Likelihood of waitlisted clearing?

[davidhes]

Hi all,

Looking forward to my first J trip to Europe with SQ in April. We have confirmed reward saver seats for the 23rd of April from Darwin to Singapore and then on the 24th from Singapore to Zurich. Ended up being able to head a couple of days earlier though so I've put a waitlisted request in for Darwin to Singapore on the 21st and a request for the 23rd Singapore to Zurich. So far the Darwin to Singapore flight has cleared and is available to confirm but nothing for the Zurich leg.. how likely is this to clear and anyone know how far out they usually happen? I've called a couple of times and they've requested to expedite it but nothing yet.

Thanks,

David

 

[albatross710]

This is the great mystery and why it's called 'wait'list. You just have to wait.

The good thing is it sounds like you have some flexibility.

One thing I often do is also add waitlists on the other days in between. Maybe you can't leave 3 days earlier, but 2 or 1 might become available. It doesn't cost miles until you ticket.

Last week I needed to get from MNL to SIN, so I have waitlists as followed:

Sunday - Confirmed seat plus one waitlist
Saturday - Two options waitlisted
Friday - Two options waitlisted
Thursday - Two options waitlisted.

With this I had a definite last date for travel, the Sunday flight had a Thursday 10am confirmation deadline. By Tuesday some flights had cleared and I had one option for Thursday plus an option for Saturday both which had Thursday 2pm ticketing deadline. I ticketed the Saturday flight and cancelled the others.

I think by one week out you might have more news.

Please update us and let us know how you go.

 

[Wherez Wally]

Hi Albatross,

Your confirmed seat on the Sunday - how was that booked? A normal booking with credit card/cash or did you use redemption points. If redemeption points, how do you get the confirmed seat without it been ticketed? Was it originally a waitlisted booking that became available or did you get there someother way?

TIA,

Wally

 

[burmans]

Who knows in regards to overall likelihood of waitlist clearing, my experience has been about 80%, but given they typically don't clear until 14 days or less before I've frequently ended up making other arrangements.

 

[davidhes]

Thanks for the info guys. fingers crossed. I've made two accomodation bookings that be cancelled depending on if it clears or not.

 

[albatross710]

Hi Albatross,

Your confirmed seat on the Sunday - how was that booked? A normal booking with credit card/cash or did you use redemption points. If redemeption points, how do you get the confirmed seat without it been ticketed? Was it originally a waitlisted booking that became available or did you get there someother way?

TIA,

Wally

I'll clarify what I mean by this:

For the Sunday (and later the Saturday) when I searched for Redemption one way fares, the options include a combination of flights at my preferred time which were available to be ticketed. The search results also included a "waitlist" combination. I selected the available combination AND the waitlist combination.

I received an email as shown below. The term they use in the email is "Reserved", which I think appears as "Confirmed" when viewed on the website.

I accept that technically SQ could withdraw the reserved availability, in my 9 years experience ticketing SQ waitlists once it is reserved, it will stay until the ticketing time limit.

Intentionally selecting both the available flights and at least one waitlist sector allows the seats to be held until the ticketing time limit.

Flight		Departs	Arrives
1. Manila to Singapore - Total travel time: 3hrs 45mins Status: Reserved*
SQ 917 Boeing 777-300 Singapore Airlines	MNL 14:05 (Sun) Manila, Ninoy Aquino Intl, Terminal 3	SIN 17:50 (Sun) Singapore, Changi Intl
Flying time: 3hrs 45mins
Cabin class: Economy (X)
2. Singapore to Brisbane - Total travel time: 8hrs Status: Waitlisted
SQ 255 Airbus Industrie A330-300 Singapore Airlines	SIN 00:45 (Mon) Singapore, Changi Intl, Terminal 3	BNE 10:45 (Mon) Brisbane, Brisbane Intl, Terminal Intl
Flying time: 8hrs
Cabin class: Economy (X)
3. Manila to Singapore - Total travel time: 3hrs 45mins Status: Waitlisted
SQ 921 Boeing 777-200/200ER Singapore Airlines	MNL 19:00 (Sun) Manila, Ninoy Aquino Intl, Terminal 3	SIN 22:45 (Sun) Singapore, Changi Intl
Flying time: 3hrs 45mins
Cabin class: Economy (X)
4. Singapore to Brisbane - Total travel time: 8hrs Status: Reserved*
SQ 235 Airbus Industrie A330-300 Singapore Airlines	SIN 21:15 (Sun) Singapore, Changi Intl, Terminal 3	BNE 07:15 (Mon) Brisbane, Brisbane Intl, Terminal Intl
Flying time: 8hrs
Cabin class: Economy (X)

 

[beast_man]

that's awesome that you were able to get the first leg confirmed and the second leg waitlisted ... when I try doing that I get an error message and it won't let me proceed.

Any tips on how you made it happen?

 

[davidhes]

that's awesome that you were able to get the first leg confirmed and the second leg waitlisted ... when I try doing that I get an error message and it won't let me proceed.

Any tips on how you made it happen?

From memory I think it happened when I called and discussed it all with them.

 

[albatross710]

that's awesome that you were able to get the first leg confirmed and the second leg waitlisted ... when I try doing that I get an error message and it won't let me proceed.

Any tips on how you made it happen?

If this question was in relation to my waitlisting strategy it just appears that way due to the combination of available flight combinations that were presented. Given my strategy is to select one Available pair of flights, I will always have both sectors confirmed at least one.

Happy travels

Alby

 

[NDiddy]

Hi guys,

I have a slightly similar question so didnt want to create a new thread.

We have a simple enough itin which is a one-way SIN-DPS. On the dates we want to fly, Standard award for 2 pax is available but Saver is waitlisted. If I just book the standard award now and request for the waitlist flights, will the points from the standard award be returned if the waitlist comes through? I assume yes but just wanted some piece of mind before I pull the trigger. Thanks

 

[albatross710]

Hi guys,

I have a slightly similar question so didnt want to create a new thread.

We have a simple enough itin which is a one-way SIN-DPS. On the dates we want to fly, Standard award for 2 pax is available but Saver is waitlisted. If I just book the standard award now and request for the waitlist flights, will the points from the standard award be returned if the waitlist comes through? I assume yes but just wanted some piece of mind before I pull the trigger. Thanks

A couple of considerations depending upon your situation:

a) How far off is the travel? Strategy D) might be suitable.

b) Are you originating in SIN ? You can fly from other cities in SE Asia, via SIN then DPS for the same miles. Might save you a connecting fare.

c) Once you ticket the Standard award to recredit the miles they will charge a fee per ticket.

d) If you are happy to keep monitoring, you could do a booking in which you 'confirm' the available Standard sector and then waitlist on the same booking for one of the other flights. Then at the ticketing time limit SQ will cancel you off the Standard and just leave the waitlists on the booking. Prior to this you could call the call center and they can extend the ticketing time limit, or you could create a new booking. One danger is that someone might waitlist onto your Saver when it gets released. Create multiple Confirm/Waitlist bookings as the miles don't get deducted until you ticket. You can leave waitlist only bookings in the system as you might be further up the queue.


Note: If using d) then SQ will send you lots of emails and SMS messages for the various expiries.

I flew SIN-DPS on a J award just a few weeks ago. For me, the J awards are a small increment over Y and represented good value factoring in the lounge time and flight. Remember to check the value on Y & J saver availability.

Alby

 

[davidhes]

Sorry wrong thread.

 

[NDiddy]

I flew SIN-DPS on a J award just a few weeks ago. For me, the J awards are a small increment over Y and represented good value factoring in the lounge time and flight. Remember to check the value on Y & J saver availability.

Cheers for the info Alby - I took your suggestion on just paying a small increment and going in J class. All flights booked and no need to worry about waitlists clearing.

 

[PPOW]

Just thought this might be an interesting data point for someone.

Waitlisted some flights in mid march for next Jan.

J LAX-ICN-SIN - cleared 23/03

J LAX-NRT-SIN - cleared today

Surprised to see them clearing so far out...

 

[im.daniel]

Perhaps this may help some here;
I was reading through the SQ wait-list thread on FT last night and saw the word 'chaser' being thrown around a few times. Curious, I called the Krisflyer call centre to 'follow up on my wait-listed flight' from IST-SGN in May, that I requested mid-March.


They said that that they would follow up the wait-listed flight for me, "I'll send a chaser", was the agent's exact words. He also asked me the reason for redemption, to note on the chaser request.


Low and behold, I got a confirmation e-mail that my waitlisted flights were available for ticketing 12 hours later!! Incredible, as I really wasn't expecting much, as the J cabin was slowly filling up (60% occupancy when I checked)