syalam

Just got off the phone with a very unhelpful agent. Hopefully you guys here might be more helpful.

I'm trying to fly ORD-SIN in June 2019. Was hoping to fly ORD-SFO-SIN, with the second leg being the nonstop on SQ31. Business award availability for the nonstop is hard to find though, so I settled for layover through HKG. Therefore, possible itinerary would be ORD-SFO-HKG-SIN. However, when I tried to add a positioning flight from ORD-SFO to the itinerary, agent could only find economy award availability with SA partners. As such, she said that the total cost would be 88000 + 12500 because of mixed cabin redemption. Do you guys know if it's possible to fly mixed cabin (but must be business on Singapore metal for transpacific leg) and have it be one award for 92000 miles (per the Singapore award chart)?

PiperAtGatesofDawn

You can fly mixed cabin but you'll be charged as per the highest cabin you fly. In your case J.

For this journey you will be charged as per the *A J redemption charts since you're traveling on SQ + UA (presumably) - so 97.5k miles one way.

So HUACA till you get that.

syalam

So if it's all on Singapore then it would use the Singapore airlines award chart, but if one of the legs includes a *A partner, then it would be Singapore *A chart, where 195/2 = 97.5k for the one way ticket? In which case, since I'm transferring points from Chase for this award I'm probably going to pay cash for the positioning flight instead and use 88k krisflyer for the transpacific leg. Thanks for the help

PiperAtGatesofDawn

That's correct.

Yups. I'd do the same. Of course if I got separate tickets I would ensure I have adequate connection time + was going to meet luggage allowance requirements of the positioning flight yada yada yada.

bluegt

I understand from SQ that there is some availability issue right now on SIN-ORD... they should have multiple routes (via EWR, SFO, LAX, JFK/FRA) but most are not available to book (even for dates far in the future).

lingua101

yup better buy your own positioning ticket. Any specific reason why you want to fly ORD-SFO-SIN? You can do ORD-IAH-SIN

syalam

Didn't know that SQ operated IAH-SIN, but I guess I do now - thanks! But SFO-SIN can be nonstop on SQ31, whereas as far as I can tell there's no nonstop IAH-SIN service on SQ metal? Also, I have a few friends in the SF area so I might end up getting the positioning flight a few days early and spend some time with them.

syalam

I see... I've checked intermittently the last few months and have never seen anything, so you may be right. Although, as far as I know there's no flights out of ORD on SQ metal, so any ORD-SIN award would use the more expensive *A award chart, as I've learnt from this thread.

fone

SQ doesn't fly to ORD, so it will definitely be the *A award chart, if inclusive of the positioning flight from ORD. As mentioned by [i]bluegt[i], you can try from other SQ destinations (EWR, SFO, LAX, JFK/FRA) then purchase your own positioning flight.

Lbs890213

since u decided to fly ord-sfo-hkg-sin
u could search another booking like
ord-iah-man-sin
ord-lax-sin
ord-lax-nrt-sin
ord-jfk-fra-sin
ord-ewr-sin
see which is available with all j class, then u dont need to pay extra mile for tat economy
after all j class booking confirmed, then waitlist for sfo-sin , until its clear only change the booking to ord-sfo-sin

NetJets Germany

Having looked extensively at redeeming either ORD-SIN or MSP-SIN in J, either all on *A or with domestic UA coupled to international SQ, I have come to the conclusion that availability on Krisflyer for partner flights is just pathetic! I guess I cannot do much about it, seeing as I still prefer to fly long haul on SQ, but count me as one of the people who are very miffed that you can essentially only redeem Krisflyer miles for SQ flights, and no other decent airlines. And yes, I know that it is easier to find flights on Ethiopian, EgyptAir, Turkish Airlines and Air China, but why only those and not LH, LX, BR or NH (With very few available exceptions)?

PiperAtGatesofDawn

Have you checked if UA has those flights available for redemption in the first place. UA is quite stingy with domestic redemptions for *A partners themselves. UA availability for ORD-EWR will be poor. MSP - ORD - EWR availability on UA will also be poor. Then are you looking at JFK (not EWR) - FRA - SIN on SQ - that might be an issue. Or are you looking at flying LAX/SFO/EWR-SIN? If you see availability on your individual domestic segments on UA it might be a good idea to call KF.

In response to the rest of your thread - TK also releases far far more seats for their M&S members. LH used to release J & F seats to partners 2 weeks ahead of the travel date... they've improved on that and are opening up more J seats to partners certainly. NH I've seen generally has healthy availability on SQ (at least BOM - NRT)!

I think before you complain about SQ you need to check if those seats are available to the operating carrier or other *A partners. If you do then you have a valid point.