zephend

Today I received an email of my flight change on Singapore Airlines which resulted an illegal connection.
my previous flight was on 24 November 2022
CGK 08:25 - SIN 11:10
SIN 13:55 - FRA 20:30

To this new schedule
CGK 08:25 - SIN 11:10
SIN 10:55 - FRA 17:30 (revised flight)

as you can see I cannot take the flight with the revised schedule.
today I call the local Singapore air customer service and they tried to help me to find another flight.
they gave me one option on the same day, however the booking class that I booked was sold out so I have to pay additional fee for that.

of course I told them nicely that I don’t want to because it was the SIA who changed my flight in the first place and making this drama. I also Told them that I can be flexible for 1 day before and after the date (from 23 to 25 November just in case). Am I being too nice.? Lol

Can anyone give me any suggestions what can or should I do?

carrotjuice

Don’t accept anything less than a free date / time change for the CGK flight, or reroute say to MUC or AMS - if it’s convenient for you. As you rightly pointed out, this wasn’t a drama that you created but SQ.

minz56

The SQ CS Agent should be able to waitlist the alternate same day flight in the required booking class then get Revenue Management to confirm it on the basis that you were subjected to a schedule change. They really should be able to do this for you.

zephend

I already asked every possibilities I could ask, I asked them to change only the flight from CGK to SIN, but they said it wasn’t possible due to my booking reference and because what they called as “married flight between cgk-sin and sin-fra”, so they need to search the flight and change it entirely from cgk to fra again. LoL

zephend

they did, but I think they couldn’t find any flight on the same day which has no additional fee.
they proposed this new flight:
CGK 19:00 - SIN 21:00
SIN 23:00 - FRA 06:30

the CS couldn’t give me the info regarding the fee, they will asked the department related and will send me an email later.
so based on the conversation between me and CS, SQ will give me options for other flights and the fees and asked me whether I take it or not in the next email.

dkc192

Almost everything you've been told by the various agents is bogus. Don't settle for anything less than what the two posters below have said. I've never heard of an airline, let alone one of SQ's caliber, refuse to rebook you on alternate flights on their own metal without collecting any additional fare, due to a schedule change that causes a misconnection such as this.

I've read reports here of SQ declining in service quality and experienced it myself (at least via their call center), but to refuse to rebook onto a reasonable alternative, as OP has proposed, due to a mess they created themselves would be much, much worse than anything I've read about or experienced.

aritrixa

Wow, I am surprised that the agent playing the game with "married segment" terminology. Never happen on Earth a person would skip SIN-FRA leg to get "cheaper" CGK-SIN .
The agent, in my opinion, should be able to move you to earlier (or even red eye SQ951) flight CGK-SIN
I normally receive good help from local agent in Jakarta, although I need to be present physically as the call waiting time is terrible as well.

LuisHK

Based on my recent experience with the agents, I believe the limitation has got to do with whether the agent has the required authority to make the change.
If they are struggling, ask for escalation. You are right, SQ needs to fix this for you however the process might be slightly painful....

demue

Definitely SQ should and is able to fix this to the OPs satisfaction. The information shared by various agents is plain rubbish. It is not like OP desires a change of flights for own convenience or so, it is a rebooking due to operational changes by SQ

With that, several more options become available to the agents to reaccommodate the pax on flights that may not have the same fare bucket or such open any longer. They just need to know what they are doing which sounds like the ones handling this so far do not have the right understanding.

As others said, OP should not accept any changes that require to pay any fee or fare difference. Get supervisor or such involved if the CS is not able or try to call again and get someone else who may have a clue actually.

zephend

it would’ve been nice to ask them directly by visiting their office. sadly I live in Germany and there’s no SIA office nearby.

the agent repeatedly saying the married segment term as a reason/excuse for me being not getting the available flight that has the exact same award fare I originally booked.I thing the agent herself didn’t have authorities further to directly rebooking my flight so I will call them again today.
honestly yesterday I got immediate answer which I didn’t expect knowing from so many CS experience from people whom might had long waiting time for it.

carrotjuice

This doesn't seem right. I've had a multi segment flight where one segment was downgraded, and SQ moved it without fuss to another time. So it CAN be done. None of this supposed married segment nonsense.

But in fairness mine was a redemption, not paid, flight - and I'm unsure if the same rules pertaining to fare classes would apply. In my experience, even if such criterion applies, they can escalate to revenue management to release an additional seat that was caused by their own prior actions.

davidj1

A new low for SIA? Rebooked onto an illegal connection then ask pax to pay change fee?

If they are so despo for revenue perhaps they look at fixing the India AMEX debacle and stop leaving that revenue on the table.

demue

The process to handle an operational change is different than a normal booking change request (award or revenue booking). The agents are going about it the wrong way, so I'd say training issue vs. "bad intent". However, still a broken and frustrating experience for the customer.

Actually surprised the rebooking bot (in Altea), which I assume would have been used in the first place to rebook automatically made such a bubu. YMMV.

carrotjuice

Anyone who’s done any major change management project in an organization would’ve equipped their customer fronting people with adequate training on proper actions to take, especially for such massive network wide changes like aircraft swops during the change of summer to winter schedules. Obviously not for SQ.

Saeagle

I had this exact issue with a flight From BKK - CPH.

They also told me that my booking class was now sold out for flights that would work. I pointed out that it wasn't me that changed the original connection but SIA.

They then agreed that I didn't have to pay for a change, but that i would need to be wait listed on an appropriate flight and would need to be approved by the booking team. I heard nothing for 5 days, phoned and I kept getting told that there was nothing they could do until 14 days before the flight. I pointed out that 14 days prior to the flight I would be on a remote island and that I would not have access to be chasing this and I needed it resolved urgently. I then asked to speak to her supervisor (and I have to add the person I was speaking to was lovely, but felt like she was being hindered by processes) and she then said that this could be arranged. However, she then asked if she could call me back as she was going to now speak to the booking team direct. Within 20 minutes, my new flights were confirmed and a new itinerary sent through.

Whilst the customer service reps have all been lovely to talk to, it was a rather frustrating period to go through whilst I tried to get alternative flights sorted, through no fault of mine.