After over a year in which Singapore Airlines has blocked off all flight-award space to its partner airlines - both inside and outside Star Alliance - it looks like that will *start* to change in the near future, beginning with Singapore's "fifth-freedom" flights on the New York-Frankfurt and San Francisco-Hong Kong routes.
In a story first broken by the good people over at The Points Guy, Singapore's spokesteam gave the following statement:
“Singapore Airlines anticipates opening award redemption availability on newly reinstated New York JFK-Frankfurt and San Francisco-Hong Kong services progressively from early October 2021.”
There's no specific word on when Singapore's other routes will again become available to partner-award bookings, which is understandable given that Singapore's national borders are still largely closed to tourists. However, this seems a fairly clear indication that both Singapore the nation, and Singapore the airline, are looking ahead to a phased, safe reopening.
This is particularly exciting news for me, as Singapore is one of my favourite cities to visit, even on a short layover. It's a beautiful, friendly city, and the food is incredible, but perhaps my favourite feature of the city is its local celebrities, the family of smooth-coated otters that live in the harbour and often show up running around Marina Bay Gardens.
We'll be watching this story with great interest.