JWMD123 From Ireland, joined May 2006, 867 posts, RR: 0 Posted (6 years 12 months 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 3768 times:
Hi Guys
New member to a.net.
Having been a reader of the topics for so long I thought I may join in the discussions.
Just a quick one, tried a search on this but could not find anything
What is the flight path of SQ20 from Singapore to LA?
I am heading on the mammoth journey in August and just wondering would I be crossing the North Pole on my travels or will it be straight over the pacific?
Kaitak744 From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 2208 posts, RR: 3 Reply 1, posted (6 years 12 months 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 3572 times:
No, it goes just south of the North Pole (over Alaska I believe). It's the SIN-EWR flight which goes non-stop and over the North Pole.
Superhub From Hong Kong, joined Jan 2006, 476 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (6 years 12 months 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 3522 times:
Quoting Kaitak744 (Reply 1): No, it goes just south of the North Pole (over Alaska I believe)
In general, the flight will take the route on The Great Circle Mapper (and it's in general..there are probably places where it does not have overfly rights etc). The Great Circle Mapper puts the track well south of Alaska. And of course, the exact route also takes jetstreams into account...if the jetstream allows the flight to arrive earlier, but is off the Great Circle route, then the plane will take that route.
Here is the link for where the jetstream is, click on the left hand map and you will eventually work out where the jetstream is strongest: http://virga.sfsu.edu/crws/jetstream.html
JWMD123 From Ireland, joined May 2006, 867 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (6 years 12 months 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 3444 times:
Superhub
Thanks for the further info.
On a side note, does anyone know what the loads on like on this flight around the end of August.
The reason I ask is that I am booked on exec economy (2pax) and was hoping to maybe chance my arm and get an upgrade to Raffles class. I don't mind paying if neccessary but I wonder would they charge 'full whack' for an upgrade. I have a star alliance round the world ticket, so would this help me get a cheap/maybe free upgrade??
PhilSquares From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (6 years 12 months 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 3432 times:
Quoting JWMD123 (Reply 4): The reason I ask is that I am booked on exec economy (2pax) and was hoping to maybe chance my arm and get an upgrade to Raffles class. I don't mind paying if neccessary but I wonder would they charge 'full whack' for an upgrade. I have a star alliance round the world ticket, so would this help me get a cheap/maybe free upgrade??
Don't hold your breath for any upgrade without paying in full!!! Generally speaking "enhanced Raffles" is always full. If not, they normally have people waitlisted willing to pay full fare.
However, IIRC, Tues/Wed loads in Y tend to be a little lighter so you might be able to get the three seats in the middle with one empty.
Kdm From New Zealand, joined Feb 2006, 115 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (6 years 12 months 4 days 4 hours ago) and read 3236 times:
I think it is a great flight in a nice quiet airplane. I have done it a couple of times and really enjoyed it. Mind you I did have the full DVD set of LOST series 1 to pass the time. Watching the plane crash was not the smartest thing I have done in an airplane, mostly worried that people may see my laptop and complain.
Ktachiya From Japan, joined Sep 2004, 1729 posts, RR: 2 Reply 8, posted (6 years 12 months 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 3046 times:
Quoting Kdm (Reply 7): Mind you I did have the full DVD set of LOST series 1 to pass the time. Watching the plane crash was not the smartest thing I have done in an airplane, mostly worried that people may see my laptop and complain.
Don't worry. What was worse is when I took JAL last June, YVR-NRT. They had a special about the mechanical errors caused in JAL and even showed the potential errors in JL123 in 1985. It was on the MAGIC entertainment system and every single pax including me, looked pale.
RoseFlyer From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 8744 posts, RR: 52 Reply 9, posted (6 years 12 months 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 2974 times:
Quoting Superhub (Reply 3): In general, the flight will take the route on The Great Circle Mapper (and it's in general..there are probably places where it does not have overfly rights etc). The Great Circle Mapper puts the track well south of Alaska. And of course, the exact route also takes jetstreams into account...if the jetstream allows the flight to arrive earlier, but is off the Great Circle route, then the plane will take that route
That is not quite true on the ultra long haul flights from SIN to EWR/LAX and return. EWR-SIN is particularly interesting since depending on the winds, the flight will take a polar route or take an easterly route and fly over Europe and then India rather than over Canada, Russia, Mongolia, China before making it to SIN. Those are some very different routes. SIN-EWR on the other hand will almost always ride the jetstream across the Pacific. It will fly with the jetstream at somewhere around the 60th parallel.
So on your SIN-LAX flight, you probably will fly northwest to the general vicinity of Japan before heading east. You probably will not see land again until you are on the US west coast over California. If you fly LAX-SIN, you probably will get to see the Aleutian Islands and Southern Alaska.
LAX-SIN isn't as different, but the different flights will fly quite far apart. A difference in wind makes a huge difference when you are talking about 16-18 hours. SIN-LAX will likely fly south of the great circle route, to ride the jetstream, and LAX-SIN probably will be farther north so that it will not face as strong of headwinds.
If you have never designed an airplane part before, let the real designers do the work!
FlyboyOz From Australia, joined Nov 2000, 1893 posts, RR: 28 Reply 10, posted (6 years 12 months 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 2880 times:
I have airways magazine about SQ A345 flying between SIN and LAX. I have a map of SQ's accurate route from SIN to LAX From Singapore-flying over Phillipine's north coastline-Japan's west coastline-Alaska (near Anchorage-Canada's west coastline-US's west coastline-across California-to LAX.
JWMD123 From Ireland, joined May 2006, 867 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (6 years 12 months 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 2743 times:
It seems as though the weather will have a large bearing on the route we will take.
However flyboyoz seems to have some hard facts in relation to the case. I hope you are right about the route, it would be nice to 'skirt' the coast of Alsaka!!
Bjornstrom From Australia, joined Jun 2005, 327 posts, RR: 1 Reply 12, posted (6 years 12 months 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 2706 times:
Quoting JWMD123 (Reply 4): On a side note, does anyone know what the loads on like on this flight around the end of August.
The reason I ask is that I am booked on exec economy (2pax) and was hoping to maybe chance my arm and get an upgrade to Raffles class. I don't mind paying if neccessary but I wonder would they charge 'full whack' for an upgrade. I have a star alliance round the world ticket, so would this help me get a cheap/maybe free upgrade??
I'd say that chances of a op-up is very close to zero when flying SQ and if they were upgrading they would start with the PPS members. It is not possible to buy standby upgrades to C such as on TG for example although you could upgrade on KF points (45k/person one-way if im not mistaken).
Exec economy and Raffles are the only classes available on the A345 so its not "a step closer to C" as when you fly SK or UA.
Sfo212 From United States of America, joined Aug 2004, 219 posts, RR: 1 Reply 13, posted (6 years 12 months 3 days 4 hours ago) and read 2616 times:
One time I was looking at a flightaware.com over the Hawaiian Islands and who came trundling along-Singapore 19 LAX-SIN at cruising altitude. I think it was during the winter so it was probably ducking south to avoid the winter jetstream. Pretty amazing though.
JWMD123 From Ireland, joined May 2006, 867 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (6 years 12 months 3 days 3 hours ago) and read 2553 times:
Bjornstrom
Thanks for the info
I have joined the SQ frequent flyer programme and will have a few flights in between my SIN-LAX flight (These being LHR-DXB on Virgin and MLE-SIN on SQ).
I know these won't be much but I thought it might be a start. Maybe my next big trip in '07 I could use the points!!!!.
GuyBetsy1 From Canada, joined Aug 2001, 832 posts, RR: 6 Reply 15, posted (6 years 12 months 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 2448 times:
Quoting JWMD123 (Reply 4): The reason I ask is that I am booked on exec economy (2pax) and was hoping to maybe chance my arm and get an upgrade to Raffles class. I don't mind paying if neccessary but I wonder would they charge 'full whack' for an upgrade. I have a star alliance round the world ticket, so would this help me get a cheap/maybe free upgrade??
SQ rarely upgrades. And when they do, they will go for
1) VIPs first
2) Their top tier frequent flyer loyalty program members flying on full fare
3) Other frequent flyer members flying on full fare
(PS - Star Alliance RTW tickets are NOT full fare, and besides you're in coach)
4) Yes, they will calculate the difference between what your ticket is, the difference between that and the cost of a full fare economy class ticket. And then the difference between that and a full business class ticket with surcharge for flying the nonstop flight.
It would have been cheaper had you bought a Star Alliance RTW business class ticket!
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