Singapore Airlines Secure My Fare: How it works

Imagine this: you find an attractive airfare to a destination you’d love to visit, but don’t know if those dates will work for you. The dilemma then becomes: 

1. Do you buy the fare now to lock in the price, at the risk of having to pay change or cancellation fees later (if the fare even allows for it)?
2. Do you wait until your plans firm up, and hope that the seat doesn’t disappear or the price doesn’t increase in the meantime?

Well, with this situation in mind, airlines have introduced paid-for fare holds, which allow customers to secure a fare and seats for a limited period. They can then choose to ticket the booking if their plans are confirmed, or let it lapse otherwise.

In the case of Singapore Airlines, this comes in the form of Secure My Fare, introduced back in 2017. This offers a fare hold for up to 72 hours, for a fee starting from S$5.

In this article, I’ll explain how this works, and when you might want to consider it. 

Which itineraries are eligible for Secure My Fare?

Singapore Airlines’ Secure My Fare is only applicable if your itinerary is:

• At least 30 days from the departure date
• In Premium Economy or Economy Class
• Comprised entirely of flights operated by Singapore Airlines

Secure My Fare is not available for redemption bookings, multi-city itineraries, or itineraries with Scoot or other partner flights. 

If your itinerary is eligible, you’ll see a Secure My Fare button appear after you’ve selected your flights. 

How does Secure My Fare work?

Once purchased, Secure My Fare will guarantee your fare and seat availability for up to 72 hours.

Note the “up to” caveat; the actual hold time can be anywhere from 24-72 hours, and you’ll only find out how long exactly you have on the final screen. In practice, however, I have yet to see any hold of less than 72 hours. 

The Secure My Fare fee ranges from S$5 to S$30 per passenger, per segment and in general, more expensive fares will have higher fees. For example, if you’re flying on SQ26 from SIN-FRA-JFK, the fee will be S$10 per passenger as this itinerary has two segments.

You can only pay this fee with a debit or credit card; paying with KrisFlyer miles is not available (not that you should, anyway!).

What can I do with a Secure My fare booking?

To be clear, you cannot select seats, make meal requests, or purchase any kind of add-ons for a Secure My Fare booking. That’s because it only represents a hold, not an actual ticket. 

These requests can only be made after the booking is confirmed and the ticket issued. 

How do I confirm my Secure My fare booking?

When you wish to confirm a Secure My Fare booking, visit the Manage Booking page and find your booking. You’ll then be able to make payment online to confirm and issue the ticket. 

Do note that unlike some other airlines, Singapore Airlines does not offset the Secure My Fare fee from your final purchase amount. In other words, this fee is on top of whatever you pay for your fare. 

Once Secure My Fare has been purchased, it only covers the exact itinerary initially selected. You cannot make any changes to the dates, destinations or travellers (or rather you can, but that involves making a brand new booking and allowing the Secure My Fare booking to expire, with no refund of the fee).

Can you hold a fare for free?

To wrap up this post, I want to address two scenarios where you could hold a fare without having to pay for the privilege.

Solitaire PPS Club and PPS Club members

While this is not an official policy, based on anecdotes and personal experience, Solitaire PPS and PPS Club members can call up membership services and ask for a seat on a given flight to be reserved for them, without paying.

In that case, an unticketed PNR will be created first to secure the seat, and held for a certain period of time. However, the member will still need to pay the prevailing price at the time of the booking, so it’s not quite a perfect substitute for Secure My Fare. On the plus side, you can even hold a Business Class seat, which Secure My Fare doesn’t provide for.

Do remember that this is an unofficial benefit, and a classic case of YMMV. It may not always be possible to hold a seat on a flight with high demand, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. 

Flying to/from the USA

Thanks to legislation by the US Department of Transportation, all airlines flying to and from the USA (or domestically) must allow customers to cancel their payment and reservation within 24 hours for a full refund, provided the ticket is purchased at least seven days before departure.

This means that you don’t really need to use Secure My Fare for flights to and from the USA. You can simply buy the ticket to secure the fare and seat, then cancel within 24 hours if necessary. If you need more time, simply repeat the booking. 

In theory, there should be no risk here, provided you’re fast enough with the rebooking after the cancellation. However, if the flight is already full, there is a potential risk that someone else may have waitlisted for the seat, and that seat may be offered to them instead of being returned directly to inventory.

Conclusion

Singapore Airlines’ Secure My Fare feature allows customers to hold a fare and seat for up to 72 hours, in exchange for a small fee.

For those who need additional time to confirm their plans, but don’t want to risk the fare and seat disappearing, this would be a low-cost way of buying extra time. I only wish that Singapore Airlines would allow you to offset the fee from the cost of the booking, should you ultimately decide to ticket it.