crackjack

Hi, hoping for some help with a tricky ticket booking which now needs to be changed…

Family members booked a ‘Business Flexi’ ticket with SQ to the USA via SIN and back. Unfortunately, they now need to change the return date, the outbound is already flown.

They spent some time on the phone with SQ to see what could be done, but were told there was no real options available to change the tickets. Even shifting the date with an upgrade to F with miles was apparently not possible.

I looked at their ticket briefly, and it seems to have been booked as ‘Business Flexi’ both ways; however, looking close, it states ‘Business Flexi (J)’ on the outgoing legs and ‘Business Flexi (U)’ on the return legs. Fare basis code I saw in the T&Cs was ‘Jxxxxx’ (only remember the first letter), though I guess the ticket should have had another FBC on it for the return (since it’s under the U FBC? will have to check).

Anyone had expected experience with changing such tickets (particularly with the U FBC)? I’ve suggested they see if SQ can help reissue the tickets as full ‘J’, even though the outbound is already flown, but have no idea if that is even possible.

Any other options / suggestions on what might be possible to raise with SQ to consider? Flying the ticket as-is will not be possible.

epigram

I have had no problem changing tickets booked in U or J classes whether completely unflown or partially flown, subject only to the change fee and most importantly availability. If the desired date/flight does not have availability in the original class, you will have to upfare to an available class or choose another date/flight.

There are times when the flight is completely sold out and so you do not even have the option to upfare. For clarity, it is upfare to revenue FA (first) or ZC (business) classes.
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Have they tried to wait-list for Z class? Sometimes Z availability will open up in the lead up to the flight because other passengers cancel or change their flight.

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SMK77

SQ's booking classes in descending order: Z, C, J, U, D.

To/from the US, I often see flights only open in Z and C.

I don't believe that SQ agents on the phone told you nothing can be done: you can always upfare (read: pay the difference to the higher fare) and it's unlikely that there are absolutely no seats for sales if you are flexible in dates. It just might get very expensive and going from U to Z might set you back a four-digit amount.

Upgrading to First Class doesn't help: you need to find and book an available seat in Business Class first.

epigram

Referring to the post above, if you have to stomach a Z upfare, consider if A is available. It's usually just a couple hundred dollars more for first instead of business.

crackjack

Thanks all. I’ll suggest to them to look at these options.

Apparently they are willing to eat the change and update costs (even if 4 digits) - something time critical came up, but they also have to take care of something in the states first.

Hopefully they can work something out. I’ll see if I can dial into their next SQ discussion to help.

crackjack

Thanks again everyone.

This got sorted after another discussion with SQ: Ticket was repriced as a ‘J’ ticket after all.

onlySIA

In the past I had problems changing dates over the phone - my suspicion is that the first agent I spoke to tried to search for both legs on the same day, which triggered an error because this would put the SIN-MEL leg starting before the LHR-SIN flight took off. I could see availability on the website so I knew the agent wasn't doing it right. HUCA and I spoke to someone who could do it.

demue

I suspected as much that the U RDB was the issue and not available for the dates desired. D and U often run out rather early and later on don't make a reappearance while J still got some chance and C and especially Z can usually be had unless the flight is already full / oversold.