Hello! Long time lurker, first time poster.
Late last year I booked a work trip to Germany flying Singapore Airlines. I went to STA travel because it is handiest to where I work. When I booked the ticket I specifically asked it to be booked as full-economy (one of class B, E, H, L, M, W, Y) for a couple of reasons: (1) I wanted the ticket to be semi-flexable because I suspected it might need to change, and (2) you get double status credits with Velocity and this would get me to Platinum. I was told that if I needed to change the flights there would be there would be a small fee charged by STA and above any fare difference (the new booking would have to be an equivalent or higher booking class). That all sounded fine so I ended up with a return ticket on class W.
In the end I did need to change the flights. I paid the fee and was told over the phone that only one of the small domestic legs in Germany was changing booking class. This is when it starts to get strange… It took them two weeks to send me an updated itinerary, and whenever I chased them they said it was on the way. Finally, today they sent it through saying that “there was an error with ticketing, and it’s all fixed now”. After asking, I was informed that the booking classes were H outbound and N inbound (H is full economy but N is discount economy). When I queried them about this they said that “Ticketing missed the TTL which meant the price increased further … but the ticketing department paid the difference to reissue the ticket, hence the delay in ticketing and upgrade in booking classes”. So, they stuffed up and didn’t actually change my flights.
They have since, again, said that it is an upgrade (without explanation, because it doesn’t seem to be). Basically, I’m missing out on 85 status credits (50% of the return leg). I understand that the ticket probably cost them more because it is closer to my flying date but that’s not my problem. Now, I know this might sound silly, but I was going to get Platinum! And I specifically asked, both when I originally booked and changed the ticket, that I would have the booking class I requested. I am going in to speak to them on Monday, but I suspect they know they have stuffed up and are just trying to save money.
Has anyone heard of anything like this happening before? Do I have any recourse, or do I just have to suck it up because I’m still going to Germany and there are things more important than airline status (but I was going to get Platinum!)?
Thanks, folks!
Links:
https://www.singaporeair.com/saar5/pdf/ppsclub_krisflyer/charts/KFOALLevels.pdf