Is it too risky to cancel a OWA sector and rebook same flight as part of a multi-sector without losing the seats?

[adenda]

I have a question about rebooking a OWA sector that currently has no J availability (actually U) but which my wife and I are already booked on.
To explain, our OWA currently ends with a flight from KUL to ADL although we are based in MEL - couldn’t find direct flights back to MEL so settled for ADL as an interim measure. I want to add that last sector from ADL to MEL to our booking but I’ve been advised a couple of times now by QF that it can’t be done apparently as it breaks the rule about the award itinerary ending once back in Australia ie. can’t tack domestic sectors onto the end of a OWA once back in Oz.
Firstly, I’m wondering if I can replace the KUL-ADL sector with a KUL-MEL flight with a transit in ADL as a means of getting all the way home to MEL – would that fall foul of the same rule?
Secondly, at the moment there is no J availability on the KUL-ADL segment but we are already booked on this flight. Does anyone know if we could ring up and cancel this flight, (freeing up the J seats) and then immediately book the same seats as part of a KUL-MEL sector? I’m thinking cancelling may carry some risks as the freed-up seats may not re-appear as available for a OWA booking (ie. MH may reallocate them to J (from U) or someone might be waitlisted for them or maybe someone else booking an award might just time it right and grab them before we can.)
Interested to hear the forum’s views on 1) will changing KUL-ADL to KUL-ADL-MEL work and 2) would cancelling our current booking KUL-ADL free up the 2 seats we need without risk?

 

[serfty]

Personally for me it would be too risky.

However, I have seen you post on the other thread - that rule as being applied to your indicated itinerary does not exist on public documented QFF T&C's.

 

[adenda]

Yeah it mightn't exist but I'm hitting a wall trying add that sector. Might just buy a ticket and stop stressing about it.

 

[cjd600]

Far too risky...

 

[ftm]

If this were a revenue ticket, it is quite easy to do and you don’t need to give up the KUL-ADL seats in order to add in the ADL-MEL flight. As long as the fare routings allowed you to route via ADL, then you’d just add the segment, calculate the fare/tax difference and reissue.

Points seats can be different though, and I’m not sure what QF rules are.

Another thing you can do with a revenue PNR is just add the ADL-MEL as a standalone ticket, but still in the same PNR as the main flights. So you’ll get all the protections, but it is just paid for separately. I’m fairly sure QF has a process restriction and for internal reasons they can’t do this, even though their system is capable of it.

 

[adenda]

Well I got my last segment booked and it seems like I wasn't breaking any rule - it was a QANTAS booking system issue related to Iberia taxes and charges. I decided to give it one more go via the chat channel in the app and initially got the same response - can't add the flight/computer says no - but after being encouraged by this forum I decided to push a bit harder by pointing out that nothing about my requested change is breaking the award rules and so there must be another issue. To their credit the QF agent passed me on to another agent (presumably someone who knew their system better) who promptly added my last segment to the booking!

 

[ftm]

Well I got my last segment booked and it seems like I wasn't breaking any rule - it was a QANTAS booking system issue related to Iberia taxes and charges. I decided to give it one more go via the chat channel in the app and initially got the same response - can't add the flight/computer says no - but after being encouraged by this forum I decided to push a bit harder by pointing out that nothing about my requested change is breaking the award rules and so there must be another issue. To their credit the QF agent passed me on to another agent (presumably someone who knew their system better) who promptly added my last segment to the booking!

Excellent outcome! It is frustrating that airlines don't do what they should the first time around, but glad you got to the right place in the end.