FlyingDobber

Dear All,

Having cashed in 100,000 miles to go MAN-SIN-AKL and rtn in July and August I bought a Y class ticket and upgraded to C.

Now planning next years holiday I have made a provisional booking on SQ for the AWARD section only: I have yet to buy my "commercial" ticket yet, is this OK?

I also have thought about the RTW route but wanted to maximise my time in SQ's C. Any ideas? Secondly with this point is how many miles are required for a RTW upgrade?

Finally, as a UK resident how can I fully maximise my miles...there appears to be no Credit cards etc for Europeans. I think that this has been discussed before.

Cheers for any advice

Clowesy

jjpb3

I'm probably misunderstanding what you mean by "provisional booking on SQ for the AWARD section only", but my impression was that SQ will not confirm an upgrade award unless you've booked the flight. When I've done mileage upgrades, the first information that they've asked me for has been the booking reference.

The best we could come up with was to transfer Amex Membership rewards points to hotel programs like Priority Club, and then transfer those points to KrisFlyer. But this method cuts your points by half. MAN Flyer hasn't been able to influence the SQ powers-that-be for the rest of us UK-residing SQ fans.

FlyingDobber

Hello,

Sorry I called KF Glasgow this afternoon without having bought a ticket in (Y) they then booked me on Raffles class for a seat which I have not yet bought! I know this seems very strange!

They have however given me a booking reference and as long as I have both miles and a bought ticket by July 5th 2006 they said it was fine.

Not really sure about this though...

Cheers
Clowesy

shortfinals

They might have booked an outright award for you, and just not issued it yet, since it all comes from the same bucket.


Depends on how many SQ legs you have in there.Upgrades are grouped by region. Just add em all up. They're obviously more worth it if bundled together - for example LHR-SIN-SYD is 50K straight through, but if you broke your journey in SIN, LHR-SIN becomes 45K + SIN-SYD 35K.

You could upgrade ALL the legs of a RTW if you had miles in each single operating carrier you're ticketed in.

Savage25

Not to worry...I've done this about half a dozen times. You can book your upgrade (and select your seat) anytime without having bought a Y ticket - its confirmed and you a given a date by which you have to issue the upgrade (and of course, buy the original Y ticket), usually 2-3 weeks before the flight.

CGK

Agree. The upgrades and award seats are from the same inventory. Thus, you are protected, as long as the ticket and upgrade issued before the ticketing dateline. And, AFAIK, this ticketing dateline uses Singapore time zone. Make sure do it before to avoid any surprises.
You can buy your Y tickets anytime between now and the deadline when you think the fares is right for you. You can wait near the deadline for issuance of the upgrade certificates which is done electronically now. And make sure that in your upgrade reservation, that you are upgrading, not a free tix. This to avoid missing miles credit. (Happened to me for my LHR-SIN three times already...)

FlyingDobber

Cheers, thaaks very much, just seemed an odd way of doing it...Maybe I need to reserve my seats now: this summer I used 1A 1C both to AKL then front row upper deck for SIN MAN - not pps so couldnt get 17a & 17C

Thanks for your replies

Clowesy

CGK

It's a unique, and I hope SQ will not change it. And I hope no one abuse it by making so many advanced upgrade bookings...

1A 1C?

TerryK

I think CX allows booking upgrades before commercial booking as well. ^ Your upgrades are booked in a separate PNR as opposed to most airlines who book upgrades on the same PNR.

The only thing is you need to make sure that your paid booking class is still available or else you may be forced to pay for a higher fare.

jjpb3

The things I learn at FlyerTalk ^ . This discussion has been new to me, and I've incorporated it into the FAQ, in the "Should I join KrisFlyer?" section. Thanks to Savage25, CGK, and TerryK for the responses, and to FlyerDobber for raising the issue.

On a related note ...

Could someone also explain why KrisFlyer agents have often tried to get me to book upgrade awards on flights that are not the flights I've already bought tickets for?

For example, I book flights with the schedule that best fits my preferences, then I call to inquire whether I can upgrade relevant segments using miles. The agent then says, "Sorry there is no availability on the flight you're on, but there is availability on another flight that date. Would you like me to confirm the upgrade on that flight?"

I'm perplexed: why would an upgrade award on a flight I'm not on, be useful to me? (This is on an economy class booking, and not the fully-flexi variety. )

FlyingDobber

11a 11c - the front row anyway! I like it there...

Cheers for putting this issue in the faqs...

CGK

Well, not all stuff should be made public right? So, I usually try not to "advertise" what SQ has done for me (oh or even UA in the past as a matter of facts, while I was still living in SFO). And since FlyerDobber posted this thread, I waited till someone anwered, i.e. Savage25.

My guess, is the idea of a scarcity in SQ award tix leads to the agent to offer you what's available when you call. And of course you can take that, and waitlist for your preferred one. Thus the customer has some degrees of satisfaction.
Also, by encouraging you to take the available upgrades using those miles, the liabilities of SQ towards the FF miles will decrease right?
I give you an example. LHR-SIN. I want to get A class for part of my FRTW tix. Not available. Paying full F, not available. But, there is one O-class. So, I grab that seat, and using my CRTW. Strange, but it happens three times to me for LHR-SIN last minute changes in my schedule.

Savage25

Or you may not find that economy is sold out altogether....I've been in that situation once when I couldn't find any economy availability on the flight I wanted. Made a booking online on another day (in a cheap M class, no less) and then made a call to reservations to change the date to the one I wanted. They said they could only waitlist me for that flight since there was no availability in any economy booking class. I asked them to reference my confirmed upgrade booking on the original flight (which I still hadn't issued at that point), and they cleared me off the waitlist right away. ^