I just changed the return flights that I booked in December.
I had booked SQ J awards CPT-JNB-SIN-ADL. The original cost was 123,250 KF miles plus ZAR9,970 (~A$1000 at the time) for two pax.
The flight times for CPT-JNB-SIN on the A350 are excellent, departing CPT at 10:40 and arriving at SIN at 06:10 the next morning. I have a significant preference for daytime flights and these flights allow for quite a few hours enjoying the SQ J service and then about six hours of alcohol assisted sleep before arrival at SIN. Unfortunately, the only SIN-ADL flight departs at 23:10 which means an 18 hour layover. I was on this flight in February after a nine hour layover and didn’t enjoy it at all. It is an A330 with 2-2-2 seating with only supper service. Anyway, I was happy to find availability for the date I required so I booked it.
On 3 April
AusBT published an
article about SQ207 SIN-MEL becoming an A350 service. It departs SIN at 07:45 so that got me thinking. If I changed the SIN-ADL to SIN-MEL we would have a 90 minute layover and a nice daytime flight in J on the A350. With the recent KF changes, and only 19,000 miles available, I didn’t think I’d have much chance of making it work but checked it out for fun anyway.
CPT-JNB-SIN-MEL using SQ207 was only available for waitlisting but it showed me that this flight combination was possible (MCT etc.) and also that I would need an extra 32,750 KF miles and that the new taxes were ZAR1465 (~A$140), so A$860 less cash.
I then had a look to see if just SQ207 was available on the date required and I was surprised to see that it was. What surprised me even more was that it was available as a J saver award (58,000 miles) but could only be waitlisted as a standard award (90,000 miles). If anyone can explain why a saver award is available but a standard award can only be waitlisted, I’d be very interested. Here’s a pic of what I mean:
Getting on SQ207 wasn’t looking promising but I decided to persevere as I enjoy a challenge. Even if I could change the SQ flight, we still needed to get from MEL to ADL. SQ207 is due to arrive at MEL at 17:10 and the last QF MEL-ADL flight of the day departs at 20:35. Three hours between flights would be my absolute minimum on separate PNRs so this was still a possibility.
I have some spare BA Avios, and a J award MEL-ADL on QF is one of the BA award sweet spots at only 9000 Avios and A$21 per pax. Two seats were available!
This was still a slim possibility so I decided to call SQ and see what happened. My problems at this point were that there was only waitlist available for the route as booked, although the segment I wanted was available, and I only had 26,000 VFF points which could be instantly converted to 19,000 KF miles, 14,000 less than I needed. I had read that I might be able to buy the extra points at the time of booking but I wasn't sure.
I spoke to a very professional CSA and explained that I wanted to change the final segment to SQ207 SIN-MEL. He had a look and said it was available and then explained that the KF award costs had changed since I had booked, and that he would have to re-price it at the current rates. I explained that I was 14,000 points short, but I had heard that I could buy the extra points. He said yes, that was fine for US$40 per 1000 points. He then waited while I transferred my VFF points to KF.
The CSA explained that I would have to pay US$560 (A$745) for the new points and US$20 per pax re-issue fee now, and that I would get a refund for the money already paid (A$1000), less the new taxes (A$140). I said “that’s fine”, he took my credit card details and said that it would be ticketed in three days.
I then booked the MEL-ADL flights using Avios.
The SQ flights have now been ticketed. I managed to get my preferred seats 11A and 12A as the cabin was wide open. Sweet!
The total cost to make the change was 26,000 VFF points and 18,000 Avios. I will end up ~A$150 ahead cash-wise. For this I get a short layover at SIN and a nice A350 daytime flight to MEL, followed by QF J to ADL, instead of an 18 hour layover and overnight A330. If all goes to plan we get home 10 hours earlier at 10pm and straight to bed.
If it all goes to cough we’ll be stuck in MEL overnight and I’ll have to buy last minute tickets to ADL for the next day. SQ207 was diverted to SYD a couple of days ago which would have caused a misconnect. If JNB-SIN is delayed by more than an hour that will stuff us up too. The risk doesn’t bother me, I’ll deal with it if it happens.
It’s a shame I didn’t have the extra KF points available and had to buy them. I would have been very happy to make the change for 32,750 KF points and get around $800 back.
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