urgent - minimum advance booking time for booking flights

[The Ref]

I tried to book a flight for tomorrow night and received:

"Your itinerary does not meet the minimum advance booking requirement for the country of departure. Please contact the nearest xxx Airways booking office for assistance"

Is this just for this company or is it a Singapore thing?

I would rather fly tomorrow night but will try a different airline if I cant get this flight.

I will ring the airline tomorrow to try to get the flight but I dont want to miss flying Friday if this is a Singapore thing. I have never tried to book an urgent flight, all have been well planned.

If you can help I need an answer before I leave for work in the morning.

[Strong Eagle]

You generally cannot book an online e-ticket flight within 24 hours of departure.

Call the airline, confirm seat availability, then go buy a ticket at the airport.

[The Ref]

Thanks, I thought about that but the flight is still > 24 hrs away and I tried about 4 hours ago

I may ring their office tomorrow and see if they will do the ticket for the same price. The other airline has a flight Thurs afternoon which I can take otherwise, but I lose a day back home.

[Strong Eagle]

This is a common problem with flights to KL on Singapore Air, Malaysia Air, and Silk Air who still operate some semblance of the old shuttle flights.

I was told that it is airport regs that require you to show up. They wouldn't sell me a ticket over the phone, but did confirm seat availability, and I was able to purchase at the airport.

Beats me why this is.

[The Ref]

The answer is that online bookings through ethiad need 48 hours even though they can be bought after this. I went into the office and got my ticket for an extra $30 but they said you can buy at airport but the price may be higher depending on availability.

[carlos hathcock]

the reasons airlines do this is

(a) their computers are not real time or else they feed to other computers (passange manifests, security, American visa issues etc). Sometimes (usually) your booking has to go through several computers and if they have overnight processes then they can't handle urgent bookings. Likewise they may not be able to guarantee you seating because there is a lack of seats and/or availability (meals etc) so they want you to go straight to the 'oracle' of the booking system which their online sales-system can't...

(b) to charge you more money because when people fly at the last minute is therefore urgent and therefore most people will pay whatever is required.