J award disappeared after doing dummy booking

[drcam]

Attempted to do a dummy booking today to see whether it would work, it did.
Then tried to start over (thereby undoing the booking) when it got to the payment page. When I did that, the refresh screen was white except for a message which said an error occurred. (I did not enter any credit card details).
When I reloaded the Qantas site and tried to do the same booking with a different connection, the award seat was gone.

Does this mean that someone snatched the seat in the 60 seconds in between, or that there is some bug in the system? And in the latter case, how long does it take for the seat to rematerialize? I am not enthused by the prospect of having to ring up Qantas because it takes an eternity to be connected, they have coughpy English and they have no idea!

 

[RichardMEL]

Most likely the reward seat has been held by your dummy booking and will return to inventory sooner rather than later after timeouts. However, of course, it's always possible that it was snapped up in a case of very coincidental timing. I'd be willing to gamble that it will show up again shortly.

 

[drcam]

It's been 1 hour and it hasn't shown up, but I will give it a few hours/a day.

 

[ChrisMars]

It's been 1 hour and it hasn't shown up, but I will give it a few hours/a day.

Is there anything in your MMB about this booking, or maybe in your shopping basket? Assuming it is held (for more than a hour), I am wondering if it's possible to find the ref number, call Qantas, and finalize (pay) the booking.
Is it a QF metal award btw? domestic or international?

 

[drcam]

It is an international, QF metal award with a short AA connecting flight onward which doesn't add any points cost to the total.
There would not be a ref number as I hadn't booked it/not in my shopping basket.

 

[RichardMEL]

Is there anything in your MMB about this booking, or maybe in your shopping basket? Assuming it is held (for more than a hour), I am wondering if it's possible to find the ref number, call Qantas, and finalize (pay) the booking.
Is it a QF metal award btw? domestic or international?

Yes, great point. If a PNR has been created as part of the dummy - depending on how far one got - then that will be there potentially for the rest of the day until it times out (and usually QF will send a notification to complete payment or something) - in that case, the seat is not lost but is held. However, this doesn't always happen. in my experience they usually expire at midnight (syd time) if this is the case.

 

[RichardMEL]

It is an international, QF metal award with a short AA connecting flight onward which doesn't add any points cost to the total.
There would not be a ref number as I hadn't booked it/not in my shopping basket.

aha. OK.

So have you searched for just the QF intl flight (for example SYD-LAX) without the AA add-on?

(AA availability can be weird I've seen, and several agents have said they update at various times of the day rather than in real time which doesn't sound quite right to me, but that's a side issue - point being that AA may not show up quite as soon as QF).

 

[Duffa]

Happens to me. I delete all Qantas cookies on thst browser and try again. Sometimes that works.

 

[SYD]

Yes, great point. If a PNR has been created as part of the dummy - depending on how far one got - then that will be there potentially for the rest of the day until it times out (and usually QF will send a notification to complete payment or something) - in that case, the seat is not lost but is held. However, this doesn't always happen. in my experience they usually expire at midnight (syd time) if this is the case.

They used to be held until midnight (well, at least revenue bookings). Occasionally (not always ), you‘d get an email saying “We’re holding booking XYZ123”.

If held, it should show in the app but maybe not website (or other-way around…).

 

[drcam]

On the flexi-calendar the award is still shown as being available (the red kangaroo sign appears on that date) but when I actually click on the date, it is no longer there.
This particular award has been open for weeks so I will be highly angry if it gets truly snatched up in that 1 minute window. But judging by my luck in everyday life I wouldn't be surprised.
Or Qantas is using it as an as excuse to simply withdraw the reward seat. They would not be above doing that with their morals and ethics. There is nothing to stop them from simply withdrawing 95% of their existing inventory Classic Reward seats at a stroke if they wanted. Their leaders would probably gloat in their marble board room afterwards.

Excuse me if I sound bitter.

Post automatically merged: Dec 22, 2023

aha. OK.

So have you searched for just the QF intl flight (for example SYD-LAX) without the AA add-on?

(AA availability can be weird I've seen, and several agents have said they update at various times of the day rather than in real time which doesn't sound quite right to me, but that's a side issue - point being that AA may not show up quite as soon as QF).

Yes. It does not work. The award flight is gone, with or without the AA add-on.

 

[RichardMEL]

yeah, nah. Sorry but you're ascribing something very personal there to algorithms and IT systems. If "they" were going to personally target you as you are implying then the seat wouldn't have been there to book in the first place?

I am sure it will return soon enough. Hopefully.

 

[drcam]

NB. Now the seat is no longer showing as available even in the flexi-calendar.

Luckily there are still a few almost-as-acceptable redemptions on the couple of days either side of it. If you consider premium economy or routing via Auckland/Fiji as "almost-as-acceptable".

 

[drcam]

The seat has reappeared. It took a total of three hours.

 

[SYD]

The seat has reappeared. It took a total of three hours.

Well that’s a relief - rather than having to wait until midnight!

I had a similar problem a few days ago with a QR revenue booking. SYD+1 and I are going to Europe next year but travelling on different days outbound. I double checked that there were two seats on the same flights home. So SYD+1 went ahead and booked separately but the system did something weird and against my advice went back and rebooked - which went through (about A$4K ex CGK). I went in and the “sale” fare was gone and it was quoting me A$7K!

Fortunately it released that extra seat about an hour later. We were on our way to a Christmas function when I saw it was back and I literally booked in app for $4k while sitting on a bus stop bench seat…

 

[RichardMEL]

Hopefully you have successfully booked it now and don't feel so personally targeted by QF.

Yes, it's super frustrating. Many of us have been there. It's happened to me indeed and I do know what it's like to sweat on it coming back - when you honestly don't know if it will release back to reward inventory(but pretty likely usually depending on circumstances).

So a good outcome in this case - just with a few hours of extra stress thrown in for a bit of pre end of year "fun."

A more general reminder to anyone of course that when something you want shows up, best to grab it ASAP lest it disappear (for whatever reason). a 5k change penalty (potentially) is probably easier to stomach than having nothing - specially when it comes to premium and/or longer haul rewards on popular routes.

 

[drcam]

Oh, I was just being my usual cynical self. 5k change fee is miniscule compared to losing the option altogether.

 

[drcam]

4k ex cgk to Europe is a very good deal these days.

My planned 2025 trip is to Eastern Europe.... hoping to get a return J saver on SQ for 55k each way dps-ist... IST is technically in Europe!

 

[dylarr]

Is there anything in your MMB about this booking

For the "My Bookings" page in QF MMB, unfortunately this was recently "enhanced" to only show bookings that have been ticketed which makes it harder to find the PNR for dummy bookings now.

So long as the PNR hasn't already been auto cancelled, the call centre would be able to locate it and either finalise payment and have it ticketed, or could cancel it (however this doesn't always mean the inventory will become available again).

 

[offshore171]

withdrawing 95% of their existing inventory Classic Reward seats at a stroke if they wanted. Their leaders would probably gloat in their marble board room afterwards.

The seat has reappeared. It took a total of three hours.

Thus endeth the conspiracy theory!

 

[serfty]

For the "My Bookings" page in QF MMB, unfortunately this was recently "enhanced" to only show bookings that have been ticketed which makes it harder to find the PNR for dummy bookings now.

They can still show on the App. sometimes.