I don't completely disagree with you. But there obviously isn't a clear way to determine or put a dollar amount on the damages in this situation, which is necessary to do in a Small Claims matter. I was simply trying to show that with my wild guess that they will offer around $500, maybe a bit more, that it isn't too far off from the VALUE of someone who would upgrade from executive economy to business class. So basically, I'm suggesting it might be a close call for them what to do, and they may figure, "for about the same amount of money/value, let's keet the passenger happy, as we (SQ) clearly have some fault/responsibility here".

My SQ itinerary doesn't involve NYC, that was someone else's example.

But by the way, i'll bring up this: my award was 70,000 miles to LA, which allows continuing travel on Delta to anywhere in "North America/caribbean/mexico", etc. The award to go on their nonstop to NYC, I'm pretty sure was 80,000 miles in executive economy.

Upon arrival at LAX, I scheduled a "connection" of about 23 1/2 hours (under the legal limit of 24 hours to connect), then the next day, I take Delta, in economy class, on to the East coast, which is my "final destination". From there, I take Delta back to L.A. about a week later, and I make my one permitted "stopover" in LA for a few weeks. Then I continue on SQ, hopefully on their one-stop in business class.

But isn't it interesting that with the 70,000 mile award, you can still get to NYC, but only as illustrated above. I presume with the 80,000 award to/via NYC, one can continue onto L.A., the caribbean, etc.