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I was in the midst of booking a mixed cabin, mixed partner award on Singapore Airlines and United when I ran into a problem. I was able to find a biz ticket from MAN to IAH on Singapore Airlines, and then a one way flight on United, in economy, from IAH to LAX, but nothing combined. The website can sometimes be wonky, especially with partners, so I phoned SQ for assistance.
First call – something I didn’t expect to hear at all.
The rep couldn’t see the space on Singapore from MAN to IAH at all. I gave her the flight numbers, etc. Still nothing. I politely hung up and called again.
2nd call – same problem
2nd rep couldn’t see the Singapore Business Class either. I was looking right at it on my screen. Refreshed, and she just apologized saying there was no space to book.
So hung up and booked the two flights separately on Singapore’s website and figured I’d call in and have the two itineraries linked and difference in points refunded.
On the phone again.
Now, with my tickets booked, I asked the rep to merge. They were separated by a couple hour layover and didn’t think this would be a problem at all.
Here’s the bullet points of what she said:
- Singapore Airlines online award inventory is greater than what is accessible for the call center now.
- Singapore Airlines online booking will not allow mixed cabin itineraries on Star Alliance flights
- An agent can book mixed cabin itineraries as long as space is avail.
The problem for the ticket I wanted was that the call center just didn’t have access to the space in the same way the website does. And she couldn’t interline the segments that were ticketed separately either. I’ll call back again tomorrow and ask if it can be done.
Overall
The only positive change to this would be if award inventory has increased online, but that’s not what she said. Rather, what it seems, if this is true, is that Singapore is just lowering the ability of phone reps to ticket on your behalf in order to drive more traffic online to lower overhead costs of maintaining call centers.
The inability to mix cabins online is a big blow as well, and hopefully something that is an IT glitch or mistake rather than a policy. Getting a long haul in premium is often paired with a short haul economy connecting/positioning flight. This would not just increase redemption prices, but it would make it a nightmare in the case of delays, cancellations, etc that could result in your missing the 2nd ticket.
I haven’t seen other reports of this online, so if you’ve run into this please add a comment for data points.
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
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 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, 2027.
- $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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