Thunderroad

I'm hoping to fly my wife and myself next year on an award booking on the following itinerary:

SFO-LAX (UA domestic F, a 2-cabin plane)
LAX-NRT (SQ F)
NRT-SIN (SQ F)
SIN -SGN (SQ J, since no F on this route)

I might also do it in reverse coming back, if possible. (The more-complicated-than-necessary routing is to fly on the A380 for the two big legs.)

I have a few questions:

1. Is the 15 percent discount for online award bookings still being offered by SQ?
2. If the 15 percent discount is still being offered, am I correct in assuming that I must call to get it since it seems that booking a mixed class ticket like this online is not possible?
3. If I must call, is it still the same difficult process of getting a CSR to book with the discount? When I tried a couple of years ago it ultimately worked out for me (and for other participants in this thread): http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/singa...f-classes.html. But it was quite a hassle involving several calls.
4. Does the UA flight invalidate the 15 percent discount?
5. Putting aside the 15 percent discount issue, is the planned award itinerary valid?
6. Am I correct in assuming that I should call SQ during regular Singapore office hours to best deal with this? And if so, are there particularly good or bad times/days to call to avoid excessive hold times?
7. Must I have sufficient KrisFlyer miles in my account to make the booking, or will SQ let me put it on hold until I top of my balance with Chase UR or Amex MR points?

As indicated in the thread link I provided, I have some prior experience with this kind of booking. But any updated advice or information regarding these questions or any other matters I should be aware of would be very welcome.

Thanks for any help.

demue

Okay that is quite a list of queries and with some effort and time you could figure most of this out based on existing threads, but here you go with my take:

1. Yes (for SQ & MI flights which are the only ones you can redeem online)
2. Yes (thanks to SQ's fantastic web site )
3. Should be better, but it always depends on the skill level of the agent, worst case HUACA
4. Yes
5. I would say yes as a NA to SE Asia redemption, I don't recall right now whether SQ limits the number of segments to a certain number though (e.g. 3 max each way). However, if you pick SQ11/12 then LAX-NRT-SIN counts as a one segment anyways unless you make a stopover (> 24hrs) in Tokyo or switch to a different flight for NRT-SIN or SIN-NRT (e.g. SQ 637/638)
6. Luck of the draw really, late evenings in SIN can still be busy as people are off work and call, just try and see
7. Yes (if redeeming online)

Good luck getting 2 F awards (I assume you are aiming for Saver level). It is possible, but increasingly difficult especially further in advance. As of late many times max 1 seat is available to be grabbed if any (at saver level all could be waitlist initially) and a 2nd one could take weeks or months to open up if ever. YMMV.

Plus, while not applicable to A380 routes, the planned reduction of F on 77W from 8 to 4 seats does not bode well for F availability in the future. More and more folks with points from Chase, Citi, Amex programs want to redeem for SQ F because every Frequent Travel blogger out there writes about it so competition for a limited number of seats has gone up a lot.

I had a SQ Suites Saver redemption for SIN - NRT pending (1 pax) just a short while ago and it cleared 2 days prior to departure. Just as a reference. If you are not TPP or at least QPP clearing waitlist will require patience, persistence and a certain dose of luck.

Cheers ...

SQueeze

i agree to what demue has already replied.

5. Your routing is valid for sure. Maximum 4 segments per one-way booking and 6 segments per round-trip booking.

7. You can make a booking saying miles are coming in. Ticketing deadline is 72 hours for SQ only with UA segments can potentially be taken back by UA any time. Can be extended too closer to the deadline. From experience, LH took it back after about a week, I have been holding TK now for almost 2 weeks and it's still there. Not sure about UA.

If I were you, I would just do round trip LAX-SIN-SGN with stopovers in intermediate stations using SQ sectors only. Call in to book because of the mixed class situation and the 15% will be given. Even excluding the discount, the SQ award chart is much much cheaper than the *A chart which will be referred to just because of your super short domestic F with UA.

But like demue said, I don't think it's easy to get two saver F seats on this route.

jagmeets

Hang on- wouldn't the UA leg make it ineligible for the 15% discount, as the Star Alliance chart would kick in? (Happy to be wrong!)

If so, might be better to buy a cheapo SFO-LAX and do an SQ award for the remainder of the journey..

lcpteck

I would think so unless the UA leg is on a separate booking.

Yeah fares in USA are so competitive. It's cheaper for someone to fly roundtrip ex-USA than it is ex-SIN or ex-Asia for that matter.

Thunderroad

Very useful information, folks. Thanks!

SingaporeDon

When you call the SQ SIN number, go through the Krisflyer Member route, and you will most likely get the more knowledgeable SIN CSRs. Else you will end up with ICC during peak hours, and I find them not so professional

Thunderroad

Good advice. Thanks very much, Don.