Award booking cancelled without notice

[percysmith]

(I don't know about whether QF FF and AA but) that's going to be hard to negotiate with AM here. We can do all the emphasis we want and even make the agent read all the torrid history about the previous DOH-GRU booking (assuming we had one - so we all have to fail once!) and the agent will swear on his mother's grave that the booking will be processed in the next four hours...and then queue it.

Agents work to a process and are not skilled artisans who have to know or learn through experience the pitfalls and idiosyncrasies of every partner airline. In fact, even getting an agent to work to a consistent process is hard enough and not say no to everything is hard enough already.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

(I don't know about whether QF FF and AA but) that's going to be hard to negotiate with AM here. We can do all the emphasis we want and even make the agent read all the torrid history about the previous DOH-GRU booking (assuming we had one - so we all have to fail once!) and the agent will swear on his mother's grave that the booking will be processed in the next four hours...and then queue it.

Agents work to a process and are not skilled artisans who have to know or learn through experience the pitfalls and idiosyncrasies of every partner airline. In fact, even getting an agent to work to a consistent process is hard enough and not say no to everything is hard enough already.

QF deals with so few partner airlines as it is that something major like QR should be part of their weekly briefing. There have been some major issues with QR reissues on here recently, you'd like to think one agent was proactive to escalate it.

Yeah agents can make all sorts of promises... but I have been on the phone (for the second or third time) and a ticket has been reissued on the spot. It seems agents can do it themselves (at least for AA in my case a couple weeks ago).

 

[percysmith]

BAEC can over the phone
AM cannot (even in the second reissue)

Also AM has three centres (Tsuen Wan Hong Kong, Manila and Beijing). Very hard to get policy updates thru.

 

[SydneySwan]

Here is the link to LoyaltyLobby

Reader Question: American Airlines Screws Up Qatar Airlines Award – Whose Responsible To Fix? | LoyaltyLobby

I posted the link on LL to this thread.

 

[mga363]

Hi guys, so after many long and frustrating phone calls, and empty promises of “updates via email" that never eventuated, Qantas finally came through in the end! I received a new booking number with flights from Madrid to Kathmandu on the same day that they were originally scheduled on Economy S Class. (Does anybody know what that means by the way? I thought it was Y class only?)


The last phone call I made was last Friday where I was really at my wit’s end not having heard back yet again for another week! They said they were still waiting back from Qatar because they emailed them again telling them it was “urgent”. I said that despite what outcome Qatar gives it is still their responsibility to get me the flights I paid for. In the end, they assured me of a 48 hour response. They took my local number here in Ecuador, and my email and I told them I preferred email of course. They also took my mother-in-law’s number as well. What a surprise, and absolute relief, to get an email from my mother-in-law saying that they called her and told her that the flights were rebooked for us with a new booking number!


They told her to ignore a ~$4000 charge that was just going to be backend computing thing. And indeed there was a charge like that on the bottom of my E-ticket. So looks like Qantas had to buy those tickets?? I’m not really sure.


I’m so thankful to have my flights back. But I would’ve liked to have spoken to Qantas again directly as I would like to have asked them what they could offer to compensate for the tremendous amount of stress and wasted time and energy and phone calls due to their mistake. Is this too much for me to ask? I’m grateful that Qantas possibly paid to get my flights back, but that was part of them honouring their consumer guarantee - not really over and beyond what is expected.


Any thoughts? I still have my original booking with 4 stopovers only (not 5 since one was dropped). Would it be possible for Qantas to add a segment to that, or is it too late since the journey has already commenced?

 

[Steady]

Glad to hear you got the flight mga363

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I’m so thankful to have my flights back. But I would’ve liked to have spoken to Qantas again directly as I would like to have asked them what they could offer to compensate for the tremendous amount of stress and wasted time and energy and phone calls due to their mistake. Is this too much for me to ask? I’m grateful that Qantas possibly paid to get my flights back, but that was part of them honouring their consumer guarantee - not really over and beyond what is expected.

There's no harm in asking for compensation for the stress, and more importantly - the cost - involved with trying to sort this out. You should make it clear what sort of compensation you are looking for, either a $ amount, or if points will suffice, some points. QF should be able to look at your booking and see the amount of work that has had to go in to it to put it right, and understand the cost and stress that has involved at your end.

You got your flights back, that is perhaps the critical part, but there was unnecessary stress for you.