Singapore Airlines Adds New Route Between Jakarta and Sydney

Singapore Airlines is expanding its route network — this time, between Indonesia and Australia. Beginning November 23, 2016 (pending regulatory approval), the carrier will launch Jakarta (CGK) to Sydney (SYD) service, while at the same time increasing the number of flights on its current Singapore (SIN) to Jakarta (CGK) route to eight flights per week.

Here’s the 3x weekly schedule of the new CGK-SYD route, which technically originates in Singapore (SIN):

• Monday, Wednesday and Friday
  • Singapore (SIN) 8:15pm Departure ⇒ Jakarta (CGK) 9:00pm Arrival; 10:25pm Departure ⇒ Sydney (SYD) 9:30am (+1) Arrival
• Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
  • Sydney (SYD) 11:00am Departure ⇒ Jakarta (CGK) 2:35pm Arrival; 3:35pm Departure ⇒ Singapore (SIN) 6:10pm Arrival

All the flights on this new route will be operated by Singapore Airlines’ 777-200 aircraft, which is not the same as the 777-300ER planes that feature the carrier’s latest first and business-class product, and a comfortable premium-economy cabin.

Here’s the schedule for the eight new flights between SIN and CGK:

• Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday
  • Singapore (SIN) 1:50pm Departure ⇒ Jakarta (CGK) 2:35pm Arrival
  • Jakarta (CGK) 3:35pm Departure ⇒ Singapore (SIN) 6:10pm Arrival
• Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday
  • Singapore (SIN) 8:15pm Departure ⇒ Jakarta (CGK) 9:00pm Arrival
  • Jakarta (CGK) 11:25pm Departure ⇒ Singapore (SIN) 1:10am (+1) Arrival

The increased frequency on this route is somewhat surprising as it’s already one of the busiest in the carrier’s network. With the addition of eight more weekly flights — including those that continue to Sydney — Jakarta will be serviced by a total of 74 weekly flights.

The Singapore to Sydney route via Jakarta is an especially interesting move, and there’s a chance that there could be pretty decent award availability when it launches. One-way economy awards will run you 25,000 KrisFlyer miles, while business-class awards are 55,000 miles, before factoring in the 15% discount you’ll get for booking online. You can book this new route now with cash — the inaugural flight is going for 14,443,600 Indonesian Rupiahs (~$1,111) in economy for a one-way ticket, but award tickets aren’t yet available.

You can transfer points from all the major credit card issuers (via Ultimate Rewards, Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou points) to Singapore’s KrisFlyer program. With the 100,000-point sign-up bonus from the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you could be on your way to a round-trip flight in business class.

Source: thepointsguy.com