Planning travel can be complicated, especially if you’re trying to redeem miles & points. Award availability is often limited, and there are lots of moving parts. In that sense, being able to hold an award reservation for free before ticketing can be extremely valuable.
Continue reading: Which Airlines Allow Award Ticket Holds? Not Many, But Here’s A List
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
British Airways do it for 72 hours. Not sure if it's just for Gold Guest List. I think they did it when I was gold, too.
I know you already differentiated Singapore from the rest by adding that holds are "potentially available", but I'd say more like "possible but rare". It is technically possible, but every agent will initially tell you no, and it requires a supervisor to override the policy. In general, waiting for a transfer isn't a good enough reason for the override. Definitely YMMV, but be prepared for strong resistance.
Qantas do it for at least 3 days, but only when all segments are for Qantas flights
Within the last few months I've had three holds. Two were to wait for miles to transfer (that was for 7 days), another was to wait for miles on a cancelled ticket (that was for 14 days). One was for business and the other two were for first. Maybe that makes a difference? One time I did have to hang up and try again. I also have a friend who I was coaching that got two holds (no hang up and call agains necessary for him).
EVA seems to be the most generous, but I refuse to join a program called "Infinity MileageLands". Who came up with that clunker??
Korean Air also holds your mileage ticket when booked via call center. I’m not sure whether there is a specific limit, but I believe that they once gave me up to a week for an award ticket.
BA and Aeroplan both let you cancel without penalty within 24 hours on Avios bookings. For BA I frequently use this as a 24 hour hold
Twice in the last two years, Singapore Airlines allowed me time to transfer points and call them back to secure the ticket hold. The first time it took Chase five business days to complete while only one day for AMEX. The second time it took Chase three days. The agents were quite accommodating. For Chase I had to contact the agent every two days to let them know I was still waiting for points transfer. It always depends on who you deal with and how knowledgeable the agent is with the system. It is probably an unspoken practice.
If you hold AA to cancel & rebook a better itinerary, don't chat to have the miles reinstated. It will take longer than 24 hours. Also.. the 24 hour hold is available to certain markets. It really is amazing how bad the tech is at AA considering what other airlines do. Still worth putting up with it for the 80k JAL First redemptions.
This is very useful information. I had heard that transfers to Ana can take quite a while, which would make it too scary to try to transfer miles when the award could be gone when they get there. Thank you for this post.
This is very useful information. I had heard that transfers to Ana can take quite a while, which would make it too scary to try to transfer miles when the award could be gone when they get there. Thank you for this post.
Last month, Emirates gave me a 3 day hold for a Capital One transfer for two J tickets JFK -SYD. Capital One suspected fraud and didn't transfer the miles in time so Emirates gave me another 3 days. The miles finally posted and the tickets were issued.
Air France held two award tickets for me for three days but charged me $30 for each ticket. I was surprised but was fine paying as they were saver awards during a 20% bonus transfer. On the other hand United agreed to hold two award tickets but Chase took so long to transfer the points that the hold expired. So I was stuck having transferred the points and couldn’t get United to extend the hold.
You should realize that to some extent programs were designed to reward their frequent fliers. They owe less to the random award user that has few points and is only flying because of transferred points. While I do appreciate the math and many airlines only show a profit on point sales, the staff does not always get that nuance.
As far as SQ (Singaporeair) NEVER trust anything they say. They and their computer system are whizes at politely lying, screwing up and deleting your points. They will politely hassle you with explanations and apologies but NEVER resolve their error.