Does Qantas deliberately make life difficult or are they just hopeless?

[justinbrett]

That's a commercial decision, not a technology one. Don't conflate the two. US airlines are streets ahead of Qantas on technology (even if they do have the same underlying GDS's to deal with, I guess they throw enough resources at it to work around the main problems).

I don't think there's any evidence it's deliberate. Australian TAs (including Expedia) who have the fares POS in Australia charge the same as the US rate.

I believe it has something to do with their AU site using Amadeus, where as AA runs on Sabre.

 

[dsbooth]

Last November I booked a business class rewards flight from Hobart to Adelaide via Mebourne for next October.
Qantas have removed all business class from their 717 aircraft operating to/from Hobart and I have been downgraded to economy on the Hobart Melbourne flight.
The email I received tells me to phone 1300 659 116 to change the flight or to clain a refund of point.
When you ring that number I was told that it's the wrong number and to ring 1300 659 161 (Customer Service).
When I ring this number at 5:30pm I am told the office is closed.
So much for service by Qantas.

 

[justinbrett]

Last November I booked a business class rewards flight from Hobart to Adelaide via Mebourne for next October.
Qantas have removed all business class from their 717 aircraft operating to/from Hobart and I have been downgraded to economy on the Hobart Melbourne flight.
The email I received tells me to phone 1300 659 116 to change the flight or to clain a refund of point.
When you ring that number I was told that it's the wrong number and to ring 1300 659 161 (Customer Service).
When I ring this number at 5:30pm I am told the office is closed.
So much for service by Qantas.

Call 131313.

I've received about 10 of these flight change emails in the last 48 hours and they don't have a number in the email, just a link to the QF contact page, where the number is 131313.

I actually called 131211 which is the WP number but it all goes to the same place. Both are 24 hours.

 

[RooFlyer]

"Just hopeless" category.

Yes, @dsbooth Qantas are rolling out economy-only flights HBA-MEL - I have just received my second notification of a change of my business Award seat no longer available HBA-MEL. Interestingly, I am also HBA-MEL-ADL. And the e-mail commences:

We’re sorry to inform you that your cabin class on your upcoming flight QF1552 to Melbourne has changed. Unfortunately, there are no Economy class (X) seats available so we’ve booked you in Economy class(X) for your flight should you still wish to travel on the same flight.

Yeah, right. In fact, they haven't done that at all. My original flight mid-morning has been cancelled (according to the first agent) and they've put me on the last flight of the day, rather than the next available flight with economy available.

A non sensical letter and a f-you selection of a substitute flight. I mean, the phone agent found 2 flights after the one I had originally chosen which are suitable. Why do the QF programmers get their Sinclair to choose the very last flight of the day, rather than one of those which are nearer the time I originally selected to fly (albeit without business either)?

The email I received tells me to phone 1300 659 116 to change the flight or to clain a refund of point.

That's what my letter said.

I've received about 10 of these flight change emails in the last 48 hours and they don't have a number in the email, just a link to the QF contact page, where the number is 131313.

Must have 2 versions of the letter - mine has the number per dsbooth and the first part of the phone response is something like "Thanks for calling as in response to our notification that we have made changes to your flights ...." Then usual enter FF number and pin. Answered by a gent "Qantas Premium" with very thick accent, which wasn't an issue except I kept mis-hearing him and almost agreed to a very bad flight choice! But you are right - I'll call the usual WP number next time.

EDIT. Called 131211. Got "lengthy wait times". Called the 1300 number and immediately got Hobart call centre . After IDing me, she said "I'm in Hobart too, so we'll look after each other" .

 

[justinbrett]

Must have 2 versions of the letter - mine has the number per dsbooth and the first part of the phone response is something like "Thanks for calling as in response to our notification that we have made changes to your flights ...." Then usual enter FF number and pin. Answered by a gent "Qantas Premium" with very thick accent, which wasn't an issue except I kept mis-hearing him and almost agreed to a very bad flight choice! But you are right - I'll call the usual WP number next time.

I've made two calls so far for changes, and both times the agent was excellent. First was Hobart so no surprise, but today's was Cape Town.

In both cases I could change international flights to ones that had no reward seats available, it wasn't a problem at all. Didn't even need to wait for the droid - I think these changes are a free pass to pick a different flight.

Most of my changes were OOL-SYD flights, a lot of them changed from 737 to 717 (still with J), so possibly we're getting your J 717s.

A non sensical letter and a f-you selection of a substitute flight.

Yeah for me the auto substitute flights were pretty terrible, but doesn't stop you switching to a better flight. From what I could tell it chose the next available flight, even if there was a flight 10 minutes earlier.

 

[RooFlyer]

In both cases I could change international flights to ones that had no reward seats available, it wasn't a problem at all. Didn't even need to wait for the droid - I think these changes are a free pass to pick a different flight.

My agent said for these changes, for flights in the next few days (or maybe weeks), they are authorised to convert (she was talking domestic though), beyond that, need to ask droid. So I'm outta luck.

 

[justinbrett]

My agent said for these changes, for flights in the next few days (or maybe weeks), they are authorised to convert (she was talking domestic though), beyond that, need to ask droid. So I'm outta luck.

Don't action the change then. There's no deadline to accept the changes.

You'd think the rules would be stricter for international. Maybe if you called the main number you would have got a different result.

 

[RichardMEL]

There's also potentially a chance some J configured 717's will return to the schedule - it's six months away after all.

Right on the cusp of A220's starting to show up of course, not that that's much consolation, but I wonder if airframes are being shifted to prep to retire some aircraft when the first few come online.

Anyway all over the place schedules are in flux. I was just reading an article by Cranky Talk about how United's schedule for the US summer (which is only 3-4 months out) is still pretty variable, and further out it's more placeholder than reality.

 

[RooFlyer]

You'd think the rules would be stricter for international. Maybe if you called the main number you would have got a different result.

That comment was from a very competent sounding agent in the Hobart call centre. See my edit in the above post.

As she said, the flights are bound to change again before my flight so there will be opportunities to find tune it later.

 

[justinbrett]

That comment was from a very competent sounding agent in the Hobart call centre. See my edit in the above post.

As she said, the flights are bound to change again before my flight so there will be opportunities to find tune it later.

My point was maybe the less competent ones in Cape Town were willing to bend the rules...

I certainly got a HNL-SYD flight booked that had no reward seats at all, I was waiting for her to say no but she said "it's all done".

 

[RooFlyer]

My point was maybe the less competent ones in Cape Town were willing to bend the rules...

I certainly got a HNL-SYD flight booked that had no reward seats at all, I was waiting for her to say no but she said "it's all done".

Oh, I don’t think one of the lesser trained call centre operatives are more likely to bend rules are they? Much more likely to be the more senior call centre agents, given the discretion to make certain decisions.. But as I was told, there is some current blanket authority to release award seats ATM under certain time frames. My domestic September was too far out.

The Hobart agent actually did bend a rule or take it upon herself to ignore what was in the notes about having to consult somewhere regarding the flight she wanted to give me. Actually, she was one of those agents who described what she was doing through the call, and what she was thinking about doing to get something done. Was quite enlightening as she was describing what she was seeing on the screen and all the various combinations and conflicting information she had.

I settled on a flight that was offered with one X sector HBA-MEL, rest in J. If it changes again, I may be in the conversion window, if not, a one hour flight in whY ain’t going to kill me

 

[justinbrett]

Oh, I don’t think one of the lesser trained call centre operatives are more likely to bend rules are they? Much more likely to be just stricter. But as I was told, there is some blanket authority to release award seats ATM under certain time frames. My domestic September was too far out.

The Hobart agent actually did bend a rule or take it upon herself to ignore what was in the notes about having to consult somewhere regarding the flight she wanted to give me. Actually, she was one of those agents who described what she was doing all the time, and what she was thinking about doing something to get something done. Was quite enlightening as she was describing what she was seeing on the screen and all the various combinations and conflicting information she had.

I settled on a flight that was offered with one X sector HBA-MEL, rest in J. If it changes again, I may be in the conversion window, if not, a one hour flight in whY ain’t going to kill me

Well now I think about it, that advice they gave you doesn't fit with the QF conditions of carriage.

If, due to Events Within Our Control, after you buy your Ticket we make a Significant Change to your flight we will:

• rebook you on the next available flight (or combination of flights) on our services to your booked destination at no additional cost to you
• alternatively, at your option, refund the applicable fare
• if you choose to continue travel and the Significant Change occurs on the day of scheduled travel, resulting in your delay at the departure airport, provide you with meal or refreshment vouchers (or reimburse you for the reasonable costs of meals or refreshments if we do not provide vouchers)
• if your travel with us is delayed overnight and you have already commenced travel on your booking (ie you are at an 'away' port), use reasonable endeavours to assist you to find overnight accommodation or reimburse your reasonable accommodation costs if we have not provided accommodation.

There is nothing there about having to have the same class available. There's no time period of days/weeks - there is 72 hours, inside is a disruption, outside it's a schedule change. In both cases you get the flights rebooked, but disruptions get handled slightly differently (QF deals direct than via the agent) and there's an eligibility for hotels / vouchers etc.

My flight was in October.

I realise you were told something different, but I can only speak from my own experience (which is plural this week) and the quote above. It doesn't seem right. It also wouldn't surprise me if the Australian call centre has been told to minimise booking non-award seats where it's not essential, even if that is more restrictive than the official policy.

Also I'm sure there are senior experienced CPT operators and junior inexperienced HBA operators. Everyone is an individual.

 

[RooFlyer]

The advice you mean - that they have authorisation to release revenue seats in lieu of award seats within a certain time frame to the flight? Sure, its against their current conditions of carriage, and same class of travel isn't guaranteed, but as explained to me, its a current 'policy'. And is "consistently inconsistent" not their motto?

She was pretty certain about being allowed to make revenue seats available as Awards as she was fretting and going off to check what she was allowed to do. "If it was next week, I could do it ...." or something like that. Maybe she was wrong. Who knows? I'm relaxed.

 

[justinbrett]

The advice you mean - that they have authorisation to release revenue seats in lieu of award seats within a certain time frame to the flight? Sure, its against their current conditions of carriage, and same class of travel isn't guaranteed, but as explained to me, its a current 'policy'. And is "consistently inconsistent" not their motto?

She was pretty certain about being allowed to make revenue seats available as Awards as she was fretting and going off to check what she was allowed to do. "If it was next week, I could do it ...." or something like that. Maybe she was wrong. Who knows? I'm relaxed.

My agents did, including one from HBA.

I wasn't downgraded though, maybe that's treated differently.

If I recall correctly, the rebooking policy is to rebook you in the same fare class on the new flight, and if that's not available, the next lowest fare class available - all the way up to full Y & J.

Either way I guess I'll just be happy with my own outcomes, all of which have left me better off than the original bookings.