Singapore Fare Alert (3): Turkish Airlines & SWISS Business Class From $1,987/£1,325/€1,775

Turkish Airlines Business Class Italy to Singapore

To see all recent Fare Alerts and good flight deals posted on Traveling For Miles, visit the Airfare Deals page.

After finding a number of good business class fares to Singapore yesterday (posted here and here) it looks like there are yet more good deals to be had – this time on Star Alliance members Turkish Airlines and SWISS.

Turkish Airlines – Italy To Singapore From $2,058 RT

I’ll start out with the more expensive of the two fares that I found because this one is more widely available.

Routings: MXP-IST-SIN-IST-MXP/FCO

Travel dates: October 2015 – August 2016 (and possibly beyond)

Booking period: None mentioned in the fare rules (at least none that I could see)

Minimum stay requirements: No minimum stay requirements

Maximum stay restrictions: 12 months

Example flight/routing (click to enlarge):

There are quite a few routings which make the trip in excess of 20 hours but, if you change the parameters of the search, you should be able to find shorter trips available.

Turkish Airlines Business Class Italy to Singapore

Depending on what day you choose to depart there are a good choice of trip lengths. The example I’ve picked has good fare availability for trips of 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 nights but there are numerous other permutations available too.

Turkish Airlines Business Class Italy to Singapore

Availability:

Availability starts out poorly in October….

turkish-airlines-italy-singapore-Oct

….but it begins to pick up in November…..

turkish-airlines-italy-singapore-Nov

…December isn’t too bad…but be careful of long layover times!

turkish-airlines-italy-singapore-Dec

More of the same in January…..

turkish-airlines-italy-singapore-Jan

….and February….

turkish-airlines-italy-singapore-Feb

There’s reasonable availability in March considering Europeans start their Easter vacations in late March…

turkish-airlines-italy-singapore-March

…and suddenly we have fantastic availability in April (still Easter vacation time in Europe)….

turkish-airlines-italy-singapore-April

….and May…..

turkish-airlines-italy-singapore-May

….and June…and, in fact, all the way through to the end of the booking calendar in August…

turkish-airlines-italy-singapore-June

turkish-airlines-italy-singapore-July

turkish-airlines-italy-singapore-Aug

August is as far out as one can search right now but it wouldn’t surprise me to see this fare extended into September and beyond.

The Turkish Airlines Business Class Offering

The long-haul legs of the journey (IST-SIN-IST) are on Turkish Airlines’s Airbus A330 aircraft….but the problem is that it’s hard to tell if it the A330-200 or A330-300 aircraft.

You may be wondering why you should care which version of the plane you fly but there’s good reason this should interest you. All Turkish Airlines A330-300 aircraft are fitted with their new (ish) business class product which features a lie-flat seat. The A330-200 may or may not have been upgraded and could well feature old, angled, business class seats.

Turkish Airlines Business Class Italy to SingaporeTurkish Airlines A330-300 Business Class seat – image courtesy of Turkish Airlines

The seat features include (per Turkish Airlines):

  • An ottoman that creates a 75 inch(188 cm)long sleeping space when in the fully reclined bed position.
  • Reading light located underneath the Armrest services when it is deployed as a privacy screen.
  • A reading light is available for each passenger and lighting as well as other seat function controls like a massage button, and position selections are conveniently accessed on a control panel beneath the armrest.
  • An onboard power receptacle supplies energy for laptops and other electrical devices.
  • The armrest also serves as a privacy screen and is controlled by a touch button.
  • The large table is located in the center console and moves forward/backward as well as swiveling to allow more freedom of movement.
  • Main Control unit is located in the center console, at the front end of the armrest serves full control of the bed.

More information on the Turkish Airlines Business Class offering here.

So how do you tell which aircraft is which?

When it comes to selecting your seat on the aircraft (before you pay!) take a look at the number of rows the aircraft has in business class:

A330-300 has 5 Rows in business class

A330-200 has 4 rows in business class.

If you see 5 rows you’re guaranteed to get the new business class product but, if you see 4 rows, you’re out of luck….or at least playing roulette that you’ll get an upgraded plane.

SWISS – Spain To Singapore From $1,987 RT

Availability for this fare is extremely limited….by that’s still better than nothing.

Routings: BCN-ZCH-SIN-ZCH-SIN, MAD-ZCH-SIN-ZCH-MAD (or a combination of the two)

Travel dates: November 2015 – 21 January 2016

SWISS business class Spain to Singapore

Booking period: Tickets must be issued on/before 20 October 2015

Minimum/Maximum stay requirements: 

SWISS business class Spain to Singapore

Example flight/routing (click to enlarge):

SWISS business class Spain to Singapore

Example Flights & Aircraft:

SWISS business class Spain to Singapore

Depending on what day you choose to depart there are a good choice of trip lengths. The example I’ve

Availability:

As mentioned before, availability is very limited:

SWISS business class Spain to Singapore

SWISS business class Spain to Singapore

SWISS business class Spain to Singapore

The SWISS Business Class Offering

I haven’t flown the new SWISS business class seats but I’ve head great things about it (a good detailed review here by the Luxury Travel Expert).

SWISS business class Spain to Singapore

SWISS business class Spain to Singapore

SWISS business class Spain to Singapore

The SWISS business class cabin has a strange layout in that the rows alternate between a 1-2-1 seating configuration and a 2-2-1 configuration. With this in mind, if you’re a solo traveler you probably want to be selective with which row you choose so as to make sure you get a seat all on its own…unless you feel like making a new friend :).

SWISS business cabin images courtesy of SWISS.