Points and miles are an incredibly useful way to fly more cheaply and conveniently. However, using them also means you often have fewer options than if you had paid for your flight with cash. That’s because airlines only offer a limited number of rewards, especially when it comes to popular dates and routes.
This means you may have to compromise by flying at less convenient times or on more complicated itineraries.
However, as my real-life example below shows, sometimes you can turn an inconvenience – in the form of a flight schedule change – into a more pleasant trip. That’s what I did recently on a flight from Australia to Malaysia.
An uncomfortable but doable flight
I’m originally from Australia and I’m planning on heading home for my usual Christmas visit at the end of the year. Since it’s that time, I’m trying to add a trip somewhere else in Australia or the Asia Pacific region to make it a two-for-one trip.
I’ve been amassing a stash of Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles for a few years, and these have a hard expiration date of 36 months from the time they were earned (or in my case, transferred from a bank program). My miles expire in February 2025, and I needed to find a way to redeem them for travel next year, so when I found a business class seat on a connecting flight from Melbourne, Australia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia via Singapore, I jumped at the chance.
However, the flight I booked did not have the most convenient departure time of 7am. Also, the flight was not a normal day, but departed on New Year’s Day. Needless to say, I was not in a great mood after the previous night’s celebrations. Then came a welcome change that opened up more options for me: a flight schedule change.
2 Timetable changes
It is common for airlines to adjust their flight schedules before departure to reflect changes in aircraft, demand and routes.
Last month, I received emails from Singapore Airlines informing me of two schedule changes.
The first flight delayed my arrival time in Kuala Lumpur by only five minutes. This seemed reasonable to me, so I accepted the changes.
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The second flight brought my departure time from Melbourne forward by five minutes to 6:55am. I thought, “I wonder if I should try my luck and ask to be rebooked on a later flight that day. I’m sure that won’t work.” Well, I was wrong.
Use a timetable change to my advantage
Typically, a “significant” schedule change must be made for you to be rebooked onto a different flight. This varies by airline, but generally, your departure or arrival time must change by at least an hour, or a nonstop flight must be changed to a connecting flight. (United Airlines is one of the most generous airlines, offering rebookings for changes as short as 30 minutes.)
The email I received said I could either accept the change or call the airline to discuss alternatives, so I did some research beforehand and chose my ideal itinerary, which would depart nearly four hours later than the airline had originally suggested—at a respectable 10:35 a.m.—and halve my transfer time in Singapore from three hours to 90 minutes.
While this doesn’t give me much time to enjoy Singapore Airlines’ excellent lounges at Singapore Changi Airport (SIN), it does make for a faster transit. And if I’m delayed on the first leg of my journey, I can rest easy knowing I can catch a later flight on the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur corridor, the busiest international route in the world.
I explained to the agent that the schedule change – that extremely inconvenient five-minute schedule change – no longer fit my travel plans and I wanted to change to the later flight. I gave her the exact flight numbers and departure times of the two flights I wanted to take.
Although Saver level rewards were not available for those flights, she escalated my case and after 23 minutes on the phone, I was emailed a new itinerary.
Conclusion
What constitutes a “significant” schedule change often varies from airline to airline – and even from individual customer service representatives – but it’s still worth trying to change your flights to make your trip more pleasant.
Related: What to do if an airline changes your flight?
I advise you to check your emails for any changes to your plans and to make the travel agent’s job easier by finding out your ideal itinerary before contacting them. Be polite and be prepared to hear no.
If you don’t try, you’ll never know.
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