Originally Posted by
hyprspeed
I tried booking a business class award through Star Alliance on Singapore Airlines in Dec 2010 to route from HKG - SIN - MLE as my wife and I are flying from the US to Hong Kong and then onto the Maldives.
However, it seems there is no availability and on top of that we cannot choose our seats.
Can someone familiar with SA help me understand if:
1) Should I be able to use United Miles to achieve a Business Class award? Does SA even have that or is it so far out that all Business Class seats are likely yet to be put into the award category?
2) What's up with not being able to pick your seat!?
I'm 1K with United, but I don't think that makes much of a difference. The agent suggested I just keep contacting back to then rebook an award if it opens as there is no fee for 1K changes.
Thanks!
If there's no availability, meaning you can't get tix, what seat are you wanting to choose? Or are you saying that you can't choose seats US-HKG?
When you say the agent suggested re-booking an award, are you flying US-HKG on an award, and you're trying to extend it to MLE?
Go to the United forum and do a search on "Starnet Blocking" - you'll find a ton of information about the difficulty of booking *A partner awards. Also, SQ can be notoriously difficult to book in general, esp. in the premium cabins, and particularly with UA miles.
Anyway, for #1, yes, you should be able to book tix. in biz. provided seats are available (meaning an airline (in your case, SQ) makes them available and then UA doesn't block them after that). It's not technically too far out, but you should keep trying ever day or every other day or so. Bear in mind that December is high season for MLE and adjust expectations accordingly.
For #2, I'm not sure which seat you can't pick. Well, at least don't pick mine - I have my modesty!
Couldn't resist. If you're saying that you can't pick your seat from the US-HKG, I'm presumably you're not on UA(?).