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I’m in the midst of planning a trip to Asia ( hence the booked and then cancelled ANA First Class tickets via LifeMiles). I’m shooting to make the trip a tremendous experience as a celebration for numerous things, and as luck would have it, I found 2 seats new Singapore Suites. The route is between Singapore and Delhi, and since we’d be traveling to India anyways, we thought ” what the heck, we’ll just see the Taj Mahal as well.” Needless to say… I ran around the house multiple times. It’s shaping up to be quite the trip. We transferred points, waited for them to populate ( Chase – roughly 3 hours, Amex – roughly 24 hours) and then set out to book them.
I reconfirmed the space and booked mine.
I logged into both my account and my fiancee’s, the points were in both. Bingo. I then headed straight to Singapore to book. I reconfirmed that 2 seats indeed were available. Voila, they were. I then started booking my ticket. Wham, bam, swift and easy I was booked in to 1A, and I would put my fiancee into 2A.
Then…I log into her account within 30 seconds of booking my ticket and the space has changed. It now shows waitlist.
How could this be? Was someone else trying to book the same exact ticket as I was, at the same exact time? I log into my account to check the seat map. Unchanged.
I checked again this morning: unchanged.
I broke my own rule when it comes to booking.
When I am working with award clients I ALWAYS recommend phoning into an agent. Sure it costs a bit of money, but you don’t lose your seats. The agent can hold space while it’s being processed, or your points transfer, etc. In the past, when booking multiple Singapore Airlines tickets ( especially my mom’s Around the World birthday trip where we flew in 3 Suites ) I booked everything over the phone. I’ve had success booking online, most of the time, and with Singapore’s online waitlist feature, I just chose to save myself the call.
Boy am I regretting that.
Had I phone in we’d both be booked, and the agent could have pulled the miles from each individual account and we’d be dreaming of our Suites flight. Instead…one is booked while the other is waitlisted, and ultimately if she doesn’t clear, we’ll be making alternate plans.
Why this happened?
I honestly don’t know. The cabin hasn’t changed, and even business is wide open on our date. It’s simply an algorithm issue. I even tried changing my seating, thinking maybe the fact that I chose to book a suite that can be combined did something. No luck. I could cancel my ticket, eat the fee, and see if then 2 seats repopulate and rebook, but then what if it stays waitlist and we’re both on the outside looking in?
The only thing I can really offer at this point is if you’re looking to do a similar booking ( there are plenty of suites dates intra-asia ) then I would highly suggest booking from a single account, or calling in to book and have the flights put on hold while the miles are deducted.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
- Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2024
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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