How to find Aeroplan flights

[DJTravels]

Anyone experienced this before? Searched HKG -> SIN (shows up), and then SIN -> SYD (shows up), but when searching HKG - SYD, no connecting options show up between the two flights. Can't force the two flights on the same booking either by calling or booking a multi-city. The only way is to do two one-way bookings. Connection time is 2h. Is there some Origin Destination restrictions with SQ? That's what the agent on the phone claimed.

Just wondering any other's experiences.

 

[Gold Member]

Anyone experienced this before? Searched HKG -> SIN (shows up), and then SIN -> SYD (shows up), but when searching HKG - SYD, no connecting options show up between the two flights. Can't force the two flights on the same booking either by calling or booking a multi-city. The only way is to do two one-way bookings. Connection time is 2h. Is there some Origin Destination restrictions with SQ? That's what the agent on the phone claimed.

Just wondering any other's experiences.

Most likely married segment logic preventing through connection. No way to circumvent online unfortunately. My suggestion would be to speak with an agent and while on the phone, see if a Supervisor can merge the two separate awards into a single award under the AC partner award rules (bypass the MSL).

 

[LA10]

I'm having the same issue with bkk to Australia on some days. Surely MSL.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm having the same issue with bkk to Australia on some days. Surely MSL.

It is.

I’m interested in the solution presented by Gold Member… it’s generally supposed to be a big no-no to circumvent married segments… I wonder what the success rate is in calling AC about this?

 

[DJTravels]

under the AC partner award rules (bypass the MSL)

Same thoughts as @MEL_Traveller
Does the rules speak to anything related to MSL? When I called, the agent was pretty explicit that it's up to the carrier on setting the restrictions so they can't do anything about it. I wonder if there's any room for them to circumvent this.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Same thoughts as @MEL_Traveller
Does the rules speak to anything related to MSL? When I called, the agent was pretty explicit that it's up to the carrier on setting the restrictions so they can't do anything about it. I wonder if there's any room for them to circumvent this.

There are usually rules in place for travel agents or airline agents who circumvent married segments or other revenue controls… which is the ticket is usually cancelled once the airline identifies it.

I read a few paras on one of the US airline’s agency sites about it, and it was quite explicit that agents shouldn’t do it, and what wouod happen if they did!

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Anyone experienced this before? Searched HKG -> SIN (shows up), and then SIN -> SYD (shows up), but when searching HKG - SYD, no connecting options show up between the two flights. Can't force the two flights on the same booking either by calling or booking a multi-city. The only way is to do two one-way bookings. Connection time is 2h. Is there some Origin Destination restrictions with SQ? That's what the agent on the phone claimed.

Just wondering any other's experiences.

I wonder if minimum connection time comes into play here? A 2 hour connection sounds like enough time for SIN, but it may not be enough if you are on different airlines that don't have an interline agreement as you'd need to clear immigration, collect your bags, clear customs, re-check your bags and go through emmigration and security.

Alternatively, as others have pointed out this could very well be a case of married segment logic whereby certain routings are not permitted to be ticketed together. What I would do as a check is to try searching all other Australian ports which SQ serves namely Adelaide (ADL), Brisbane (BNE), Cairns (CNS), Darwin (DRW), Melbourne (MEL) and Perth (PER) and see if any options show up. If you do see availability elsewhere then chances are you are dealing with married segment logic. Supposing it is genuinely a married segment logic issue, there are two ways you can force yourself onto those flights without having to book separate one ways which will likely cost you more:

• Stop over in Singapore for a nominal amount of time (e.g., 1 day). This will attract a cost of 5,000 points more but will ensure you can ticket the flight as now they are treated as two separate flights
• Stop over in the Australian city that is not subject to married segment logic (e.g., ADL) for a nominal amount of time, or alternatively book it as a multi city from HKG -> ADL then ADL -> SYD as the second flight on the multi city.

-RooFlyer88

 

[I love to travel]

Has anyone ever found SQ 21, the direct EWR to SIN flight on Aeroplan?

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Has anyone ever found SQ 21, the direct EWR to SIN flight on Aeroplan?

I have a number of times. However, as you could probably imagine this is a highly coveted route and one where frequent flyers try and snatch up the seats as soon as they are released 360ish days in advance. Here's one such availability for January next year:


One thing to remember, and I know I'm gonna sound like a broken record for bringing this up, but you can almost always force through business class availability on Aeroplan on international flights by adding a stopover. For instance, flights between New York and Frankfurt/Munich/Zurich in business tend to be quite plentiful. At the same time, there also tends to be a good chunk of flights between Europe and Asia including S'pore. Adding a stop over of even just a day in Europe can open up quite a bit of availability for marginally more than the nonstop option (5,000 points).

-RooFlyer88

 

[I love to travel]

I have a number of times. However, as you could probably imagine this is a highly coveted route and one where frequent flyers try and snatch up the seats as soon as they are released 360ish days in advance. Here's one such availability for January next year:
View attachment 429716

One thing to remember, and I know I'm gonna sound like a broken record for bringing this up, but you can almost always force through business class availability on Aeroplan on international flights by adding a stopover. For instance, flights between New York and Frankfurt/Munich/Zurich in business tend to be quite plentiful. At the same time, there also tends to be a good chunk of flights between Europe and Asia including S'pore. Adding a stop over of even just a day in Europe can open up quite a bit of availability for marginally more than the nonstop option (5,000 points).

-RooFlyer88

Doh I only looked until Jan 20. Thanks And yes will be ready and waiting when the time comes,

 

[I love to travel]

I have a number of times. However, as you could probably imagine this is a highly coveted route and one where frequent flyers try and snatch up the seats as soon as they are released 360ish days in advance. Here's one such availability for January next year:
View attachment 429716

One thing to remember, and I know I'm gonna sound like a broken record for bringing this up, but you can almost always force through business class availability on Aeroplan on international flights by adding a stopover. For instance, flights between New York and Frankfurt/Munich/Zurich in business tend to be quite plentiful. At the same time, there also tends to be a good chunk of flights between Europe and Asia including S'pore. Adding a stop over of even just a day in Europe can open up quite a bit of availability for marginally more than the nonstop option (5,000 points).

-RooFlyer88

For instance, flights between New York and Frankfurt/Munich/Zurich in business tend to be quite plentiful.

Do you mean if you put JFK to BNE for example with a stop in SIngapore it will open up more options?

 

[kangarooflyer88]

For instance, flights between New York and Frankfurt/Munich/Zurich in business tend to be quite plentiful.

Do you mean if you put JFK to BNE for example with a stop in SIngapore it will open up more options?

Yes. To do this you will select multi-city. For flight 1 specify JFK to BNE and click the little blue link that says add stopover for flight 1 and specify SIN as the stopover point and specify how many days you want to spend in SIN. It’ll price out the whole thing in business which will come out to 120,000 points (115,000 points as you’ve flown the most miles in the North America to Pacific award chart plus 5,000 points for adding the stopover).

In terms of finding the availability, I’d look at seats.aero and see what dates they have NYC > SIN available and then what dates they have SIN > BNE available then piece that together as the stopover

 

[I love to travel]

Yes. To do this you will select multi-city. For flight 1 specify JFK to BNE and click the little blue link that says add stopover for flight 1 and specify SIN as the stopover point and specify how many days you want to spend in SIN. It’ll price out the whole thing in business which will come out to 120,000 points (115,000 points as you’ve flown the most miles in the North America to Pacific award chart plus 5,000 points for adding the stopover).

In terms of finding the availability, I’d look at seats.aero and see what dates they have NYC > SIN available and then what dates they have SIN > BNE available then piece that together as the stopover

I guess the downside though of the stopover is that you need to wait until the last flight is bookable if you are looking when the calender opens up. Thanks for your clarification.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I guess the downside though of the stopover is that you need to wait until the last flight is bookable if you are looking when the calender opens up. Thanks for your clarification.

Not necessarily. You could simply book the EWR > SIN flight when it becomes available, and then when you see availability pop up for SIN > BNE you could call up Aeroplan to have that segment added on. There is a cost of $100 to do it over the phone if you hold a Business Lowest award, but if you end up spending slightly more points for the fully flexible business ticket it should be free to add that on (it also comes with free cancellation too). And I say all of this from experience having added ZRH > YYZ on an itinerary I originally booked as SYD > ZRH, and similarly adding ICN > SYD on an itinerary I originally booked LAX > ICN.

-RooFlyer88

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I wonder if minimum connection time comes into play here? A 2 hour connection sounds like enough time for SIN, but it may not be enough if you are on different airlines that don't have an interline agreement as you'd need to clear immigration, collect your bags, clear customs, re-check your bags and go through emmigration and security.


-RooFlyer88

I’m pretty sure the OP is talking SQ->SQ.

Looking at HKG-SIN, it seems it really is restricted to just two carriers, CX and SQ. Everything else is via a hub.

And if the OP was looking at a hub, it likely wouldn’t trigger any interline issues with SQ.