Closing the loop holes on Waitlisting

[albatross710]

Some further data on how the waitlists are now being handled in the system. Bookings with waitlisted segments have 4 days to clear the complete itinerary, after which the 'confirmed' sectors disappear from the booking leaving just the wailisted sectors ...waiting. to be clearer.

On Friday I made a redemption booking that looked like this:

BNE-SIN - confirmed
SIN-MNL - waitlist
MNL-SIN - confirmed
SIN-BNE - confirmed

The website gave me a ticketing deadline of 4pm this afternoon.

I checked tonight, expecting that a) the entire booking would have lapsed or b) the entire booking would wait for the second segment to clear.

I was surprised to see that all that remained on the booking was the waitlisted SIN-MNL sector.


It seems that now the game has changed to a new set of rules. Bookings with waitlisted sectors need to be cleared within 4 days or start again.

This current system seems to be pushing towards bookings having to have Standard award sectors instead of waitlists or piecing together multiple redemptions with the faith of the final 'waitlist' sector coming through as a standalone.

Would appreciate any feedback from others on how their redemption bookings are progressing.

Alby

 

[ted123]

Some further data on how the waitlists are now being handled in the system. Bookings with waitlisted segments have 4 days to clear the complete itinerary, after which the 'confirmed' sectors disappear from the booking leaving just the wailisted sectors ...waiting. to be clearer.

On Friday I made a redemption booking that looked like this:

BNE-SIN - confirmed
SIN-MNL - waitlist
MNL-SIN - confirmed
SIN-BNE - confirmed

The website gave me a ticketing deadline of 4pm this afternoon.

I checked tonight, expecting that a) the entire booking would have lapsed or b) the entire booking would wait for the second segment to clear.

I was surprised to see that all that remained on the booking was the waitlisted SIN-MNL sector.


It seems that now the game has changed to a new set of rules. Bookings with waitlisted sectors need to be cleared within 4 days or start again.

This current system seems to be pushing towards bookings having to have Standard award sectors instead of waitlists or piecing together multiple redemptions with the faith of the final 'waitlist' sector coming through as a standalone.

Would appreciate any feedback from others on how their redemption bookings are progressing.

Alby

Hi Alby,

I noticed the same on waitlist reservations. My experience so far is that I am in the process of upgrading a commercial tix to J class with points. I contacted SIA and asked that i wanted saver award upgrade.

They placed all 4 sectors on waitlist, The 2 return sectors came through so was able to split the booking and ticket the return. The outbound only cleared last week SYD - SIN the SIN - MNL STILL waitlist.

The SIA supervisor kindly moved my ticket issuance timeframe to 4 weeks from today which was a great help. The second leg cleared on a later flight i called and confirmed however wanted the earlier flight. I was placed again on waitlist for the earlier flight from SIN - MNL and in 4 weeks if that doesnt come through i will ticket the outbound before the ticket deadline. This was for a family of 4 people on a saver award upgrade. If you get the right person especially a senior they will try to assist. This was of course after many calls to the SIA call centre.

My opinion never give in. Keep trying to achieve the result you want.

TED

 

[cove]

Alby I decided to work the other end by figuring out how to maximize low costing points and then chase SAVER rewards but if they are not there in the window I need to travel I will click Standard and wrap up the booking. At that point I am free again to work the points making. In each case with SQ the saving gives you a lovely wholesale pricing result but of course it may not be the best of the best SAVER result that I get.
I am handling 6 in the family who are travelling on SQ so I am doing 12 or more trips each year in the best available.

 

[Danger UXB]

Some further data on how the waitlists are now being handled in the system. Bookings with waitlisted segments have 4 days to clear the complete itinerary, after which the 'confirmed' sectors disappear from the booking leaving just the wailisted sectors ...waiting. to be clearer.

On Friday I made a redemption booking that looked like this:

BNE-SIN - confirmed
SIN-MNL - waitlist
MNL-SIN - confirmed
SIN-BNE - confirmed

The website gave me a ticketing deadline of 4pm this afternoon.

I checked tonight, expecting that a) the entire booking would have lapsed or b) the entire booking would wait for the second segment to clear.

I was surprised to see that all that remained on the booking was the waitlisted SIN-MNL sector.


It seems that now the game has changed to a new set of rules. Bookings with waitlisted sectors need to be cleared within 4 days or start again.

This current system seems to be pushing towards bookings having to have Standard award sectors instead of waitlists or piecing together multiple redemptions with the faith of the final 'waitlist' sector coming through as a standalone

Would appreciate any feedback from others on how their redemption bookings are progressing.

Alby

Hi Alby

are these bookings 4 separate segments
or
2 one ways BNE to MNL and vice versa
or
one return BNE to MNL
????

I have a few waitlists on the go at the moment trying to follow your instructions from your previous posts. They are my first goes at waitlists so please bear with me and my ignorance in such matters. I have a plan B for each waitlist which is confirmed so I am happy to leave the waitlist for as long as it takes. Travel is for the end of Jan 2014.When I look at them now some segments with in a booking show waitlist some show nothing in the "manage booking" page but no ticketing deadlines yet. Is it because each booking is not yet completely free of waitlisted segments?

Your advice in such matters has helped me immensely so thank you for the encouragement to try the waitlist thing

Cheers Danger UXB

 

[lovestotravel]

Does anyone have an update to how long waitlists take to clear ?

How far out from the flight ?
How long after booking ?

Any current updates

 

[albatross710]

The SIA supervisor kindly moved my ticket issuance timeframe to 4 weeks from today which was a great help. The second leg cleared on a later flight i called and confirmed however wanted the earlier flight.

Thanks Cove and Ted123. It's good to see that the senior staff still have the flexibility to move the waitlist expiry date.

I know that in the long term this change will be good as it is going to open up plenty of the 'confirmed' seats which are currently also awaiting a waitlist sector. Just need to workout how to finesse the new rules.

Alby

 

[wafliron]

The SQ product is more than likely better and it is with great sadness I booked on MAS, BUT 119k is a strong argument. Different if I had millions to burn.

I've flown both; the SQ product is most definitely better, but there's nothing wrong with MH's - it's still good, just not a good (just wish it was full-flat). Assuming you're not rolling in points, and you can earn MH points just as easily as you can earn SQ points, the MH option is definitely better "value".

Back to the original topic of this thread: thanks for posting this info alby, it would have likely completely passed me by otherwise! I agree that shortening ticketing deadlines is a good thing overall, but we're in disagreement about bookings where only some sectors are waitlisted - makes these types of waitlisted bookings almost useless, and they're far from uncommon

 

[albatross710]

but we're in disagreement about bookings where only some sectors are waitlisted - makes these types of waitlisted bookings almost useless, and they're far from uncommon

I disagree that we disagree. Giving us three days to have a waitlisted sector clear is useless for most Australian redemptions as most of our redemptions are going to transit SIN with the booking being at least 4 sectors. I'm disheartened by the change. Apologies if I misquoted myself.

 

[wafliron]

I disagree that we disagree. Giving us three days to have a waitlisted sector clear is useless for most Australian redemptions as most of our redemptions are going to transit SIN with the booking being at least 4 sectors. I'm disheartened by the change. Apologies if I misquoted myself.

Or, apologies if I misunderstood you Although us being in agreement unfortunately doesn't change the cough new rule :-(

 

[Danger UXB]

I disagree that we disagree. Giving us three days to have a waitlisted sector clear is useless for most Australian redemptions as most of our redemptions are going to transit SIN with the booking being at least 4 sectors. I'm disheartened by the change. Apologies if I misquoted myself.

I think I am miss understanding this 3 day rule. I have had 3 waitlists going since 21-9-13 and they are still in the mange my booking section. When does this 3 day rule commence....when they send you the confirmation text/email???

Please excuse my lack of understanding
cheers Danger UXB

 

[albatross710]

I think I am miss understanding this 3 day rule. I have had 3 waitlists going since 21-9-13 and they are still in the mange my booking section. When does this 3 day rule commence....when they send you the confirmation text/email???

Please excuse my lack of understanding
cheers Danger UXB

The change is that if on that booking which includes waitlist sectors you also had confirmed sectors, then those confirmed sectors are removed from your booking after the three day deadline.

For instance, if I am arranging an itinerary from BNE - ZRH - BNE I might be able to get the following

BNE-SIN Confirmed
SIN-ZRH Confirmed
ZRH- SIN Confirmed
SIN-BNE Overnight flight - Confirmed and Waitlisted for Daytime flight

I could ticket the itinerary now or in this three day period and take the overnight. Or previously I could let this booking go until about 21 days before the travel and hope that the waitlist cleared. In this example, if I don't ticket before the three day expiry, then the Confirmed sectors are removed and the booking then looks like

SIN-BNE Waitlist (for daytime flight).

Does that help with the understanding?

Alby

 

[cove]

If we get caught in Singapore for 12 hours or so we have started taking a room in the Crowne Plaza seeing the flights we are doing are such a reasonable cost relative to the use of Kris points versus a cash price. Naturally I try to book flights with connection times to suit but sometimes that is just not possible. This is not a good idea for time poor executives but it works for us to make travelling comfortable.
The wait listing obviously can work to improve transit times and choice of aircraft so keep working on it Alby.
Just wanted to give you my thoughts seeing I have been doing these destinations for just over 40 years and I keep hearing about DVT issues others have had in recent months.

 

[Danger UXB]

The change is that if on that booking which includes waitlist sectors you also had confirmed sectors, then those confirmed sectors are removed from your booking after the three day deadline.

For instance, if I am arranging an itinerary from BNE - ZRH - BNE I might be able to get the following

BNE-SIN Confirmed
SIN-ZRH Confirmed
ZRH- SIN Confirmed
SIN-BNE Overnight flight - Confirmed and Waitlisted for Daytime flight

I could ticket the itinerary now or in this three day period and take the overnight. Or previously I could let this booking go until about 21 days before the travel and hope that the waitlist cleared. In this example, if I don't ticket before the three day expiry, then the Confirmed sectors are removed and the booking then looks like

SIN-BNE Waitlist (for daytime flight).

Does that help with the understanding?

Alby

Many thanks for taking the time to explain. I have a few waitlists at the moment ( my first attempts at waitlists hence my ignorance!!). All have "waitlist" next to the individual sectors except one leg which is blank. I do not recall it ever saying "confirmed" it just always been blank, it been like that since I booked it 19 days ago??

Cheers Danger UXB

 

[albatross710]

Many thanks for taking the time to explain. I have a few waitlists at the moment ( my first attempts at waitlists hence my ignorance!!). All have "waitlist" next to the individual sectors except one leg which is blank. I do not recall it ever saying "confirmed" it just always been blank, it been like that since I booked it 19 days ago??

Cheers Danger UXB

Please considering the original email confirmation which may contain the original sector status. Can you update as a data point if you discover something interesting.