LHR -Florence - a Mystery Route it seems....

[MJ Coliandris]

I booked a flight with BA from LHR to FLR in Economy for myself (Platinum) & partner (Silver) at the beginning of the year & a couple of months later we upgraded to Business. Nothing unusual there you would think, until you venture into the Points Calculator & things start to get a little odd....
It appears that Heathrow to Florence is not recognised by the Calculator, which is strange, but not life-changing. I assumed that as LHR to Rome is worth 60 in Business then it may be worth that amount, if not, then the 40 you get for London to Pisa would be awarded, either way I would be happy.

However after the (in)sufficient time it takes for Qantas to credit BA flights to your account had elapsed, I was more than a little surprised to see that the flight had accrued 0 credits & was down as a Classic Reward Flight. This struck me as very peculiar as I had clearly paid for the original booking & then likewise clearly paid for the privilege to sit in 1D.
I took this up with QFF via email & was 'awarded' 15 Status Credits. Naturally I responded with a copy of my Boarding Pass & asked for the full Business Class credits to be applied & received the response that as the Original Booking was made in Economy then that's what I would be credited for!
So I went back again, saying that I had been through precisely the same process when booking a return flight to Belfast just one month earlier & received the Full Business Class allocation of 40 credits per flight, only to recieve the reply that the Qantas policy had changed in the interim period.

I gave up the ghost here as I surmised that either a) the policy COULD have changed & I had missed it, but more likely b) this Phantom Route just doesn't compute with Qantas or their operatives & they weren't prepared to budge on it in a classic 'Computer Says No' scenario.

Now I am currently sitting on 1185 credits for the year, which means that the full amount would have got me Platinum for another year by now. I have other flights booked that will get me over the line, so aside from the loss of 25 additional Lifetime Credits then there is no real harm done (I'm already comfortably Lifetime Gold), but you all know how irritating stuff like this can be.

Has anyone else experienced something similar, on this route or otherwise?

 

[opusman]

It's a known occurrence that's been discussed in this forum before. It isn't related to the LHR-FLR route but rather the booking class that BA sends through to Qantas after you've upgraded. Qantas see it as U I believe, which is ineligible for earn.

 

[Mwenenzi]

It's a known occurrence that's been discussed in this forum before. It isn't related to the LHR-FLR route but rather the booking class that BA sends through to Qantas after you've upgraded. Qantas see it as U I believe, which is ineligible for earn.

Depending on the upgrade method will/should credit as the original fare purchased.
If re-ticketed a business with a new e-ticket after paying the eco - business cash difference should credit as business.
But does/can vary

MJ Coliandris
How did you upgrade?

 

[encryptededdy]

Did you use the "Upgrade my class of travel with money" option in Manage Booking? I think in theory that should earn full Avios and SC when credited to BAEC, so it seems strange that they'd send "U" as the booking class to Qantas

 

[CorporateFlyerMEL]

upgrading through a discount cash offer or bid does not normally change the earning rate - it is usually locked into what the original class on the ticket is. If it is a fully paid 'upgrade' with cash and a new ticket is issued, then yes you would earn at the upgrade class.

 

[MJ Coliandris]

Depending on the upgrade method will/should credit as the original fare purchased.
If re-ticketed a business with a new e-ticket after paying the eco - business cash difference should credit as business.
But does/can vary

MJ Coliandris
How did you upgrade?

I upgraded within ‘Manage Booking’, just as I have done with several previous BA flights which subsequently received full Business Status Credits.

I think the point here is that firstly the Qantas Calculator doesn’t recognise the route & secondly & possibly as a result of this, the flight was originally credited as a Classic Reward.

If Qantas were issued with a booking that was originally in Economy then it would have at least accrued those credits, never mind the upgrade amount - it certainly shouldn’t have been zero.

I can’t help thinking this is an anomaly & the Qantas ‘system’ & personnel have no way of overriding it.

 

[encryptededdy]

After the upgrade, do you get a new e-ticket or not?

I reckon what's happened is;

1. BA's IT sent Qantas the wrong data, or they've changed the internal representation of this type of upgrade without considering its impact on 3rd party FFPs (non-BAEC), causing Qantas to read it as an Award Ticket
2. You bring this up with Qantas, they go get the e-ticket or whatever from BA to confirm, but the e-ticket shows you booked in Economy (either because it never issued a new e-ticket with Business or they got the old e-ticket for some reason)

 

[MJ Coliandris]

After the upgrade, do you get a new e-ticket or not?

I reckon what's happened is;

1. BA's IT sent Qantas the wrong data, or they've changed the internal representation of this type of upgrade without considering its impact on 3rd party FFPs (non-BAEC), causing Qantas to read it as an Award Ticket
2. You bring this up with Qantas, they go get the e-ticket or whatever from BA to confirm, but the e-ticket shows you booked in Economy (either because it never issued a new e-ticket with Business or they got the old e-ticket for some reason)

This is almost certainly what happened & I can’t be bothered arguing the toss with Qantas any further.

However I am absolutely convinced that the whole thing stems from a route that clearly isn’t programmed into the Qantas system, try it for yourself in the Calculator - it is not there!

 

[encryptededdy]

However I am absolutely convinced that the whole thing stems from a route that clearly isn’t programmed into the Qantas system, try it for yourself in the Calculator - it is not there!

It's possible, but I've flown routes not in the calculator and had it credit correctly. For instance, I flew Matsuyama to Fukuoka last year on JAL

 

[opusman]

There must be hundreds of routes flown by OW airlines that aren't in the Qantas calculator that are eligible for earn.

 

[jrfsp]

It’s to do with a change to the fare class BA rebooks upgrades to, as mentioned it used to be I class but now books to U class which is earning in BAEC but doesn’t earn in QF. You should be able to email the original ticket and boarding passes to get the original economy points