Does fare brackets availability depend on Point-of-Sale?

[taless]

Hi there! Just a question out of my own curiosity.

I booked a Multi-city itinerary, from LHR to SIN, then SIN to AKL (one-way). On the multi-city booking, no matter what I do, I can only see SQ281, never SQ285 (even if I decide to go to Flexi fares). So I booked SQ317 & SQ281 in H-class, suspecting it is a website problem - I will ring SQ later for a flight change.

Before ringing them, I did a dummy booking, and can confirm that for flights originating from LHR, I can get onto SQ285 on a W fare.

Ringing SQ, I reached the ICC, who said SQ285 is full.

Having no joy, I called Krisflyer's line to reach Singapore. I queried ICC's reply, she said ICC was correct... For flights originating from LHR, W is available, but in my 'multi-city booking', my SIN-AKL segment is derived from SIN's 'pool' as opposed to LHR's, and in SIN's pool, only full Y fare is available.

But nevertheless, she placed me on hold, and got back to me saying that she managed to put me onto the SQ285, which is the flight I wanted.

I really appreciate her input, but just wanted to know for my own learning: is it really true that when changing flights, you may not be able to move to a different flight even when a similar fare-bracket is available just because your point-of-sale is different?

Thanks for any clarification!

[Guy Betsy]

SQ's stupid website will book you in one fare class only say H class if W is not available outbound. Then all subsequent return flights will be booked in H even if W is available. It will not offer you the lower fare and price it half in H and half in W. It will only charge you the higher fare.

[taless]

Yes... But if I already have a H-fare, surely I can move to another flight that is still selling at W-fare (to the UK market)? Or is it something that has to be done out of gesture of goodwill?

[stargold]

Point of sale definitely applies, including changing the flights as well as buying new ones. And what you describe (if the flight is selling W in a different market, surely you should be able to change an H fare to that flight?) - POS doesn't work like that. There's no hierarchy according to different booking classes across different POSs - they are independent per each POS.

You would have to waitlist and ask them to clear manually.

[benlee]

It kind of annoys me when there are seats available for booking online but when try to change the flight, the popular routes are always "fully booked" and wait-listed. However, in most instances, seats become magically "available" if I am willing to pay a top-up fee. Sounds like profiteering to me.

[KeithMEL]

Sounds like profiteering to me.

Revenue Management 101.

[CarbonMan]

Revenue Management 101.

+1
It's a little like the DVD regional code fiasco. Businesses will try to squeeze where they can get away with it. Our duty as consumers is to be aware that these things happen, and we have to make sure we shop around. E.g. I Nespresso capsules only in London.