Be Ever Vigilant![Awards cancelled as QF fails to re-ticket in time]

[drron]

Re: Be Vigilant![Awards cancelled, QF fails to re-ticket]

I had problems with my upcoming paid OW Explorer tickets in J.This time it was LAN and BA who kept cancelling segments.May be a system wide OW problem or just maybe the rest of OW v QF.

 

[sumthinfornuthin]

Re: Be Vigilant![Awards cancelled, QF fails to re-ticket]

there's heaps of discussion of this in the oneworld award thread. But to summarise:

Whenever you make a change to an award booking, such as by adding a flight, the booking needs to be re-ticketed (receiving the itinerary in your email indicates the booking has been ticketed).

Until the ticketing takes place, every leg of the journey (including those previously ticketed) could be cancelled out by the carrier. Qr are notorious for cancelling out unticketed bookings. I've had them cancel out previously ticketed flights within 4mins of a change to the itinerary!

Moral of the story is whenever you make an amendment to an award booking, especially with qr in the itinerary, stress that it needs to be ticketed asap. If you don't receive the itinerary in your email within 24hrs, call again until it is. Many of the qf agents don't even know of the problem with qr and so will often just leave the booking in the slow ticketing queue which means it won't be ticketed until a few months before your journey. If that's next year, you can guarantee you will lose some of your flights between now and then.

qr ?????..................

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: Be Vigilant![Awards cancelled, QF fails to re-ticket]

<snip>
As they say, be ever vigilant with bookings, especially Award ones!

<snip>
I see the thread title has been enhanced. I was pretty happy with the original version, but to complete the editing, maybe it can be "Be ever vigilant: QR Awards cancelled after QF fails to re-ticket in time "

Need a succinct headline to describe main issue, 20 chars is better than 40 due to display truncation.

Oh, OK, but the thread was established with the issue being to be "ever vigilant" with bookings (irrespective of the reason). My post was made in ignorance of the apparent issue of QF failing to re-ticket.

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: Be Vigilant![Awards cancelled, QF fails to re-ticket]

qr ?????..................

QR = Qatar Airways.

 

[serfty]

OK, title varied ... Note that as can be seen from anecdotes here it can be segments from several QF partner airlines that may be canceled if Qantas fails to re-issue the ticket in time.

 

[JohnM]

I've just booked a redemption CAI-xDOH-DXB on QR in F (56K points + $126). It had to be done over the phone as I couldn't originate in CAI online.

After setting it all and getting my payment details Carlos, the QF agent, with some understatement pointed out that "QR can be a little difficult if ticketing is not done immediately." (I said that I was aware of that!).

He asked me to stay on hold while he went off to do something to ensure immediate ticketing. The email confirmation came through as he came back on the phone to finish up. Excellent knowledge and service!

Further to this, I could have booked CAI-DXB direct on EK for a mere 2K fewer points - but the taxes would have been almost 4x greater :shock::evil:.

Bonus is that, by judicious selection, I'll get my first ride on an A350 - albeit merely an hour DOH-DXB.

 

[clifford]

I've just booked a redemption CAI-xDOH-DXB on QR in F (56K points + $126). It had to be done over the phone as I couldn't originate in CAI online.

Shame you had to book F when it's really J.

 

[Mal]

Re: Be Vigilant![Awards cancelled, QF fails to re-ticket]

Not sure that this is actually a QF problem - though they seem to have to fix it. The real issue is with QR.

Both QR and BA are only half hearted members of OW. At least BA has the established networks, processes and IT systems that likely help prevent these issues.

 

[JohnM]

Shame you had to book F when it's really J.

Yes, I am aware of that. But it was still better for cost than EK and the short sector DOH-DXB is in the A350 so I wanted to try that for the first time in the front.

 

[ozflier]

Re: Be Vigilant![Awards cancelled, QF fails to re-ticket]

Some agents are aware to be fair.
I have made several changes to OWA bookings that included pre existing QR flights - each time the agents were already aware of the issue and requested priority ticket re issue - went thru fine.

Pretty amazing to me that despite it happening to numerous people on this forum, and QF having to go to great lengths to sometimes get the seats reinstated (they nearly had to buy my whole itinerary as a revenue fare because QR were playing hardball reinstating the original flights) that you still come across plenty of staff in the call centre who are totally oblivious to the issue. I wrote feedback a month back to QF online about this very issue, seems training still hasn't been actioned.

 

[fairbasa]

Re: Be Vigilant![Awards cancelled, QF fails to re-ticket]

Some agents are aware to be fair.
I have made several changes to OWA bookings that included pre existing QR flights - each time the agents were already aware of the issue and requested priority ticket re issue - went thru fine.

Sure, Ive come across a number of agents who are well aware of the issues. But they seem to be aware through personal experience of having dealt with customers who lost seats and had to get them reinstated. I've also come across equally as many agents who have no idea of the problem.

I'm just saying there's no consistent awareness, it shouldn't be a lottery for customers whether or not they lose seats because of a lack of training on the behalf of the agents.

 

[ozflier]

Re: Be Vigilant![Awards cancelled, QF fails to re-ticket]

I agree with you.

Sure, Ive come across a number of agents who are well aware of the issues. But they seem to be aware through personal experience of having dealt with customers who lost seats and had to get them reinstated. I've also come across equally as many agents who have no idea of the problem.

I'm just saying there's no consistent awareness, it shouldn't be a lottery for customers whether or not they lose seats because of a lack of training on the behalf of the agents.

 

[serfty]

So basically, if the agent doesn't refer to the issue during the call then you need to remind/educate them.