing 777-300ER from mid-September to mid-October, so don’t be caught out especially if booking or redeeming First Class, since you won’t be getting Suites during that month-long period.

Here’s how the revised winter season operation now looks between Singapore and Shanghai, again with those A380 services highlighted.

Singapore Shanghai
27th October 2024 – 29th March 2025

All services operate daily

			Aircraft	Dates
	SQ826		787 787-10	All
SIN 01:15		PVG 06:30
	SQ828		359 LH A350 LH	All
SIN 07:20		PVG 12:45
	SQ830		388 A380	All
SIN 09:20		PVG 14:35
	SQ836		787 787-10	All
SIN 17:05		PVG 22:20

Shanghai Singapore
27th October 2024 – 29th March 2025

All services operate daily

			Aircraft	Dates
	SQ825		787 787-10	All
PVG 00:10		SIN 06:00
	SQ827		787 787-10	All
PVG 08:20		SIN 14:10
	SQ831		359 LH A350 LH	All
PVG 13:50		SIN 19:40
	SQ833		388 A380	All
PVG 16:25		SIN 22:15

As you can see, it’s the well-timed daylight service SQ830/833 that picks up the Airbus A380 across these periods, offering a good opportunity to experience the 2017 Suites or 2017 Business Class product and service for around 5 hours 30 minutes, without ‘wasting’ any time sleeping if you don’t want to.

If you were previously booked on an Airbus A380 flight that has now been downgauged to the Boeing 787-10, Singapore Airlines should assist you to move onto the actual A380 service SQ830/833, if there is availability.

This flight will be the sole option to fly in SIA First Class on the Shanghai route between now and the end of March 2025.

Provisionally for the summer 2025 schedule from 30th March 2025 onwards, SIA is loading the Airbus A380 back on the overnight SQ826/827 service, but it’s too far ahead to predict whether this will actually remain the case.

The summer 2025 schedule should be finalised by around early January 2025.

KrisFlyer awards

Here are the latest KrisFlyer award rates for the Singapore – Shanghai route, including for the Suites cabin.

KrisFlyer Redemption Singapore ⇄ Shanghai
	Saver	Advantage
Economy	21,500	40,000
Premium Economy	34,500	n/a
Business	43,000	65,000
First / Suites	58,500	98,000

Shanghai does well on our KrisFlyer miles per minute analysis in Business Class, with a saver award clocking in at 134 miles per minute (network average 143), though Suites is more mundane at 183 miles per minute (close to the First/Suites combined network average of 181).

We’re found Saver Suites availability on SQ830 from Singapore to Shanghai and in the return direction too for 58,500 miles on various dates during upcoming A380 operation.

With 78 seats available in Business Class, it’s also no surprise that Saver awards in this cabin on the A380 at 43,000 miles each way are wide open outside peak periods like CNY, with up to six immediately-confirmable seats on many flights.

2017 cabin products

This SQ830/833 Airbus A380 service from early August 2024 to late March 2025 signals a return to China for SIA’s latest Airbus A380 cabin products once again.

2017 Suites

The biggest selling point of all 12 of SIA’s A380s is the latest Suites cabin, located on the forward upper deck with a capacity of just six, three either side of a central aisle.

Two of the Suite pairs (1A/2A and 1F/2F) can combine to form a double suite if you are travelling with someone else.

You can read our review of the double suite on a flight from Singapore to Hong Kong in 2018 below.

Although Singapore Airlines stopped short of installing showers in the latest A380 fit, there are two large washrooms at the front of the cabin, one of which is so big it has its own separate vanity area.

We also enjoyed the ‘A380 Restaurant@Changi’ experience on board the new Suites cabin back in October 2020 – see our review here.

These new Suites will return to the Shanghai route on a regular basis from August 2024 for the first time since October last year.

Suite selection

If you’re flying on the Shanghai SQ830/833 flights between 4th August and 14th September 2024, and from 15th October 2024 to 29th March 2025, the First Class (Suites) seat will look like this:

Here’s a more helpful to-scale version from aeroLOPA.

Couples will clearly want to go for the two double suite options at 1A/2A or 1F/2F. Here the dividing screen between the suites retracts and allows for a double bed setup.

Suites 3A and 3F are standalone options, lacking the ability to combine with adjacent suites. They also have the smallest footprint and are close to the galley, potentially leading to some light and noise disturbance.

While we don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun by blocking the double suites, as solo travellers we would still choose row 1 or row 2 for not only a larger suite (row 3 suites are the smallest), but less potential disturbance.

2017 Business Class

Another great advantage of the new Singapore Airlines A380 cabins is the excellent Business Class product, our personal favourite in the fleet, with 78 of these seats occupying the rest of the upper deck in a 1-2-1 layout.

There’s the option at the middle seat pairs to retract the divider for couples travelling together, who also benefit from a ‘double bed’ at the three bulkhead positions – Rows 11, 91 and 96.

It’s certainly great to see this product offered to and from China once again with this daily A380 Shanghai service, including for the entire winter season.

SIA’s A380 schedule this winter

Here’s how the airline’s Airbus A380 schedule looks for the upcoming winter season, based on GDS timetables as of 6th July 2024.

SIA Winter 24/25 A380 Flights (provisional)
Route	Flights	Frequency
Delhi	SQ406/403	7 x weekly
Frankfurt (except 26 Dec, 15-31 Jan)	SQ326/325	7 x weekly
Hong Kong	SQ892/893	7 x weekly
London	SQ322/317 SQ308/319	7 x weekly 7 x weekly
Mumbai	SQ424/423	7 x weekly
Shanghai	SQ830/833	7 x weekly
Sydney	SQ221/232 SQ231/222	7 x weekly 7 x weekly

As SIA’s schedules for the winter season become finalised in the coming weeks, there are still a few things we’re watching out for including potential A380 route news, like:

• Whether SIA will keep flying the Airbus A380 to Hong Kong this winter, since bookings on these SQ892/893 flights are being capped at 4 First Class seats for sale, except between 16th January and 31st January 2025 where the sales cap is 6 seats, suggesting Boeing 777-300ER operation is actually planned for the majority of the season.
• Whether SIA will take advantage of the two additional weekly slots it has secured at London Gatwick, for a daily service, and the additional slot it has secured at Manchester, for six times weekly service, especially in view of some upcoming Paris A350 flight cuts.

Singapore Airlines recently revealed that its daily SQ830/833 Shanghai flight would be operated by the Airbus A380, between early August and mid-September, then again from mid-October until the end of that month, but that superjumbo operation would switch to an overnight service after that for the winter season.

The plan has now changed, with the Airbus A380 remaining on the better-timed SQ830/833 flight each day, right through to late March 2025.

This also allays our fears that the carrier may have been planning to axe A380 service on this route over the winter, which thankfully isn’t the case after all.

There is also saver award space loaded on these flights, even in the sought-after Suites cabin, which is well worth considering at 58,500 miles each way.

(Cover Photo: Mike Fuchslocher / Shutterstock)