Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer - Help pleaseMileage plus redemption in first denied due to equipment change to 380.

Apologies for double posting. At Changi now with only a few hours to departure.

Arrived at Changi to discover that SQ227 to MEL has been changed from 747 to 380. Told by ticketing that my award ticket is not valid on this flight and I have choice of taking later flight (and missing connection in MEL) or downgrading to J.

Ticket was issued Dec 2008 before equiment change was known. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks.

Apologies for double posting. At Changi now with only a few hours to departure.

Arrived at Changi to discover that SQ227 to MEL has been changed from 747 to 380. Told by ticketing that my award ticket is not valid on this flight and I have choice of taking later flight (and missing connection in MEL) or downgrading to J.

Ticket was issued Dec 2008 before equiment change was known. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks.

That is quite outrageous given that it is the day of travel they are putting this in front of you. Now is your onward connection in MEL booked on the same ticket? If not your leverage to accomodate you for the delay and rebook your connecting flight will be limited.

SQ will argue that they are not downgrading you from F when moving you to the other flight. That said it is quoite shoddy behaviour to do this to someone on the day they show up at the airport. I would press my case and escalate to some form of manager (e.g. flight manager) as you have a valid booking in F and did not cause that aircraft change but SQ. Is this really the way to treat a passenger / customer? Ask for something in addition for your traoubles and the bodged trip. Press them in a polite manner. Maybe it helps but talk to someone who can make a decision (for the better or the worse). There are several reports by people on 747 F awards that were actually moved to R-class (suites) as their booking was made well before the changes.

In the end it is up to you what to go for. If they don't budge and you accept the 'voluntary' downgrade to J (new J is nice on the A380 but you paid F miles) then you will not receive any other compensation. really depends on your connection / cost involved for you / time lost vs. a Sky Suite - tough one :) Good luck.

It is a SQ issue and not a UA one .. though your thread over at the UA forum has turned somewhat into a "I hate SQ" topic. So I shall let you keep this thread active just this once.

I can't offer suggestions as you're about to fly. SQ has to keep you on the same flight and keep you in R as they changed the aircraft. Others who had redeemed in the past were allowed to change to R without charge.

I do know personally that SQ hates anything that has to do with UA and will make life as difficult as possible for their fellow passengers. A little birdie told me.. who used to work at UA ticketing and then went to SQ ticketing about the ticketing ADMs that UA gets from SQ over ticket issues! So I guess as long as a ticket has UA's plate on it, SQ will deem it as low revenue and is treating you as such.

Apologies for double posting. At Changi now with only a few hours to departure.

Arrived at Changi to discover that SQ227 to MEL has been changed from 747 to 380. Told by ticketing that my award ticket is not valid on this flight and I have choice of taking later flight (and missing connection in MEL) or downgrading to J.

Ticket was issued Dec 2008 before equiment change was known. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks.

I would ask for immediate cash compensation in the fare difference F vs J class-I think J on the A380 is cheaper than F on a 747.
An award ticket does not mean you are flying for leisure only and dont have important appointments!
I had this issue once with LH when LH switched to a 2 class plane to the US but I was booked on an award in F. LH compensated the OW-fare difference without big trouble-

Wow!
Told by ticketing that "ticket is not valid?":td:
They don't seem to be handling your case quite fairly.
Seems that they are upgrading some to suites class and downgrading others - how do they determine who gets what?
It seems to me it is an SQ problem to sort, rather than UA. UA didn't change the flight at the last moment.
I would go to a manager ASAP to sort it. It is quite unfair.

Apologies for double posting. At Changi now with only a few hours to departure.

Arrived at Changi to discover that SQ227 to MEL has been changed from 747 to 380. Told by ticketing that my award ticket is not valid on this flight and I have choice of taking later flight (and missing connection in MEL) or downgrading to J.

Ticket was issued Dec 2008 before equiment change was known. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks.

So what happened in the end?

Disappointing behaviour by SQ!:(

Any luck?
Updates?

Me too, I am holding a swag of BKK-SIN-MEL J tickets, and now that the A380 is on the MEL run, they want me to fly the old 773, even cutting me out of the ER, unless I pay more, so dying to know what happened to NCflyer

Me too, I am holding a swag of BKK-SIN-MEL J tickets, and now that the A380 is on the MEL run, they want me to fly the old 773, even cutting me out of the ER, unless I pay more, so dying to know what happened to NCflyer

Are these all award flights?! Why would you need to pay more if you have confirmed paid tickets?!

Me too, I am holding a swag of BKK-SIN-MEL J tickets,

Confirmed on SQ227 or open? Puzzled how they could request more $$$ if you are already ticketed and confirmed on the flight. When I made recent J booking SIN-MEL-SIN (all the A380) the price was the same as the 773.

Are these all award flights?! Why would you need to pay more if you have confirmed paid tickets?!

Award or paid should not matter if it is ticketed. SQ gets compensated a set amount by the other airline's FFP so it is paid for. This is just plain shoddy behaviour by SQ. You change the aircraft, you accomodate me. I change my plans I will suck up the consequences.

A big fat :td: to SQ for such practices. Get over yourself and your so famed 'new' C class. It is nice but nowhere near as fantastic as you seem to think.

This is really disgusting on SQ's part.

What if, for some reason, you were ticketed ($$$ or award) on a flight that was scheduled as a 77W, but at the last minute they had to change it to a 773?

I'm sure they wouldn't:

1. Call you pro-actively and tell you that they will re-book you on a 77W.
2. Call you pro-actively to offer you the difference in fare.

No, they would tell you that you are ticketed for a particular flight, not a particular plane. They would probably do the same for a switch from a 380 to a 77W. Shame they refuse to see that in this situation.

In a similar vein, I paid for F on Emirates LHR-DXB-KUL return for two, to enable my wife and I to take the A380. EK then introduced the A380 on the DXB-BKK route and I cancelled my initial tickets with EK at a cost of 150 sterling and purchased new tickets through a travel agent. Although we travelled on the A380 in Suites on the outward leg to BKK, there was an aircraft change to a 777ER for the return. I asked EK to rebook me on the DXB-LHR in Suites on the A380 as we had reverted to a 777ER flight for that leg. Not possible said EK as I was a P ticket holder which did not allow changes. They then agreed to make the changes but a cost of 300 sterling per pax. I also tried to change my flight from BKK-DXB to KUL-DXB as both aircraft were 777ERs. Only possible if I were to pay 400 sterling per pax.

I understand that aircraft go technical at the last minute and aircraft have to be replaced however in this case the A380 was withdrawn two weeks before the due date. Having paid a premium for flying the A380 I expected my concerns to handled sympathetically by EK. Not so, however now that I am home I shall take the matter up again with EK

In a similar vein, I paid for F on Emirates LHR-DXB-KUL return for two, to enable my wife and I to take the A380. EK then introduced the A380 on the DXB-BKK route and I cancelled my initial tickets with EK at a cost of 150 sterling and purchased new tickets through a travel agent. Although we travelled on the A380 in Suites on the outward leg to BKK, there was an aircraft change to a 777ER for the return. I asked EK to rebook me on the DXB-LHR in Suites on the A380 as we had reverted to a 777ER flight for that leg. Not possible said EK as I was a P ticket holder which did not allow changes. They then agreed to make the changes but a cost of 300 sterling per pax. I also tried to change my flight from BKK-DXB to KUL-DXB as both aircraft were 777ERs. Only possible if I were to pay 400 sterling per pax.

I understand that aircraft go technical at the last minute and aircraft have to be replaced however in this case the A380 was withdrawn two weeks before the due date. Having paid a premium for flying the A380 I expected my concerns to handled sympathetically by EK. Not so, however now that I am home I shall take the matter up again with EK

Erm...why are you complaining this to us here on the SQ forum???

Your post has nothing to do with :
1) Award tickets
2) UA and other *A
3) SQ

I raised this issue simply to point out that I had a similar experience several days ago with EK who changed the aircraft and left a number of people unhappy in business and first. That is the common denominator. I know my post was nothing to do with an award ticket, UA and other *G or SQ. I was highlighting the fact that SQ are not the airline which can sometimes get it wrong.

I had a BD issued award seat and flew Suites down to SIN from HKG. Aircraft changed from 772, to 77W to A380 in a matter of a few months.

Check-in agent was a ..... at ITCI - a right know it all - trying to come on that redemption was not allowed etc.

Anyhow, I managed to fly in the Suites though I wasn't overly impressed. EK Suites are much better.

I was much more looking forward to fly F on the 77W.

I only can say.this is SQ! It seems business on longhaul in C and F is getting better. The C is always full these days when I fly. So SQ is back on there high level of arrogance and ignorance towards there customer (especially those none KF/PPS). Hope for you that it turns out positive

Back home now. Absolutely no movement by the SQ duty manager in SIN regarding access to Suites. (Oh ... and access to the First Class lounge as well since we were now travelling in J)

The return leg had also been changed to a 380 and the duty manager told me that we would be required to fly that in J or take the later 777 flight in F - except he was not allowed to change my booking as it was issued on UA stock and needed their permission ... which UA was unable to give since there were no redemption seats showing for that flight. The manager's helpful :rolleyes: solution was for us to show up at MEL for the earlier 380 flight in J and if the 4 remaining F seats for the overnight 777 had not been sold by then we could ask to go standby. Quite what he thought I might like to do for 8 hours in the airport at MEL is beyond me.

The experience at MEL was completely different. Very helpful staff. Accepted that SQ had made the change and that we should be accommodated in Suites. It seemed that they needed to get confirmation from head office in Singapore but this came through the following day and we received a call from the MEL staff that everything was OK.

Having now travelled in both Suites and 77W First I can't understand why they made such a fuss. The seat in Suites is very similar to the 77W albeit with a little more privacy. The big difference between O/R and J as always is the soft product - the sense of personal attention, catering, wine, etc - and these were indistinguishable between the 380 and 77W. There were Suites available SIN-MEL and the revenue consequences to SQ would have been virtually non-existent. Furthermore, the number of award passengers affected by a change of aircraft after ticketing must be minute. To create so much ill will seems very short-sighted.

I have a note confirming the involuntary downgrade and will be writing to SQ but am not optimistic about any miles reappearing in my account. Overall a big :td::td: for an airline that sells itself on the quality of its customer service.