Has anyone had success with the call-up "Marginal" xASA's?

[V1213]

Just got off the phone with Qantas and they confirmed that the routing restrictions do appear to follow that of the revenue fares, so PER-SYD only allows directs.
I have however booked PER-ADL-CBR for 36,000, which still nets 140 SC, as PER-CBR does allow indirects.

 

[benjy]

I'm about to call up and make my first ever ASA booking, scary!

I'm going to fly MEL > BNE next weekend. Upon looking at the spreadsheet, it says the amounts should be 24,000 + $143 (+ CC Fees). Before I call, can someone please confirm that's what I should be paying? I want to make sure I'm confident in the amount that's quoted before I book.

Many many thanks in advance

 

[benjy]

I'm about to call up and make my first ever ASA booking, scary!

I'm going to fly MEL > BNE next weekend. Upon looking at the spreadsheet, it says the amounts should be 24,000 + $143 (+ CC Fees). Before I call, can someone please confirm that's what I should be paying? I want to make sure I'm confident in the amount that's quoted before I book.

Many many thanks in advance

I called and got the lovely, yet frustrated Maggie. Maggie tried to tell me that I could do this on the website myself but I persisted that it isn't available to be done online, quoting her word for word what's on the website, mentioning the option was removed in June 2013 etc. She placed me on hold, spoke to a supervisor who told her it was possible. Maggie struggled through the process getting quite frustrated at the system as she had never done it before. Through the booking, Maggie mentioned that she had just returned from 6 weeks holiday, most likely why she was getting frustrated.

I got placed on hold a second time as Maggie was going through the booking process, this was about 20 minutes in. When Maggie came back she advised she spoke to another supervisor who said IT WAS possible to book online... 'oh dear' I'm thinking, the supervisor mentioned all I had to do was press the "Points + Pay" option *head desk*

It appeared Maggie was 75% through the booking process anyway as what she went on to mention sounded correct. Maggie quoted, 24,000pts and $143.85 (great!, that's what I wanted to hear), usually 3,500 booking assistance fee (uh, oh!) but she'll waive it this time (*phew*), in Business Class, fully refundable; sounds about right!

All up, the call was 40 minutes long, Maggie learned how to book an Any Seat Award, despite incorrect advice provided, and I've been ticketed correctly it seems:

QANTAS & JETSTAR ANY SEAT AWARD 1 ADT REF xx_xx_
P.S. This is for next Saturday.


Red Roo, I'm happy to provide contact details in order for you to follow up this call to provide feedback to Maggie and her supervisors .

 

[JessicaTam]

It seems it is the supervisors that need the follow-up. They are the 'authoritative' voice in the call centre and may undo any good work that an AFFer may have done to 'train' the call taking staff.

Well done benjy (and Maggie) for persevering.

 

[QF WP]

I'll make sure my QF contact is appraised of this development - Supervisors are meant to be more experienced than the normal CSA's on the phone.

 

[serfty]

... usually 3,500 booking assistance fee (uh, oh!) but she'll waive it this time (*phew*) ...

Of course, she got this wrong as there is NO assisted booking fee assessable for these bookings.

 

[serfty]

FWIW, If at all practical it is a good idea to try to call during normal business hours.

Avoid those late night, evening mid weekend call etc.

 

[cove]

Thanks for those thoughts Serfty as we are ready to do some more.

 

[Platinum A332]

Successfully booked 2xFASAs from LHR. One was booked on Wednesday and the other last night. Both staff members (I forgot to get their names) were extremely professional. The second lady last night even apologized as she took around 5 minutes as she hadn't done many of these.

Red Roo, happy to provide the booking reference numbers to reward these staff members. Hope that these call centre staff don't get shipped off to Bangalore or Manila anytime soon!

 

[Newk]

Successfully booked 2xFASAs from LHR. One was booked on Wednesday and the other last night. Both staff members (I forgot to get their names) were extremely professional. The second lady last night even apologized as she took around 5 minutes as she hadn't done many of these.

Red Roo, happy to provide the booking reference numbers to reward these staff members. Hope that these call centre staff don't get shipped off to Bangalore or Manila anytime soon!

We hope Red Roo isn't shipped there either

 

[medhead]

Your earlier post indicated otherwise.



With phone-assisted MASA booking, there is no such "error" message.

You may bump into Erica who would say "go to web site please" or worse but there is no such error message.

That, to me, seems to indicate you were using the web site to make a JASA booking.

And if so, that is not what this thread is about.

Seriously how hard is it to follow a series of posts? I raised points plus pay. I certainly did not write about marginal ASA. Someone asked a question about my post.

Having said that I don't understand the basis of the question. I did a multi city booking all on Qantas operated flights and flight number. Click the points plus pay option on the payment page, moved the points slider to the same points level as a classic award and the cash co-pay with about half the classic payment.*


* I may be comparing to a classic award that included a higher fare class on one leg. But then my previous post was made on the information available to me at the time.

 

[medhead]

Well, we are not talking about the same thing !

This whole thread is about marginal (phone-assisted) ASA booking, not about online ASA at all.

That's right and I have no idea why you felt the need to interrupt with something that wasn't what was being discussed in my post.

Having followed this thread a lot. I recall it covering more than just MASA.

 

[cove]

Well we are both getting close to P1 so I saw we had a spare afternoon to go SYD-BNE-SYD giving us a full 50 minutes in Brisbane.
Is there an airport lookout so I can point out the Novotel Brisbane Airport to my partner?
We are just collecting SCs seeing it is double SC time.
Had to phone again to get out of economy and into business class for the MASA. I also had to load one of our two frequent flyer numbers after that too.
I really wish I could just do it myself!

 

[serfty]

...
Is there an airport lookout so I can point out the Novotel Brisbane Airport to my partner? ...

Maybe the overflow VA lounge has a view?

As for being back online, I can only wish. ...

FWIW, I have not booked any of these over the phone - I generally book at 353 days anyway, virtually exhausted my points with bookings in the last weeks of them being online and have even moved some of those long term bookings even further out.

I watch this thread with much interest as my points rebuild - I need 84k blocks for my favorite redemption but it is likely be next year before I would be looking to book any more of those.

 

[Deleted User]

Serfty, don't worry... you'll lose your MASA virginity one day... but in the meantime keep your eyes on this thread like I do to keep up with the latest lingo required to secure the elusive xASA...

Cheers

Shintaro10x

 

[asdf]

I did a multi city booking all on Qantas operated flights and flight number. Click the points plus pay option on the payment page, moved the points slider to the same points level as a classic award and the cash co-pay with about half the classic payment.*


* I may be comparing to a classic award that included a higher fare class on one leg. But then my previous post was made on the information available to me at the time.

medhead, thank you for clarifying. I am not sure why, no matter which browser I use the 'points plus pay' option seems to be unavailable, giving me the following message:
Please review the following items

• We have encountered an issue and points plus pay is not available with your selected itinerary. You can continue with the current booking and pay by credit or charge card or start again.

Not sure if this is something to do with Classic Award availability, a feature or a bug.

I am glad you were able to find the question at all given the fascination my reply to your post seemed to draw.

 

[Isochronous]

How much should a WASA (Premium Economy ASA) HKG-SYD cost? I've found availability for a very short notice flight I want to take, but HKG-SYD-MEL as a PE Classic is pricing at 61k points...?

 

[ketsuzei]

How much should a WASA (Premium Economy ASA) HKG-SYD cost? I've found availability for a very short notice flight I want to take, but HKG-SYD-MEL as a PE Classic is pricing at 61k points...?

If it's very short notice I would call, book it, and then ask here again whether it seems reasonable... better to try rebooking if necessary than lose the availability.

 

[ketsuzei]

How much should a WASA (Premium Economy ASA) HKG-SYD cost? I've found availability for a very short notice flight I want to take, but HKG-SYD-MEL as a PE Classic is pricing at 61k points...?

I reckon you should be able to get it for 45,000 with the SYD-MEL leg in Y.

(Classic is probably pricing it as 45,000 PE + 16,000 economy)

 

[medhead]

medhead, thank you for clarifying. I am not sure why, no matter which browser I use the 'points plus pay' option seems to be unavailable, giving me the following message:
Please review the following items

• We have encountered an issue and points plus pay is not available with your selected itinerary. You can continue with the current booking and pay by credit or charge card or start again.

Not sure if this is something to do with Classic Award availability, a feature or a bug.

I am glad you were able to find the question at all given the fascination my reply to your post seemed to draw.

I'll give points plus pay a bit of a play over the next week to see if I have a problem as well. Was the first time I made one of these bookings.