Waitlisting for a flight...Does it work?

[Peter11]

I have a booking in Raffles (we can still call it that right?) to go to DPS from SIN on the afternoon flight and I am waitlisted for the morning flight. Periodically I have logged into Singaporeair.com just to check and see if any seats had opened up. Twice I logged in and found a seat for sale, yet my waitlist did not clear. Finally tonight, I just went ahead and bought it because I have no confidence that the SQ waitlist system works. I figure the ticket is refundable so I will let SQ sort it out later.

Once I called SQ and asked why and they said that since my ticket was booked by United through Apollo that the inventory I want has to be in the Apollo system. SQ says that not all of the inventory is represented in every GDS. SQ claimed that they could not confirm the seat for me, even if they see availability in their system. Mind you, this is for a business class ticket...full fare! Seems to me that you would want your full fare tickets to be as widely available as possible to ensure sold out flights.

Does SQ manufacture some scarcity intentionally to create a higher sense of value?

[SQflyergirl]

That's because you called it raffles. It's now known as "the class formerly known as raffles".

[Peter11]

Actually my experience with the SQ Reservations office has been that they do not even know that there is a NEW First and Business class much less that the latter is now called the class that was formerly Raffles.

[zvezda]

Since attaining PPS status, all my SQ waitlists have cleared.

[Peter11]

Although I have no status, it does not seem to be an issue of PPS membership. At least in my case, there is at least one person on the waiting list (me) yet, when a seat comes available for sale on Singaporeair.com, it is not assigned to me or anyone else who might be on the waitlist. Rather it is sold to anyone (status or not) who happens to log in and buy it.

Perhaps it does have something to do with my ticket being purchased through UA. However, that excuse seems strange because its SQ who I called to be put on the waitlist. When I log in to look at the itnerary, it does in fact show that I am on the waitlist in the SQ computers.

[jjpb3]

Maybe your association with CGK has tarnished you in SQ's eyes, Peter11.

(Just kidding, CGK, dear.)

[Peter11]

Ha ha.....well, SQ certainly does NOT love me. But of course they have no reason to either. It's CGK though that should be earning a commmission as I suspect he has done more to promote SQ than most. Of course, now that he is a traitor, I suppose any association we have with him will be viewed negatively.

I can already imagine the look on the SKL staff when I present my two reservations. The SQ office already gave me so much grief about how UA booked my SQ 15 flight as two segments (sfo-icn AND icn-sin) instead of a single flight (sfo-sin). Told them to complain to UA about it, not me! As fantastic as SQ can be in the air, I am totally underwhelmed with their reservation staff and the ability of their computer to process waitlist requests.

[Peter11]

I think I found my answer. I called UA tonight since I saw another seat for sale. They confirmed that the seat is not in the Apolo inventory so they could not help me. I asked the agent about why SQ could not confirm it for me. He noted that SQ will not touch an Apollo reservation before the trip has begun because any changes they make to it would not be visible to UA. Similarly if you book with a travel agency, the airline will always refer you back to the agency until you begin the trip.

Since UA can not waitlist for a flight on SQ that is not an option. Waitlistiing with SQ when you have a reservation made by UA is useless because UA will not know to confirm the change, and SQ will not confirm the change because they will not touch the reservation until the trip starts. Long story short, waitlisting does not work when you book with UA.

The question still remains why SQ inventory is not fully visible on the Apollo system, especially for premium full fare tickets. I guess that is a mystery I will never figure out.

[StarG]

Just throwing ideas here. Can you just issue whatever flight/airline is available on that sector, then have UA endorse the ticket (if necessary). Cancel the confirmed booking. Call up SQ and make a new booking, give them the ticket number.

Not sure if this will work.

[Peter11]

Notwithstanding the fact that we are talking about the Star Alliance, SQ is not proficient at booking an itinerary that includes a UA segment. So, booking through SQ is not a great option for me.

[KeithMEL]

With an 016 ticket stock, could it be that it's UA who's restricting inventory on partner airlines to limit the release of revenue to other airlines?

[StarG]

I guess what I am trying to say is that waitlisting does work, but SQ's reservation system is quite complex in my experience. Not all C class inventory is assignable to any C class ticket. The system differentiates C class of different origins/perhaps margins.

More than once, I was waitlisted on one leg of my journey, even though that flight is available when the SQ agent look at just that flight.

[zvezda]

I guess what I am trying to say is that waitlisting does work, but SQ's reservation system is quite complex in my experience. Not all C class inventory is assignable to any C class ticket. The system differentiates C class of different origins/perhaps margins.

There are C, J, D, Z, and I fare classes, all of which are business class. Is that what you're writing about? Or do you mean that within, for example, D class there is differentiation?

[StarG]

There are C, J, D, Z, and I fare classes, all of which are business class. Is that what you're writing about? Or do you mean that within, for example, D class there is differentiation?

Yeah. Within one fare bucket, there is differentiation. Not all C class are equal.

[TerryK]

There are C, J, D, Z, and I fare classes, all of which are business class. Is that what you're writing about? Or do you mean that within, for example, D class there is differentiation?

SQ has different inventories for married segments as well point-of-sale.

Married segments are for different availabilities between connections and single segments. For example, SIN-ICN may be available by itself, yet CGK-SIN-ICN may not be available for the same flight.

POS availability is based on where you book your reservation. For example, quite often I need to waitlist CMB-SIN-ICN, while the same flights are available when booking from the US. This is to distinguish bookings from lower/higher fare locations.

KVS Availability Tool provide capability to switch hosts between different countries. You could observe POS availability difference between hosts by switching.