Flexible tickets that aren't (sorry, I need to vent)

[SQSuite]

Hi Everyone

I'm not expecting sympathy but any hints would be appreciated.

I only fly every few years and always so far in economy and on a non-refundable ticket. Lat time I flew there was a death in the family at home so I thought I'd buy a fully flexible ticket just in case. That cost $A1200 rather than $A800 fro ADL-SIN-BKK return.

A couple of days after arriving in BKK for a one month stay I checked my passport and found my visa on arrival expired one day before my return flight (I can't count to 30 ). I emailed SQ in Bangkok and asked to change my flight by one day. I would have been happy just to change BKK-SIN and have a stopover or change both. I was told there were no vacancies at my ticket class and I wold need to 'upsell' at an extra charge of 13500 THB ($A533).

OK... I asked in that case that had to put me in the top grade of economy so were there any redemption upgrade seats? I was told that wasn't an option because my new 'upsold' ticket would be in a lower class, W which was not eligible for upgrading.

I decided not to pay the extra. The overstay fee is only a maximum of 500THB ($A20)

Thanks for reading

J

[SQ_326]

A flexible ticket allows free of charge in changing of date, not waiver of prevailing rates. Moreover Flexible Y tickets have different types too like B, È, H, M etc. if you bought a M ticket a while back and have to amend at very close to departure date, then you may up paying for a B or H ticket which is more expensive.

[kevin-sg]

Why don't you ask which are the flights you can change to without having to pay extra 1, 2 or 3 days earlier?

[SQSuite]

Thanks kevin-sg. To some extent I was shocked by the SQ response and didn't feel like arguing so I didn't explore alternative dates.

Thanks SQ_326. As I read the conditions of my ticket a change of date would have been free but I guess that was only in the event that there were available seats. When I tried to change the date using the app I couldn't because I had flown some sectors. Could it be that I had inadvertently chosen a class that only allowed free changes before flying any sectors? If so, it would have been nice for the SQ staff member to tell me and for the T&Cs to be clearer.

Best wishes

J

[zilchster]

A flexible ticket allows a date change (and depending on which class, you might have to pay the date change fee) + any difference in fares for the particular fare class. This may explain why you end up paying quite a bit on the change fees.