Incorrect information you've been given by Qantas Contact Centre

[sudoer]

Calling to book classic award on NU22 MMY-HND. QF website doesn't support booking to/from MMY but space showing on BA/JL.

Operator 1: Not available
Operator 2: Not available
Operator 3: Not available
Operator 4: Not available
Operator 5: Not available, can we look at an alternative route?
Me: Sure, MMY-OKA on NU552, 556, 558 or 560 (all showing availability on BA/JL also)
Operator 5: Oh hey, there's space on NU22....

 

[Vic]

SMS help accessed while in the USA about getting row 4 on a domestic flight on my returning booking. IRROPS mean that I have multiple cancelled flights in the booking, and so cannot do seat selection.

Advice - "It just so happens that row 4C is for service dog"

But it's showing open on Expert Flyer. So I questioned this and got the following:

"If we select that seat for you , the airport staff will rearrange eventually"
"You may check in 24 hours prior"
"Alright I'll request 4C" Keep in mind seats are bound to change due to security purposes"

I'm surprised they didn't tell me it was a fire hazard.

In fairness, this is probably a US based agent. I tried to tell them Australia doesn't do service animals.
In over 1000 australian domestic flights I've seen 2 guide dogs.

 

[Must...Fly!]

There is no 'rule'.
It just won't work as airline tickets have an expiry of one year. That's how airline ticketing works, no matter what airline (that uses etkts). Jetstar, AirAsia, Scoot are examples of airlines who don't use e-tickets.

You may be able to book it, but I can tell you with 100% certainty, when the time comes to take your flight in Feb 2021, your ticket will be 'void' or 'expired'. Booking will be there, but the flights you won't be able to take.

I got to dig deeper into this, not doubting you but because it has horrible implications.

My first ticket was issued in August 2019.

I now have flights in May 2020 and December 2020 on this ticket. You're saying that come August 2020, my ticket will expire and I can't board my flights in December 2020? What's the solution to this? And I've spoken to Qantas 9 times and nobody brought this up.

Nobody brought it up because it's wrong information. Check condition 6.2 of the CoC.

Conditions of Carriage | Qantas AU

Refer to Qantas Conditions of Carriage that define the passenger rules, fares, refunds and more set out in your ticket.

www.qantas.com

 

[albatross710]

Via online access, one of my 4 USA flights is now greyed out and stamped with "OLD FLIGHT". Better ask QF Chat about that

Qantas chat message:
Take 1: "Your flight is still available and going to schedule"

well that's great, why is it grey?

Take 2: "That flight was changed and you will be book (sic) a new flights as soon as possible"

With the grammar and the problems I think this will be a #fail


As for feedback, it's important that all callers leave feedback scores so that the message gets through the algorithms. If Manila always scores 1-2 then that's got to show something to someone.

 

[Barnaby1]

Via online access, one of my 4 USA flights is now greyed out and stamped with "OLD FLIGHT". Better ask QF Chat about that

Qantas chat message:
Take 1: "Your flight is still available and going to schedule"

well that's great, why is it grey?

Take 2: "That flight was changed and you will be book (sic) a new flights as soon as possible"

With the grammar and the problems I think this will be a #fail


As for feedback, it's important that all callers leave feedback scores so that the message gets through the algorithms. If Manila always scores 1-2 then that's got to show something to someone.

I cancelled my Qantas OneWorld Reward booking on 5th Nov. '19. The consultant said she would refund the taxes et. total of AU$1415.81 on that day. To cut a long story short, I have still not received my refund three and a half months later, despite many hours of phone calls, emails and using that useless Qantas Text facility!
Qantas Customer Care et al keep on advising me to contact Reservations, and they will handle my issue. Reservations, in turn, keep on advising me that they can see that the $1415.81 was reunded to my credit card on 5th November '19, but cannot tell me into which account the refund was applied. I only used the one credit card when I was progressively booking my itinerary, and there has been no sign of the refunded money!
My health has been affected by this drawn out chase for my money, and I have now handed it over to the Airline Customer Advocate for their involvement, where else can I go?

 

[Daver6]

I cancelled my Qantas OneWorld Reward booking on 5th Nov. '19. The consultant said she would refund the taxes et. total of AU$1415.81 on that day. To cut a long story short, I have still not received my refund three and a half months later, despite many hours of phone calls, emails and using that useless Qantas Text facility!
Qantas Customer Care et al keep on advising me to contact Reservations, and they will handle my issue. Reservations, in turn, keep on advising me that they can see that the $1415.81 was reunded to my credit card on 5th November '19, but cannot tell me into which account the refund was applied. I only used the one credit card when I was progressively booking my itinerary, and there has been no sign of the refunded money!
My health has been affected by this drawn out chase for my money, and I have now handed it over to the Airline Customer Advocate for their involvement, where else can I go?

Call your credit card company and request a charge back.

 

[clifford]

Call your credit card company and request a charge back.

That's exactly what I did a couple of years ago with Qatar (QR), when they gave me similar runaround.

AMEX refunded the money (a similar amount) within days, as I had copies of emails from QR stating that they had approved the refund.

 

[tuesday_]

I called a few weeks ago to claim some missing points because the form wasn't working on the website. I spoke to someone who patiently took all of the details for the six flights I was claiming, told me it would be 3-5 business days before the points would show up.

Eight days later, the points (but more importantly, the SCs) had not arrived. Called back (form still wasn't working), and was told by the operator that no claim had been submitted, and there was no history of the call on the account. She took all of the details again, gave me a confirmation number, and the points arrived by COB.

 

[stoney]

Calling to book classic award on NU22 MMY-HND. QF website doesn't support booking to/from MMY but space showing on BA/JL.

Operator 1: Not available
Operator 2: Not available
Operator 3: Not available
Operator 4: Not available
Operator 5: Not available, can we look at an alternative route?
Me: Sure, MMY-OKA on NU552, 556, 558 or 560 (all showing availability on BA/JL also)
Operator 5: Oh hey, there's space on NU22....

I admire your persistence and tenacity, it looks like you are a very patient person. It is insane management to ask customers to go through this amount of torture. If the website was upgraded to handle current needs than this sort of nonsense would happen.

 

[sudoer]

I admire your persistence and tenacity, it looks like you are a very patient person.

Thankfully, being WP means that hold times aren't too bad - generally under 3 minutes if calling at the right time of day (and no impending weather/virus disaster.)

Knowing the availability does exist is probably what gives me motivation to keep trying - but the most frustrating part is needing to repeat the initial spiel of "I need to book XYZ and this is why I can't do it on the website", then being treated like an idiot because the operator always acts like the QF website is without fault and it must be user error.

Many reps will initially insist that all bookable space is displayed on the website, only for me to prove them wrong after insisting they look it up through both their GDS and then try look it up on the website. This is generally the only way to get the booking fee waived, but it's also amusing to listen to their reactions when they realise they were in the wrong

 

[stoney]

Thankfully, being WP means that hold times aren't too bad - generally under 3 minutes if calling at the right time of day (and no impending weather/virus disaster.)

Knowing the availability does exist is probably what gives me motivation to keep trying - but the most frustrating part is needing to repeat the initial spiel of "I need to book XYZ and this is why I can't do it on the website", then being treated like an idiot because the operator always acts like the QF website is without fault and it must be user error.

Many reps will initially insist that all bookable space is displayed on the website, only for me to prove them wrong after insisting they look it up through both their GDS and then try look it up on the website. This is generally the only way to get the booking fee waived, but it's also amusing to listen to their reactions when they realise they were in the wrong

A little experience and WP must help and I do like the lovely little "GDS" which instantly alerts the operator to "this guy knows what he is talking about".

 

[kilavuz]

For Valentine's Day (and our anniversary) last February, I booked flights SYD-HLL-SYD using the call centre, in December 2019. When I booked our flights, a very kind operator took my details, and stated I do not have enough points for both directions for two of us, I told her that my partner also has points, so she took her details (QFF number and PIN) and stated all in good order and she placed them. She DID NOT TELL US that we need to pool our points together. I am sure this is inconspicuously, somewhere in the most user friendly website.
Our upgrade on the trip up went smoothly. Great service in the front.
24 hours before our return, (QF4 on 18 Feb) I received an SMS stating I do not have enough points so our request has failed.
This was the period when anytime I called ‘due to highly increased demand’ Qantas call centre did not take calls, and asked us to leave our number and details, and called back an hour or two later! By call centre help, first she transferred her points to my account, and call centre put us back in the queue, later this was declined, with their help we this time pooled points to her account and we retried, this was also declined, and we transferred back, and thought we were getting there as' 'we were in the Q and seats were still available'.
I spent hours on the line calling them from Honolulu!
When we arrived at Honolulu airport, and this we learned was also declined together with 26 other people who were on the queue.
What a great service by Qantas call centres!

 

[kilavuz]

 

[muppet]

For Valentine's Day (and our anniversary) last February, I booked flights SYD-HLL-SYD using the call centre, in December 2019. When I booked our flights, a very kind operator took my details, and stated I do not have enough points for both directions for two of us, I told her that my partner also has points, so she took her details (QFF number and PIN) and stated all in good order and she placed them. She DID NOT TELL US that we need to pool our points together. I am sure this is inconspicuously, somewhere in the most user friendly website.
Our upgrade on the trip up went smoothly. Great service in the front.
24 hours before our return, (QF4 on 18 Feb) I received an SMS stating I do not have enough points so our request has failed.
This was the period when anytime I called ‘due to highly increased demand’ Qantas call centre did not take calls, and asked us to leave our number and details, and called back an hour or two later! By call centre help, first she transferred her points to my account, and call centre put us back in the queue, later this was declined, with their help we this time pooled points to her account and we retried, this was also declined, and we transferred back, and thought we were getting there as' 'we were in the Q and seats were still available'.
I spent hours on the line calling them from Honolulu!
When we arrived at Honolulu airport, and this we learned was also declined together with 26 other people who were on the queue.
What a great service by Qantas call centres!

I don’t understand - what did they get wrong?

Upgrades aren’t guaranteed and very unlikely unless WP or WP+

 

[AIRwin]

View attachment 225789

How much were the charges for roaming?

 

[DC3]

.... I spent hours on the line calling them from Honolulu!
When we arrived at Honolulu airport, and this we learned was also declined together with 26 other people who were on the queue.
What a great service by Qantas call centres!

Very unfortunate for you if you had greater expectations.

However, we have all made mistakes in how we deal with airlines (especially some Call Centres) and I find it best to keep my expectations rather low.

What are you actually seeking from other AFFers, other than letting off a bit of steam?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

How much were the charges for roaming?

Should be free by using skype to call the QF USA number. As long as you have wifi.

 

[calmelb]

Should be free by using skype to call the QF USA number. As long as you have wifi.

Or say for Telstra it should've activated the one day roaming, which is only $10

 

[The Astronomer]

A couple of years ago I was booked on QF LST-MEL-SYD on a Friday evening, and SYD-BKK on QF23 the following morning. Bad weather saw me stuck in MEL for the night. No seats were available the following morning to get me to SYD in time for QF23, so they rebooked me on a later MEL-SYD flight (for Saturday) and therefore SYD-BKK on Sunday morning. I asked if I could simply take the MEL-SIN flight on Saturday morning and get a Jetstar SIN-BKK evening connection (which I knew existed and had seats). No, said the lady (based in Australia), she could get me to SIN as requested but even though she had seats SIN-BKK, she could not book me on that because of my 'fare structure'. Assured me that it was impossible - even when I pointed out that I need to get to BKK and the delay is not my fault. I decided not to give up. I showed up at MEL QF Domestic early Saturday morning and explained the story. Now there was no problem. Within a couple of minutes I was booked MEL-SIN on QF and SIN-BKK on SQ, with a minimum of fuss. It got even more interesting when the QF was delayed and I would have missed my connection on SQ. While on the flight to SIN I was rebooked on TG SIN-BKK for later that evening, and all went well.

This and other situations show that if it sounds like it’s the wrong information, it probably is!

 

[calmelb]

T

A couple of years ago I was booked on QF LST-MEL-SYD on a Friday evening, and SYD-BKK on QF23 the following morning. Bad weather saw me stuck in MEL for the night. No seats were available the following morning to get me to SYD in time for QF23, so they rebooked me on a later MEL-SYD flight (for Saturday) and therefore SYD-BKK on Sunday morning. I asked if I could simply take the MEL-SIN flight on Saturday morning and get a Jetstar SIN-BKK evening connection (which I knew existed and had seats). No, said the lady (based in Australia), she could get me to SIN as requested but even though she had seats SIN-BKK, she could not book me on that because of my 'fare structure'. Assured me that it was impossible - even when I pointed out that I need to get to BKK and the delay is not my fault. I decided not to give up. I showed up at MEL QF Domestic early Saturday morning and explained the story. Now there was no problem. Within a couple of minutes I was booked MEL-SIN on QF and SIN-BKK on SQ, with a minimum of fuss. It got even more interesting when the QF was delayed and I would have missed my connection on SQ. While on the flight to SIN I was rebooked on TG SIN-BKK for later that evening, and all went well.

This and other situations show that if it sounds like it’s the wrong information, it probably is!

To be fair in that situation, often the airport staff have a lot more flexibility than the call centre staff (for whatever reason) though granted doesn’t excuse some of the issues