SQ Q to Y conversion ?
 

I have a Q class fare booked on SQ. However theres some statement in the fare rules that some Q - Y conversion can be done 'for a non-refundable fee of $100' or something to that effect (I was never good at deciphering legalese).

Now I am very interested in ensuring I collect the miles for this trip (SFO-MAA RT, about 21K miles) and would gladly pay $100 to be able to have mileage accrual into my LH M&M account probably (or maybe UA MP). AFAIK, Q-class on SQ doesnt give miles.

Is the above conversion possible ? Does anyone have experience doing this ? If so I would be very happy if someone can give me suggestions on how I can convert to a mileage accrual class (unless Q fares also accrue miles on SQ now).

thanks in advance
BlrGuy

Don't know for sure. But I think to convert from Q to Y requrires a non-refundable $100 change free plus the additional fare collect to bring you up to a Y fare. In other words, if a Y fare is $2,300 and your Q fare is $900, you will have to pay $1,500 ($100 + $1,400).

Thanks seawolf! Thats what I felt too, but I'll cut-paste some lines from the fare rules here regarding this:

"---- At point of turnaround change of reservation from q to y permitted for nonref usd 100.00 administrative fee."

This is what confused me. There is no mention of the fact that the additional fare has to be paid. There are other lines among the fare rules but they seem to address other matters, like changes to the ticket and cancellation.

Does this mean the Q-Y differential also has to be paid ? Fare classes are a complete mystery to me. Many times on UA/LH I have ticketed Q class fares but have seen it turned to Y at checkin (no addl charges). O wonder how it works

Not sure about LH but on UA, your portion of the boarding pass reflects the service class and not booking class. It is either read F, C, or Y regardless of what you purchased. A Y-, B-, M-, H-, Q-, V-, W-, or whatever fare will still show up as Y on this portion.

The portion of the boarding pass that the gate reader ingests contains the actual booking code. This corresponds to your fare unless you upgraded. Upgraded boarding passes will read NC or NF on this portion.

As far as SQ is concern, you might want to call them. However, my bet is that an additional fare collection is involved. In any case, the rule refer to the turnover point. Which sounds like you can only upgrade to the higher fare on the return.

Hmm... does anyone have experience using miles to upgrade to a higher level of Y class fare ? If this is possible, how many miles is this likely to be, for US-Asia segments especially ? Does anyone have ideas about this ?

Don't know if any airline even offer that. Why would you add miles to get a higher class fare???

To earn miles http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif That is, as long as the mileage reqd to change from Q to something that can allow me to accrue miles is much less than the distance covered by the itinerary. Maybe I'm just trying too hard; I felt for a trip that covers more than 20K miles it was worth trying.