Why is my TA seeing different availability to me??

[Katie]

Hi,

(I already wrote a long, ranty, rambly post on this and took too long, so it didn't post. Arrghh).

OK, so, Mr Katie, Miss Three and I are flying to the US in Y+ at the end of the month. Routed through SYD as no BNE-LAX Y+ from QF at time of booking.
I realised two weeks ago (see post in EF sub-forum) that the direct BNE-LAX-BNE flights on the days we are travelling are selling Y+.

I called QFF on Friday about this, told there was availability, told about $60pp change fee, losing points used for BNE-SYD-BNE upgrades, and told to contact my FA to make changes. Contacted her, she started looking into it for me on Monday. Over the weekend, a colleague of hers had told me that there was only one seat of R far bucket available BNE-LAX, and we'd have to pay a difference in fare, but LAX-BNE had availability in R, so no fare difference.

My TA got back to me yesterday, it would cost about $4200 for the three of us to change flight. I asked her to check for just the flight back, and she is still doing so.
She also told me that "there are only two seats left in Y+" on the BNE-LAX leg (odd, because when it was added to my PNR, all three of us were assigned real seats). I looked at seatcounter over lunch time today, and there were 3 or 4 seats in R available for QF15 on 30/4.

We are routed through SYD at the moment, and I have used points to upgrade us on the domestic sectors. Am happy to lose those points if we can get Y+ skybeds and direct flights without more than a change fee. We are on the A380, and have requested points upgrades, but the way QF11 is looking at the moment, I'm not very confident of them coming through. Not much in the way of J available 16 days out. I'm the highest status member in the family, Mr Katie is QP NB and Miss Three is NB, and I think our chances are pretty darn low.

Does anyone know why I'm seeing something different to what she can see/Qantas is advising her? Perhaps our level of R was cheaper than what QF want now??? Does my TA just suck? Are others cancelling reservations and it's not flowing through to her? Black magic?

Thoughts, advice appreciated.

 

[markis10]

Your travel agent may only be seeing availability for Australian ticketed flights, whereas QF may see overall fare bucket availability, thats my guess as a rank amateur.

 

[serfty]

Airlines can vary fare bucket availability based on several criteria, including geographical location and even agency.

Seatcounter shows availability airlines make available for North American markets; this can vary from what an OZ based TA may see; or indeed a QF agent on Oz.

 

[harvyk]

Am happy to lose those points if we can get Y+ skybeds and direct flights without more than a change fee.

Just quickly Y+ doesn't normally get skybeds as they are reserved for J seating... There where a few flights last year which where doing Y+ tickets in J seating (thus skybeds, and I was lucky enough to get 2 skybed flights because of it) but I don't think that is happening anymore...

Y+ seats are more like domestic J seats.

 

[Katie]

Just quickly Y+ doesn't normally get skybeds as they are reserved for J seating... There where a few flights last year which where doing Y+ tickets in J seating (thus skybeds, and I was lucky enough to get 2 skybed flights because of it) but I don't think that is happening anymore...

Y+ seats are more like domestic J seats.

Harveyk, this is Y+ in the normally two-class config BNE-LAX 747. I know that the normal Y+ seats are not skybeds. But the seat maps for QF15 and QF16 in the 747 on those days shows rows 23 and 24 in a 2-3-2 config as the Y+ cabin. These rows are normally part of the J cabin in the 2-class 747. I flew in these seats in October last year.

These rows could have been reconfigured, but I didn't think QF had started reconfiguring the 747 s yet??? I could well be wrong.

It wasn't happening when we booked; Y+ wasn't even being offered for BNE-LAX then (Feb), but I guess something with the load levels has changed since then.

I forgot to mention in my long rant that I've also checked the QF (.com.au) site and did a dummy booking for our days of travel, and was offered both Y+ saver and Y+ standard fares for three pax. I did get a warning that there were less than 5 seats avail on the BNE-LAX flight and to book soon. Perhaps Y+ saver does not book into R??

 

[Katie]

Seatcounter shows availability airlines make available for North American markets; this can vary from what an OZ based TA may see; or indeed a QF agent on Oz.

D'you reckon I should try Qantas directly again??

 

[Mal]

D'you reckon I should try Qantas directly again??

Not going to help if you booked through a travel agent. They are the ones that must make the changes (except in limited circumstances).

How about calling Qantas and asking again to get confirmation that there is R3+ availability, then call the agent back and insist that there is availability and that Qantas confirmed it. (May get a "wriggle, wriggle. Oh. It exists!" from the agent)

About all you can do I think. Due to the agent being involved, there aren't many options. And if the agent can't see the availability they'd have to liaise directly with Qantas themselves.

Also - you should be able to double check what fare class the flights are currently booked into by using the "Your Bookings" on the Qantas website, and looking at the Travel Class details of the flight.

 

[MelUser]

Two things:

(1) Your TA should be able to waitlist you on flights you want

(2) I understand that Y+ on QF15/16 is in skybed seats but it is a very small cabin - ie only 2 rows so availability is very limited.

 

[Katie]

I just called QF & Gaby was very nice. She said there are 3 R class Y+ seats on QF15 on our date. Our existing reservation is R.
When my TA looked at it earlier this week, she did waitlist us - I can't remember how it looked in My Bookings exactly, but QF15 displayed twice - one with R and one with W class. One was waitlisted, one was confirmed.
When I told her I didn't want to pay $4200 to swap flights, QF15 disappeared from our booking (fair enough).
Will get her to look at it again tomorrow. I know she was having some king of hassles with the QF system, and had to deal with their rep to check on avilability and price.

 

[Katie]

How about calling Qantas and asking again to get confirmation that there is R3+ availability, then call the agent back and insist that there is availability and that Qantas confirmed it. (May get a "wriggle, wriggle. Oh. It exists!" from the agent)

My TA looked this morning, and has reserved the 3 R seats for us. She's just checking there won't be a fare difference. She was very surprised, as apparently her QF rep insisted on Tuesday that there were only 2 seats available, and only in W fare bucket.

I also checked with my SIL last night, as she works in travel, and she was able to look at QF15, and could see availability in T,R, and W (for a 14 seat cabin!!). While we were talking, R availability went from 3 to 4.

At the moment, we have some fun seat assignments - me in 23E, Mr Katie and Miss 3 in 24D and 24E. I find it intersting that they keep defaulting to keep Miss 3 next to her Dad, and me by myself. But I might start another thread on that topic.
The evil part of me is wondering what reaction I'd get if we put Miss Three in the 1st row middle seat, and we both sat behind her.
(No, I wouldn't really do this, and while she's quite happy to be around others, I think she would prefer to sit with one of us).

 

[serfty]

... She was very surprised, as apparently her QF rep insisted on Tuesday that there were only 2 seats available, and only in W fare bucket. ...

As flight time approaches, QF see all seats as sellable and YM may decide that they'll sell some J class seats for PE prices and some PW seats for (high) Y prices.

They mell sell more than 14 PE PE fares on the flight and look to upgrade those who have requested points upgrades and even op-up others if that's not enough.

 

[Katie]

They mell sell more than 14 PE PE fares on the flight and look to upgrade those who have requested points upgrades and even op-up others if that's not enough.

I am wondering if they might be doing this for my flight (QF15 on 30/4). I rang QFF yesterday to see if I could get the three of us seated together*, and the man I spoke to said our cabin was full, all seats were taken. He couldn't do anything at all, other than send an email to Seating. Seat counter last night had no R/T, 5 W, (and then D0, C5, J6).
We've not bothered to request a points upgrade, given the seating, but are hoping others in Y+ might have requested upgrades or another person or two will be op-uped.

*I am just concerned that the person in 24F will be less than thrilled sitting next to an extroverted, chatty, inquisitive, non-stop-talking, three-and-a-half yo. It's not so much that I want our family to sit together, as I don't want our family to intrude on others in the cabin.

 

[simongr]

In a similar vein I could see D availability on BA LHR-JFK but my TA could only see D available on AA so I have had to book AA

I sent screen shots from EF and they sent back screen shots from their system