SQ Tips, Trips and Tales

[robtemt]

My wife and mother have J saver bookings Brisbane to Paris on 8 September 2017 to see son/grandson in Toulouse. Mother now wants to delay her flight due to issues with Dad in a nursing home.

Phoned SQ tonight to see about changing Mums bookings by 2 weeks. Had already checked availability and only waitlist for 22 September and a few days either side.


SQ told me no problem with the Brisbane to Singapore flight but the Singapore to Paris is the waitlist. Changed the booking over the phone to waitlist. The SQ rep mentioned something about booking being cancelled by 3 September but did not understand what he was getting at. Have since received the email with change to the booking which reads:

Please note that the ticket issuance time limit for your Singapore Airlines/SilkAir flights is
03 Sep 2017 1000 hours GMT, after which your booking will be
cancelled. Kindly arrange for your ticket(s) to be issued early and do take into consideration the operating hours of your local Singapore Airlines office.


Is anyone able to shed any light what that means? Is it that if waitlist has not cleared that Mum is stuck with 8 September booking?


Have checked Expert Flyer and the Singapore to Paris flight on 23 September has only 10 vacant whereas the one the next day has 28 vacant seats. Either day suits Mum. Is it possible to have multiple waitlists?

Yes, you can have multiple waitlist requests.

Also ask the reservations agent to send a request to the route manager to see if they can release the waitlist seats to you. Explain to them the circumstances. I would think that in your case, they would give it even more consideration. Anytime we have been waitlisted we ask for the expedited request to sent through, usually though because the cabin is completely empty. They always ask us if there is any special occasion or situation to include in the request for consideration.

Are you certain it doesn't say "reserved" on your booking now for any of the waitlisted flights? That would indicate you've cleared the list, but haven't confirmed with reservations. You should have had another email or sms telling you to contact reservations though if this had occurred.

 

[Meggsy]

Folks, I had planned a suites saver redemption SYD-SIN-ZRH departing on a Monday. My booking window opens in about 2 weeks time and looking at current Monday availability in the weeks leading up to my date there has been saver availability every Monday. Slight change of plans now sees me leaving on a Sunday and there does not appear any availability of saver options on Saturdays or Sundays for this route. If I search for these legs individually though they both show saver availability on a Sunday departure i.e. SYD-SIN on a Sunday connecting with the SIN- ZRH early Monday. Does anyone know if I were to ring would I be able to book this as one flight or is it a case of if its not available online its also not available on the phone.

 

[robtemt]

Call on the day (morning) of the 355 day window, I called at 0600 AEST when I got into the office. I had a similar, but opposite issue for my return booking. LAX-SYD was available to book. Exact same flights as LAX-NRT-SIN-SYD had NRT-SIN as waitlist (LAX-NRT-SIN is actually SQ11, we wanted to do stopover in NRT) when we split it up into our actual itinerary. They were able to make it work by doing it as waitlist and requesting an expedited clearing of the waitlist.

You might be better off booking what is available without waitlist so you at least secure something while they sort out the rest of it for you.....

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Folks, I had planned a suites saver redemption SYD-SIN-ZRH departing on a Monday. My booking window opens in about 2 weeks time and looking at current Monday availability in the weeks leading up to my date there has been saver availability every Monday. Slight change of plans now sees me leaving on a Sunday and there does not appear any availability of saver options on Saturdays or Sundays for this route. If I search for these legs individually though they both show saver availability on a Sunday departure i.e. SYD-SIN on a Sunday connecting with the SIN- ZRH early Monday. Does anyone know if I were to ring would I be able to book this as one flight or is it a case of if its not available online its also not available on the phone.

Availability for single legs is not a guide for availability of multiple leg trips.

It may well be that Sat/Sun departures are simply more popular (ie others will want the same seats you do) out of Australia for people that book 12 months out who are most likely leisure travellers. I have certainly found this to be the case on many SQ routes.

My observations of doing many dummy booking runs over the years is that as to Europe from Australia is very popular in Suites with various destinations that people booking redemptions to FRA, LHR, CDG may wipe out your ability to book to ZRH if they get in first. ie if you have 4 people looking to book 2 seats each to those 4 cities that is 8 suites, and I doubt that SQ will actually release 8 seats to awards 12 months out. and indeed some Suite flights next year (SYD is rumoured be one city to gain the new Suites) will be in the new smaller cabin with less total seats.


Calling however can achieve more options than what you can see online.

 

[Meggsy]

Thanks robtemp and lovetravellingoz. I will call on the morning at 355 days out in a couple of weeks and keep my fingers crossed. Appreciate the responses.

 

[moffat39]

Thanks for the helpful responses to my questions. Phoned SQ tonight to book multiple waitlists and agent checked and bingo Mum is on a confirmed flight Brisbane to Paris departing the next day!

Had thought about checking Barcelona but spoke to son last night in Toulouse and he will be in Paris that weekend playing AFL for Toulouse so it works out even better. There are two AFL sides in Toulouse and they play in a nine a side competition.

 

[Dannyism]

Well we are all booked in for our euro trip next year. F on the MEL-SIN legs, and R on the SIN-EU legs. Thanks for everyone's help.

It will be a long wait until August next year but always nice to have something to look forward to.

On the 777 4 class, with only one row of 1st class. Is it better for partners to sit middle/middle or middle/aisle?

 

[tizey]

On the 777 4 class, with only one row of 1st class. Is it better for partners to sit middle/middle or middle/aisle?

I prefer the middle/middle as its closer than middle/aisle - you feel too far away middle/aisle.

 

[moffat39]

I prefer single seats with mine behind the wife. That way she does not see the SIngapore Girl topping up my drink!

 

[robtemt]

I prefer single seats with mine behind the wife. That way she does not see the SIngapore Girl topping up my drink!

Ha! That's gold! My other half says "better drink up that Krug before they run out!". I of course, do as I'm told.

Edit, oh yeah, I'll stay on topic.... We always take the two middle seats on the A380. We are booked in a 1 row 777 config and have chosen middle for those as well. It's easier for me to reach over and taste what he ordered that way too.

 

[tizey]

I prefer single seats with mine behind the wife. That way she does not see the SIngapore Girl topping up my drink!

That doesnt always work. Last SQ F flight we had - Mrs Tizey had a nap for a few hours and didnt see the Krug getting topped up throughout the MEL-SIN leg... next you know I'm the taxi rank having no recollection of passing through Passport Control

 

[TomVexille]

On the 777 4 class, with only one row of 1st class. Is it better for partners to sit middle/middle or middle/aisle?

We found the experience is more fun when you can chat easily side by side in the middle

 

[lovetravellingoz]

We found the experience is more fun when you can chat easily side by side in the middle

Ah...young love




Though we also prefer the middle side by side seats.

 

[TomVexille]

Ah...young love




Though we also prefer the middle side by side seats.

I know. We're usually fighting over the window seat

 

[cove]

After 43 years the last go we did 2A and 3A.

 

[Dannyism]

Looking at some photos it seems the 777 F middle seats are much closer together than the Virgin or Qantas J 'booths'.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Looking at some photos it seems the 777 F middle seats are much closer together than the Virgin or Qantas J 'booths'.

Yes, the extra space allows for it.

 

[andy2015]

SYD-SIN-FRA-JFK F Nov 8 booking is going to be cancelled on the 9th. Not sure if it will go back to being bookable but if it does it might be of interest to someone here.

 

[Buzzard]

SYD-SIN-FRA-JFK F Nov 8 booking is going to be cancelled on the 9th. Not sure if it will go back to being bookable but if it does it might be of interest to someone here.

And I'm shortly going to cancel one suite on SQ232 on 22/11, same route. +1 has decided not to join me so I'm going on my own.

 

[ChrisF]

Does anyone happen to know the UK 'phone number that gets you straight through to the KF call centre in Singapore?