Singapore Airlines seemingly makes negative changes to award avail and rules

a seat in a plane

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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.

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8 Comments

  • Julia October 24, 2018

    Had a similar experience: while booking a mixed cabin mixed carrier: Business in SQ and economy in LH. The agent saw both, reserved both but was unable to link it and, therefore, priced it out as the sum of two instead of one Business priced itinerary as I’d hoped…Second phone call, the itinerary was linked but the price remained the same…I was told it was because it is two trips due to mixing the carriers….I might try the third time but I am not optimistic.

  • hamiltus October 21, 2018

    I had a similar experience with the same itinerary as you but in reverse (LAX to MAN via IAH on UA and SQ all in economy). The website wouldn’t show the space I could see on United’s site. Picked up the phone and they appeared to see just the SQ segment (claiming United only had first class space left). After a little cohesion they seemed to get it right. SQ’s agent was very kind enough to offer to hold an award for me. Only problem is the agent goofed up and seemingly only held the SQ segment from IAH to MAN… For the day afterwards ?😂
    In the end I decided to ditch the hold and spend less miles by redeeming for Aer Lingus instead. Singapore Airlines really needs to work on their phone experience.

  • Euro October 21, 2018

    Same thing happened to me last year around November, booking the same exact flight in the same class but in reverse. Rep’s instructions were to just book the SQ leg (which he could not see) on the website first, then he would glue on the connecting domestic UA itin (economy) from my home airport to IAH which he could see. It took some fanagling but eventually it did work, and well worth it for my first flight on SQ.

  • Danny Lee October 21, 2018

    For my experience, you’d better call the rep located in Singapore in this case.
    If you proceed award booking from MAN to IAH on the website and go forward just before the step of payment, the award seat you are trying to book will be locked in for about an hour on your account and then the rep will be able to see the space on your krisflyer account. And the rep will be able to add the other segment you want.

    • Miles October 21, 2018

      Wow – haven’t heard this, very interesting and great piece of info. Thank you!

  • Christian October 21, 2018

    This is pretty awful stuff. Singapore awards are already expensive, particularly in premium cabins. God forbid you want to get Suites to or from the US for 2, well good luck with that one. Now no connecting flight in another cabin? SMH.

  • JDH October 21, 2018

    I had a problem getting flights to price correctly (and found the problem of agents not seeing space). WAS-DEN-OGG in economy should be 35K r/t but was pricing at 60K online, it seemed to be charging the full 25K for the WAS-DEN segment in addition to DEN-OGG segment. Is this usual?

    SQ agents could not see any of the flights.

  • PT October 21, 2018

    I had this same issue but for a two-segment itinerary in a single cabin between award types. Found Advantage (full fare) award for the long haul segment and saver award for the onward short haul within same zone, but had to ticket as two separate flights – couldn’t just charge the single long-haul Advantage rate.

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