SQ Tips, Trips and Tales

[I love to travel]

I'm looking at booking a one way itinerary, and as always look to book at the time of release of award seats for that particular date. It's the only way I've managed to get my redemptions thus far (just my bad luck not being able to get them otherwise. Could be the time of travel, route etc).

The one I'm interested in at the moment seems to load into the system immediately as Waitlist (and this is just for 2 × J tix). Either they're being loaded as waitlist or I'm being beaten to the prize by professionals in the second between availability being loaded in to the system and myself performing the search for that itinerary on that date at the exact time of release.

Has anyone here faced this issue, and found a way around it, apart from waitlisting and praying to the SQ yield management gods for it to clear?

This is the first time I've experienced this issue, out of all the SQ redemptions I've done (I only make VA and SQ redemptions, at a ratio of ~1:10 so thought I had a good grip of the lay of the land when it comes to these things - apparently not)!

Thanks in advance for all insights/tips/etc.

Might be helpful to know route and are you looking at something like CNY dates. Just did a few random searches and I am not seeing that problem

 

[MathNerd]

Might be helpful to know route and are you looking at something like CNY dates. Just did a few random searches and I am not seeing that problem

Try ADL/BNE/SYD - JFK, look towards the end of schedule.
You'll notice that Fri/Sat are always on WL, other days not.
Haven't tried other AU departures but possibly the same.

Edit: Try EWR as well, it appears their ULR routes to NY both suffer the same availablity issues.
Could be status dependent too? I'm not KFES or KFEG or PPS.

 

[I love to travel]

Try ADL/BNE/SYD - JFK, look towards the end of schedule.
You'll notice that Fri/Sat are always on WL, other days not.
Haven't tried other AU departures but possibly the same.

Ah yes NYC often on waitlist on Thur, Fri & Sat . EWR can be a bit more forgiving..

 

[MathNerd]

Ah yes NYC often on waitlist on Thur, Fri & Sat . EWR can be a bit more forgiving..

Right. So it's just being loaded into the system that way? Or you reckon it's others on the trigger and loaded and pouncing before others get in?

 

[I love to travel]

Right. So it's just being loaded into the system that way? Or you reckon it's others on the trigger and loaded and pouncing before others get in?

Its the way it is loaded into the system for those flights out of JFK and somedays EWR

 

[MathNerd]

Its the way it is loaded into the system for those flights out of JFK and somedays EWR

Cheers, thanks for the insight.

It's a bucket list item of mine to fly the longest flight in the world (much to the chagrin of Mrs MN who'll be accompanying me), and trying to plan the "plan of attack" as the date draws near. We've got a preferred date but will have to be flexible as is the case with award redemptions. Wish me luck!

 

[NoName]

Try ADL/BNE/SYD - JFK, look towards the end of schedule.
You'll notice that Fri/Sat are always on WL, other days not.
Haven't tried other AU departures but possibly the same.

Edit: Try EWR as well, it appears their ULR routes to NY both suffer the same availablity issues.
Could be status dependent too? I'm not KFES or KFEG or PPS.

Not sure if this is a regular occurrence but I will give my experience with exactly this route when booking in January. We are off to JFK with a few nights stop in SIN on the way just before Xmas. Dates came up and no issue SYD-SIN but SIN-JFK waitlisted. Took what I could and literally half an hour later I checked and the waitlist was available to book.

Ended up with 2x PAX in J on SQ212 & SQ26. Advantage redemptions.


EDIT: couldn’t get all of us on SQ212 so I’m by myself to SIN on SQ202……. In F. Oops!

 

[I love to travel]

Cheers, thanks for the insight.

It's a bucket list item of mine to fly the longest flight in the world (much to the chagrin of Mrs MN who'll be accompanying me), and trying to plan the "plan of attack" as the date draws near. We've got a preferred date but will have to be flexible as is the case with award redemptions. Wish me luck!

EWR will most likely be easier. And the advantage of that flight is that most of it is during the day and then you can sleep towards the end of the flight. I am doing it in July (on a reward seat) so will be able to post what it is like ex EWR. Good luck

Post automatically merged: Apr 14, 2024

Not sure if this is a regular occurrence but I will give my experience with exactly this route when booking in January. We are off to JFK with a few nights stop in SIN on the way just before Xmas. Dates came up and no issue SYD-SIN but SIN-JFK waitlisted. Took what I could and literally half an hour later I checked and the waitlist was available to book.

Ended up with 2x PAX in J on SQ212 & SQ26. Advantage redemptions.

And the Advantage redemptions offer stopover options too.

 

[NoName]

And the Advantage redemptions offer stopover options too

Yep. We were planning to stopover to see Mrs NoName’s family anyway so worked out well. Advantage is only 10k miles more than breaking it up into 2 saver bookings.

 

[MathNerd]

Not sure if this is a regular occurrence but I will give my experience with exactly this route when booking in January. We are off to JFK with a few nights stop in SIN on the way just before Xmas. Dates came up and no issue SYD-SIN but SIN-JFK waitlisted. Took what I could and literally half an hour later I checked and the waitlist was available to book.

Ended up with 2x PAX in J on SQ212 & SQ26. Advantage redemptions.

Nice, great that you were able to book that!
Was Saver not available? Unfortunately my severely limited miles balance can only afford the Saver rates.
What about the availability of the non-stop SQ24 as opposed to the one-stop-at-FRA SQ26? Or was it more that you preferred to break up the journey at FRA rather than go the ultra long range route?

EWR will most likely be easier. And the advantage of that flight is that most of it is during the day and then you can sleep towards the end of the flight. I am doing it in July (on a reward seat) so will be able to post what it is like ex EWR.

Thanks for that - from my searches it appears EWR suffers the same lack of availability as JFK, but if I can get a booking to EWR when JFK isn't possible then I definitely won't be complaining.

You say you're going ex-EWR so how are you getting *to* NYC? Going East via the Pacific or taking the ULR there too?

Good luck

Post automatically merged: Apr 14, 2024

Thanks - really appreciate it!

 

[MathNerd]

Yep. We were planning to stopover to see Mrs NoName’s family anyway so worked out well. Advantage is only 10k miles more than breaking it up into 2 saver bookings.

Ah yeah, 10k miles is nothing if a stopover is required.

In my case the quickest way is the best, any dilly dallying about with stopovers etc will not keep me in the good books with Mrs. MN!!

 

[NoName]

Nice, great that you were able to book that!
Was Saver not available? Unfortunately my severely limited miles balance can only afford the Saver rates.
What about the availability of the non-stop SQ24 as opposed to the one-stop-at-FRA SQ26? Or was it more that you preferred to break up the journey at FRA rather than go the ultra long range route?

Everything SIN-NYC was waitlisted, saver, advantage, SQ26 + the 2 non-stops.

It’s Mrs NoName + NoName Jnr on this route (I’m going via HND on JL) so the non-stops weren’t really an option. By herself they would be ok but with the 11 year old would be a nightmare as he can often get motion sickness and would also crack it at an 18+ hr flight. Much easier for her to deal with him being able to get off for a couple of hours in FRA.

 

[MathNerd]

Everything SIN-NYC was waitlisted, saver, advantage, SQ26 + the 2 non-stops.

Wow! Was this at end of schedule at the moment of release of the seats? Or a couple of days/weeks later?

It’s Mrs NoName + NoName Jnr on this route (I’m going via HND on JL) so the non-stops weren’t really an option. By herself they would be ok but with the 11 year old would be a nightmare as he can often get motion sickness and would also crack it at an 18+ hr flight. Much easier for her to deal with him being able to get off for a couple of hours in FRA.

Yup fair enough - the non stops aren't for everyone, it's three quarters of an entire day blown on a single flight. But I guess that adds to the allure for avgeeks haha.
Glad you were able to get seats on SQ26 for both of them.

 

[NoName]

Wow! Was this at end of schedule at the moment of release of the seats? Or a couple of days/weeks later?

It was right when they were released to the minute.

 

[MathNerd]

It was right when they were released to the minute.

Yup, same experience here. Guess I'm not alone in seeing this! Thought I was going crazy.

Enjoy your trip to NYC!

 

[Ade]

Hello! looking for some advice please. Have a SQ J flight MAA-SIN-SYD in May. This is my first time flying SQ J. I'm travelling solo.

MAA-SIN - SQ529 B787-10
SIN-SYD - SQ241 A350-900

Firstly, seats - I have selected 17A (MAA-SIN) and 14A (SIN-SYD). I selected 17A seat because I'm travelling solo and like to have some privacy and 17A is the console to right of pax. On the 2nd leg I don't see any console, so just selected forward most what is available now. I will keep looking to see if any forward seats open up closer to the travel date.

Secondly, meals - I'm a vego. For the MAA-SIN leg, I had look at the Inflight Menu (BTC is not available for this leg), there are 2 vego options, one is a simpler ones and the other is more elaborate 3 course vego Thali. So no brainer to choose the Thali.

For the SIN-SYD - there are 2 meals (refreshment and lunch). For refreshments, there is no BTC and the Inflight menu has no vego options. So I thought I'd order a special meal, but doing so, defaults the special meal for the lunch on the SIN-SYD as well. There is the BTC option for lunch on the SIN-SYD and the meatless option has 3 dishes to choose from ;



There are also some sweet options like the "Spiced Buckwheat and Pumpkin Pancakes" or "Warm Waffle with Strawberry Coulis"

Has anyone had any of these dishes and can offer some comments please?

Thirdly, I only have 1 hour 05 mins layover in SIN. Will this be sufficient time to visit any of the SQ lounges (assuming of course everything goes to schedule) ? Is it even worth it?

Fourthly, will I get any amenities kit or pyjamas for these flights? Considering the MAA-SIN is departing MAA around 2311, arriving SIN around 06xx and the next one is a day flight, departing 07xx, arriving SYD 16xx

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Cheers, thanks for the insight.

It's a bucket list item of mine to fly the longest flight in the world (much to the chagrin of Mrs MN who'll be accompanying me), and trying to plan the "plan of attack" as the date draws near. We've got a preferred date but will have to be flexible as is the case with award redemptions. Wish me luck!

Yes we as a couple did the flight last year. Bucket list as well.

We enjoyed the experience and are glad we did it. But LOL once is enough as it is a L O N G Flight
We have decided that shorter J flights are better suited to our travel dynamic, even if the total A to B time is longer.


On Flights being Waitlisted or Gone at max time out, on flights to Heathrow from SIN I have observed that as well where certain flight just could not be booked as Savers. Like you we mainly book one-ways at the maximum time out. So as part of the preparation I will look at what is being booked quickly on that route. These days it is a bit easier as our daughters are now adults with their own lives, but years ago I was often chasing 4 or 5 Js. Sometimes that meant splitting us up on different flights, or even days.

The flight you are chasing we did on impulse, and not at maximum time out, and SAVERS were not available on all flights

 

[clifford]

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread, as it's a Scoot tale (but perhaps it relates more generally to all of the Singapore Airlines family?).

I flew BKK-SIN-SYD a couple of weeks ago on a Scoot+ ticket. The BKK-SIN flight was downguaged from a 787 to a 320, so no Scoot+ seating. However I still had an extra legroom seat (1A), and only 2 of the 3 seats in the row were occupied. So it didn't worry me at all for this short flight and I thought nothing further of it.

Well, to my surprise, a couple of days later I received an email stating "As a token for the inconvenience, we will provide each affected passenger with a service recovery voucher valued at SGD 150. Additionally, if there was an involuntary downgrade from ScootPlus to Economy Cabin, we will refund a portion of the ticket's base fare"

Sure enough I received the voucher for SGD150 a few days later, and it has already been used to purchase a Scoot+ ticket from SIN to KUL, to connect with other flights I had already booked. Have to say I was impressed, as I had not requested or expected the voucher.

 

[somebol]

Hello! looking for some advice please. Have a SQ J flight MAA-SIN-SYD in May. This is my first time flying SQ J. I'm travelling solo.

MAA-SIN - SQ529 B787-10
SIN-SYD - SQ241 A350-900

Firstly, seats - I have selected 17A (MAA-SIN) and 14A (SIN-SYD). I selected 17A seat because I'm travelling solo and like to have some privacy and 17A is the console to right of pax. On the 2nd leg I don't see any console, so just selected forward most what is available now. I will keep looking to see if any forward seats open up closer to the travel date.

Secondly, meals - I'm a vego. For the MAA-SIN leg, I had look at the Inflight Menu (BTC is not available for this leg), there are 2 vego options, one is a simpler ones and the other is more elaborate 3 course vego Thali. So no brainer to choose the Thali.

For the SIN-SYD - there are 2 meals (refreshment and lunch). For refreshments, there is no BTC and the Inflight menu has no vego options. So I thought I'd order a special meal, but doing so, defaults the special meal for the lunch on the SIN-SYD as well. There is the BTC option for lunch on the SIN-SYD and the meatless option has 3 dishes to choose from ;



There are also some sweet options like the "Spiced Buckwheat and Pumpkin Pancakes" or "Warm Waffle with Strawberry Coulis"

Has anyone had any of these dishes and can offer some comments please?

Thirdly, I only have 1 hour 05 mins layover in SIN. Will this be sufficient time to visit any of the SQ lounges (assuming of course everything goes to schedule) ? Is it even worth it?

Fourthly, will I get any amenities kit or pyjamas for these flights? Considering the MAA-SIN is departing MAA around 2311, arriving SIN around 06xx and the next one is a day flight, departing 07xx, arriving SYD 16xx

SQ generally default all meals on a flight to selected special meal, so you could try choosing BTC first and then the special meal for refreshment.
One disadvantage of choosing BTC vego option is that you are stuck with the inflight menu for starters and they generally dont have any meatless options for starters.
I'd go AVML all they way for SIN-SYD.

1 hour transit should be fine, you might get 10 mins in the lounge.

SQ dont do pyjamas in J, you can request an amenity kit for SIN-SYD sector

 

[dajop]

Fourthly, will I get any amenities kit or pyjamas for these flights? Considering the MAA-SIN is departing MAA around 2311, arriving SIN around 06xx and the next one is a day flight, departing 07xx, arriving SYD 16xx

I think pyjamas would actually be counterproductive on a sector like MAA-SIN anyway, by the time you change into and out of them. The flight time on this sector is usually only 3.5 hrs. A true red-eye, like PER-MEL. Very difficult to get any decent sleep on the flight.