Qantas: Flying to Singapore from Tomorrow, Monday 22 November

I know I have led this post with a picture of food rather than aircraft – but, that’s what I know Singapore for – fabulous food. This is of a dish at Australian, David Thompson’s Long Chim, within the casino complex.

Qantas VTL flights to Singapore

If you are double vaxxed, you could get on a VTL (Vaccinated Travel Lane) specific flight from either Melbourne or Sydney to Singapore. There is only one flight each day, and not every day per city:

• Melbourne – Singapore (QF35 leaves MEL at 11:50, arriving 16:45) / QF36 leaves SIN at 20:30, arriving 07:00, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday
• Sydney – Singapore (QF81 Leaves SYD at 11:20, arriving 16:45 / QF82 leaves SIN at 20:30, arriving 07:30) Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday

These flights are only for fully vaccinated travellers. If you are unvaccinated – think again unless you want to risk not being allowed to board the flight.

Conditions

Don’t think you can just jump on a flight tomorrow though. You have to make some arrangements in advance – like 7 days before:

• apply at least 7 days before your flight for a Vaccinated Travel Pass
• have evidence of a negative result from COVID-19 PCR test or a ‘professionally-administered Antigen Rapid Test’ taken within 48 hours of departure of your flight to Singapore
• undergo a COVID-19 PCR test on arrival at Changi Airport, Singapore, and isolate (usually 6 to 12 hours) until you get a netagive result
• have travel insurance of SG$30,000 or greater for COVID-19 -related medical expenses in Singapore

You can find the full details of what you need to do to travel via these VTL flights at the Qantas website.

Lounge Access

Qantas won’t have its business lounge open in Singapore until December but will make arrangements for its Business and higher status travellers to have access to a lounge in Singapore in the interim. It’s not expected that the Qantas First lounge in Singapore will be re-opened until early 2022. The business lounge is larger, so will provide for Singapore’s standards for social distancing.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

It’s great to see this route opening up, but there is still a bit of palaver to go through, even for the double vaccinated. I’d be tempted to wait until that gorgeous Qantas First lounge has re-opened. On the other hand with shifting restrictions and lockdowns, maybe you should grab the opportunity to get to Singapore now, rather than later.