A big issue is that Qantas does not allow you to make changes to award bookings online. You need to call up all the time. Contrast that with airlines like United or Aer Canada where you can make changes online (sometimes even for free during schedule changes). What I will point out is that even as a Gold elite, I could still contact them and get changes made over the phone. Was there a bit of a wait? Sure. But not terribly bad (certainly under an hour).
For sure.
Did it end up getting ticketed or did it drop off? I have the same situation, tag flight is there but unconfirmed / pending.
Yes! that’s the same message i got too!
Straight from the Qantas Agent’s site. I used to work there in the 2000’s - finished up around 2012. The technology to differentiate between availability “in the PNR” and normal availability came in around 2010ish if i remember correctly. Also, another reason why outsourced agents probably cannot find the same seats as people looking online, is that QF agents had to “emulate” to where the customer was. EG Availability for passengers travelling ex AUS was different to passengers travelling ex USA. If a call came through from the USA, you had to “Emulate” to the USA and access what was available for the ex USA market. If the next call was from Australia, then you’d emulate back to Australia. The Hobart agents have been around since I was there, so they’d know that, but the outsourced ones probably never got the memo, hence the difference of what we can see here, and what they can see there.
Yep. But the thing that does irk me is it means you may have to pay more than someone else on the same flight, booking at the same time. I had a business class commercial Qatar ticket some years ago, Munich via Doha to Singapore return. Had to change the return date. When OUTSIDE the PNR the same booking class/fare was available to change to, so just the change fee would have applied. When INSIDE the PNR, the same fare/booking class was NOT available, so I had the change fee PLUS the fare difference as well. I knew how it worked and just sucked it up, but try explaining that to your average punter.
But this is more than ‘just being able to see’?
My flight isn't until Aug, I will keep trying, if only I could get through to Hobart, I feel they would be able to 'fix' it.
Thanks for that! Very informative….particularly the screenshot. I guess the take home for me is that, in this instance at least, it doesn’t appear to be agent incompetence that was the issue.
Good idea...problem is with a 2200h departure from BNE I'd need to keep the transit time to less than 24h to maintain the 108,000 points...and I don't think there's any MEL-BNE flights podt 2200h
It just needs to arrive after 2200, so depending on your day it looks like QF634 is frequently scheduled to arrive in BNE at 2230 (obviously that is based on current schedules)Good idea...problem is with a 2200h departure from BNE I'd need to keep the transit time to less than 24h to maintain the 108,000 points...and I don't think there's any MEL-BNE flights podt 2200h
If I'm not mistaken there are no flights between Melbourne and Brisbane after 8 AM. An agent even told me!
A Qantas oneworld award by definition IS a classic award.
It is probably better described as a facility available with Amadeus that Qantas use as described.
This is certainly true.
Same thing happens in many industries.... Take insurance for example ... a renewing current customer will likely pay more than the exact same new customer..
A Qantas OneWorld award requires you take flights with two OneWorld carriers other than Qantas (i.e. British Airways or AA).
