Change Return Award to One-Way

[kangarooflyer88]

Given the horror show we're seeing at QF I'm wondering if there is any benefit at all in booking a return award with QF over just two one-way awards? At least with the one-way awards they are independent of one another. At the same time, I reckon the OP would've been able to cancel out the return outbound online without having to call QF and wait on hold for several hours to likely experience not match fit customer service.

This may be a technicality, but exactly when does "travel commence"? After check-in, upon boarding, once the aircraft is moving?
There's no definition that I can see on the website.

...
14.9.3 Once any travel has commenced on a Classic Flight Reward, the Reward is considered used, even if the remaining travel is not completed. Qantas Points will not be re-credited to the Member's account for unused ticket coupons.

There it is! If any part of an award is consumed the whole ticket is considered consumed. The prior definition of travel commenced is a moot point at this point so far as I can tell. That being said it's surprising QF enacts such onerous rules when travel has commenced. On other airlines (i.e. United) it is often favourable to commence travel before making any changes (since it screws up their fare differential algorithm)

That is a yellow flag. Since it's now been at least 36 hours, I would be calling them back and asking for the ticketing status. Ask them to contact ticketing on the phone while you wait. JAL will cancel your itinerary if it's not re-ticketed within their deadline.

What does the term award ticketing and re-ticketing mean? Is this a OneWorld or Qantas thing? I ask as someone who has travelled quite a bit on United and Air Canada awards where flights are ticketed immediately and in the case of changes (including the addition of stopovers) there is no ticketing phase. They simply reissue the ticket immediately and that's it. What am I missing here?

-RooFlyer88

 

[encryptededdy]

if there is any benefit at all in booking a return award with QF over just two one-way awards

Very very minor but depending what country you're flying to, a one-way ticket may block online check in since they would need to verify your outbound ticket at the desk.

 

[JohnK]

Given the horror show we're seeing at QF I'm wondering if there is any benefit at all in booking a return award with QF over just two one-way awards? At least with the one-way awards they are independent of one another. At the same time, I reckon the OP would've been able to cancel out the return outbound online without having to call QF and wait on hold for several hours to likely experience not match fit customer service.

With some awards the taxes & surcharges from destination can be significantly higher so in that sense it makes some sense to book return awards. In saying that though I stopped booking return awards long time ago.

Note when I was commuting SYD-BNE quite some time ago I stopped booking paid return flights purchasing one-way flights instead as that gave me greater flexibility.

I've been following these threads the past few months and I'm still stunned how Qantas continues to stand by this awful customer service. Clearly they need to add more resources to ensure these issues do not occur.

 

[jpp42]

ask as someone who has travelled quite a bit on United and Air Canada awards where flights are ticketed immediately and in the case of changes (including the addition of stopovers) there is no ticketing phase. They simply reissue the ticket immediately and that's it. What am I missing here?

Qantas reservations agents are not given the permission to issue tickets. They have to submit the ticketing request into a queue. If the changes are simple and everything is done correctly (like it should have been to cancel a return leg), this might occur automatically. But it seems common with partner awards that when the change occurs on a partner airline, it requires manual processing by a different set of agents, and as we know, some partner airlines will cancel if this processing doesn't occur in time. Sometimes you can convince the reservation agents to call the ticketing agents while you wait, and sometimes it can be a significant wait. Other times you will just be told it will occur "automatically" and you should just hang up and wait. One important point is that all fares and taxes must be fully paid and verified before tickets can be issued, and Qantas has a habit of not telling you if there's a problem in this respect. Which is why it's worth it to insist on immediate ticketing, so at least a problem like this will be found sooner rather than later.

I saw someone defending the Qantas practice in another thread on the same topic, saying that with the level of access that agents have, they need ticketing to be separate function as a controllership/loss prevention step. In other words the agents processing the manual ticketing queue, are protecting the company against dishonest reservation agents. I suspect that other airlines like you mention have figured out a way to protect themselves from dishonesty through other controllership methods that don't have customer impact. Ultimately, this all relates to Qantas' poor investment in IT, with the manual ticketing queue being a poor workaround that often fails and therefore impacts customers negatively.

 

[sevenfourtyseven]

That is a yellow flag. Since it's now been at least 36 hours, I would be calling them back and asking for the ticketing status. Ask them to contact ticketing on the phone while you wait. JAL will cancel your itinerary if it's not re-ticketed within their deadline.

Thanks for the tip.

Upon calling, I've now been told that it needs to go to the 'awards team' to be processed and ticketing and that my previously confirmed return flights are now 'on request' too. Looks like I've just joined the queue of issues

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Qantas reservations agents are not given the permission to issue tickets. They have to submit the ticketing request into a queue. If the changes are simple and everything is done correctly (like it should have been to cancel a return leg), this might occur automatically. But it seems common with partner awards that when the change occurs on a partner airline, it requires manual processing by a different set of agents, and as we know, some partner airlines will cancel if this processing doesn't occur in time. Sometimes you can convince the reservation agents to call the ticketing agents while you wait, and sometimes it can be a significant wait. Other times you will just be told it will occur "automatically" and you should just hang up and wait. One important point is that all fares and taxes must be fully paid and verified before tickets can be issued, and Qantas has a habit of not telling you if there's a problem in this respect. Which is why it's worth it to insist on immediate ticketing, so at least a problem like this will be found sooner rather than later.

So it would seem that there is no inherent reason why there is this ticketing step? There has only been one instance when ticketing wasn't instance, an AC flight I had was cancelled by AC due to COVID. Consequently when I went to call up to make the rebooking, the only available flight the agent could find was with United in paid J. They had to call RM to get sign off before making that booking. That being said, I was left with a legal (at least in theory) itinerary.

A related question I had, is whether Qantas handles awards tickets differently than revenue tickets in terms of changes and IRROPs? Is there still a ticketing queue one must be worried about?

I saw someone defending the Qantas practice in another thread on the same topic, saying that with the level of access that agents have, they need ticketing to be separate function as a controllership/loss prevention step. In other words the agents processing the manual ticketing queue, are protecting the company against dishonest reservation agents. I suspect that other airlines like you mention have figured out a way to protect themselves from dishonesty through other controllership methods that don't have customer impact. Ultimately, this all relates to Qantas' poor investment in IT, with the manual ticketing queue being a poor workaround that often fails and therefore impacts customers negatively.

One would have to think that any money they are saving with this loss prevention step could easily be gained from not having a second set of reservationists reviewing the tickets in the queue, not having to buy cash fares when they are too slow to reissue tickets resulting in them losing the partner award (negotiated at a much lower price), shorter customer service queues and greater customer satisfaction, but hey maybe that's just me.

-RooFlyer88