SQ growth through partnerships?

[Jumbojet Lover]

Singapore Airlines and Turkish Airlines have agreed a major expansion of codeshare ties, covering destinations beyond both Istanbul and Singapore.

Singapore Airlines will also increase frequency on a seasonal basis between Singapore and Istanbul to six times per week to meet growth in demand on the route...

http://www.singaporeair.com/jsp/cms/...s/ne140305.jsp

What caught my eye was this:

"This partnership is another example of how we can jointly do more together than we could each do on our own,” said Singapore Airlines Executive Vice President Commercial, Mr Mak Swee Wah.

I suddenly realized that while SQ has not been expanding much through its own metal, it's been expanding through partnerships. A check with their press release page showed that in the past year alone, SQ has signed/expanded codeshares with SAS, Air NZ, Ethiopian and EVA Air. Looks like SQ's reputation as a more aloof *A member is fading away. Separately, oneworld's supposedly aloof member CX has just teamed up with QR and will start flying to Doha, replacing one of QR's 2 daily DOH-HKG flights. Joining the "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" club in a more subtle way than Qantas.

[9V-SIA]

Can someone explain to me how code shares benefit me?

They are invariably extremely expensive.

I tried to book SIN-BOS via LHR on SQ website and the economy ticket is in the business class price range

Is there someway of buying codeshares at reasonable cost?

[259850]

Can someone explain to me how code shares benefit me?

They are invariably extremely expensive.

I tried to book SIN-BOS via LHR on SQ website and the economy ticket is in the business class price range

Is there someway of buying codeshares at reasonable cost?

I was looking at Y fares for SIN-TPE on SQ. SQ's 2-to-go sweet deals were S$800+pp. Got the same SQ flights on BR-coded fares for $200 less pp - with fewer restrictions! So that's how code-sharing benefits us.

[9V-SIA]

Try SIN-BOS on SQ website in Y

More than $8k...

[CarbonMan]

Try SIN-BOS on SQ website in Y

More than $8k...

9V-SIA, out of curiosity, I've just done a test.

1) Using May 12-18 dates for SIN-BOS on the SQ website, I got a fully flexi fare of S$3,858 return for the combination of SIN-LHR on SQ, and LHR-BOS on VA metal but SQ flight number, vv.

2) However, if I chose the SIN-JFK on SQ and JFK-BOS on Jet Blue, with J6 flight number, then immediately the price shot up to S$8,791.

3) Now, on the same dates I did a SIN-LHR on SQ website, fully flexi and got S$2723. Separately on the VA site I selected the same connecting flights for LHR-BOS and I got a flexi fare of GBP1556 (approx S$3100, exchange rate 2?), making it a total S$5823 approx.

Hence making the first option of using code share the more sensible choice.

I have observed on the SQ site, that if one were to do SQ/non-SQ combinations, the silly system uses full "list" prices which makes option 2 a rather crazy one, as you have observed.

[9V-SIA]

Thanks CarbonMan

I see the problem was the dates I selected

Booked far enough in advance and I see the more reasonable prices

[jbflyer]

Try VS website.
The lowest I saw is about ~S$2.8k.

[SQ228]

Try SIN-BOS on SQ website in Y

More than $8k...

I once had a similar experience. Tried booking MEL-SIN-FRA-DUS. The return flight from MEL-FRA on SQ was just slightly over $2000 which is fairly standard.

Added the LH codeshare for FRA-DUS and return and the price shot up above $11,000. We are talking about a flight that is actually shorter than the time you spend in the bus at FRA from the gate to the remote stand.

For $9000+ I could hire my own personal limousine to drive me up the autobahn to Düsseldorf and back.

I think these days the website database is better at calculating such fares but when you look through the PDF timetables for codeshare destinations, there's an incredible number of bizarre restrictions for certain dates and connections, such as for one month, just on Tuesdays, a codeshare might involve having to wait for a connection 8 hours later than normal, even though the regular flight is still operating. I get the impression these agreements must be massive to negotiate and involve a high level of detail and fine print.

[bent]

i also never really understood these code share fares. Usually I am better off buying a separate one way ticket at the SQ point that I disembark.

[Jumbojet Lover]

i also never really understood these code share fares. Usually I am better off buying a separate one way ticket at the SQ point that I disembark.

I always buy different tickets due to the exorbitant price of codeshares. A few years back a check on singaporeair.com for SIN-ORD via LHR on VS yielded a fare in excess of SGD 5K. Ended up flying SQ to SFO and UA onwards for less than half of that.

I always think that the people who buy it don't know better, willing to pay more for what they perceive to be the smoothest and most hassle free route.
I guess the airline will take care of you in the event of a delay/cancellation affecting one of the flights since it's the same ticket. But I really don't think it's worth the extra. Is it so expensive because of revenue-sharing?

[9V-JKL]

I've flown a code share once between FRA-BCN and it was about EUR 1,100 for a Biz Fare. That was I think reasonable and it earned PPS sectors...but then again, I wasn't paying it....

[SQ22]

Many years ago I went to Finland for honeymoon (SIN-BKK-HEL-BKK-SIN). A Finnair ticket with AY98/AY97 would have cost a lot of money. I bought a Qantas codeshare showing QF3195/QF3196 and ended up paying like half the price. Not sure why this happened but it worked and that was what mattered.

[ycp81]

Through experience on SIN-JFK one-way, buying VS code-share on SQ on SIN-LHR is so much cheaper than buying SQ code-share on VS LHR-JFK or SQ operated SIN-FRA-JFK. Better still, the VS ticket is 100% KF miles and elite miles accruable!

[9V-SIA]

Thanks for some useful advice
All these years I've been trying to book a reasonable fare unsuccessfully
I guess one has to search harder & be more flexible to get cheap fares
Has it always been possible to book VA ex SIN?
I remember trying before to no avail

[jbflyer]

Yes. I think no problem.
Just check at Virgin website or you may try cheaptickets.sg