Singapore Airlines has announced that it will resume its popular New York to Frankfurt route beginning Nov. 2 due to the Biden administration relaxing travel restrictions to the United States. Additionally, the airline will also restart nonstop flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Hong Kong (HKG) on Nov. 2.These flights are what’s known as fifth-freedom routes, or routes that allow an airline to fly and sell tickets between two countries — neither of which is its home base – as long as the flight continues to or from the carrier’s home nation.For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.Singapore’s world-famous first class product will return to both routes for the first time since the start of the pandemic. They will be operated on a Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft with four first class seats, 48 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, and 184 economy seats.“We are very pleased to announce this reestablishment of connectivity from the U.S. to two of SIA’s key 5th Freedom destinations, Frankfurt and Hong Kong,” said Singapore Airlines regional vice president Joey Seow in a statement. “In addition, both flights provide our customers with the option of continuing service to Singapore, where they can also connect to a range of business and leisure destinations.”The JFK-FRA flight schedule is as follows:Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.SQ #26 departs FRA at 8:20 a.m. and arrives at JFK at 12:15 p.m., all times local.SQ #25 departs JFK at 9:15 p.m. and arrives at FRA at 9:50 a.m., all times local.The San Francisco-Hong Kong-Singapore roundtrip service will operate three days a week. The SFO-HKG flight schedule is as follows:SQ #8 departs HKG at 1:40 p.m., arriving at SFO at 10:40 a.m. the same day.SQ #7 departs SFO at 1:00 p.m., arriving at HKG at 7:10 p.m. the following day.The news comes just a month after the airline launched a new fifth freedom route from Los Angeles (LAX) to Taipei (TPE), as reported by senior aviation editor Ben Mutzabaugh. That flight is scheduled three times a week on the Airbus A350-900 aircraft. The 253-seat jets are configured in a three-cabin layout that includes 42 seats in business class and 24 in premium economy.Singapore Airlines is the flag carrier of Singapore and flies to dozens of destinations around the world. If you want to use your miles, you have a choice of Star Alliance partners to book with, including United MileagePlus and Aeroplan. For those looking to fly upfront, Singapore doesn’t release premium-cabin award space to its partners, so you’ll have to book through Singapore’s KrisFlyer program.If you don’t have miles through Star Alliance, KrisFlyer is a partner of all five major transferable points currencies: Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Capital One and Marriott Bonvoy. One-way saver awards cost the following amounts:RouteEconomyPremium economyBusinessFirstU.S.-Europe22,500 miles47,000 miles72,000 miles86,000 milesU.S.-Tokyo35,000 miles66,000 miles92,000 miles107,000 milesU.S.-Hong Kong33,000 miles63,000 miles89,000 miles104,000 milesEditor’s note: This post has been updated with new information from Singapore Airlines saying that its Frankfurt-JFK service is now scheduled to begin as daily service.
