Stopovers on Saver Award Tickets

[ozzie]

I had read around here that it was allowed to add stopovers on Saver level tickets for USD100 - has anyone had recent experience with booking them? Has anyone tried to add 2?

Also, are they easy about giving the 15% discount on such itineraries?

I want to book SQ11/SQ637 (LAX-NRT-SIN) and then SQ221 about 6 months later (which I can't get to show up even without a stopover as SQ11/SQ637 combo doesn't come up with itineraries to SYD and there's no availability on the through SQ11 flight.) I'd love to get another stopover in NRT but would be fine without it.

[Kyo]

There is a time limit to the stopover, and six months isn't gonna cut it. I forget but I think officially it's a month, although I've had one itinerary that was 6 weeks...

If it can't be booked online, they will honour the 15% discount, but you might need to ask for it.

[mingster]

Added a 2 week stopover for my parents in SIN who are flying PER-SIN-CDG. Did it face to face with an agent at the local office here who charged me $30 for walking in but honoured the 15% after the computer told her to and didn't charge the $100

As Kyo says though, 6 months might be pushing it?

[ozzie]

Rats - that would stink if the stopover can't be 6 months (I would have thought it would just be within the ticket validity from one year of booking, which I would meet.)

I'm doing a study abroad in Singapore and would love to get a side trip to Australia for just another 28K KF miles in Suites.

[ozzie]

My question has been answered by the booking engine - stopovers cannot be longer than 30 days on Standard or Full awards. Back to the drawing board.

[bluepanda]

Sorry I'm a little confused about this 'ADDING' a stopover. In plain English terms, is it 'insert' or 'add'? For example, if I want to travel SIN-NRT-LAX (with a stopover in NRT).

Is it:
(A) Book the entire trip on SQ12. Call the hotline and pray that there are award seats on both the SIN-NRT the NRT-LAX leg on the exact separate dates that you want (because you already took up the award from the buckets).
(B) Book a combination of SQ638 and SQ 12. Again, call and pray as above, although you only need availability on the SQ12 NRT-LAX leg, not both.
(C) Book only SIN-NRT (whichever flight available). Call to 'ADD' SQ12 NRT-LAX. In this case, you have to pray as above, and also pray that they will charge only the differential in miles (i.e. additional 34K)

Sorry for the dense question, but hope some people with experience can share. Thanks!

[mingster]

My case was slightly different as I already had SIN-CDG booked but just wanted to add PER-SIN onto it with a stopover in SIN for 2 weeks. That meant I just had to find a PER-SIN on a date/time that suited while keeping the rest of the itinerary intact.

Sounds like options A/B are your best bet.

[bluepanda]

My case was slightly different as I already had SIN-CDG booked but just wanted to add PER-SIN onto it with a stopover in SIN for 2 weeks. That meant I just had to find a PER-SIN on a date/time that suited while keeping the rest of the itinerary intact.

Thanks for your reply. You are just doing a variant of C. So you paid 68k miles for SIN-CDG. Question is did you pay ~27k for PER-SIN (in which case it's just a separate booking), or did you just top up ~4k miles?

Sounds like options A/B are your best bet.

So still need to choose. Would you do A or B if you were to start again?

[mingster]

Thanks for your reply. You are just doing a variant of C. So you paid 68k miles for SIN-CDG. Question is did you pay ~27k for PER-SIN (in which case it's just a separate booking), or did you just top up ~4k miles?



So still need to choose. Would you do A or B if you were to start again?

Topped up 4250 miles, paid a small reissue fee and the taxes (which weren't small!)

I'd go with A. But I'd ring them up and tell them exactly what I wanted to do and say it's not possible to do it online so they should honour the 15% discount for you.

[SQueeze]

Thanks for your reply. You are just doing a variant of C. So you paid 68k miles for SIN-CDG. Question is did you pay ~27k for PER-SIN (in which case it's just a separate booking), or did you just top up ~4k miles?



So still need to choose. Would you do A or B if you were to start again?

For me B/C. I have done both. C may need a little argument.

A is tricky. Like you said, you are already occupying those seats so it will be waitlist for sure and need to follow up with multiple calls. Even omitting a sector like I tried to omit CGK-SIN out of a CGK-SIN-CDG ticket still requires the system to find a fresh new SIN-CDG ticket. Splitting and omitting are not what the system finds. The system basically tries to find a new itinerary first and then assess the difference between new and old.

B sounds safest to me.

Once you had issued online, when you call, you have a case to tell them, i want to make such and such change but the system is not allowing it. Change of dates should be something that the system allows.

C's kind of change is a bit stretching it, because it's not just a change of date but a change of route as well. But I always got my way.

Mingster didnt pay the USD 100 stop over charge on the one-way flight. this is luck. I have had 2 such cases, but more often than not, agents are aware that the USD 100 needs to be charged. I think this is a manual charge and not something that the system will automatically price in upon reissuing. So good luck. You don't have to prompt them, just wait till they tell you how much to pay extra and how much miles to top up.

[ozzie]

Had a small bump in trying to get a stopover.

Initially I saw AKL-SIN available on 05 Jan and then SIN-JFK available on 11 January. When I called in to get my existing AKL-JFK booking changed, I was told that SIN-JFK was unavailable because of quota reason, blah blah blah.

I protested in return that SIN-JFK was available separately on 11 January. Rep puts me on hold and confirmed booking and asked for the credit card to pay the USD100 fee.

I'm a happy camper.

[EWR]

Sorry for hijacking this post. I am looking at an M class fare (revenue) and am trying to add a stopover in Singapore. however, if I key in that itinerary using multi-city search, the fare goes up by about $300 per person. According to the fare rules, stopovers seem to be permitted.

BASE FARE FOR MWB1YHK TYPE FARES WITH FOOTNOTE 9 NOTE - GENERAL RULE DOES NOT APPLY 1 STOPOVER PERMITTED IN EACH DIRECTION IN SIN.

[EWR]

Any ideas?

[kaysquare]

Sorry for hijacking this post. I am looking at an M class fare (revenue) and am trying to add a stopover in Singapore. however, if I key in that itinerary using multi-city search, the fare goes up by about $300 per person. According to the fare rules, stopovers seem to be permitted.

BASE FARE FOR MWB1YHK TYPE FARES WITH FOOTNOTE 9 NOTE - GENERAL RULE DOES NOT APPLY 1 STOPOVER PERMITTED IN EACH DIRECTION IN SIN.

Reason: Either married segment availabilty or just no M bucket

No M availability on the connecting leg, causing the system to book the next higher fare bucket costing $300 more. BUT!! Using the more restrictive rule. Very common.

[kaysquare]

My question has been answered by the booking engine - stopovers cannot be longer than 30 days on Standard or Full awards. Back to the drawing board.

Not true.. I just did that. Must call the agent. Had no problems at all on a Saver no less with at 15% discount because it can't be booked online.