Website shows award availability but phone rep can't

[boffman]

Flying SYD - SIN - LHR in about 12 days on a biz award. Ticketed, all fine. Had also waitlisted flights one and two days prior.
The only one that cleared was the SIN - LHR leg, i.e. half one of the waitlists.
I look online and there is an earlier flight that can connect my to my cleared waitlist flight with availability (for 3 pax!). It allows me to start the booking process and displays the correct number of points required for a saver award.
Now I call up and try to make the booking change and am told the 'flight is closed' and there is no award availability. I tried calling back 5 min later. Same result. But still showing available on website.

Has this happened to anyone else? In 10 years of award bookings with SQ I've always been able to book what is showing as available on the website.

 

[Scr77]

Recently there were some changes to waitlisted flights. I wonder if this an unforeseen complication. Could you book the first leg yourself and then have the agent swap flights around?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Flying SYD - SIN - LHR in about 12 days on a biz award. Ticketed, all fine. Had also waitlisted flights one and two days prior.
The only one that cleared was the SIN - LHR leg, i.e. half one of the waitlists.
I look online and there is an earlier flight that can connect my to my cleared waitlist flight with availability (for 3 pax!). It allows me to start the booking process and displays the correct number of points required for a saver award.
Now I call up and try to make the booking change and am told the 'flight is closed' and there is no award availability. I tried calling back 5 min later. Same result. But still showing available on website.

Has this happened to anyone else? In 10 years of award bookings with SQ I've always been able to book what is showing as available on the website.

It is possibly married segments. While your waitlist SIN-LHR has cleared, it may not be able to be 'matched' (married) with the earlier flight you want. Marred segments are based on origin and destination 'pairs', so SQ may not be willing to have someone travel on your set of flights. (And for good reason, otherwise no one would pay for the flights )

 

[boffman]

I don’t think it’s married segments. The SYD-SIN leg is available for booking on the website but not on the phone irrespective of wanting to join it to anther leg (i.e. I asked over the phone if I could book it standalone and was told no).

 

[serfty]

I don’t think it’s married segments. The SYD-SIN leg is available for booking on the website but not on the phone irrespective of wanting to join it to anther leg (i.e. I asked over the phone if I could book it standalone and was told no).

Have you tried HUACA?

 

[boffman]

Have you tried HUACA?

Only once. I’ll have another few cracks of the whip tonight.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I don’t think it’s married segments. The SYD-SIN leg is available for booking on the website but not on the phone irrespective of wanting to join it to anther leg (i.e. I asked over the phone if I could book it standalone and was told no).

Yes, the SYD-SIN leg is available for booking on the website, but is SYD-LHR? Maybe the agent misunderstood the question about booking the sector standalone. As a res agent they may have thought you wanted to book it separately and add it to your current booking.

But I agree, HUACA.

 

[boffman]

Wahay! 4'th time lucky on the phones. Persistence and politeness pay off. Thanks for the advice everyone.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Wahay! 4'th time lucky on the phones. Persistence and politeness pay off. Thanks for the advice everyone.

Did they explain what the issue was?

 

[boffman]

I didn't ask. I thought it would be tempting fate. I just asked if there was availability on the leg I wanted and when I was told there was it was pretty quick to move the bookings around and ticket it.

 

[lilkid28]

Once again, HUCA prevails.

 

[boffman]

Also, shout out to @Cruiser Elite - thanks for the PM'd advice

 

[Mattg]

In the past where I've had similar issues, the problem was the Point Of Sale that the agent was using over the phone. (i.e. they would look for availability as SIN Point Of Sale when the itinerary originated outside of Singapore, which affected availabiliy).