Singapore Airlines launches Manchester – Houston and Manchester – Singapore

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Singapore Airlines made a surprising announcement last week when it launched a new route from Manchester.

Starting from the end of October, Singapore Airlines is launching a new Singapore – Manchester – Houston service.

It will run five days per week and use a three cabin Boeing 777-300 aircraft.

At present, Singapore Airlines runs the following:

Singapore – Munich – Manchester

and

Singapore – Moscow – Houston

Following the changes, Singapore – Moscow and Singapore – Munich will become point to point flights, with the aircraft flying back straight back home.

You will be able to buy tickets for the Manchester to Houston service which offers an interesting new opportunity for anyone in the energy sector based outside London. It will leave at 10.15am and land at 3.35pm which is very civilised, although it makes connections tight from other parts of the UK.

The Manchester to Singapore flight will depart at 11.35am, arriving at 8.20am the following day.

As a three-class Boeing 777-300, the plane will feature the old generation First Class seat.

There is one sad downside to this. The Manchester to Munich service will no longer operate. This was an EXCELLENT opportunity to try out Singapore Airlines in Business Class or First Class for a short 90 minute flight and was a great use of Star Alliance miles. If this was on your bucket list then you only have a few weeks to get your flight booked.

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

James A says:

25 Jul25 July 04:56

Not a total shock I think. It’s well known that the Moscow route has tanked since the Russian economy did the same. SQ have apparently been looking for an opportunity to go direct to MUC for a while, and feel it is necessary to operate direct to MAN these days following the success of CX.

I would hope that SQ are already in talks with FlyBe to get code shares on their ABZ flights at the very least, in order to link up with the IAH leg.
EdC says:

25 Jul25 July 05:13

A bit unfortunate though if you were booked on the old daily service – Singapore refused to rebook/reroute, so it was a forced downgrade (no more premium economy), plus a change of day – or a refund.
- John says:
  
  25 Jul25 July 07:20
  
  If you have a forced downgrade departing MAN or MUC you are entitled to compensation.
  - Rob says:
    
    25 Jul25 July 07:51
    
    Depends how far in advance you are travelling – only within 14 days I think.
  - Genghis says:
    
    25 Jul25 July 07:53
    
    If >14 days’ notice, EC261 doesn’t apply
    - EdC says:
      
      25 Jul25 July 08:33
      
      As I read it, EC261 does apply – but not the compensation for cancellation bit. The compensation for downgrade, and the remedies for cancellation (i.e. refund, or rebooking on a comparable service) bits don’t seem to have any sort of time limit.
      
      It’s my brother, not me, in any case – but regardless of EC261 I was surprised that Singapore would neither offer a re-route on the same day, nor in the same class, via any of the other European hubs they serve (I was also surprised he didn’t book via Qatar in the first place for about the same price – but each to their own).
    - John says:
      
      25 Jul25 July 09:46
      
      The 14 day time limit applies when the flight is cancelled. In this case the flight is still operating.
Liz says:

25 Jul25 July 07:14

Has anyone who collects Kris Flyer miles for Singapore Airlines managed to transfer Amex MR pts into a KF account not in their name (but same surname) – we are trying to save 110k for 2 one way business class flights from Singapore to Brisbane – my hubby will have many more MR pts than me and not enough to save for both in the one account either so thought we would do 55k in 2 accounts.
- Danny says:
  
  25 Jul25 July 08:18
  
  Liz, be careful. This works with some airlines. But I seem to remember reading a post on Flyertalk by someone whose Krisflyer account was subject to an audit by SQ after doing precisely this.
  - Liz says:
    
    25 Jul25 July 08:39
    
    Ok thanks – that’s why I wanted to check if it had been done before – will just have to wait a bit longer till I reach my target then – better to play it safe!
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  25 Jul25 July 08:45
  
  Can’t you transfer the MR points? Thought i read this is possible when closing an account
  - Rob says:
    
    25 Jul25 July 10:03
    
    Ah yes, that old chestnut. It may well be that the Amex terms and conditions still say that, when closing your account, you can transfer your MR points to anyone. Amex keeps meaning to fix those rules but never got round to it. However …. your chance of getting that done without having to raise a complaint with the FCA is very low ……
Paul says:

25 Jul25 July 07:44

Is a one way redemption for MAN-MUC a valid use of Virgin miles?
- James A says:
  
  25 Jul25 July 08:00
  
  Good luck finding availability on SQ with VS, it’s basically zeroed out. Also iirc they have to be return flights (VS miles are so bad for partner redemptions)
  - Ryan says:
    
    25 Jul25 July 08:48
    
    I recently phoned flying club about a one way redemption on ANA to Tokyo. They stated it was the same amount of miles for a single and return redemption! They did helpfully mention that the taxes and charges would be less for a single, like they were doing me a favour.
    That put that redemption strategy to bed.
    - Rob says:
      
      25 Jul25 July 10:04
      
      Yes, annoying Virgin doesn’t allow one way partner redemptions in most cases. Bizarrely, I think even Delta is included in this – whereas, if you have Delta miles, you can happily book one-way Virgin redemptions (and not pay any fuel surcharge).
Liz says:

25 Jul25 July 08:42

We are flying back from Houston early Sept on BA – the Priorty Pass allows access to the Air France and KLM lounge at Terminal D – is there one better than the other or are they much the same – thanks
Oh! Matron! says:

25 Jul25 July 09:16

Correction: the MAN – MUC was an excellent way of getting 10 Tier points with Virgin without going to the USA (not the cheapest option, but convenient)
- Oh! Matron! says:
  
  25 Jul25 July 09:18
  
  Forgot the smiley 🙂
- Rob says:
  
  25 Jul25 July 10:02
  
  If I hadn’t done SQ J last year to Singapore I would be tempted to give it a go. Anika has flown it as well so there is no novelty value for her either. I’ll see if she wants to give it a go though – the fact that it flies into Germany might tempt her.
- Luca says:
  
  25 Jul25 July 23:04
  
  Is this still available until it is cancelled?
  - Rob says:
    
    25 Jul25 July 23:19
    
    Yes, flights are still running for a few months and miles seats should be easily available.
  - McSalty says:
    
    27 Jul27 July 00:55
    
    SQ emailed some promotional fares on MAN-MUC only recently too.