wolfpacktrojan

- Which route/airline did you book and which class?
Booked 2 J saver awards on SQ481 JNB-SIN (A350 route, no F)
- How many award miles & cash per person?
45,000 miles and $34.30 USD per person
- How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
I booked at the 355 day threshold.
- Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel with immediate confirmation/Waitlist?
I was able to book my preferred date immediately without waitlisting. I was expecting some difficulty, considering December is high season for South Africa.
- How often did you have to check/call until you got the seats?
0.
- Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?
Booking online was painless and quick. 45k miles for an 11 hour flight is a steal, uncomfortable foot cubby and all!

gilbertaue

Currently (this weekend) having frustrating experience with the India call centre.

Wanting to fly KUL-CDG in F for 2pax (obviously KUL-SIN only in J)

Three dates all available online. Both for the KUL-SIN leg in J as well as the SIN-CGK leg in F.

Call centre says only my third option is available. Fine.

Next they tell me the system gives out a requirement of 144k miles ("as F is not available on KUL-SIN. So you need to pay 19k for the J flight and 125k for the F flight."). This was also repeated by the supervisor.

Have now put a hold on this ticket and will call Singapore tomorrow during office hours.

Why doesn't this work?

demue

Clueless agents. HUACA is the only solution. I have also found some of the supposed supervisor to talk utter nonsense and being very ill informed of the proper respective rules and all. Infuriating and a waste of time.

gilbertaue

I tried on Monday again - hoping I'd get through to Singapore. Voice I heard at the other end hinted otherwise.

I asked the agent to pull up my itinerary. Asked him for the amount of miles required: "144k"
Wrong I say. Should be 125k. He then says that he will raise it with the SIngapore team and within 4 mins of being on hold I was told that "exceptionally we can do it". Ok whatever.

Then I go back to the beginning and tell him that the dates he now has aren't the dates I really wanted. I mentioned to him the dates I wanted and he says "No availability". But there are in the system online! So he makes me take a screenshot and email him - all while on the phone.

10mins later he comes back and says - ok yes. We can give you the seat.

So I then say great. So total for my desired dates, 125k. "No Sir, the total is 144k". Here we go again!

He comes back after 5 mins and tells me that the booking class of Business Saver KUL-SIN and the First Saver SIN-CDG cannot be booked under one ticket, and needs to be booked separately and hence it can't be 125k miles.

I mentioned that I don't really care how they do it internally, but I expect to only pay 125k. 10mins later, "OK, we can accept 125k".

BINGO!

Now for my seat selection.
"Yes Sir, Isle or Window" For KUL-SIN. I say it doesn't matter, since there are two of us anyway.

"...."
....
"TWO?"

Yes, as per my initial booking, and me referencing that I am only going to pay a total of 250k, TWO.

"Sir, let me call you back".

15mins later he does call me back and all is fine.

SIN-CDG in 2CD. Perfect.

"And Sir, with all this confusion which I apologize for, allow me to reserve your booking and grant you a deadline of.." (and he then proceeds to give me a deadline which is 3 months from today!)

So all is fine - but overall I spent several hours on the line for this. Does it need to be so complicated?!?

fast passenger

- Which route/airline did you book and which class?
SQ833, PVG-SIN, 1 Suites Advantage upgrade
- How many award miles & cash per person?
62,000 miles
- How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
~20 days
- Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel with immediate confirmation/Waitlist?
The Advantage upgrade has been available since I originally purchased the J ticket on January 29, but it took until March 24 to actually go through with it
- How often did you have to check/call until you got the seats?
~3 times (see below)
- Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?
No.

I tried to redeem the upgrade online, but got stuck in an endless loop at the "check through [my] booking before confirming [my] upgrade" step. I kept clicking Next and the website kept showing me the same Review screen.

So I called in to the USA KF number (213 area code). It took 5 minutes for the CSR to load up my booking. She said that she "was trying to clear an error." Then it took her another 5 minutes to check availability on the segment I'm interested in. Finally, she came back on and said the upgrade was waitlisted. I told her that it's saying otherwise on the website. She replied that if the redemption shows up available on the website but it fails to complete, that actually means it's waitlisted!

I tried again on the website once more and then called back, this time to the USA 800 number. The new CSR was able to bring up my existing reservation instantaneously. She confirmed the correct number of miles, put me on hold for a minute or so, and confirmed the award redemption. The whole phone call lasted 6 minutes. The promised email receipt arrived within 10 minutes.

Aside from the website issues, the difference in call-in experience from one CSR to the next was like night and day. It's honestly a little embarrassing for SQ!

fone

Some are really clueless and without common sense.
I have a SIN - FUK, HND - SIN on hold, waiting for ANA to open up the domestic FUK - HND portion.
Called in and agent says can book me for FUK - SIN - HND on SQ, why would I want to do that (at double the mileage required)?
Finally got her to book the ANA domestic flight, now tells me that the total mileage required is 47k (SIN - Japan) + 25k (Japan domestic) + 47k miles (Japan - SIN).
When it should have been just the *A chart for SIN - Japan roundtrip for 86k with a free stopover.
Luckily she offered to check and get a supervisor to call back and supervisor gave the correct miles required.


- Which route/airline did you book and which class?
SIN - FUK - HND - SIN (for 4 pax)
- How many award miles & cash per person?
86,000 miles
- How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
~300+ days
- Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel with immediate confirmation/Waitlist?
Yes, with exception of FUK - HND which ANA only opens up like 200+ days in advance
- How often did you have to check/call until you got the seats?
1 time to reserve SQ flights
few times to check and confirm ANA availability (so I will know when to call in to check availability when they open up for the dates I want).
1 time to ticket entire itinerary with call back (as per above)

- Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?
No.