Can anyone Explain Qantas booking issues, J class Hel-Del-Mel (rewards seats)

[voy]

Just wondering if anyone can explain some issues i had with my recent booking.
Wanted to book from Budapest to helsinki, Helsinki to Delhi then Delhi to Melbourne. Having searched on multicity for j class found availability for all flights.
tried booking and came up with an error before payment screen so i rang Qantas to book it by phone and they couldnt see any reward seat availability for the legs between Hel-Del and Del-Mel.
So while on the phone i searched all flights seperately and managed to book the two last long legs individually while they couldnt find the availability. was getting very frustrated by that point as i wanted the trip to be on one ticket and couldnt understand why there system couldnt book the flights that i clearly could although not linked all together in one booking.
the QF flight from Del- Mel was ticketed straight away but the Hel-Del wasnt and had to Ring Qantas again with great difficulty and get that ticketed.
Had an absolute nightmare trying to book this, is there system that flawed and is there a way to contact the call centre in Australia?

 

[voy]

 

[Mattg]

Have you tried searching for BUD-DEL as flight 1 and DEL-MEL as flight 2 in the multi-city booking tool?

If BUD-HEL-DEL does not come up as an option when you search for that using the multi-city tool, there could be an issue with married segments that is preventing you from booking this all on one ticket.

Apologies if I've misunderstood your problem.

 

[voy]

Thanks for the reply,

In short my questions are,

Why cant qantas see the availability i can?

Why cant qantas help over the phone with a difficult booking?

Why if i could book the same flight in reverse from melb-del-hel that it wouldnt let me home?

Why does it show available flights in business class on the 3 legs in the photo then take away one of the rewards seats when i put in two legs from hel-del then Del-mel making it inpossible to book what i want.

And then having qantas not be able to do anything about it.

And then in the end just being able
To book the hel-del and del-mel in seperate bookings.

 

[levelnine]

Qantas' overseas agents have not, in general, been trained to deal with complex itineraries and therefore are usually unable to assist.

You will typically be unable to get an Australian agent unless you are Platinum or above.

Why does it show available flights in business class on the 3 legs in the photo then take away one of the rewards seats when i put in two legs from hel-del then Del-mel making it inpossible to book what i want.

This strongly suggests to me that it is a married segment issue as Matt suggested. Finnair will allow you to book BUD-HEL-DEL, but not HEL-DEL.

Qantas are unable to fix a married segment issue.

My suggestion would be to break up the two trips. Do BUD-HEL-DEL on one day, stop over in DEL for more than 24 hours then do DEL-MEL on another day.

Not ideal, but award flights require flexibility.

 

[RooFlyer]

Had an absolute nightmare trying to book this, is there system that flawed and is there a way to contact the call centre in Australia?

You can usually only get the Hobart call centre if you are Platinum status and above, and then not always.

Supporting what levelnine said, the offshore call agents are poorly trained and cannot do many things one would think was fairly basic. Its been going on for years and no sign of improvement. If you browse AFF, you will see many, many tales of woe with the offshore centres.

Any time you have to book separate award tickets, I suggest that you space them out, to allow time for shifting schedules, which remain fluid. That way you are less likely to need to call the call centres to get an amendment, as this too can be fraught with dangers of getting things mucked up.

 

[voy]

Thanks everyone for your time in replying, im just learning how it all works at the moment.

So at the moment ive got the helsinki to delhi flight booked which lands about 14 hours before the del-mel takes off on the same day as per my itinerary above but on seperate tickets. I hope that leaves me enough time to allow for any delays.
And i will try to book from budapest to helsinki maybe a day early, i dont think they can amend my booking to be as one i assume.

What do you mean by a married segment issue? And why wouldnt qantas be able to see the j class awards seats on the hel-del and del-mel but i could see it on the computer.
Sorry if i missed the answer to any of the above questions in above posts.

 

[tdimdad]

Sounds like this all seems to boil down to three questions:
* Inability to book the segments together or as you'd like to. --> Married segments is a complex beast and I'm yet to learn about it properly. There are podcasts or videos on the topic around if you google it. One closely related to this forum is AFF On Air podcast, episode #24 (Nov 2019).

* QF call centre not seeing the same availability in their system than you do via a public interface. --> This puzzles me, too. You'd think it should rather be around, that the public view may be limited but the agents would have a fuller access to everything.

* QF call centre not being able to help with the booking. --> A direct consequence of the previous, in your case. In general, in call centres / service desks, 90% of the volume comes from routine enquiries or requests and the capacity & capabilities are set accordingly. QF off-shore call centres are to satisfy the 90% and clearly not the remaining 10% that need more capable assistance.
Smart(er) / more mature organisations, though, have escalation paths, effective tier 2/3 service teams, and invest in well-functioning self-service interfaces. With QF, we are yet to experience that. I have now idea what QF's organisational maturity is like but what I can guess from the outside speaks of rather low maturity under the current leadership. If that's the case, we'll be stuck with the current level of service for quite some time...

 

[Rich]

Thanks everyone for your time in replying, im just learning how it all works at the moment.

So at the moment ive got the helsinki to delhi flight booked which lands about 14 hours before the del-mel takes off on the same day as per my itinerary above but on seperate tickets. I hope that leaves me enough time to allow for any delays.
And i will try to book from budapest to helsinki maybe a day early, i dont think they can amend my booking to be as one i assume.

What do you mean by a married segment issue? And why wouldnt qantas be able to see the j class awards seats on the hel-del and del-mel but i could see it on the computer.
Sorry if i missed the answer to any of the above questions in above posts.

Voy, I had a lot of trouble with a simple connection from SYD to MEL after an international leg on multi city. The booking would also fall over at the last step (pretty annoying after entering name, QFF and DOB for 5 people). Despite almost all flights showing as available for that leg when I selected flights, Qantas staff could only pick one flight for the day. When they did, it worked. I don't know if this is all there is to it, but it seems that when we log in it shows all flights with Award availability, but in reality only select flights can be linked with an international booking.

 

[RooFlyer]

What do you mean by a married segment issue?

Sometimes, airlines will only sell 2 sequential routes together, and not individually. Its a revenue maximising technique (even if the 'revenue' is points). So, the individual sector will disappear in a search, as they won't sell it by itself. Really annoying.

And why wouldnt qantas be able to see the j class awards seats on the hel-del and del-mel but i could see it on the computer.

Don't know why, but it seems to be a common issue.