Issue with QF on-line booking engine?

[taswegian77]

Hi all,

Firstly I want to thank you all for the responses, I am sorry for the late reply. Here is my take and what I have subsequently found out and the action I am taking.

1. When booking my flights I had the specific intent to ensure that all my segments were in a class of travel that allowed an upgrade to be requested, thus the Super Saver booking was obtained which specifically states I am entitled to apply for an upgrade
(Dunno if this helps but when I booked these flights I used the multi trip feature so I could book specific flights for each leg and secured the Super Saver leg which cost about $185 more than the Red-E Deal flights that were listed below my flights as alternatives)

2. I know my QF320 leg would not be upgradeable as that is on BA metal so that is not an issue.
3. Nowhere at any time throughout the entire booking process did it ever mention some segments would be in a fare class that I could not apply for an upgrade.
4. I have all relevant screen shots to prove this (the only one I need is the Super Saver conditions) but I have others as well.
5. I have verbal communication from QF that their system made an error from the CS person I spoke to.
6. Did I have a choice to pay the difference or cancel the flights and re-book the answer is Yes. (I did not want the same thing to occur again as I was going to book the identical flights a second time anyway)
7. Did they offer to waive all cancel fees if I choose to cancel the answer is Yes
8. Was I demanding anything extra from QF, the answer was No ALL i said to the person was it was unreasonable to expect me to pay the difference when it was their fault.
9. I had to make a decision on the spot. I told the CS person that it was unreasonable to expect me to pick up the difference as it was in their own words "their fault" but he said he could not do that.
10. In order to keep my booking I decided to pay the difference as they would not listen to my reasoning.

ACTIONS I AM TAKING TO SEEK RESOLUTION
I am writing to the QF CS team via email firstly as I hope to have this resolved quickly.

QF have been typically good to me over the years when it comes to all matters I have raised but on this occasion it is a matter of protecting my ability to trust the screen when purchasing tickets and not getting ripped off after I have paid.

WHAT DO I EXPECT FROM QF
I just expect for them to have fixed the issue at no cost to me, that is ensured that the flight segments allowed me to request an upgrade (except the BA segment) I never asked for free upgrades in case anyone asks in this forum, I just wanted what I paid for and never received.

 

[JohnK]

2. I know my QF320 leg would not be upgradeable as that is on BA metal so that is not an issue.

I note in your opening post you wanted to incorporate a BA flight in the booking for the extra 5,000 bonus points with the Qantas and Oneworld promotion.

...
^ This offer is only valid for travel between the dates specified above for services with a Qantas marketed and oneworld marketed flight number on your ticket in the same itinerary. Qantas "marketed" flights means flights with a Qantas flight number on your ticket. oneworld "marketed" flights means flights with one of the following airlines: American Airlines®, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malév Hungarian Airlines and Royal Jordanian. Offer cannot be combined with any other bonus points offer and is not available in connection with Award seats. Your Qantas Frequent Flyer number must be recorded at the time of booking.

So even though you have booked a flight on BA metal I do not believe QF320 qualifies as a BA marketed flight.

 

[Dave Noble]

Hi all,

Firstly I want to thank you all for the responses, I am sorry for the late reply. Here is my take and what I have subsequently found out and the action I am taking.

1. When booking my flights I had the specific intent to ensure that all my segments were in a class of travel that allowed an upgrade to be requested, thus the Super Saver booking was obtained which specifically states I am entitled to apply for an upgrade
(Dunno if this helps but when I booked these flights I used the multi trip feature so I could book specific flights for each leg and secured the Super Saver leg which cost about $185 more than the Red-E Deal flights that were listed below my flights as alternatives)

2. I know my QF320 leg would not be upgradeable as that is on BA metal so that is not an issue.
3. Nowhere at any time throughout the entire booking process did it ever mention some segments would be in a fare class that I could not apply for an upgrade.
4. I have all relevant screen shots to prove this (the only one I need is the Super Saver conditions) but I have others as well.
5. I have verbal communication from QF that their system made an error from the CS person I spoke to.
6. Did I have a choice to pay the difference or cancel the flights and re-book the answer is Yes. (I did not want the same thing to occur again as I was going to book the identical flights a second time anyway)
7. Did they offer to waive all cancel fees if I choose to cancel the answer is Yes
8. Was I demanding anything extra from QF, the answer was No ALL i said to the person was it was unreasonable to expect me to pay the difference when it was their fault.
9. I had to make a decision on the spot. I told the CS person that it was unreasonable to expect me to pick up the difference as it was in their own words "their fault" but he said he could not do that.
10. In order to keep my booking I decided to pay the difference as they would not listen to my reasoning.

ACTIONS I AM TAKING TO SEEK RESOLUTION
I am writing to the QF CS team via email firstly as I hope to have this resolved quickly.

QF have been typically good to me over the years when it comes to all matters I have raised but on this occasion it is a matter of protecting my ability to trust the screen when purchasing tickets and not getting ripped off after I have paid.

WHAT DO I EXPECT FROM QF
I just expect for them to have fixed the issue at no cost to me, that is ensured that the flight segments allowed me to request an upgrade (except the BA segment) I never asked for free upgrades in case anyone asks in this forum, I just wanted what I paid for and never received.

The site gave mistaken information , that was all ... They allowed you to fix it with no penalty... you were no worse off than if they had correctly quoted in the 1st place

They also would have allowed to cancel with no penalty due to the incorrect information provided

A mistake happened, it was able to be fixed ... I cannot see what the big issue is

How was it unreasonable to charge the difference that should have been quoted in the 1st place; you may not have been prepared to pay it and may have decided to not purchase but they have still allowed that option

They allowed it to be fixed at no penalty to you ... just that you had to pay what you should have been quoted

Dave

 

[taswegian77]

Hi John K, my understanding was that it would qualify for the 5K points as it is a BA metal flight who are part of oneworld. Oh well not much I can do if I am mistaken. Shows you how different people can interpret T&C in different ways.

 

[taswegian77]

ACTIONS I AM TAKING TO SEEK RESOLUTION
I am writing to the QF CS team via email firstly as I hope to have this resolved quickly.

QF have been typically good to me over the years when it comes to all matters I have raised but on this occasion it is a matter of protecting my ability to trust the screen when purchasing tickets and not getting ripped off after I have paid.

On the above, I am scared that if I complain about this I will have a big red mark against my record with Qantas. Would Qantas do such a thing? The end result might be me being refunded the extra payment but never having a chance to get an upograde ever, that option scares me a lot.
I love Qantas and always travel them, what should I do?

 

[straitman]

On the above, I am scared that if I complain about this I will have a big red mark against my record with Qantas. Would Qantas do such a thing? The end result might be me being refunded the extra payment but never having a chance to get an upograde ever, that option scares me a lot.
I love Qantas and always travel them, what should I do?

taswegian77,

You should talk to Qantas in a fair and reasonable manner and at least ensure that they get the message that ongoing known computer glitches are not acceptable. They need to fix the problems rather than treating their customers as lemmings :!:
Treat it as a bonus, and be surprised if you get a waiver on the extra cost.

Dave Noble,

I've agreed with you three times today (unheard of) but really believe your answer on this occasion is parallel universe type stuff :!:
As is often the case you are technically, but not practically, correct. The problem is that we live in a rapidly changing world and the term 'Customer Service' is becoming more and more important. On this occasion qantas has not provided adequate customer service.

Qantas needs to maintain and improve it's customer service IF it wants to keep its regular customers such as taswegian77. People will put up with the nonsense for a while but once you loose them it's really hard to get them back.

 

[Dave Noble]

I've agreed with you three times today (unheard of) but really believe your answer on this occasion is parallel universe type stuff :!:
As is often the case you are technically, but not practically, correct. The problem is that we live in a rapidly changing world and the term 'Customer Service' is becoming more and more important. On this occasion qantas has not provided adequate customer service.

I think that they did. The site may have misled him into thinking that all sectors were upgradeable - that is something that they should address in the long term

They allowed him to either cancel or pay the extra to get an entirely upgradeable itinerary with no penalty

That seems pretty fair to me considering that the wording on the QFF pages about upgrades are v clear about what is and is not eligable

Also, one question to the OP.... when doing a multi city booking, it does show the generic fare type for each leg... did each leg show as Super Saver?

Dave

 

[Flashback]

Also, one question to the OP.... when doing a multi city booking, it does show the generic fare type for each leg... did each leg show as Super Saver?

Exactly......

 

[serfty]

Whether you do it by price or schedule, you simply select price you do not get the option to select fare "category".

When your flights are selected, it shows the fare information page with the "Fare Conditions".

It can show as "Red e-deal", other times "Super Saver". I am not aware of the exact criteria.

I believe the OP had the "Super Saver" Fare Condition appear and (IMHO quite Rightly) assumed it applied to all flights.

Note: at no stage in this process can one from a specific fare category column!

 

[Dave Noble]

Whether you do it by price or schedule, you simply select price you do not get the option to select fare "category".

When your flights are selected, it shows the fare information page with the "Fare Conditions".

It can show as "Red e-deal", other times "Super Saver". I am not aware of the exact criteria.

I believe the OP had the "Super Saver" Fare Condition appear and (IMHO quite Rightly) assumed it applied to all flights.

Note: at no stage in this process can one from a specific fare category column!

When you get to the price page it lists all the flights and next to each flight indicates Super-Saver / red-e-deal etc

Dave

 

[serfty]

When you get to the price page it lists all the flights and next to each flight indicates Super-Saver / red-e-deal etc

Dave

True, but no link to find out the upgradeability. I have upgraded several times between MEL and SIN from red e-deals using QFF points as the booked class was eligible.

i.e. Red e-Deal ≠ "Can't Upgrade with points"

 

[Dave Noble]

True, but no link to find out the upgradeability. I have upgraded several times between MEL and SIN from red e-deals using QFF points as the booked class was eligible.

i.e. Red e-Deal ≠ "Can't Upgrade with points"

True, but conversely, if one of the legs showed as being a red-e-deal , then it wouldn't be reasonable to assume that the red-e-deal was covered by the super-saver description

Dave

 

[Evan]

I can't comment on this exact situation describer here but last night i tried to book some flights and i can tell you the QF booking engine is well lets not say broken but could be improved !
And not being able to sometimes book different fare classes in the same booking is becoming annoying... eg single ticket with O and V class. Now on the BA site you can do that no problems. How strange.

Anyway i think the best thing Qantas can do is like BA do have a link you can click on for each flight details including the booking class. Thumbs up to BA on this one.

E

 

[JohnK]

The person who booked these flights has told us he booked a Super Saver fare. I totally believe them and have no reason to doubt their word. I have not seen the screen but there are people who believe, wrongly and without any justification, this person is lying and they think their opinion is right without having a any idea of what is happening.

Trust the opening post and admit the QF system has bugs that need to be addressed now not in the future. Qantas has stuffed up badly and the opening post should not suffer for it. If it happened to me I certainly would not be sititng taking advice that I should wear the bugs in the QF system and should be grateful that I was offered the option to upgrade to the fare I paid for in the first place or accept my money back.

Who cares? Enough is enough....

 

[Dave Noble]

Trust the opening post and admit the QF system has bugs that need to be addressed now not in the future. Qantas has stuffed up badly and the opening post should not suffer for it. If it happened to me I certainly would not be sititng taking advice that I should wear the bugs in the QF system and should be grateful that I was offered the option to upgrade to the fare I paid for in the first place or accept my money back.

But you would not be paying to upgrade to the fare you paid, you would be paying to correct that you were not in the fare basis that you wanted. There is nothing at all to suggest that he was incorrectly charged for what he received, just that what he received did not meet the desire

The QF site is not a community chest card in Monopoly... "fare quote error in your favour , save $200"

Dave

 

[serfty]

One issue here is the quoted price. In the OP's situation I'm guessing the $185 was ~10% of the total fare.

If one is doing a search and perceives the Qantas flights are upgradeable at the price quoted, this may sway you into completing the booking rather than checking other options.

Having to pay a premium beyond the price quoted to ensure upgrades can be requested may not be possible for some.

And, yes, the contradiction of both red e-deal and super saver appearing on the confirmation page would have raised "alarm bells" for me.

 

[Dave Noble]

One issue here is the quoted price. In the OP's situation I'm guessing the $185 was ~10% of the total fare.

If one is doing a search and perceives the Qantas flights are upgradeable at the price quoted, this may sway you into completing the booking rather than checking other options.

Having to pay a premium beyond the price quoted to ensure upgrades can be requested may not be possible for some.

And, yes, the contradiction of both red e-deal and super saver appearing on the confirmation page would have raised "alarm bells" for me.

I don't disagree with what you are saying here, The situation is that he was quoted for something that wasn't quite what he desired.

If he couldn't have afforded to / or was not prepared to pay that extra , they did allow him to cancel without penalty and he could then have rebooked on another carrier or rebooked on QF at a completely red-e-deal price ( if available )

He then agreed to pay the fare difference and it was rebooked as by his agreement and without having to pay any fare penalty

Given that this was also only just after making the original booking, it is v unlikely that he would have been disadvantaged with availability having all disappeared if he had decided to cancel

At the end of the process , he had paid that which was correct for a fare to allow upgrades on all the segments.

Dave

 

[serfty]

And an ongoing issue still exists with this:

...
5. I have verbal communication from QF that their system made an error from the CS person I spoke to. ...

If only Qantas would simply publish the fare bucket for each segment on booking.

 

[JohnK]

And an ongoing issue still exists with this:

If only Qantas would simply publish the fare bucket for each segment on booking.

I agree Qantas should display the booking class but the current way of displaying it should be more than satisfactory unless crediting flights to the another FF program.

When about to complete a booking the screen shows Super Saver, and the terms and conditons associated with Super Saver, and if there are any red e-deals in the itinerary this is highllighted as well and the booking is no longer a Super Saver but a red e-deal, with the terms and conditions accociated with red e-deal, with some super saver flights.

We can argiue until the cows the come home but Qantas has issues that obviously need fixing right now and until these issues are fixed Qantas should wear the cost not the customer who booked and paid for an upgradeable airfare and has proof....

 

[taswegian77]

I think that they did. The site may have misled him into thinking that all sectors were upgradeable - that is something that they should address in the long term

They allowed him to either cancel or pay the extra to get an entirely upgradeable itinerary with no penalty

That seems pretty fair to me considering that the wording on the QFF pages about upgrades are v clear about what is and is not eligable

Also, one question to the OP.... when doing a multi city booking, it does show the generic fare type for each leg... did each leg show as Super Saver?

Dave

Dave, when doing multi leg international bookings it does not show you each legs type of booking, it just shows economy, it is only when you finish with your last flight selection and see what the overall itinerary that it then just says like Super Saver etc for the whole journey. It never says Red-edeal for say MEL-AKL, then say Super Saver for AKL-SYD etc, NEVER.