Redemption Tickets

[FromTheRail]

Looking at a PER-SIN-LHR journey using points

PER-SIN is available
SIN-LHR is available

PER-SIN-LHR is not available

So I can book it individually, but obvious want to book it as 1 booking so less points used, going to phone up tomorrow to see if this is possible to do

Anyone had this problem before?

 

[aikman]

It is intentional. It's called married segments. There is no way around it. It exists so that Singapore residents can still get award seats without transiting foreigners taking them all.

People can of course still book two separate awards but the higher cost and unprotected transfer is a disincentive.

 

[ChrisMars]

It is intentional. It's called married segments. There is no way around it. It exists so that Singapore residents can still get award seats without transiting foreigners taking them all.

People can of course still book two separate awards but the higher cost and unprotected transfer is a disincentive.

Isn't married segment the exact opposite of what you describe?

i.e. Two segments that are married and can't be booked separately (divorced) where OP want's to combine two segments bookable separately into one? IMHO the later should be possible, maybe an IT glitch that could be fixed with a call... Happy to be corrected of course, I have no experience with SQ at this stage.

 

[BriarFlyer]

Whether married or divorced, it is a thing. Recently I found available awards MEL-SIN and SIN-BCN but no availability MEL-BCN. I called to see if the the 2 segments could be combined on the one ticket and was told no, I would have to book each flight separately.

 

[FromTheRail]

Whether married or divorced, it is a thing. Recently I found available awards MEL-SIN and SIN-BCN but no availability MEL-BCN. I called to see if the the 2 segments could be combined on the one ticket and was told no, I would have to book each flight separately.

Will give them a call later today and try, just the off chance that they say yes

 

[BriarFlyer]

Will give them a call later today and try, just the off chance that they say yes

Always worth asking. Let us know the result.

 

[FromTheRail]

Phoned and got a no, HUCA and got a no again

Will try again tomorrow and see

 

[Kimster]

PLease see post 145

The Master SQ Guide (Krisflyer, Waitlists & Waitlists Clearing)

Not a problem. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news - this deval (as well as points increase across the board) happened in July last year and many were caught unaware. Definitely thrown a spanner in my 3/4 executed plans - to finalise the original plan I would need 63K top up points at $40USD /...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[FromTheRail]

PLease see post 145

The Master SQ Guide (Krisflyer, Waitlists & Waitlists Clearing)

Not a problem. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news - this deval (as well as points increase across the board) happened in July last year and many were caught unaware. Definitely thrown a spanner in my 3/4 executed plans - to finalise the original plan I would need 63K top up points at $40USD /...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Cheers for the info, will give it another go tomorrow

just for extra info, both flights are available as Advantage tickets, so there is no mixed ticket problems

 

[BriarFlyer]

just for extra info, both flights are available as Advantage tickets, so there is no mixed ticket problems

Same in my situation and, sadly, I could not find an agent who could marry them. I wish you better luck as the combination of two Advantage redemptions was ridiculously expensive.

 

[Kimster]

Same in my situation and, sadly, I could not find an agent who could marry them. I wish you better luck as the combination of two Advantage redemptions was ridiculously expensive.

Wow.. looks like the goal posts have been moved. Sad if it is the case, as it does not make sense to pay more points when individual redemptions are available.

 

[BriarFlyer]

Wow.. looks like the goal posts have been moved.

Or it could be a case of the agents I connected with not having the knowledge/capability to handle this.

 

[Mr H]

Same in my situation and, sadly, I could not find an agent who could marry them. I wish you better luck as the combination of two Advantage redemptions was ridiculously expensive.

If you are looking at advantage bookings, then could you do it as a single booking using your free stopover in SIN - you'd have to stay in SIN for more than 24 hours?

Wow.. looks like the goal posts have been moved. Sad if it is the case, as it does not make sense to pay more points when individual redemptions are available.

This is not a new thing. I wanted to get MEL-SIN-DEL in 2019 and ran into the same issue - both flights available but could not be combined. The agent explained all about married segments.

 

[Kimster]

If you are looking at advantage bookings, then could you do it as a single booking using your free stopover in SIN - you'd have to stay in SIN for more than 24 hours?



This is not a new thing. I wanted to get MEL-SIN-DEL in 2019 and ran into the same issue - both flights available but could not be combined. The agent explained all about married segments.

This is what I meant. I could have them combined by speaking to an agent in Feb 23 (yes he said it could not be done at first but eventually did combine after speaking to a supervisor). However, recent posts by other posters dealing with multiple CSR appear to not have it marrried. So either its not possible now due to a direction by SIA or the agents do not have the knowledge/capability to handle this!!!!.

PS: Also spoke to agent a couple of days and they see no J seats (saver or advantage) for redemption from their end - from Dec till early Jan ex Mel/ADL. So all of them come up as waitlist. F saver has also been lapped up with few far between and advantage available freely

 

[Mr H]

This is what I meant. I could have them combined by speaking to an agent in Feb 23 (yes he said it could not be done at first but eventually did combine after speaking to a supervisor). However, recent posts by other posters dealing with multiple CSR appear to not have it marrried. So either its not possible now due to a direction by SIA or the agents do not have the knowledge/capability to handle this!!!!.

I tried multiple agents in 2019 and all assured me that my preferred booking MEL-SIN-DEL could not have the sectors combined when they were not intended to be combinable. No supervisor override, etc.

What does seem to have changed since then is that you can apparently no longer combine SQ awards and Star Alliance awards. If you want to use a Star Alliance airline, all flights on the itinerary have to be available for Star Alliance awards. My 2019 booking of:

MEL-SIN - SQ F
SIN-DEL - SQ F
DEL-IST - TK J
IST-ASB -TK J

would no longer be possible - because the SQ F flights are not available for Star Alliance awards. I pushed and pushed last year to be able to do MEL-SIN-LHR-WAW-OTP partly using LOT and was told "no way, Jose". So I am travelling LHR-OTP by train instead.

 

[Kimster]

I tried multiple agents in 2019 and all assured me that my preferred booking MEL-SIN-DEL could not have the sectors combined when they were not intended to be combinable. No supervisor override, etc.

What does seem to have changed since then is that you can apparently no longer combine SQ awards and Star Alliance awards. If you want to use a Star Alliance airline, all flights on the itinerary have to be available for Star Alliance awards. My 2019 booking of:

MEL-SIN - SQ F
SIN-DEL - SQ F
DEL-IST - TK J
IST-ASB -TK J

would no longer be possible - because the SQ F flights are not available for Star Alliance awards. I pushed and pushed last year to be able to do MEL-SIN-LHR-WAW-OTP partly using LOT and was told "no way, Jose". So I am travelling LHR-OTP by train instead.

Did not think SQ and Star Alliance redemption tickets could be married anyway. I think the posters are all trying to marry SQ individual redemption segments from A-B and B-C to A-C, such as to avoid paying more miles

 

[blacksultan]

It is intentional. It's called married segments. There is no way around it. It exists so that Singapore residents can still get award seats without transiting foreigners taking them all.

People can of course still book two separate awards but the higher cost and unprotected transfer is a disincentive.

Does 2 separate booking mean an unprotected transfer even though your bags might be checked all the way through at origin ?

 

[MathNerd]

Does 2 separate booking mean an unprotected transfer even though your bags might be checked all the way through at origin ?

Unfortunately, yes. The baggage being checked all the way through is simply a pax convenience however from a ticketing point of view it's an unprotected transfer and missing the second flight won't get you automatically rescheduled.

 

[Mr H]

Unfortunately, yes. The baggage being checked all the way through is simply a pax convenience however from a ticketing point of view it's an unprotected transfer and missing the second flight won't get you automatically rescheduled.

This is true, although with both flights on the same legacy carrier there is every reason to think that they would look after you.

 

[MathNerd]

This is true, although with both flights on the same legacy carrier there is every reason to think that they would look after you.

True. A lot of factors could be at play here too (status, etc), but if I were booking separate tickets I would leave a healthy buffer just in case (I've done this plenty of times before and it's always worked).
All comes down to risk-vs-reward at the end of the day (and your propensity to take on the 'thrill')!