How to fly to Singapore with Qantas Points

Direct flight options

Flights between Australia and Singapore are extremely popular, so it should come as no surprise that award seats can be hard to come by. The earlier you can book, the better, especially if you can be flexible with the departing airport.

Qantas

Availability: Poor | Charges: Average | In-flight experience: Good | Stops: 0

Qantas is the top choice — and the most difficult to book. With four direct flights to Singapore from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth, all with widebody aircraft, you'd think there would be availability galore. But there isn't.

Jetstar

Availability: Poor | Charges: Average | In-flight experience: Poor | Stops: 0

Fly to Singapore from Melbourne, Darwin, and Perth. The Melbourne flight, operated by Jetstar Australia, uses the more spacious Boeing 787, complete with a Business Class cabin. Jetstar lacks the lie-flat beds in the Qantas Business Class cabin, and their in-flight service is that of a low-cost carrier. Meals and drinks are a paid extra if travelling in economy, which, thankfully, is not the case in Business Class.

British Airways

Availability: Poor | Charges: High | In-flight experience: Average | Stops: 0

All four travel classes of the Sydney-Singapore segment of British Airways' famous "Kangaroo Route" can be booked with Qantas Points. Roundly considered as fairly average compared to its peers, you get lie-flat beds in their Business Class cabin and an in-flight experience that has seen its fair share of improvements and cutbacks over the years. Apart from what can be a hit-or-miss customer experience, your biggest problem will be availability.

Multi-stop options

Availability can be tight because of the high volume of travellers from Europe and Asia flying to Australia via KUL or HKG. But if you can get to KUL or HKG on points, it's usually much easier to get a connecting flight down to Singapore.

Malaysia Airlines

Availability: Poor | Charges: Low | In-flight experience: Good | Stops: 1

Just a short hour-long hop from Singapore, Malaysia Airlines offers a fast 1-stop flight plan via Kuala Lumpur. Use Qantas Points to fly from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide to Kuala Lumpur before making the short flight down to Singapore. Kuala Lumpur to Singapore is one of the busiest international routes in the world, so the wait between flights shouldn't be too long. Although there is good availability on the Kuala Lumpur to Singapore segment, it can be difficult to find availability from Australia to Kuala Lumpur.

Cathay Pacific

Availability: Average | Charges: Average | In-flight experience: Good | Stops: 1

It's a 4-hour flight from Hong Kong to Singapore, making this a reasonably convenient 1-stop flight bookable with Qantas Points. Fly from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide to Hong Kong and then connect to Singapore. Cathay fly between the two cities several times per weekday — they run a reduced weekend schedule — so you won't have to wait too long between flights. Not that that is a problem, given the quality and choice of lounges in Hong Kong.

Summary