craven morehead
Established Member
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2008
- Posts
- 2,662
- Qantas
- Platinum
- Virgin
- Gold
Well it's time to venture out again from the thriving metropolis of Emerald Central Queensland. This trip came about because I hadn't had a chance to buy my wife a Xmas present. Being 100kms out of town and often on the road for work and possibly a bit slack I was empty handed come Xmas morning 
I had been wanting to go back to RSA since last year but could never snare 2 of the elusive J award seats on the SYD-JNB route. So Xmas morning I took a punt and logged on to QF and Boom! 2 seats available within manageable dates. Out 13/06 back 08/07. Booked and presented to wife like it was always the plan 
after a couple of weeks I rang QF call centre and even though the lovely consultant told me I could not book flights from JNB-DUR-JNB because it had to be Oneworld I talked her through the process and we had a successful conclusion after 41 minutes on the line. Couldn't thank her enough that she was willing to ask and learn how to Long Sell. A process where the inventory doesn't show but can be created. So 2 return J awards booked on BA (Comair) JNB-DUR-JNB winning! At this point I had no idea what I was going to do other than attempt to catch up with some friends have a beer/gin and play some social golf. Basically just wing it. So some months later out at one of the mine sites (client) one of my SA mates (Expat) had heard I was heading over and mentioned he was heading back to visit his Mom in Capetown so we compared dates and now we are catching up down in Capetown in late June which is somewhere I have yet to visit and now with a built in tour guide! In the meantime my wife had a overwhelming case of guilt as we have twin boys halfway through Grade 12 and she had had a change of boss etc so she was considering pulling out of the trip. I ended up talking her around to joining me in CPT 
I then tried to book DUR-CPT-DUR J awards same as before with BA but successive consultants had no clue and I think one thought I was a smart cough! How dare they 
In the end I booked cash fares in J which worked out ok SC wise and cost wasn't prohibitive. I tried to use this new SMS service to split bookings and cancel wife's SYD-JNB leg and also JNB-DUR. Was partially successful and not a system I will ever ever use again. SYD-JNB outbound was cancelled successfully and dollars refunded along with points minus 5000 penalty. Where they stuffed up was they cancelled both of us on the JNB-DUR flight not just my wife 
wife is now flying QF awards EMD-BNE (Y) BNE-PER (J) and then a filthy reality check ...... cash fare (Y) on SAA : PER-JNB-CPT !! SAA wanted $5k PER-JNB one way 
anyway that's a long winded intro so let's go !!
I had been wanting to go back to RSA since last year but could never snare 2 of the elusive J award seats on the SYD-JNB route. So Xmas morning I took a punt and logged on to QF and Boom! 2 seats available within manageable dates. Out 13/06 back 08/07. Booked and presented to wife like it was always the plan after a couple of weeks I rang QF call centre and even though the lovely consultant told me I could not book flights from JNB-DUR-JNB because it had to be Oneworld I talked her through the process and we had a successful conclusion after 41 minutes on the line. Couldn't thank her enough that she was willing to ask and learn how to Long Sell. A process where the inventory doesn't show but can be created. So 2 return J awards booked on BA (Comair) JNB-DUR-JNB winning! At this point I had no idea what I was going to do other than attempt to catch up with some friends have a beer/gin and play some social golf. Basically just wing it. So some months later out at one of the mine sites (client) one of my SA mates (Expat) had heard I was heading over and mentioned he was heading back to visit his Mom in Capetown so we compared dates and now we are catching up down in Capetown in late June which is somewhere I have yet to visit and now with a built in tour guide! In the meantime my wife had a overwhelming case of guilt as we have twin boys halfway through Grade 12 and she had had a change of boss etc so she was considering pulling out of the trip. I ended up talking her around to joining me in CPT I then tried to book DUR-CPT-DUR J awards same as before with BA but successive consultants had no clue and I think one thought I was a smart cough! How dare they In the end I booked cash fares in J which worked out ok SC wise and cost wasn't prohibitive. I tried to use this new SMS service to split bookings and cancel wife's SYD-JNB leg and also JNB-DUR. Was partially successful and not a system I will ever ever use again. SYD-JNB outbound was cancelled successfully and dollars refunded along with points minus 5000 penalty. Where they stuffed up was they cancelled both of us on the JNB-DUR flight not just my wife wife is now flying QF awards EMD-BNE (Y) BNE-PER (J) and then a filthy reality check ...... cash fare (Y) on SAA : PER-JNB-CPT !! SAA wanted $5k PER-JNB one way anyway that's a long winded intro so let's go !!
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pretty full in J QP and lovely Sunrise. Time for a quick coffee while updating TR. Boarding in 30 minutes. 
