Questions and Answers

Hi Ben,
I was super excited about your review of the trip Ford and you just took to Moscow. My wife and I had planned back in March, 3 days in Moscow as the start of a trip to Germany for the Christmas markets with my family.
We had tickets booked at the Saver Level in First Class on Singapore Air, Houston to Moscow and we were also going to spend 3 nights at the St. Regis, as well. This was going to be the first time my wife and I were going to fly First Class and I was especially super excited about the flight (and looking forward to your more in depth review.)
Unfortunately, Singapore Air just announced that they are discontinuing the route at the end of October. As soon as I found out, I called Singapore Airlines Customer Service and they have my wife and on the waitlist for Houston to Manchester, which is the new route. We live in Los Angeles and have a Southwest Companion Pass and I told the representative that we could fly out of any major city in the United States. He said that he still could not find any business class or first class tickets on anything in the Star Alliance with any of their partner airlines.
Do we have any recourse? Our hotel is on points, but the connecting flight on Aeroflot from Moscow to Frankfort was paid for on our Citi Prestige card.
We thought that we had our whole trip organized and now we are trying to figure out how to get out to Europe for the holidays.
Ben, I appreciate any advice or help that you, or anyone else can provide.
Thanks,
James Peters

[USER=1665]@James Peters[/USER] that’s very unfortunate. I’m sure there are quite a few people in the same situation. Since SQ doesn’t fly the route anymore the best they can do is to try and get you into partner space to Moscow. I would call back and ask for a supervisor and let them know that you have other confirmed plans and can’t wait around on a waitlist to know if you are actually traveling. Since SQ operates the IAH-MAN route they should be able to open space and confirm. They should then be able to get you to DME on LH. Bottom line, this is a problem created by SQ and they should fix it at no cost to you. Be polite but also firm and don’t be afraid to escalate as needed.

I wouldn’t offer to fly around the country on your dime either. SQ has a partnership with UA and should be able to book you on flights that have open space in case you need to leave from another destination. Since SQ withholds space from partners, I’m not sure how nice their partners play with them in situations like these. Maybe [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] can chime in with other ideas since I am sure they are dealing with other clients in the same situation.

We don’t have anyone on that route, but [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] is 100% correct. You have a first class ticket to Moscow on your travel date, they will accommodate you somehow, but it may take several calls.

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 19245, member: 7″]We don’t have anyone on that route, but [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] is 100% correct. You have a first class ticket to Moscow on your travel date, they will accommodate you somehow, but it may take several calls.[/QUOTE]
Thanks [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] and [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER]. It seem like it is going to take some work and quite a few calls. According to the rep at SQ that I spoke with, they said they do not have any available space in business or first class on any partner airline. Except possibly on a waitlist. As you said [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER], I am not sure if that is really the case due to SQs lack of playing nice with the other members of the Star Alliance. The rep also tried to say that there were only standard points redemptions available and tried to make it sound like I would have to use more points. That also raised a red flag for me. Thanks again for the advice.

Yep, Hang Up And Call Again.

Insist (nicely!) on a supervisor if you aren’t getting anywhere with the agents, insist (nicely!) that they coordinate with the Star Alliance liaison office or endorse the ticket over to another carrier in first class. It’s all stuff the computer can do, so the trick is getting the agents to [I]want[/I] to make the computer do those things. Yelling won’t work, you want to kill em with kindness.

Thanks for the help [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] and [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER]. Looks like Singapore has us booked on the LH flight from Houston to Frankfurt and then European business class to Moscow. [USER=4]@Lucky[/USER] took the same flight a couple of years ago with his Dad and it looked like he had an amazing flight. Thanks all for the great work and insight!