The KrisFlyer waitlist is a perfect embodiment of the highs and lows of the miles game.
There’s nothing more nerve-wracking than watching the days count down to your trip, with the most important aspect of the journey —the flights — still not confirmed. Likewise, there’s nothing more exhilarating than getting that beautiful email with the subject line “Your Waitlisted Flight(s) Is Available For Confirmation”.
The waitlist certainly has its uses, but all things considered, I’m not a fan.
Some argue that award seats tend to open up closer to departure, and being on the waitlist saves you from having to keep checking. That may be true with other airlines, but I haven’t really observed it with KrisFlyer. While some additional seats may open within 14 days of departure, there’s no discernible pattern to it; I’ve seen Business Class cabins go out half-empty with uncleared waitlists.
The way I see it, “no” is better than “maybe”, since it’s the hope that kills you. Sometimes I wish that Singapore Airlines would follow the lead of Cathay Pacific and just do away with the whole thing!
But regardless of how you feel, the waitlist is a fact of life for KrisFlyer members. And that means it warrants further analysis.
| ✈️ tl;dr: KrisFlyer waitlist |
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What is the waitlist?
For most airlines, award space is a binary thing: either it’s available, or it isn’t.
Singapore Airlines throws in a third possibility. If there’s nothing available for immediate confirmation, members can add themselves to a waitlist. It’s SIA’s way of saying “nothing’s available now, but maybe later…”
As the name suggests, all you can do on the waitlist is…wait. It might clear tomorrow, it might clear next week, it might not clear at all.
Either way, you’ll know at least two weeks before departure whether your waitlist is successful, as part of KrisFlyer’s new “fill or kill” policy introduced from August 2019. While that’s better than the old system (where your waitlist could technically clear en route to the airport), two weeks isn’t a lot of time to make alternative plans.
How to add yourself to the waitlist
If waitlist options are available, they’ll show up in the search results during flight selection.
| ❓ Why don’t I see waitlist options? |
You will not see waitlist options if:
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Suppose you want to fly on SQ32 from SIN-SFO on 13 March 2023. Saver awards are not available, but Advantage awards are open for waitlisting.
Assuming you’re fine with that, click on the waitlist option, and the screen will change as follows:
In addition to the waitlisted flight, you’ll also be prompted to “select other available flights”. This is meant to be the backup option, in case the waitlist doesn’t clear. A few things to note:
- You cannot choose another waitlist flight as your backup option
- You can chose a Saver or Advantage award on an alternative flight as your backup option
- It’s not compulsory to choose a backup option if you don’t want to
- No miles are deducted for choosing a backup option, even though the seat is held for you (but not indefinitely- see below)
Suppose you pick SQ34 as your backup option. The screen will now show SQ32 on waitlist, and SQ34 reserved.
Proceed to enter your details, and a confirmation email will be generated. Remember: No miles or taxes will be charged at this stage.
From here on, it’s simply a waiting game. If the waitlist clears, you’ll receive an email notification.
Otherwise, Singapore Airlines will send “waitlist reminder” emails at the nine, six, three, one month and three weeks mark before departure.
Frankly speaking, these emails are completely pointless. They don’t tell you anything you don’t already know; it’s not like it informs you about your position on the waitlist, or how many seats are left on the flight. At most, they remind you of the need to make alternate plans!
If you find these emails annoying, you can turn them off by logging in to your KrisFlyer account, selecting Profile > Preferences, and toggling “waitlist reminders” off.
At two weeks to the flight departure date, any unsuccessful waitlist bookings will be automatically cancelled.
One final point: remember that SQ34 backup option? It won’t be held indefinitely. Annoyingly, neither the confirmation email nor the manage booking function tell you how long the reserved flight will be held for, so you either have to call in and ask, or wait for an automated SMS reminding you of the deadline.
| ⚠️ Reserved ≠Confirmed! |
While “reserved” and “confirmed” may appear like the same thing to most people, they have very different meanings within the Singapore Airlines system!
Reserved means that the seat has been held, subject to you making payment and issuing the ticket by a certain deadline. Confirmed means that the seat is yours- it’s been paid for and ticketed. Don’t bother showing up at the airport with a flight that’s “reserved”; you won’t be allowed to check-in. |
If the deadline is approaching and your waitlist has not cleared, you can call up KrisFlyer membership services and ask them to extend the hold on the backup flight. Do note that this is not an entitlement; they may insist that you ticket the reserved flight first (which involves a deduction of miles), and then do a switch if the waitlist clears.
Waitlist FAQs
Can I join a waitlist with insufficient miles?
No. In order to add yourself to a waitlist, you must have sufficient miles for that particular itinerary.
For example, if you’re looking at a one-way Business Saver award from SIN-LHR, you won’t be able to add yourself to the waitlist unless you have at least 103,500 miles in your account.
Some readers have mentioned that KrisFlyer phone agents can manually add you to the waitlist if you have insufficient miles; I’ve personally never tried, but I imagine that’d be a YMMV situation.
Can I clear a waitlist with insufficient miles?
Yes. While you need sufficient miles to add yourself to the waitlist, your waitlist can clear even if your balance subsequently declines.
For example, suppose you have 103,500 miles in your account. You can add yourself to the waitlist for a one-way SIN-LHR Business Saver award, and then redeem 43,000 miles for a one-way SIN-MLE Business Saver award, leaving you with 60,500 miles.
If/when your SIN-LHR Business Saver award clears, you’ll obviously need to top up your account, but the fact that you don’t have sufficient miles in your account won’t have any impact on whether or not the waitlist clears.
How many waitlists can I add myself to?
Unlimited. Waitlisting does not put a “hold” on your miles. I could add myself to Business Saver waitlists for one-way flights to LHR, CDG, FRA and MUC so long as I have at least 103,500 miles in my account.
That’s probably not a good thing, mind you, since it means that the waitlist could be clogged with members who have no real intention of flying. I think a system that limited each passenger to five waitlisted flights (maybe more for Elite Gold/PPS Club members?) would be much better.
As far as I know, being on multiple waitlists does not prejudice your chances of a given waitlist clearing.
What happens when the waitlist clears?
If your waitlist clears, you usually have 72 hours to confirm the booking. This can be done online, or by calling up KrisFlyer.
However, sometimes you may get more time, depending on how far you are from departure. Some data points:
- 9 days to confirm a flight from Brisbane which cleared with 44 days to go
- 21 days to confirm a flight from Tokyo Narita which cleared with 164 days to go
In any case, the ticketing time limit will be clearly mentioned in the confirmation email.
Must I take the waitlisted flight?
No. There is no obligation to redeem a waitlisted flight that clears.
Will my waitlist clear?
Your guess is as good as mine.
The fact is, no one outside of Airline House can tell you how good a chance you have of your waitlist clearing. We do know that elite status plays a part, and a Solitaire PPS Club member should feel more confident than a regular KrisFlyer member. Beyond that, however, it’s a big black box.
One thing you can do to reduce the information asymmetry is to see how many seats are left available.
An inelegant (but free) way of doing this is to make a dummy commercial booking for the flight in question, and get up to the stage where you select your seat. From this, you’ll get a rough gauge of how many seats are left (caveat: just because a seat isn’t selected doesn’t mean it hasn’t been sold; some people don’t bother with seat selection until online check-in).
An easier way of doing this is to use a paid service like KVS Tool, leveraging the seat map feature.
Do remember that just because a cabin looks empty doesn’t mean your waitlist will clear. Singapore Airlines believes in protecting its premium cabins, so it’s possible that aircraft go out with empty seats.
At the very least, checking the seat map can tell you whether it’s unlikely your waitlist will clear. If you’re seeing almost all the seats occupied, then it’s probably time to start making other plans.
How can I improve my chances of clearing the waitlist?
To improve your chances of clearing the waitlist, add your name early. Singapore Airlines flights open for booking 355 days in advance, and ignoring elite status, it’s generally first-come-first-serve.
I’d advise you to start by searching for one ticket, even if you’re travelling as a couple or family. It could be the case that one ticket is available for immediate confirmation, but two tickets require waitlisting. If that’s the case, I’d rather grab the available ticket and waitlist for the other, since the odds of one seat clearing the waitlist is certainly higher than two.
You should also waitlist as individuals, rather than a group (i.e. make separate bookings). If you’re waitlisted for four people and two seats open up, your party may be skipped over in favour of the next on the waitlist (think of it like tables at a restaurant). This does create the possibility that one person’s waitlist may clear and not the other’s, however.
Always get the party with elite status to waitlist. Elite status is the only factor we know for sure plays a part in waitlist clearance, and all parties in the same booking benefit from the elite “aura” (also, if you’re travelling as a party of two and only one seat is available for immediate confirmation, give it to the regular member and have the elite member waitlist).
While the entire waitlist process should be automated, there has been anecdotal evidence of waitlists not clearing despite redemption seats opening up. Even if you’re on the waitlist, it might not be the worst idea to periodically recheck availability, just in case.
Finally, flexibility does help. Instead of flying to Narita, could Haneda work just as well? Could you do Newark instead of JFK? And given how well-connected European cities are, could Amsterdam be an acceptable substitute for London, or Munich for Zurich? The more flexibility you have, the higher the chances of something working out in your favour.
Does “sending a chaser” help?
Ah, the infamous chaser. Legend has it that calling up KrisFlyer and asking them to send a “chaser” to the revenue management department can make award seats magically appear.
I’d rank this alongside the claim that dressing nicely improves your chance of an upgrade- there’s probably some reason why the story took hold, but it has very little basis in fact. Think about it: if simply saying “send a chaser” could make things happen, every First and Business Class cabin would be going out full.
By that same token, visiting the Singapore Airlines service centre at ION Orchard doesn’t really do much. Even if the staff there wanted to help you, award inventory is not within their control.
So is there any point calling up or visiting? I can only say it can’t hurt, though I wouldn’t get my hopes up unless you’re a Solitaire PPS or PPS Club member (and even then it’s far from a sure shot).
My experience with the KrisFlyer waitlist
While everyone’s experience with the waitlist will differ, my success rate from the past few years averages out between 20-30%.
The median window for a waitlisted booking to clear was 27 days before departure, with a high of 164 days and a low of 20 days.
| Route | Waitlist cleared | Days before flight |
| MLE-SIN | 7-Feb-19 | 46 |
| SIN-MUC | 3-Aug-19 | 97 |
| KIX-SIN | 18-Oct-19 | 27 |
| HND-SIN | 19-Jan-20 | 20 |
| HKG-SIN | 10-Dec-20 | 28 |
| SIN-HKG | 22-Apr-21 | 27 |
| MUC-SIN | 24-Sep-21 | 40 |
| SYD-SIN | 5-Nov-21 | 23 |
| SYD-SIN | 9-Nov-21 | 20 |
| SYD-SIN | 7-Jan-22 | 23 |
| SFO-SIN | 23-Feb-22 | 24 |
| BNE-SIN | 25-Mar-22 | 44 |
| NRT-SIN | 27-Oct-22 | 164 |
This suggests that if you do intend to call in, your best bet is to do so within one month of departure.
Conclusion
The waitlist is a unique, yet frustrating aspect of the KrisFlyer experience. While I wish I could tell you the magic formula to get your waitlists cleared, the honest answer is I just don’t know. How exactly SIA decides which waitlists clear and which don’t will go down as one of the great mysteries of the miles game.
So by all means, keep a positive attitude about the waitlist, but it’s wise to make backup plans. Look at other routes, other airlines, other dates. Consider one-stop cash tickets. Use a tool like Awards PNR to keep tabs on alternative award space.
And if you waitlist does clear, go out and buy a lottery ticket. You’re on a hot streak.
Any tips for dealing with the KrisFlyer waitlist?
There are only 2 cases that I consider wait-listing worth it. You are months away from the travel date (which means you have time). That said, if months away, chances are you can find a flight to confirm immediately anyway. Only other case is the ‘nearby airport’ case – I would prefer to fly out of KIX. So I waitlist ex-KIX, while booking a confirmed flight out of NGO. If later, the KIX waitlist confirms, I can change the ex-NGO flight to a ex-KIX. Other than these 2 cases (which actually have limited utility), wait-listing is really not worth it.… Read more »
Waitlist == waiting for that boy/girl to breakup with gf/bf. Worst is he/she gives out teaser n hints that u got chance but never happens or lame reasons/excuses
dream on
yes, but you hear that your friend made it out of the friendzone and therefore believe it can happen for you too!
moral of story friendzone = waitlist
If I had redeemed a saver flight for one day and a waitlisted flight clears for another day, do I have the option of switching over by paying the change fee? or do I have to pay the cancellation fee and rebook the flight?
By the way i had a waitlisted flight clear for Suites Advantage to Sydney and was given *2 months* to confirm the booking, not sure if its because its Advantage or because its Suites
if you booked them on separate PNRs, by right no. you’ll need to cancel and pay the fee. by left, the call centre staff can sometimes get it waived. YMMV.
If I have a return trip business booked in business saver waitlist, but I end up booked Advantage for the first leg, I should just keep the original waitlist for both leg instead of canceling right?
Already been 5 months still not cleared, giving me anxiety.
flight that does not show waitlist does it mean you get instant conformation upon booking?
If I waitlist a Saver and have a confirmed Advantage on the same flight and receive the waitlist is available for confirmation email for the Saver am I safe to cancel the Advantage first and then confirm the Saver or should I confirm the Saver and then cancel the Advantage? I’m a bit leary of cancelling the confirmed ticket first in case the Saver somehow goes pear shaped before it is confirmed and I’m left with neither – but I need to topup miles first to have both the Saver and Advantage confirmed. Is it cheaper to do this via… Read more »
As long as you finish everything before the waitlist deadline it should be safe. At the cancellation page I believe they mention that the miles are returned instantly so you should be able to do both within a few minutes.
How did you manage to waitlist a saver and confirm an Advantage on the same flight?
I believe calling in to request a chaser “used” to help, purely based on anecdotal evidence that pre-covid I tried this a few times and magically my waitlist flights cleared an hour or two after doing so on a few occasions. Too much of a coincidence not to have made a difference. However, post covid I have tried this and been told in no uncertain terms on multiple occasions that there is no point in even trying as it won’t make the blindest bit of difference any more.
Yeah, I think it used to help as well. As the few times I called, most of them cleared within a few days after being stuck for like forever. But I do think that since then, policies have changed to make it more difficult to secure a waitlisted seat.
Interesting- do you guys have status?
I was then, and still am, SQ Gold
Yeah. Pre-covid, calling the hotline to request for a chaser does help. I used to get it cleared in a day or so after the call. And that was when I am Gold.
Last month.. I can’t even get a ECON class redemption to BKK.. And I am PPS…
You don’t need waitlist for saver awards if you are booking 6 months to 1 year in advance. For suite class, 1 year in advance for saver awards and business class will be around 6 months in advance, both instances will guarantee a cleared even for two tickets. Try it!
*experience may differ depends on your route. But some route should still work like SG-LON suite class for one year in advance booking.
Is it better to waitlist a return ticket separately? Ie. One waitlist for outgoing and another for incoming? Commonly one leg clears first and you are stuck and the other is still on waitlist. And by the time the second leg clears, the leg that clears first could have expired. Sometimes, you remain on the waitlist yet there is an available seat (same type eg saver) for immediate redemption when you do a new search. Wierd.
Yes, u prob have better luck with oneway waitlist redemptions. And more flexibility in case one clears and the other eventually doesnt. You would prob have some backup plans for both waitlists hopefully.
It really depends on your status. I am a travel consultant and have experience waitlisting for Silver/Gold/PPS/Life members. The higher the status, the easier to get the waitlist confirmed. Chaser does help but only for high status members because I have done chaser requests for several passengers on the same flight/same date and their waitlist confirmation were given based on their PPS status. Once I placed a waitlist for a flight for 4 sets on suite class SIN-LAX. The flight is fully booked, but magically the waitlist was confirmed within the hour after calling them because my customer is a… Read more »
Interesting discussion this – found it after starting to tear my hair out in my latest efforts to get redemption seats. I’m Solitaire member >20years and yes, pre-Covid calling in would sometime help but now it doesn’t. I know SIA is quite clever about many things but I do wonder if other loyal frequent fliers like my wife and I are also choosing to fly more with other airlines out of frustration with not being able to redeem the points they’ve earned from their loyalty to SQ. I have now obtained Gold Status with 2 other airlines over the last… Read more »
Do any of you have experience with successfully swapping dates on a confirmed business award flight to a different date that’s only available on waitlist in the same class? Is there any point in even trying or would it be a no go?
Also would it help in any way that the cabin in the current confirmed flight is almost full while the potential swap flight is considerably emptier?
You can call up Sq Hotline and ask them to add the waitlist to your confirmed booking
Ah strange. I’ve just tried to do that and they said they aren’t able to do waitlisting over the phone and told me to do it myself on the website. I can’t seem to do it on the website either unless it’s an entirely separate booking. It’s also a little complicated in this case because it’s a flight that was booked prior to the miles changes – and booking separately incurs the new mile requirements.
They weren’t super helpful but it’s not a huge deal – I’ll just stick to the original date! Thanks for the input though.
Hi, can I check if my flight itinerary has a waitlisted segment and reserved segment now, what happens to the reserved segment if I didn’t managed to get the waitlisted segment seat? Thanks in advance!
Reserved segment will automatically be cancelled after a few days if not confirmed. exactly how many days- need to check with customer service
believe the reserved segment is held for 9 days for Saver and 30 days for Advantage (based on my few datapoints). but can always call up to check with agent.
Hi, I’m trying to redeem mile from sin – tpe. 28/5 is full so I select “waitlist” and then I reserved a flight on 3/6. However, after entering the names, I reached the payment page. So should I make the payment? But I thought no payment is required?
And if I made the payment, and the waitlist flight becomes available, does it mean tt I have to pay USD$25 to change the ticket?
Thanks!
Is it possible to waitlist Saver and confirm advantage on the same flight / class such that your ticket switches to saver should the waitlist open up>
I just tried to do that but it seems that the waitlist saver would be immediately cancelled.
if waitlist clears, you should ticket Saver and cancel advantage (pay redeposuit fee of USD 50)
There is more about the waitlisted vs. alternative flight. For example. I waitlisted for a business class and it prompted me to select an alternative/backup economy flight, which is available. If I did choose the economy flight, it will immediately get confirmed and my waitlisted business class flight will be canceled. Any thoughts on this? Thanks!
Does anyone here know if you can get the taxes paid refunded if you don’t get your waitlist seat?
E.g., I paid 62 SGD taxes for my waitlist to europe. If I don’t get the seat, can I apply to have the taxes refunded?
You don’t pay anything to wait-list.
Hi, Just to clarify my understanding, the difference between saver and advantage is mainly the complimentary stopovers and etc right ? Waitlist or not is the one that is determining if your seats is confirmed ? At the redemption page, I can see flights with both Saver and Advantage, without the orange “waitlist” text. Does that means my seats is confirmed, even though I choose Saver ? Or if there’s too many Advantage booking, my Saver booking will be given up ? After reading a few of your articles, I’m still confused… Please help enlighten me, thank you and much… Read more »
I want to waitlist a saver award upgrade but reserve the advantage award upgrade on the same flight. Can I do that?
“Always get the party with elite status to waitlist”
Does the elite status aura also carry over if the party isn’t part of the redemption booking i.e. they are only redeeming for their nominee?
Can I waitlist for biz class while redeeming economy class for the same flight? So I’m still guaranteed to leave same date but the only uncertainty is the flight class
you certainly can
So…. the point at which waitlist clears is the time that the miles are consumed, correct? When using expiring miles, the way is to make sure the expiring miles are still unexpired at the point of waitlist clearance, not at the point of joining the waitlist hor?
My booking has the following status
PER SIN PEK Business Saver Waitlist
PEK SIN PER Business Saver Reserved
If the waitlist is unsuccessful, can I ring up ticketing and ask them to issue the ticket for the reserved segment only?
yup you can, but remember the reserved segment is only held for a certain period of time. make sure it doesn’t expire while waiting for your waitlist to clear
anyone know if by any chance a segment is now on waitlist and later on, they will be open for immediate redemption?
trying to book seoul to sin on one of the days but the flight i want is on waitlist, however, 1 week before this day which i want to travel, there is no waitlist on the same timing