False availability - Ticketed flights got cancelled

[cocaman]

Hi guys,

I managed to snag 4 x economy tickets from CAN - PEK with MU. The tickets were issued by QF using my points (with ticket numbers), however it got cancelled the following day. QF escalation said that those were false availability and MU refused to open the seats to Qantas. Apart from insurance and lodging a formal proceeding via VCAT, what other options do I have?

QF offered a CX metal with transit in HKG but this is ridiculous given that it's a domestic flight within China (and yet I have to travel out of mainland China to HKG for transit and back to mainland China).

Would you press that they reimburse the cost of a revenue ticket then?

 

[Mr H]

Hi guys,

I managed to snag 4 x economy tickets from CAN - PEK with MU. The tickets were issued by QF using my points (with ticket numbers), however it got cancelled the following day. QF escalation said that those were false availability and MU refused to open the seats to Qantas. Apart from insurance and lodging a formal proceeding via VCAT, what other options do I have?

QF offered a CX metal with transit in HKG but this is ridiculous given that it's a domestic flight within China (and yet I have to travel out of mainland China to HKG for transit and back to mainland China).

Would you press that they reimburse the cost of a revenue ticket then?

You were offered a viable alternative routing. You have a choice of that or a refund of what you have paid. You aren't going to get a cash windfall.

 

[cocaman]

You were offered a viable alternative routing. You have a choice of that or a refund of what you have paid. You aren't going to get a cash windfall.

Thanks, Mr H.

I am not after a cash windfall (i.e. an upgrade or massive compensation for any inconvenience caused etc) and pretty much a reasonable person. However, this alternative routing would result in my parents-in-law having to apply for an exit permit in mainland China to enter HKG, which may or may not be approved by the Chinese authorities.

Preferably, an 'internal domestic flight' within mainland China is preferred - would it be too much to ask or within my rights to do so? Further, I note that the same flight is still available (in terms of revenue tickets) - would it again be within my rights that they put me on the same flight? (That is, they organise the flights whether in the form of reward booking or revenue booking?)

 

[Mr H]

Thanks, Mr H.

I am not after a cash windfall (i.e. an upgrade or massive compensation for any inconvenience caused etc) and pretty much a reasonable person. However, this alternative routing would result in my parents-in-law having to apply for an exit permit in mainland China to enter HKG, which may or may not be approved by the Chinese authorities.

Preferably, an 'internal domestic flight' within mainland China is preferred - would it be too much to ask or within my rights to do so? Further, I note that the same flight is still available (in terms of revenue tickets) - would it again be within my rights that they put me on the same flight? (That is, they organise the flights whether in the form of reward booking or revenue booking?)

MU has declined to release the seats and the ticket was issued in error. You are not going to get revenue seats on that flight at Qantas's expense. QF did offer a reasonable alternative route and you decided not to take it. Unless you can propose another alternative route using a OW carrier or a QF partner airline, you are looking at a refund.

 

[Guvner]

To be fair to the OP, "reasonable" and "viable" are subjective alternatives.

 

[Mr H]

To be fair to the OP, "reasonable" and "viable" are subjective alternatives.

In which case the OP can get a refund in full.

 

[kpro]

QF escalation said that those were false availability and MU refused to open the seats to Qantas.

I'm a little confused as to how the ticket was issued if there was phantom award availability. Doesn't ticketing require that the fare class be available?

Do the flights you booked actually still exist for the date that you wanted? IE can you see them using a revenue search on the MU site?

Edit: Did the e-ticket say anything about the flight being waitlisted or confirmed?

 

[cocaman]

I'm a little confused as to how the ticket was issued if there was phantom award availability. Doesn't ticketing require that the fare class be available?

Do the flights you booked actually still exist for the date that you wanted? IE can you see them using a revenue search on the MU site?

Edit: Did the e-ticket say anything about the flight being waitlisted or confirmed?

Thank you! That is a good catch - I have just checked the PDF eticket and note that the flight was listed as 'confirmed' with eticket no.

 

[RooFlyer]

With Qantas, were you dealing with an offshore call centre, or the Hobart one (for the latter, you would have to be Plat or P1).

I suspect it was offshore, in which case you are frankly unlikely to get an agent competent enough to deal with your issue. With a 'confirmed' eTicket, with ticket number, it was clearly NOT 'false availability'. How long did they take to tell you MU have refused to release new seats to Qantas? On the spot? If so, that's BS.

I would call again, hold your ground and point out it was confirmed and e-Ticketed. I think your chances are slim, but you are entitled not to be lied to and just be fobbed off. You won't get $ compo equivalent to the cash fare.

 

[anyonebutqantas]

You were issued a confirmed ticket. If Qantas are now reneging on that then they are in breach of contract. You will probably have to sue them in VCAT to force them to be reasonable though.

 

[Mr H]

You were issued a confirmed ticket. If Qantas are now reneging on that then they are in breach of contract. You will probably have to sue them in VCAT to force them to be reasonable though.

VCAT would just order a refund plus reimbursement of any costs incurred as a direct consequence of cancellation. Assuming there are no consequential costs, the order would just be for what is presumably already on offer.

 

[kpro]

They are already offering an alternative that gets the OP to their destination though.

It could also be possible that MU have cancelled the flight entirely, hence my previous suggestion to check if revenue fares are available.

 

[Matt_01]

I sympathise with @cocaman as I have run into issues with MU flight booked with QF points.

I'm a little confused as to how the ticket was issued if there was phantom award availability. Doesn't ticketing require that the fare class be available?

It is not so much about phantom availability the issue is more than likely how the QF and MU booking systems talk to each other. In 2018 I posted details of some of the challenges I had faced with both reward and revenue flights the detail is here The long and the short of it was QF had ticketed the rewards flights but they had never been confirmed in the MU system. In my case it was sorted out behind the scenes by SST (the old VIP team) and took around 3-4 months to fix before I even knew there was an issue. I can only suspect that the QF/MU ticketing issues have not been fixed when it come to booking MU domestic flights.

 

[UP4014]

My own personal view, if the travel date is way out in the future just get a refund and buy a ticket.

It will be annoying but the grief and time of sorting will reduce your chances for another deal.

Some things are worth the trouble and some not. Not much of a win to get vcat to instruct a refund and the fares have gone up. The travel in and out of the mainland will not cut it if there has been another offer.

 

[dajop]

What is the points/taxes vs the $$ costs of the commercial fare for the journey? You might be better off just paying for the commercial fare and use Qantas points for something else.

 

[Guvner]

In which case the OP can get a refund in full.

Yes, we can agree on that fact. The rest is just opinion.

 

[jpp42]

You might be better off just paying for the commercial fare and use Qantas points for something else.

I'm not sure if there are cheaper ways to book tickets for Chinese nationals, but I am finding that most CAN-BJS [i.e. PEK or PKX] are around A$700 to A$1200 round trip, even though it's only a three-hour flight. So possibly a good use of points and I can see why OP is annoyed, but I agree with the other replies that it's unlikely to bear fruit by pursuing Qantas on this.

High speed rail is another suitable option for this journey with tickets around $200 each way, though it does take 8 hours that would probably be similar travel time to the route via HKG.