Hi everyone,
I have read this entire thread with much interest as the same thing has just happened to our flights. First of all I'd like to thank the OP and the others who have commented on this thread - there is a real wealth of knowledge here, and genuine people who want to help. I appreciate the OP's patience, and also his email to Qantas to try and prevent this situation from happening again to other people.
Seems like though it is still a problem ....
Some background: I have been saving points for the past 15 years! I saved from international flights that I used to take for work when I worked full time, to credit card points. We finally had enough for 2 RTW OW tickets (140K each). We are travelling for 11 months and this is our trip of a lifetime. My husband has Retinitis Pigmentosa, and is now legally blind - he is losing sight year by year and now has tunnel vision with only 10% of his sight left. We are doing this trip to see the world before his sight completely diminishes. We have packed up home, sold everything including home and business, and are currently in Cuenca Ecuador.
Our itinerary is as follows: SYD-xDFW-(UIO)//CUS-xLIM-xMIA-(CUN)//PHL-xMAD-(BOD)//MAD-xDOH-(KTM)-xHKG-(KHH)-xHGK-SYD
This took such a long time to organise as you can imagine! All flights were ticketed, confirmed and taxes paid in February 2017. At the time of booking, the dates for our last 2 legs of our trip KTM-xHKG-(KHH)-xHKG-SYD had not been released yet as we did not want to come home until April 2018. The route was confirmed, so it was a simple date change once the flight was released. Unfortunately during this date change, and unbeknownst to me until today, our flights with Qatar, MAD-xDOH-KTM were dropped. Reading this thread, I realise now it was due to QF slow ticketing issue. Here is a timeline of events:
February 10 2017 - received travel document email from Qantas stating all flights confirmed
February 12 2017 - received Confirmation and E-Ticket Flight Itinerary email from Qantas. This contained E-Ticket itinerary and receipt PDF document which showed full itinerary payment details of taxes on my Visa card for February 13 2017.
May 15 2017 - I called Qantas to ask them to change the dates. The change was done quite painlessly as it was a simple date change. I asked the CSR whether they could waive the change fees since it was not a segment change, I could not make the changes online, and I could not book those dates at the time of booking because they were not released. She spoke to her supervisor, but denied my request. I asked whether any of my flights were affected by the change and she confirmed that all of my flights were still there.
May 21 2017 - received email from Qantas entitled QANTAS E-TICKET ITINERARY AND RECEIPT. This was the day before my flight and we were still cleaning our house after moving, so to be honest, I skimmed the email. Looking at it now, I see that the Qatar flights are missing and there were no extra taxes charged. This was ticketed 7 days from when I originally requested the change!
May 22 2017 - our first leg of the journey commences from SYD-UIO.
June 14 2017 (today) - we have been travelling for 3 weeks in Ecuador and I had been waiting for the official PDF document from Qantas for the new flight dates. I re-read the email from May 21 to check again in case the PDF was actually attached to that email. That’s when I discovered that the Qatar flights were dropped. I checked my inbox thoroughly but had received no other email from Qantas with any other itinerary updates or any email stating that the Qatar flights were dropped. I checked on qantas.com and my booking also shows the Qatar flights missing.
The reason I post all this to this forum is to ask your advice on what is the quickest way to resolve this. I do not want a drawn out procedure, I just simply want my flights back. My flight MAD-xDOH-KTM was originally departing on December 2 2017. I also want this issue to be made public again since there is obviously still a problem with Qantas CSR not understanding the urgency of ticketing a flight immediately when QR is concerned.
Today I have already spoken to a QF CSR. The CSR said that the flights were dropped “for some reason” by Qatar on May 15. She looked at my records and noted that the cancellation was not requested by me, and the only request was the date change. She spoke to her supervisor who advised that they could write an email to Qatar and ask them to give those flights back, but the answer would most likely be “NO". The CSR then proceeded to look for alternative flights asking if the flight dates were flexible. They are not flexible since we have to leave Europe by December 2 2017 as this is the last day of our 90 day visa, and it is followed by a 45 day visa in Nepal, followed by a 90 day visa in Taiwan. As I expected, there are no flights available on QR on that date and surrounding dates. The only other OW carriers that fly to KTM are Cathay via HKG and Malaysia Airlines via KUL. If I were to book with either of these options it would most certainly take our itinerary over the 35,000 mile limit for OW awards. At this point, I asked the CSR to ask her supervisor to write that email to Qatar anyway. She then told me to call back in 48 hours to see if there was a response.
As you can see, the runaround has already begun. What’s more, calling Qantas Australia from here in Ecuador is costing me $$$. I noticed that the OP was eventually corresponding by email to a dedicated CSR. Can I have access to that as well?
Any advice appreciated, and thanks for reading through this lengthy post.
I have read this entire thread with much interest as the same thing has just happened to our flights. First of all I'd like to thank the OP and the others who have commented on this thread - there is a real wealth of knowledge here, and genuine people who want to help. I appreciate the OP's patience, and also his email to Qantas to try and prevent this situation from happening again to other people.
Seems like though it is still a problem ....
Some background: I have been saving points for the past 15 years! I saved from international flights that I used to take for work when I worked full time, to credit card points. We finally had enough for 2 RTW OW tickets (140K each). We are travelling for 11 months and this is our trip of a lifetime. My husband has Retinitis Pigmentosa, and is now legally blind - he is losing sight year by year and now has tunnel vision with only 10% of his sight left. We are doing this trip to see the world before his sight completely diminishes. We have packed up home, sold everything including home and business, and are currently in Cuenca Ecuador.
Our itinerary is as follows: SYD-xDFW-(UIO)//CUS-xLIM-xMIA-(CUN)//PHL-xMAD-(BOD)//MAD-xDOH-(KTM)-xHKG-(KHH)-xHGK-SYD
This took such a long time to organise as you can imagine! All flights were ticketed, confirmed and taxes paid in February 2017. At the time of booking, the dates for our last 2 legs of our trip KTM-xHKG-(KHH)-xHKG-SYD had not been released yet as we did not want to come home until April 2018. The route was confirmed, so it was a simple date change once the flight was released. Unfortunately during this date change, and unbeknownst to me until today, our flights with Qatar, MAD-xDOH-KTM were dropped. Reading this thread, I realise now it was due to QF slow ticketing issue. Here is a timeline of events:
February 10 2017 - received travel document email from Qantas stating all flights confirmed
February 12 2017 - received Confirmation and E-Ticket Flight Itinerary email from Qantas. This contained E-Ticket itinerary and receipt PDF document which showed full itinerary payment details of taxes on my Visa card for February 13 2017.
May 15 2017 - I called Qantas to ask them to change the dates. The change was done quite painlessly as it was a simple date change. I asked the CSR whether they could waive the change fees since it was not a segment change, I could not make the changes online, and I could not book those dates at the time of booking because they were not released. She spoke to her supervisor, but denied my request. I asked whether any of my flights were affected by the change and she confirmed that all of my flights were still there.
May 21 2017 - received email from Qantas entitled QANTAS E-TICKET ITINERARY AND RECEIPT. This was the day before my flight and we were still cleaning our house after moving, so to be honest, I skimmed the email. Looking at it now, I see that the Qatar flights are missing and there were no extra taxes charged. This was ticketed 7 days from when I originally requested the change!
May 22 2017 - our first leg of the journey commences from SYD-UIO.
June 14 2017 (today) - we have been travelling for 3 weeks in Ecuador and I had been waiting for the official PDF document from Qantas for the new flight dates. I re-read the email from May 21 to check again in case the PDF was actually attached to that email. That’s when I discovered that the Qatar flights were dropped. I checked my inbox thoroughly but had received no other email from Qantas with any other itinerary updates or any email stating that the Qatar flights were dropped. I checked on qantas.com and my booking also shows the Qatar flights missing.
The reason I post all this to this forum is to ask your advice on what is the quickest way to resolve this. I do not want a drawn out procedure, I just simply want my flights back. My flight MAD-xDOH-KTM was originally departing on December 2 2017. I also want this issue to be made public again since there is obviously still a problem with Qantas CSR not understanding the urgency of ticketing a flight immediately when QR is concerned.
Today I have already spoken to a QF CSR. The CSR said that the flights were dropped “for some reason” by Qatar on May 15. She looked at my records and noted that the cancellation was not requested by me, and the only request was the date change. She spoke to her supervisor who advised that they could write an email to Qatar and ask them to give those flights back, but the answer would most likely be “NO". The CSR then proceeded to look for alternative flights asking if the flight dates were flexible. They are not flexible since we have to leave Europe by December 2 2017 as this is the last day of our 90 day visa, and it is followed by a 45 day visa in Nepal, followed by a 90 day visa in Taiwan. As I expected, there are no flights available on QR on that date and surrounding dates. The only other OW carriers that fly to KTM are Cathay via HKG and Malaysia Airlines via KUL. If I were to book with either of these options it would most certainly take our itinerary over the 35,000 mile limit for OW awards. At this point, I asked the CSR to ask her supervisor to write that email to Qatar anyway. She then told me to call back in 48 hours to see if there was a response.
As you can see, the runaround has already begun. What’s more, calling Qantas Australia from here in Ecuador is costing me $$$. I noticed that the OP was eventually corresponding by email to a dedicated CSR. Can I have access to that as well?
Any advice appreciated, and thanks for reading through this lengthy post.
