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| Paper Lanterns, photo by Andrew Ingersoll |
I’m pleased with the comments from last week’s post about my $200 return sale fare from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on AirAsia. If you are not already aware, Singapore Airlines announced last year that they are planning a long haul, low cost carrier to rival Jetstar and AirAsia. The new airline has been given the name Scoot and plans to offer services from Singapore’s Changi Airport to Australia and China. It was announced that Sydney will be their first destination with services commencing the middle of the year.
From their website you can sign up for a chance to win two premium seats on the first flight. After signing up, the website states, you will receive updates on introductory service dates and when tickets will go on sale. While I can’t be sure they will offer the same cheap prices of AirAsia’s introductory fare, I am fairly confident prices will still be significantly cheaper than current standard fares.
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| photo by Andrew Ingersoll |
Again, some of you may be saying, “So what -- an Asian low cost carrier based in Singapore.” Well, just like last week, if you’ve ever wanted to get to Australia via a more creative routing and explore some interesting cultures and customs, Singapore is a great hub to be able to zip around Asia. (Oh and bring your swimsuits. Terminal one has an outdoor pool.)
Here is an example. Again, I just chose random dates, this time in September. LAX to Tokyo Narita on United then on to Singapore with ANA returning two weeks later, all inclusive $880. If Scoot offers a similar introductory fare of $200 round trip as AirAsia did last week, then a trip to Sydney with stops in Tokyo and Singapore would be roughly $1100 round trip. Again, not too shabby, if you ask me. Granted, Scoot may or may not have a frequent flier program. It may or may not be tied to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer. From my personal research it is too early to know.
Someone asked last week, “How did I know AirAsia would be offering such a good sale fare?” Well, the quick answer is that I didn’t, but I did know they were planning introductory service to Sydney. History has suggested that with introductory service comes a nice introductory fare. Watch this space as I imagine within the next few months Scoot will be the next airline to start selling tickets on the Australian route network, which, in turn, will provide us creative flyers more options to explore the Asia Pacific region.
Limited Time Offer! First Year Fee Waived: 50,000 Points Transferable to Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, Continental and British Airways
1 comments:
This looks like it might be a great deal for me. So I live in California and I want to go to Australia for a few weeks, ideally in March. I have a bunch of Amex points and I saw that Flying Blue is now offering a transfer bonus on Amex points, and that with their rotating 50% off promotion I could get a roundtrip flight from SFO to Europe for 50k points, and then find a cheap connecting flight to Singapore. From there I could swoop up whatever cheap fare deal Scoot is offering for round trip from Singapore to Sydney, and then bam! I just got a round trip flight to Sydney from the US for 40k Amex points, $200 cash and w/e a flight from Europe to Singapore costs. Does this sound plausible? And also, when deals like the Flying Blue promo say you must travel by a certain day (2/29/12) does that mean both the departure and return flights must happen before that date, or just the departure? Thanks!
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