How I leveraged a 5-minute schedule change into a much more comfortable flight itinerary

Points and miles are an incredibly useful way to fly more cheaply and comfortably. However, using them also means that you will often have fewer options than if you bought your flight with cash. That's because airlines release limited award availability, especially when it comes to popular dates and routes.

That means that you may have to compromise by flying at less convenient times or on more complicated itineraries.

However, as my real-life example below shows, you can sometimes turn an inconvenience — in the form of a schedule change — into a more comfortable journey. Here's how I recently did it on a flight from Australia to Malaysia.

An inconvenient but doable flight

I am originally from Australia and have plans to head home for my usual Christmas visit at the end of this year. Given that it's such a long way, I try to tack on a trip somewhere else in Australia or the Asia-Pacific region to make it a two-for-one trip.

I've been sitting on a stash of Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles for a couple of years now, and they have a hard expiration date of 36 months from when they were earned (or transferred from a bank program, in my case). Mine were set to expire in February 2025, and I needed to find a way to redeem them for travel in the next year. So, when I found a business-class seat on a connecting itinerary from Melbourne, Australia, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, via Singapore, I jumped on it.

However, the flight I booked doesn't have the most convenient departure time at 7 a.m. Plus, the flight isn't on a typical day; it departs on New Year's Day. Needless to say, I don't think I would've been in the best of spirits after the previous night's festivities. Then came a welcome break that would help expand my options: a schedule change.

2 schedule changes

It's common for airlines to tweak their schedules before departure to accommodate aircraft, demand and route changes.

In the past month, I've received emails from Singapore Airlines notifying me of two schedule changes.

The first pushed back my arrival time to Kuala Lumpur by a mere five minutes. This seemed reasonable, so I accepted the changes.

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The second brought my departure time from Melbourne forward by five minutes to 6:55 a.m. That's when I thought, "I wonder if I should try my luck at asking to switch to a later flight that day. Surely that won't work." Well, I was wrong.

Using a schedule change to my advantage

Usually, there needs to be a "significant" schedule adjustment for you to be able to rebook on another flight. It varies by airline, but generally, your departure or arrival time needs to change by at least one hour, or a nonstop flight needs to switch to a connecting itinerary. (United Airlines is one of the most generous carriers, offering rebooking 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 almost four hours later than the airline originally proposed — at a respectable 10:35 a.m. — and cut my connection time in Singapore in half from three hours to 90 minutes.

While that won't give me much time to enjoy Singapore Airlines' excellent lounges at Singapore Changi Airport (SIN), it makes for a quicker transit. And in the event I'm delayed on the first leg of my trip, I'll rest easy knowing that I can jump on a later flight on the Singapore-to-Kuala Lumpur corridor, the busiest international route in the world.

I explained to the agent that the schedule change — that hugely inconvenient five-minute schedule change — no longer worked for my travel plans, and I wanted to switch to the later flight. I gave her the exact flight numbers and departure times of the two flights I wanted to be on.

Even though there was no Saver-level award availability on those flights, she escalated my case; after 23 minutes on the phone, a new itinerary was sent to my email.

Bottom line

What constitutes a "significant" schedule change often varies between airlines — and, indeed, individual customer service agents — but it's still worth a try to alter your flights to have a more comfortable trip.

Related: What to do when an airline changes your flight

My advice is to keep an eye on your email for any schedule changes, make the agent's job easier by researching your ideal itinerary before contacting them, be polite and be willing to hear no.

After all, you'll never know unless you try.

Related reading:

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• Where to go in 2024: The 16 best places to travel
• 6 real-life strategies you can use when your flight is canceled or delayed
• 8 of the best credit cards for general travel purchases
• 13 must-have items the TPG team can't travel without