Can't make booking with QF gift voucher

[Kangol]

I'm looking at a MEL-xSYD-NRT return and have a $50 gift voucher to use.

On my outbound leg, if I search in the standard booking engine for MEL-NRT return, the earliest MEL-SYD that is available to me departs MEL at 1615 (QF468, arriving at 1740) which connects to QF21 departing SYD at 2130.
Since I want to depart MEL a bit earlier, due to the system limitation I am unable to select any flight earlier than the aforementioned QF468.

After calling up QF just then (this is when the premium desk is closed) they mentioned that if they have to manually reissue the ticket as it is in the current situation, then I will be stung an $80 telephone booking fee.

Thoughts?

FWIW I have done something similar in the past and no mention of a booking fee or any additional fee has been mentioned.

Should I ring up tomorrow when the Premium desk is open?

 

[madrooster]

Sometimes the multi city engine will let you do what you are wanting - I've done this before to deliberately route via MEL enroute to LAX (from SYD). Put in MEL-SYD, SYD-NRT, NRT-MEL with the required dates.

 

[Kangol]

Sometimes the multi city engine will let you do what you are wanting - I've done this before to deliberately route via MEL enroute to LAX (from SYD). Put in MEL-SYD, SYD-NRT, NRT-MEL with the required dates.

The multi-city booking engine with your example is what I already used to check availability and fare structure..

However since this is a gift voucher (ie with a six character booking reference, not the paper MPD with an 081- number) the booking protocols are slightly different - in particular you can't use the multi-city booking engine (as it says in the gift voucher rules).

I just rang the QF Premium desk and they confirmed that if I want to book something outside of what is available under the "standard" availability from MEL-NRT, then yes they will have to charge me a $80 service fee. This is because QF will try to give the best connections (ie appropriate connection times) where possible.

The other option is for me to book what is available (QF468) and change the first MEL-SYD leg to an earlier one, thereby incurring a change fee (in the case of a sale Y fare it's $100) +/- the service fee depending on how I get the change to occur (online - no service fee, phone - service fee of $80).

Alternatively I could not use the gift voucher and book as a straight up revenue booking and pay the $30 credit card fee.

Or, risk it and book the QF468 option, get to the airport early and ask to be put on an earlier flight, knowing that any fee-free accommodations are a bonus and are not expected due to the fare rules.

Red Roo - is this a suggestion that could be sent to QF Customer Care (ie including multi-city bookings on gift voucher bookings)?