Qantas: new flights and times for Singapore after March 31
By David Flynn, March 26 2013
With the Qantas-Emirates alliance set to take flight from March 31, throughout this week Australian Business Traveller is featuring articles to summarise key changes introduced due to the historic partnership.
Qantas travellers to Singapore face a vastly revised schedule in the coming months, once Dubai replaces the Lion City as hub for the airline's European flights on March 31.
Qantas says the new timetable is more business-friendly, with arrival and departure times geared towards Singapore as a destination rather than a stop-over en route to London.
We've pulled together this rundown of the changes you'll see if you're a regular Red Roo traveller to Singapore.
New Qantas Singapore Lounge
Things kick off with the opening of the all-new Qantas Singapore Lounge on Sunday March 31.
This single-class 'integrated lounge' replaces the former business class and first class lounges shared between Qantas and British Airways under their Kangaroo Route joint venture.
However, in addition to catering for Qantas Frequent Flyer Gold and Platinum cardholders, the lounge will also be open to passengers on oneworld partner airlines such as BA and Cathay Pacific, plus travellers with appropriate frequent flyer status matching to oneworld Emerald and Sapphire.
Australia-Singapore flights
A new Sydney-Singapore (QF81/82) service will run four days per week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday) from March 31, increasing to daily from June 24.
It'll leave Sydney at 9.40am to reach Singapore at 4pm – ample time to hit your hotel, freshen up and head out to pre-dinner drinks.
This will complement the afternoon QF5 Sydney-Singapore service, which until April 14 departs Sydney at 3.50pm to land in Singapore at 10pm before continuing to Frankfurt.
From April 15, QF5 shifts to an earlier 1pm departure from Sydney with a 7.20pm wheels-down at Singapore. (The return flight QF6 leaves Singapore at 10.25pm to reach Sydney at 8.05am the next day).
Also as of April 15, the daily Melbourne-Singapore QF35 service will leave Melbourne at 10am, making a 3.55pm touchdown into Singapore.
The Brisbane-Singapore QF51 will run earlier from April 15, leaving Brisbane at 10.20am.
Adelaide-Singapore (QF81/82) flights will be cancelled from April 14.
The Perth-Singapore QF71/72 flight will be axed from March 31, leaving just one daily Perth-Singapore service – QF77/78 – which will be retimed for better connection to onwards flights in Asia while also making a same-day return into Perth (admittedly just shy of midnight).
The new schedule sees QF77 leaving Perth at 9.50am (instead of the current 11.55am) for arrival into Singapore at 3.20pm, and then heading back to Perth as QF78 for an 11.30pm touchdown.
Your Emirates options
Qantas will place its QF code on two Emirates flights which stop at Singapore on their way to Dubai:
- Melbourne-Singapore: QF8405 (EK405), departing daily at 6pm and arriving at 11.50pm
- Brisbane-Singapore: QF8433 (EK433), departing daily at 2.30am (!) and arriving at 8.15am
You'll want to book these as Qantas flights under the QF code to earn the full rate of Qantas Frequent Flyer points (including cabin and status bonuses) and status credits.
Booking them as Emirates flights under their native EK code will earn Qantas Frequent Flyer points at a reduced rate and without a single status credit winging your way.
Also read
Qantas Frequent Flyer access to Emirates lounges – what you need to know
Qantas Frequent Flyers: points and upgrades on Emirates flights
Follow Australian Business Traveller on Twitter for the latest updates for business travellers: we're @AusBT.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
10 Jan 2012
Total posts 258
I found out that my flight on QF51 was not only leaving at another time, it's now on an A333 rather than a 747-400 (!) by casually having a look at my bookings on qantas.com.au one night. Not sure if QF are meant to advise customers by email, text or phone but had I not checked I wouldn't have known. And now I've gone from an upper deck Mk II Skybed to a main cabin Mk I Skybed. Might as well fly economy.
Re: new Qantas SIN Lounge... will there be an area for First Class passengers at all? There's 3 BA flights a day with F and some CX flights also have F, where do those pax go? (I'm asking because I'm returning from SIN in BA F).
17 May 2012
Total posts 80
Classic Qantas....them first, customers later...The new schedule to SIN suits them now, passenger have wanted decent arrival times in SIN for years for connections to Asia.. Glad I gave up on em two years ago now. Vindicated many times over and the above just reinforces it.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
06 May 2012
Total posts 178
Im on QF5 to singapore in July in J, i think its the old 747 config with Mk1 seats is used. id still take this over any QF A330. Its amazing the difference between QF A330 and CX A330 in J
Any idea if there will be a seperate BA lounge in Singapore post 1st April? Im flying BA F from LHR- SYD in August and was wondering will there be something there by then for BA
21 Apr 2012
Total posts 3006
I'm looking forward to the new QF lounge catering at SIN.
I don't know about you but I am sick and tired of the pene with tomato sauce, sliced subway-styled sandwiches, spring rolls/curry puffs and deep fried chicken wings. There is a soup offering but it's probably loaded with MSG - I've not bothered to even enquire as to the type of soup!
It really is disgraceful that the hot food options has been limited to the above.
They will no longer have the excuse that the bulk of pax are on transit from/to LHR/FRA and will not require much feeding.
If anything I'd suggest a table service, much like the dinner service for evening trans-atlantic sectors, is appropriate so pax get a decent 7h sleep on the flight back to Oz..
QFF Gold QC gold
26 Nov 2012
Total posts 56
I'm sick of hearing Qantas talk about being "business friendly". Not everyone flys business including people flying in business class. When I travel (for leisure) I don't want to arrive at my destination at 6am. Others including Singapore and Emirates have options for late night arrival. Why can't Qantas get off the business traveller band wagon and think about other travellers??
P.S. I am of course refering to flights coming into Sydney from Singapore. Flights to London are always early arrival.
01 Feb 2012
Total posts 371
Because that's where all the money is.
04 Nov 2010
Total posts 670
Travelator, a lot of this also has to do with when the aircraft are available and how long it takes to fly from A to B. Maybe the new 8am arrival time of QF6 is better for you than 6am?
But either way, if a flight leaves SIN at 10.30pm to reach Sydney at 8am, then that's the duration of the flight, it's pretty much fixed.
So the only thing QF can change is when it departs, so for example to make a 'leisure-friendly' arrival into Sydney of say 12 noon, then the plane would have to leave Singapore at 2.30am. Are you sure many people would want that, after checking out of their Singapore hotel 12 hours earlier and then having to hang around Changi from midnight?
Also, if the connecting flight into Singapore has to sit around on the ground for more hours than it needs to, that's wasteful and QF has to pay for that. Or they could have their SYD-SIN QF5 flight leave many hours later, so it gets into Singapore at midnight, but then surely that is not convenient for leisure travellers or business travellers?
It's basically that if it was that easy for QF to have a noon arrival into Sydney, don't you think they would have done it?
21 Apr 2012
Total posts 3006
May I suggest that the leisure traveller has in many way already abandoned Qantas on flights to asia - and Qantas couldn't really give a toss.
Consider the penetration of the asian markets, schedule, frequency and product offering by Qantas. It's quite apparent that they're in triage.
Jetstar is there to pick up some slack but by and large it's an open invitation to the asian carriers to dominate the market on the Australia-Asian sectors.
10 Mar 2011
Total posts 526
The biggest let down of the changes is the move to an A330 on most flights to Singapore so the Business product has taken a big backwards step. When you are up against the likes of Singapore Airlines with their overall outstanding product, it is likely that there will be alot of people moving their way rather than hanging around waiting for a new A330 Business product.
It would actually have been better to have day flights in both directions... at least they sleeping isn't such a big consideration and you could just about get away with the current seat.
15 Apr 2011
Total posts 580
Fortunately we still have the BA option from Sydney, which will offer a far superior seat to Qantas (albeit with lower point/SC earn rates).
I'm also pretty disappointed with the schedule from Sydney. What is the point in having two daily flights if they leave/arrive within a couple of hours of each other? I would have liked to see a wider variety of options, including a daytime return from Singapore and an evening departure from Sydney (ie 4-5pm, which would allow one to spend most of the day at work then travel at night instead of having to waste the entire day travelling).
qantas
18 Oct 2012
Total posts 68
Has there been an communication about QF51/52 going to an A330?? The website is still showing it as a 747 400
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
10 Jan 2012
Total posts 258
Nothing seems to have been communicated.
I'm flying QF51 in late May and about 2 weeks ago the aircraft type and departure times mysteriously changed on my booking. I was automatically assigned a new seat on the A330 and that was that. I've heard nothing from QF at all.
It's a shame, one of the main reasons I chose to fly QF instead of SQ this time was to fly on the upper deck of the 747 and in the Skybed Mark II.
15 Apr 2011
Total posts 580
I don't remember Qantas ever saying that QF5/6 would be operated by aircraft with the Mk2 Skybeds. Did I miss something?
qantas
18 Oct 2012
Total posts 68
Totally agree nix584... Upstairs on the 747 is epic.. What happens to PE bookings I wonder?
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
10 Jan 2012
Total posts 258
That's a very good point, and one that I was wondering myself. Perhaps they'll be transferred onto BA via SYD? Or refunded the difference and downgraded to Y? Or possibly there were no PE bookings after April 15?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
03 Jul 2011
Total posts 187
In the past 48 hours I've had a "survey" sent to me from QF, with most of the questions relating to - the new EK/QF service, I thought nothing of it until I got to a series of questions about travelling ADL-SIN. One question was - Will you still travel on QF to SIN or use another carrier?
Well duh, as much as I like QF - I hate having to catch a bus from domestic to international at SYD, and I hate immigration and clearence trying to get out of MEL. If I'm offered a direct flight from ADL, then I'll take that one thanks :-)
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