Creating THE SQ Waitlist sticky

[infinity]

Well done Alby

I have a few on later flights in F on 2/1/15 but don't like my chances as only 1 or 2 F seats for sale

 

[foggy]

To leave the waitlist and not to add a backup ie. a Standard seat, or a seat in another class.

albatross710- Around 78 Days before departure my Waitlist has cleared for Suites Class. So that is 3 of us I have on that flight in Suites. Looking forward to it.

3 suites on same flight all saver??

 

[Spizz]

3 suites on same flight all saver??

I wish 2 Saver, 1 Standard.

 

[Ben6]

Some info from the experienced members here please.

I have a confirmed Saver J seat SIN-MEL in 2 weeks. There is Saver Waitlist showing on the same flight in F. If I apply for the F and it clears, do I need to cancel the confirmed J seat? If so, is there any penalty (points or dollars)???

 

[JohnK]

On 31 December I checked business class availability SIN-CNX for 17 January and there was a seat available. Transferred 17,000 Amex MR that day. Checked KrisFlyer account afternoon of 01 January and points were in account. Went to book and flight is now waitlist so booked anyway.

Waited a few days hoping waitlist would clear but no such luck.

Called SQ reservations Monday morning 05 January regarding waitlist. Seats available for sale but redemption not available. I told them I am definitely travelling and need to book another flight if the waitlist doesn't clear. I asked if it was possible to find out if the waitlist will clear or not. Was put on hold for a few minutes and came back and said he has put request in system.

Less than 10 minutes later I receive an sms to go and confirm award redemption which I did quickly even though I had 3-4 days to complete.

 

[legroom]

They were willing to 'hold' the cleared seat for me to allow for points transfer once you explain what you plan to do.

Far more better way to avoid the clock ticking to expiry !

Then ensure you have enough points in the account to clear any wiatlists.

 

[eltango]

As I do not want to create a new thread, can anyone please explain to me how the wait list works? I am trying to work out whether I should get on the wait list for a flight to London during the first weekend of March. As all my points are still in AMEX Rewards, I do not want to convert them to KrisFlyer points unless I can use them.

What are your thoughts? Is it worth risking my points, by converting it to KrisFlyer? As I am moving to London, I want to keep minimal points in Krisflyer as I more than likely will not be taking any Singapore Airline flights whilst there.

Also what is the difference between the options "Redeem award flight(s)" and "Pay with KrisFlyer mile"? (when searching for the flights)

TIA!

 

[hummel]

As I do not want to create a new thread, can anyone please explain to me how the wait list works? I am trying to work out whether I should get on the wait list for a flight to London during the first weekend of March. As all my points are still in AMEX Rewards, I do not want to convert them to KrisFlyer points unless I can use them.

What are your thoughts? Is it worth risking my points, by converting it to KrisFlyer? As I am moving to London, I want to keep minimal points in Krisflyer as I more than likely will not be taking any Singapore Airline flights whilst there.

Also what is the difference between the options "Redeem award flight(s)" and "Pay with KrisFlyer mile"? (when searching for the flights)

TIA!

In answer to your second question the 'pay with kf miles' is essentially using them a currency - I.e you don't want to do it like that

What are you waitlisting for? Is there seats available at standard level? Or zeroed out across the board? That would influence my decision...

 

[eltango]

In answer to your second question the 'pay with kf miles' is essentially using them a currency - I.e you don't want to do it like that

What are you waitlisting for? Is there seats available at standard level? Or zeroed out across the board? That would influence my decision...

Thanks for responding hummel. There are spots in Standard and Full, but I do not have enough points for them as I have only moved to KF a couple of years ago and my spend is pretty much the amount of a single individual. I have just hit the amount needed for Saver business (one way to London).

 

[hummel]

Thanks for responding hummel. There are spots in Standard and Full, but I do not have enough points for them as I have only moved to KF a couple of years ago and my spend is pretty much the amount of a single individual. I have just hit the amount needed for Saver business (one way to London).

Are you locked into dates or aircraft type? I'm always cautious about doing what your doing purely because it's a gamble.

I'm not totally across the way SQ operate their waitlists but to me it would be a 50/50 call.

 

[eltango]

Are you locked into dates or aircraft type? I'm always cautious about doing what your doing purely because it's a gamble.

I'm not totally across the way SQ operate their waitlists but to me it would be a 50/50 call.

Not really locked into dates nor aircraft. Just need a one way ticket over, but ideally sometime between 28 Feb to 9 March. I'll continue to check and hope something frees up!

 

[Dr Bob]

Not really locked into dates nor aircraft. Just need a one way ticket over, but ideally sometime between 28 Feb to 9 March. I'll continue to check and hope something frees up!

Where are you flying from? There are 2 flights out of Brisbane on the 28th. that could suit.

 

[eltango]

Where are you flying from? There are 2 flights out of Brisbane on the 28th. that could suit.

Thanks for letting me know Dr Bob. I am flying out of Sydney though, and don't want to have to take an additional flight. As I am trying to save as much money as possible, I may just use the points for an economy flight, or even buy the cheapest flight. Which at the moment is Etihad (as I am choosing not to fly with Malaysia!)

 

[hummel]

Thanks for letting me know Dr Bob. I am flying out of Sydney though, and don't want to have to take an additional flight. As I am trying to save as much money as possible, I may just use the points for an economy flight, or even buy the cheapest flight. Which at the moment is Etihad (as I am choosing not to fly with Malaysia!)

I used points once for a Y flight... that was before I discovered AFF.

Honestly if you don't want to spend the $~150 for a SYD-BNE flight you'll probably better off going on EY.

As for the MH comment.. flew them last week and flying them back home in a couple of days, looking forward to it!

 

[Ghostdunks]

Just booked my first awards flight with SQ in March(JFK-FRA-SIN-MEL Business Standard for two pax for 306k points) and now wondering about what's the best practice for waitlisting. Have gone through quite a few threads on here and FT and just wanted to clarify some points:

1) if and when a waitlist clears, how long do you have to actually ticket it ie. spend the miles and pay the taxes on it to actually confirm a ticket, before it expires? Have seen answers from immediately to 3 days being mentioned, is this still correct? Have heard that if you call in to KF, you can get this timeline extended as well?

2) From what I gathered, it'll cost $30 USD to cancel a booked award flight. This will redeposit the points back into your account(possibly can be done immediately if done over the phone or take longer if done online?) and for the taxes to be refunded back to credit card. Is that understanding correct or am I missing any other fees? Also, is that $30USD per booking or per pax?

3) Related to question 1. I know you need the required amount of points to actually waitlist for rewards, but do they still clear if in the meantime, your points balance drops below the actual requirement?

eg. I have 100k points, I successfully waitlist a saver award that'll cost 100k points and then I wait. While waiting, I decide to book another award flight that'll cost 75k points, leaving me with 25k in points. Is there a possibility of the waitlist clearing even though I don't have enough in my balance to confirm the booking? Depending on how long before the cleared waitlist expires, I could either transfer in more points from my credit card or cancel one of my existing award bookings to get the points back to pay for the cleared waitlist flight.

I suspect the answer is Yes, as I've read a few threads where people have said that if you have enough points to either book/confirm a standard reward flight or waitlist a saver reward flight, to waitlist the saver reward flight first then book/confirm the standard reward flight as you can't do it the other way around because once you book/confirm the standard reward flight, you won't be able to waitlist another flight as you won't have enough points. Of course, that's assuming that people who've done it that way have actually had their waitlist cleared while in that situation, and they then subsequently cancel the confirmed flight to get the points back to confirm the now cleared waitlisted flight....

4) Currently I have the confirmed tickets for JFK-FRA-SIN-MEL Business Standard for two pax for 306k points, and I still have a balance of around 240k points. The option is there to waitlist Suites Saver equivalent for 233k points and also Business Saver for 182k. As I have enough points to waitlist both, I'm thinking thats something I should do? If either of them clears, then I can cancel the existing Business Standard seats I have and I'll get to experience either Suites(YAY) or Business for less points than I've already committed to paying for the flights. For a cancellation fee of 30 bucks of course.

 

[legroom]

Ghostdunks

Yes

Your waitlist stands valid even if your points balance falls under the required amount. Just call up when you receive the sms and ask for an extension while you're transferring miles from your bank. They would happily comply.

As for miles re-crediting, it can take 2-3 days usually unless you ask to have it asap. No extra fees, just a polite request will do. But I also have had immediate re-crediting without prompting (an exception, really).

The snag is that I have had waitlist clearance only 4-5 days before dates of departure i.e. next to useless as you already have valid plans by that time....... Unless a Suite comes up to replace a confirmed J seat.

 

[Ghostdunks]

Thanks for the answers legroom. I feel much more confident now with the whole waitlisting process now that you've clarified what I had summarised from hundreds of posts on SQ waitlisting

One more question: on the SQ website, do you put your mobile number as country code 61 and the mobile number as 04XX xx_ xx_, or country code 61, mobile number of 4XX xx_ xx_. Its not clear on the site if I should include the 0 prefix on the mobile number, and i want to make sure I get the SMS if/when a waitlist clears.

Also, is the $30USD cancellation fee per booking or per person?

 

[legroom]

There is no '0' with the mobile number.

I can't recall the cancellation fee as I was not paying attention. Never do.

 

[JohnK]

One more question: on the SQ website, do you put your mobile number as country code 61 and the mobile number as 04XX xx_ xx_, or country code 61, mobile number of 4XX xx_ xx_. Its not clear on the site if I should include the 0 prefix on the mobile number, and i want to make sure I get the SMS if/when a waitlist clears.

As mentioned leave out the 0 prefix.

 

[Ghostdunks]

As mentioned leave out the 0 prefix.

Done! Now eagerly awaiting a sms! Am sure to be disappointed, but crossing fingers! Do they only ever send sms or do they also send out emails for waitlist clearance? Main reason i'm asking is I'll be overseas for 2 weeks before the actual flights and won't have my phone roaming, so if the waitlist does clear, if they don't email as well as SMS, I would have no idea if it cleared or not. Will have email access though so am hoping emails will get sent too.

On a side note, is the normal way of calling Krisflyer call centre to call them on australian number(+612 9350 0203)? I just called them before and after putting in my FF number, going through the prompts, got through to Erica, but the line was really bad. Like VOIP using dial-up from 10 years ago bad. That, combined with her heavy accent(NOT singaporean accent) made it almost impossible for me to understand what she was saying. Gave up after a few mins, might call back another time, maybe I just got unlucky.