Troopers

Try calling and ask for award routing possibilities...that's what I did. They may find J space in an routing/dates that you didn't think of. You do have to be somewhat flexible in your dates though.

My July HKG-SFO was waitlisted. My initial plan was to take get to HKG (from TPE) and hope for HKG-SFO to clear. When I called for a chaser, I told the agent my initial plan hoping for HKG-SFO to clear and also asked for possible J award routes to SFO. Agent found J award space from TPE-SIN and then SIN-SFO so I took it and extended my trip a few days in SIN.

gnomey

Yeah good idea. Unfortunately my date is fixed, plus looking for flights outbound CPT so dont think I have other way to route if using SQ!

The only strange thing is sometimes ex-JNB will not appear as waitlist, while ex-CPT is waitlist. not sure why when both flights are actually the same plane...

flyingmusicianlax

Hi folks,

Hoping for some advice regarding the following situation:

Flying USA - MLE in April, 2018. Website shows LAX-ICN-SIN available in F saver, but SIN-MLE is waitlist only for the morning flight on SilkAir. If I through-search LAX-MLE via ICN and SIN in J, it comes back as waitlist. However, if I search IAH-MLE (via MAN and SIN) in J, it comes back with confirmed saver availability. What should I do here?

A.) Book the LAX-ICN-SIN award and waitlist SIN-MLE on a separate award? Then, if it clears, call to add it to the original award?

B.) Call SQ, point out that the routing originating in IAH shows the SIN-MLE segment as available and see if they will force SIN-MLE open on the routing originating in LAX?

C.) Another option I'm not thinking of?

terbangalways

First of all, which departure city you prefer? I assume LAX?

A). If you book as separate award, then miles required will be LAX-SIN + SIN-MLE. Call in ask agent to reserve confirmed F LAX-SIN, then add wait list SIN-MLE. Also try to convince agent to honour lowest miles for this mixed class.

B). Agent will insist availability is based on married segment and quota. However, You could talk to agent nicely and ask his help to tag confirmed SIN-MLE J. Long shot to convince agent but is doable. I have done this before.

C). To combine the above, Call and ask agent to reserve both A & B. Then he can manually grab the confirmed J SIN-MLE from B and transfer to A. Do search for other dates/flights if you could. Take advantage of transit rule. Simply HUCA for more helpful agent if possible.

flyingmusicianlax

Thanks so much for the quick response! That makes sense - I will give that a shot. We can depart from anywhere in the USA, gunning for F class since it's our honeymoon.

Also, considering making this into a *A award (OZ F JFK-ICN, SQ F ICN-SIN, MI J SIN-MLE) - if I do that, can I still follow your advice as given in C. above?

demue

Don't think you can mix MI into a *A award. Maybe with the SQxxxx 4-digit codeshare it works, but never tried that. You'll have to call anyways, so just ask.

gnomey

Does waitlist flight need to have the same booking reference code as the confirmed flight? I was told this must be the case, if I want to avoid change/cancel fee, when moving from a confirmed flight to waitlist flight (both flights same route, cabin type, etc - only difference is diff flight date)

Also, not sure if this is the norm, but does SQ always ask what is the reason before putting in a chaser for you? I am not sure if a 'chaser' is what the CSR put in for me, but she did ask me the reason why I want to move to a waitlisted flight. Not sure if the reason provided impact the chance of scoring the waitlisted flight

fone

How do you even have the same booking reference code, the only way I can think of is to call in and ask them to waitlist for the booking using that booking reference? Anyway, I've waitlisted separately and gotten them to charge the cancel fee, just got charged the change fee.

terbangalways

Not 100% sure but should be able to if segment by segment. They can manually grab and tag it to your booking - SQ/MI flights.

Do cross check if there is still SQ long haul surcharges on *A award.

If is convenient, ex-JFK is preferred. Suites on A380 is far more superior than F. U will love it! Perfect for honeymoon

Congrats!

terbangalways

Yes, you need to call in and ask them to add the WL flight to existing booking.
Different booking ref will trigger additional miles.

gnomey

Just like what terbangalways said right above me.

I also didnt know about this until I recently called up. I dont think there is any way to "attach" your waitlist flight, to an existing booking yourself, such that both the confirmed existing booking + waitlist flight share the same booking reference.

It was a strange concept to me. But the CSR offer to do that for me (since they were both originally separate booking references) so that I can avoid fees in the future when my desired waitlist flight opens up. This is assuming same route, same cabin type, etc, with only flight date being different.

flyingmusicianlax

Thanks! So, they will let me add a waitlist MI flight to a *A reservation?

Also, one last question for you all: I don't see a single Silk Air flight on SIN-MLE available for immediate confirmation between today and 351 days from now; every single one is waitlist. Is it worth pursuing with a tag? Anyone have any data on this flight or other Silk Air flights confirming after being on waitlist? (Did a search and couldn't find anything.)

terbangalways

Never had MI in my *A so not sure if it's possible.
I was referring to SQ/MI flights in original post.

If MLE is your final destination then Yes! Is worth waiting for WL to clear.
Separate ticket from SIN-MLE is not cheap. Also 4 hours flight.

You could ask agent to send chaser. Is time consuming though as you need to call and monitor. Do note that although MI has better timing than SQ to MLE. Is still a narrow body aircraft. Still better than US carriers but not even close to SQ.

sonomawine

Quick data point:

Waitlisted two F seats LAX-NRT for December 2017 last week, they cleared within 3 days. I've had a lot of success with wait listing, but this was the fastest it has cleared with the flights 7 months out.

SQueeze

Late last week, I had two waitlisted awards (in F from CDG for 2 in Sep'17 and also in J to DEL in Aug'17), both cleared in the same afternoon after 4 hours,

I was stunned by their generosity