Waitlist of SQ J vs TG J?

[kamchatsky]

I am looking at redeeming 2 * 1 way J SYD-SIN-either FRA/ATH/CPH/AMS/FCO Saver award for September this year using KF points. And of course me being late to the party so far there are some routes available for waitlist only.

Looking at ANA tool I noticed that I can get to some of the above destinations via BKK on TG J instead. But obviously I prefer to be on SQ than TG (better service and seats?!).

I was wondering whether it is worth waitlisting on SQ J Saver award, and the success rate of SQ actually releasing seats closer to departure date? Or should I just give up and redeem TG J one-way Saver award on KF points directly?

Finally, when redeeming on TG using KF miles, how much are the taxes/surcharges? When redeeming in SQ before they always charge an arm and a leg for it.

 

[lmere12]

Finally, when redeeming on TG using KF miles, how much are the taxes/surcharges? When redeeming in SQ before they always charge an arm and a leg for it.

I redeemed on KF flight TG - ZRH-BKK then SQ from BKK-SIN-BNE = 508 SGD if thats any help. That was booked in May '11

 

[albatross710]

I am looking at redeeming 2 * 1 way J SYD-SIN-either FRA/ATH/CPH/AMS/FCO Saver award for September this year using KF points. And of course me being late to the party so far there are some routes available for waitlist only.

Sometimes things aren't as bad as they seem, many people are changing their plans and seats go and come available again.

I was wondering whether it is worth waitlisting on SQ J Saver award, and the success rate of SQ actually releasing seats closer to departure date? Or should I just give up and redeem TG J one-way Saver award on KF points directly?

I have been using a strategy on the SQ website of waitlisting around my chosen dates, provided you have some flexibility with dates and times then this can work for you.

You can have multiple waitlisted bookings on the SQ internet site without paying anything. When the sector(s) become available I've received an email, taken a look at the available flights and then decided to cancel it and wait for my preferred dates.

Which is the sector that is causing you the drama? You could have waitlisted booking references as follows:

Day 1 SYD-SIN-ATH
Day 2 SYD-SIN-FRA
Day 3 SYD-SIN-CPH

My preference would be for you to concentrate on which Saver destination you prefer. The do your waitlists as:

Day 1 SYD-SIN-ATH
Day 2 SYD-SIN-ATH
Day 3 SYD-SIN-ATH

If you have some spare miles up your sleeve I can recommend the F Saver redemption to FRA.

Obviously you are going to want to commit very soon. You might run with the above strategy for a week to see what drops out. I have had some waitlists confirmed by the time I finish the booking process, other 2-3 days. When I haven't had a suitable solution after a week I have changed one sector to Standard award and that cleared the other waitlist.

Another consideration I have used is to book as 1 x seats.

Another thing I noticed when planning some flights the other day. If my point of departure was BNE I got Saver awards all the way to FRA. If my departure point was MNL, no Saver award was available on the SIN-FRA sector. That might have just been a new website bug.

Another consideration is if the problem sector is SYD-SIN, consider departing from BNE which has 3 J Saver flights per day. Use QFF or Velocity points to get to BNE.

Finally, when redeeming on TG using KF miles, how much are the taxes/surcharges? When redeeming in SQ before they always charge an arm and a leg for it.

I have only made one KF redemption in TG and I had the impression the taxes were similar to SQ.

Alby

 

[dajop]

Just a thought, don't TG have sloping lie flat seats on most European routes these days? In which case the seats should be fairly similar to the SQ's (sloping) spacebeds that are available on European saver flights, so maybe TG is an adequate substitute for SQ (even service is usually pretty good on TG, even though sometimes its just NQR ... not quite right). I guess the advantage of SQ is the 15% discount. I'd be waitlisting now, and keep and eye on TG through the ANA website and make a call in about 3 weeks time, depending on where TG is moving in terms of availability.

 

[kamchatsky]

Thanks for your comments.


Unfortunately new SQ website is playing havoc on booking redemption tickets. I was looking at SYD-SIN-FRA on F and they display SIN-FRA only (WTF?!) and of course listed available. I will play around to see what I can get for waitlisting.

Also I have only 61K in my account (need 63K for Europe on J at least) so it won't let me put though waitlist order. Is this right? I don't want to move miles to KF until I know that there are seats available.

 

[lmere12]

if its a mixed class it won't let you book via the web only on phone and forget the 15% discount

 

[albatross710]

Also I have only 61K in my account (need 63K for Europe on J at least) so it won't let me put though waitlist order. Is this right? I don't want to move miles to KF until I know that there are seats available.

You do need to have enough miles to cover the waitlisted flight. However, you can have multiple waitlists using the same minimum miles.