Originally Posted by
work2fly
SQ certainly overbooks flights. 2 of us were unceremoniously dumped from J to Y yesterday.
I suspect this worked out well for SQ since these were 1 way biz awards at 26K KF miles each. And it worked out well for me also, since I value those miles at US $390 and received $400 SGD cash back from SQ for the downgrade.
Not as rich as other airlines, but I sure as heck wasn't taking an upgrade voucher (from the airline that just dumped me from a paid seat due to circumstances entirely by their design) nor points (that would inevitably need more points or cash to top off for something useful).
Sorry to hear that - some of my work colleagues have similarly been offered downgrades on recent flights but chose to rebook instead, since with 4 flights a day from London, you don't usually have to wait too long.
In my opinion, it's probably better to take the upgrade voucher in those circumstances - the upgrade (either Y to J or J to F) is usually worth more in monetary value than the points spent, and I believe that upgrade vouchers issued under those circumstances do not have to fulfil the requirement for there needing to be an award seat (either in Saver or Advantage) available in order for you to get a seat. In my personal experience, if there are seats available in the next class on the flight, you are just upgraded without needing to wait. Granted it does depend on the frequency of your flight schedule.