Waitlist awards?
 

I'm curious, does the KE website ever show waitlist awards? When trying to book an award flight, I see "X seats" available, but never any indication if those seats are truly bookable or are waitlisted (I tried a bunch of dates, just to confirm this).

Does one need to call them first to confirm? I'm worried that I transfer a bunch of miles, and then when I try to book that "3 Seats" available award, the system tells me only 1 or 2 seats are truly bookable.

As far as I know... they are truly bookable. They're available or they're not.

Separately, KE lets you claim/reserve the award seat without paying, as long as you have the miles. I used to shuffle around a lot, but now they charge fees to change/cancel, so not so much any more.

How do people end up on the KE waitlist then? Is waitlisting only available over the phone? Or are they just exceedingly rare on the website?

I've never had to speak to an agent over the phone. I just open the "contact us" dialogue box, get an agent, and text what flights I want to be WL'd on. Then, when notified that the WL has cleared, I transfer points in and ticket it.

Got it... So you do need to talk to an agent then, there's no mechanism to do it through the website it sounds like. Just wanted to confirm I wasn't missing something obvious.

Well, there IS a mechanism through the website...you click on "open chat" or something like that. But I think you mean there's no way to populate individual fields to set up a waitlist - correct.

Good luck, I've found the on-line chat to work really well, they'll ask a couple of questions to prove you are who you say you are, and once they set up the waitlist you CAN view that on the site under 'my reservations' (or whatever it's called).

Hope you clear the WL and go somewhere exciting - Jamie

can WL be done with skyteam flights also? or only with KE flights?

can someone assist with where to "open chat" on the website, unable to find, thanks