Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer - How likely are waitlisted awards to clear?

Hi folks. I am looking at a potential big reward of MLE-SIN in J and then SIN-FRA-JFK in F. One way this prices out at 115k each, and there are 4 (yes FOUR!) of us. I can get saver availability on a waitlisted basis. How likely are these things to clear? Do they only offer them up when their RM suggests it's likely they'd be available, or is it just pot luck?

Good question and would love to know. I am still on a waitlist for late April for my return DPS-SIN-FRA-JFK. It was scheduled to expire on April 4 but the agent just extended my reservation on the Saver award waitlist to April 11th. For my outbound I booked and have confirmed 2 F Standard awards at 331,500.

I would love to know if they will release these seats and how/when do they make those decisions. I have called a few times and it seems like the agent has been working with me and has sincerely made efforts to expedite the release through the supervisor. I wonder if it helps that I have flown on SQ around 8-10 times over the past 10 years in F and J (both revenue and award).

I think if you are PPS club then you can call and request and they might do something. Otherwise it is upto the luck of the draw.

I think if you are PPS club then you can call and request and they might do something. Otherwise it is upto the luck of the draw.

I've been PPS for 8 years (TPPS for the last 3) and I've never come off an award waitlist :(

First of all I believe the OP is using KF miles but has no status with SQ like QPP (PPS) or TPP (Solitaire). Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Overall, from experiences redeeming on the SIN-FRA-SIN sector on SQ25/26 in the past SQ is unlikely to ever open more then 1 F Saver award seat on this route in KF. In particular if you want to go all the way to / from JFK. Yes you can get lucky and they may open a second one after you grabbed the first one, but your chances for 4 F seats on Saver Awards on this route are very, very low IMHO.

Yes SQ RM is definitely monitoring flights and waitlists for revenue and award and decide what to realease and not to release. Sometimes seat open up 3-4 days out before the flight, but you better have a back up in place already as it may not happen.

I have had waitlists on SQ for saver awards in general in Y, C or F clear within 2 days to 4 weeks, but also had some that never went through. I'm KF Blue so no help from any status there, but if anything may matter it would be PPS or Solitaire.

I have had waitlists on SQ for saver awards in general in Y, C or F clear within 2 days to 4 weeks, but also had some that never went through. I'm KF Blue so no help from any status there, but if anything may matter it would be PPS or Solitaire.
I have had a waitlist on SIlkair economy not come thru. When I was KF Gold. So to summarise 99.99% this will not happen.

Thanks everyone. This is as I expected. seems the waitlist idea is not much use as very hard to plan anything around something with little or no chance of clearing.

I have had a waitlist on SIlkair economy not come thru. When I was KF Gold. So to summarise 99.99% this will not happen.

I hope I don't have to deposit another 166,000 miles to get the standard award:(

For some reason I think that the agent I am working with will come through. She already extended the waitlist which expires exactly 2 weeks before the flight.

I assume that if I book the standard award and the saver becomes available I can't cancel that award and rebook the saver award?

On 744 routes though, Around 3 days before departure, if there's 'A' seats available, they seem willing to release up to 3 F seats.

I was waitlisted last year, in F for JFK-FRA-SIN for about 6 weeks and a week before my "desired" date, I checked every day, many times a day and 4 days before the date I wanted, one became available (checked at about 9:30am EST) and I snapped it up immediately. And being a nosey parker, I checked again a few hours later and found 1 more available in F but when I checked back again the next day, there was no more availability (yes, a nosey parker and a lady!). I think it depends largely on the day of travel.

I've been PPS for 8 years (TPPS for the last 3) and I've never come off an award waitlist :(

Ah.... thank you so much for the info.
I am currently waitlisted to the SIN-FRA flights on award redemption on September. been waiting for about 1 month now.

I better plan for plan B.

Thanks Flyertalk Forum... this is very useful forum.

I didn't want to post a new thread since there was already a thread discussing this, but I also wanted to be careful not pulling back an old thread if not necessary.

With the increase in award redemption rate, I thought there are supposed to be more award seats available (?), maybe I misunderstood their justification on increasing the rate. I have a few waitlisted fligths in Jan and Feb 2013 (one seat in J), I know the waitlist won't expire until early next year, but I am wondeirng if there is really a chance here. I am just a general memebr with absolutely no status or any history with them. Got the miles transferred from one of the credit cards.

I have two flights on waitlist since Sep 11 for Aug 12 and nothing has happend so far. Really depends how loads on the flight look and what Rev. Mgmt thinks they will sell.

And speaking of saver award, will they allow standby? Say I have a saver award J seat confirmed and ticketed on EWR-SIN on 6 January. Then been planning to rebook it one day earlier but the system shows no slot on saver award on that day. Can I fly standby then?

And speaking of saver award, will they allow standby? Say I have a saver award J seat confirmed and ticketed on EWR-SIN on 6 January. Then been planning to rebook it one day earlier but the system shows no slot on saver award on that day. Can I fly standby then?

Yup that should be okay, since it is a SQ ticket

I am trying to fly LAX-SIN on May 3rd....and the flight was available last night, but this morning, its on Waitlist now (DOH!)..

Its lame because you cannot book a mixed class cabin award ticket online to get the 15% discount. So the agent told me to book two separate tickets...one for C and the other for Silk Air in Y (SIN-KUL)....

I have Membership Reward points and want to make sure the flights are available before I dump them into KF....but with this uncertaintly, maybe I should just skip it altogether...

I transferred over AMEX points for a HKG-SIN flight and got J class for the RT for 93000 points.

All in all a good deal in my opinion. I saw the waitlisted options and although they were the times we really wanted passed on them and went with the sure thing.

One is on the A380 and pretty excited for that.

I transferred over AMEX points for a HKG-SIN flight and got J class for the RT for 93000 points.

All in all a good deal in my opinion. I saw the waitlisted options and although they were the times we really wanted passed on them and went with the sure thing.

One is on the A380 and pretty excited for that.

how much were your taxes on that award ticket?

I transferred over AMEX points for a HKG-SIN flight and got J class for the RT for 93000 points.

All in all a good deal in my opinion. I saw the waitlisted options and although they were the times we really wanted passed on them and went with the sure thing.

One is on the A380 and pretty excited for that.

For a moment then I thought you meant 93k for one person but now I assume it was 93.k for 2 J returns!

Personally I would have used 60k points and just booked through aeroplan however you can't get the A380 so it probably turned out better to go with SQ.

how much were your taxes on that award ticket?

200 US dollars total.

Also these were transferred from AMEX MR.

And since this post my wife decided she wanted to go to Phuket instead and $120 US cancellation fee later we are in business from HKG-SIN-HKT for 54000 miles total and I have 39000 Krisflyer miles I may never use.

Ahh...the joys of being married. :p

Were your flights waitlisted?

200 US dollars total.

Also these were transferred from AMEX MR.

And since this post my wife decided she wanted to go to Phuket instead and $120 US cancellation fee later we are in business from HKG-SIN-HKT for 54000 miles total and I have 39000 Krisflyer miles I may never use.

Ahh...the joys of being married. :p

Were your flights waitlisted?

None were waitlisted...the original bookin or the new HKT booking.

Had to call to get the HKG-SIN-HKT route though.

Most waitlists seem to clear at certain intervals before the flight...

Some waitlists clear within 24 hours of reservation, as if they should never had been waitlisted in the first place.

But I have never seen a waitlist clear if you book less than 24 hours of departure

In case you guys haven't noticed, all waitlisted award bookings made prior to July 8 are totally disconnected from new system. I had a waitlist on Feb 7 (IAH-DME-SIN-BKK) and Feb 25 (return), both remained waitlisted after July 8 while the new system gives availability on both dates on exact same flights. So, I had to book a new one (can't believe I finally got biz seats on this route) and cancelled the old bookings. Even the agent told me she is not surprised the old ones didn't get cleared as the two databases are not linked whatsoever. Not sure who beats whom between UA/CO system migration and SQ. :p

I have two flights on waitlist since Sep 11 for Aug 12 and nothing has happend so far. Really depends how loads on the flight look and what Rev. Mgmt thinks they will sell.

@demue: which flight sectors are you currently waitlisted? and when did you booked those flight?

Same topic again:

I have booked a C-seat Saver on SIN-FRA, but iam waitlisted right now. According to my past experience there is not much hope that it will clear.

Does anyone know how many seats are reserved for C-Savers (on a 777ER) and how long the waitlist could be?
If there is no availabilty, is everyone just put on waitlist or are they closing the waitlist after they recieved a certain amount bookings for a saver?

I dont have a back-up plan yet and iam wondering either to buy a ticket or get an economy saver as this is available currently. But for the Y-saver Iam not sure if i jeopardise my C-saver chances (oh there there is a Y-booking from the same person, just let him stay on waitlist).

Is there a possibily to find if there are upgrade savers available before you make a booking?

Same topic again:

I have booked a C-seat Saver on SIN-FRA, but iam waitlisted right now. According to my past experience there is not much hope that it will clear.

Does anyone know how many seats are reserved for C-Savers (on a 777ER) and how long the waitlist could be?
If there is no availabilty, is everyone just put on waitlist or are they closing the waitlist after they recieved a certain amount bookings for a saver?

I dont have a back-up plan yet and iam wondering either to buy a ticket or get an economy saver as this is available currently. But for the Y-saver Iam not sure if i jeopardise my C-saver chances (oh there there is a Y-booking from the same person, just let him stay on waitlist).

Is there a possibily to find if there are upgrade savers available before you make a booking?

I have had almost 100% success in getting business saver awards on SQ25/26 as well as SQ 21/22. As a matter of fact, got two business saver seats on SQ21 on 25 Jan, and have got off the waitlist for business saver for one pax on SQ21 on 11 and 13 Feb, and on SQ 25 (JFK-SIN) for 12 Feb.

Unless you are trying to book for a really busy day, I have found that waitlists usually clear within the last week before flight, sometime two weeks prior. Especially now a days, when I have found 20/30% vacant seats in Business on SQ 21/22 and SQ 25/26

In the meantime i changed to an earlier flight with availabilty.

For the return i decided to take the gamble and wait if its clearing.