What happens when no seats left after we redeem an award

[benbegg]

We redeemed 2 flights from BNE to LHR via SIN. All great. We then went to select seats and find we could get 2 from BNE to SIN but none are left on the 12 midday flight from SIN to LJR. The SIN -> LHR flight is Saturday of next week and we called up Customer Service and they laughed and said hopefully some will become available before then . I was not in a jovial mood after he said this. What happens now? SIA are saying that all seats are taken and that they allow an 'overbook' to happen...needless to say we just hope we get a seat. I suppose we will get shoved into the back 'coughpy' seats in the back row after the top $$$ are bumped into Business Class???

 

[BAM1748]

Many flights are over booked and you'll likely get on without issue. There is a pecking order with the seat selection showing what your preference is. I seem to only get my selected seat about 60% of the time. Yes you could be bumped to the back but remember the whole plane arrives at the destination at the same time.

 

[benbegg]

Many flights are over booked and you'll likely get on without issue. There is a pecking order with the seat selection showing what your preference is. I seem to only get my selected seat about 60% of the time. Yes you could be bumped to the back but remember the whole plane arrives at the destination at the same time.

Well yes but the guys in the poor seats arrive exhausted and cranky whereas the ones with the nice seats arrive fresh and excited! We will see what happens.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Well yes but the guys in the poor seats arrive exhausted and cranky whereas the ones with the nice seats arrive fresh and excited! We will see what happens.

What exactly do you mean by nicest seats? are you saying you should be in business and might get bumped back to economy?

 

[uproared]

Wow, seems very strange that they'd overbook by way of an award ticket.

What's the F cabin looking like? Assume they'd bump up business to first before bumping down business to economy.

 

[dajop]

Wow, seems very strange that they'd overbook by way of an award ticket.

Not at all for SQ, at least in Y. At short notice on more than 1 occasion I've had waitlist clear on flight showing on expert flyer as Y3 B3 etc.

As for OP just because you were told all seats were allocated, that doesn't necessarily mean the cabin is full. It may mean some seats are blocked, for high tier pax, for codeshare pax or some other reason, or that the flight is sufficiently full that you wont be able to allocate a seat until checkin.

 

[benbegg]

Not at all for SQ, at least in Y. At short notice on more than 1 occasion I've had waitlist clear on flight showing on expert flyer as Y3 B3 etc.

As for OP just because you were told all seats were allocated, that doesn't necessarily mean the cabin is full. It may mean some seats are blocked, for high tier pax, for codeshare pax or some other reason, or that the flight is sufficiently full that you wont be able to allocate a seat until checkin.

We booked this flight in May with points but waited till July 12 to ticket as we really wanted to go on the earlier A380 flight at 9 am from SIN but were advised that there was no chance as the wait list was already big and we were way down the list. So I suppose it is our mistake for waiting so long to ticket.

No I don't expect to be in Business Class but just think that ALL seats should be visible for selecting not just those that have not been blocked out. So if the flight from SIN to LHR is at 12.30 on Saturday August 3rd, when does the check in become open? Is it when the Friday August 2 2.30 pm flight from BNE to SIN opens? So when is this?

 

[SeatBackForward]

No I don't expect to be in Business Class but just think that ALL seats should be visible for selecting not just those that have not been blocked out. So if the flight from SIN to LHR is at 12.30 on Saturday August 3rd, when does the check in become open? Is it when the Friday August 2 2.30 pm flight from BNE to SIN opens? So when is this?

Most airlines will block seats, and only make them available to either

a)higher fare paying customers, or
b)to their higher status frequent flyers.

As a travellers redeeming award seats, you'd be right at the bottom of the list for the first category.

 

[medhead]

No I don't expect to be in Business Class but just think that ALL seats should be visible for selecting not just those that have not been blocked out.

I can only think that you've been caught out by double negatives with this statement. It is completely unreasonable to think that you should be able to select a seat that someone else has already selected, especially if they are on a higher tier/status level than you.

 

[zimocca]

In order to try and address the question by the OP:

the flight may not be overbooked at all, I flew SQ long haul quite regularly, and at peak times (like now) SIN-LHR and LHR-SIN A380s are often lacking seat selection.

This is because SQ have a policy of blocking off rows for families with children and status pax - front five rows of economy on an A380 31-35. Again on an A380, the last 10 rows (or thereabouts) are generally blocked off for group bookings etc.

It simply means the that present set of seats available for selection have been taken.

If you want "Good Seats" (if there is such a thing in economy?) - the you need to time your checkin/seat selection to T-48.

All seats should be made available for selection at this time.

An SQ supervisor did say to me that this *might* be best done at exactly T-48 via telephone.

hope this helps

 

[Hvr]

Enter your PNR on checkmytrip.com and it will show the seat map for the class of travel you're booked in. Worth a look to see if it is fully allocated or they are holding seats to move people around as required. This might be to ensure families sit together and the ubiquitous balance issues.

 

[mannej]

Enter your PNR on checkmytrip.com and it will show the seat map for the class of travel you're booked in. Worth a look to see if it is fully allocated or they are holding seats to move people around as required. This might be to ensure families sit together and the ubiquitous balance issues.

Checkmytrip only works for those bookings made using the Amadeus GDS - if SQ use Sabre, CMT wont work.

 

[Hvr]

Checkmytrip only works for those bookings made using the Amadeus GDS - if SQ use Sabre, CMT wont work.

Thanks for that, the pitfalls of commenting on another system.

 

[dajop]

No I don't expect to be in Business Class but just think that ALL seats should be visible for selecting not just those that have not been blocked out. So if the flight from SIN to LHR is at 12.30 on Saturday August 3rd, when does the check in become open? Is it when the Friday August 2 2.30 pm flight from BNE to SIN opens? So when is this?

I can't remember which time check in opens, I think it is 48 hrs before the departure of your SIN-LHR flight. I checked seat map for that flight, it is showing the front five rows as blocked (except for a few scattered allocated seats) and the last half of the economy cabin as completely blocked (with no allocated seats) and the rest in the middle mostly allocated. Noting that when I see it as blocked, it usually means it is prevented from being allocated but seat is still empty. I would put in request for aisle or window still according to your preference. You never know.

Checkmytrip only works for those bookings made using the Amadeus GDS - if SQ use Sabre, CMT wont work.

Actually SQ migrated to Amadeus last year so CMT does work for SQ itineraries.