Hello - Just doing my homework for an award itinerary next year. 2 pax, same exact flights but different redemptions. One using UA miles and the other on LifeMiles. ROR (Palau) --> Manila --> SIN --> Jakarta (CGK) all on one ticket. When we land in Jakarta, we intend to continue onward on a separate ticket for a domestic Garuda flight departing 20 min after midnight (00:20hrs).

The MNL-SIN flight arrives SIN at 11:20 AM (there is no earlier flight). Would like to spend several hours in SIN. There are two evening flights SIN-Jakarta which are of interest. The first SQ 964 leaves SIN @ 17:20 (gives us a 6 hour layover in SIN) and arrives Jakarta 18:05 which would give us 6h15min to pick up our bags, clear immigration and head to Garuda to Check-In. The second SQ 966 departs SIN @ 18:40 (gives us a 7h20 hour layover in SIN) and arrives Jakarta 19:25 which would give us 4h55min to pick up our bags, clear immigration and go to Garuda to Check-In. On Flightstats, both have a fair-to-good on-time rating with an average delay of ~12-15 min. But for example a couple of days ago 966 was 1-1/2 hours late. Anyways...

1) If we book 966 on a non-SQ award, will they allow us to standby for the earlier 964 if we want to?
2) The obviously safer bet would be to just book 964. But is there great peril in booking 966? I would imagine on an ordinary day 4h55min would be enough to pick up our bags, do immigration and head over to Garuda to check-in, and we could even stomach a 1.5-2 h delay on 966. What I don't know is how long the administrative stuff would take after landing in CGK. The SQ flights arrive into Terminal 2 and the GA flight departs Terminal 3. Furthermore, there could be schedule changes between now and next year... and I just read a none-too-flattering account of immigration queues in Jakarta. https://loyaltylobby.com/2017/07/26/...pasar-airport/

Thanks