Krisflyer sent out a mail shot last week regarding changes to their waitlist process. Basically, they are changing the way they clear their redemption wait list.
This updates an announcement from earlier this year where Krisflyer advise they would clear the wait list at least 14 days prior to the flight. While this is not changing, they are restricting the timeframe in which you can add yourself to the waitlist.
Basically, you will be able to add yourself to the wait list up to 3 weeks out from the flight. KrisFlyer will then commit to providing an outcome on your wait listed booking no less than 14 days from the flight.
So basically, once you are two weeks from a flight, you will have either a yes or a no on whether you will be on that flight. Or put another way, if you are not confirmed by two weeks before the flight, your wait list request will be cancelled.
This new policy only affect straight out redemptions. It does not affect the waitlists that exist for upgrade requests.
KrisFlyer waitlist
In the KrisFlyer program, you can waitlist a booking if there are no award redemptions available when you wish to fly.
There is no real equivalent of this in the Qantas or Velocity programs. At best, depending on status, you may be able to request an Award seat be opened up. You usually get a yay or nay on such a request pretty quickly. There is no actual wait list as such.
In order to be on the wait list, you need to have sufficient points available, if the waitlist clears. Having said that, you can wait list for as many flights as you want. You just need sufficient miles for each flight separately – not the combined total. This does give you a great deal of flexibility.
Once you are on the wait list, you basically just have to, well, wait. Your redemption could come through at any time, once you are on the list.
If your redemption wait list clears, you will typically have 2-3 days to confirm the booking.
So basically, we can sum up the changes from 14 August this way:
- you can add your name to a wait list as long as the flight is at least 21 days in the future. On some flights, the wait list may not be available
- if you search for a flight within 21 days of departure, it will be available or not available.
- the wait list will either be cleared or cancelled 14 days prior to the flight.
- the wait list could clear at any time, so you could find out before the 14 day cutoff.
Thoughts
Is this a positive or negative change? I guess you could argue that both ways.
Overall, it does give you greater certainty about whether you are travelling. If you do need to travel, you will have to make some choices, rather than hoping for the toss of the coin to go your way. On the other hand, you won’t get to toss that coin hoping for something better.
For further information, head over to the KrisFlyer FAQ page.