Newbie questions around booking first QF Award flight

[Stargazer]

Just been reading a thread on ticketing delays. As a newbie, about to book my first award flight- can someone please explain the ticketing process to me. I thought that once the booking had been made online an e-ticket would be issued straight away. But in reading this thread it appears that there is a process whereby Qantas issues the tickets through a manual process. Can someone add clarity to this so I know what to expect.

secondly this thread pointed out that Qantas was failing to adhere to the ticketing deadlines imposed by other carriers and therefore flights were cancelled. My journey will include flights by Malaysian airline system and I am concerned that without knowledge of the process I might lose the booking and arrive at the airport without flights booked and confirmed. How do I know that flights have been booked and confirmed.

someone mentioned that passengers should use checkmytrip to verify that flights have a valid e-ticket. If so can you elaborate how this works.

I really don’t know how this all works. Please provide some insight so I am not blindsided by the process

 

[N860CR]

Definitely more challenging to solve, but there is always a way....... Singapore airways has plenty of availability to South Africa (inc J) if you want to enjoy the scenic route....... and if you truly love flying you can hop on UA metal and go via New York

SQ is my usual route. I actually find it a slightly more pleasant (and less tiring) trip than the QF direct. Trying to burn those QF points though… as alluded to earlier, they’re like the Zim dollar; have millions but worth nothing!

 

[GrahamBRI]

SQ is my usual route.

How about adding Paris to your usual route for 227,000 Pts in J



Okay, I agree, QF points are very hard burn through at the moment........, unless you also have crazy amounts of spare time to burn through as well

 

[jrfsp]

Doesn’t help when there are large black out periods for awards flying QF

 

[adenda]

Having been in your shoes initially and now more than 3 years later much wiser about the process, I suggest this is the way to go:

1. As the ticketing department doesn’t appear to work on weekends, I’d avoid booking online/by phone over the weekend. Try and do it during Australian business hours when they are at least open.
   
   
2. If you have to call Qantas to make (or change) your booking, log in to your Frequent Flyer account before calling and open the Your bookings page. Before hanging up, refresh this page and check that what has been booked reflects what you requested. Booking details seem to appear here very soon after the booking has been made ie. whilst on the call.
   
   
3. Mention you weren't able to make the booking online so you aren't charged an assistance fee
   
   
4. For what it’s worth, explain to the agent your concern about flights booked on other operators - especially Malaysian - being cancelled as a result of not being ticketed in time and ask if they can contact ticketing while you’re on the call. This usually receives the stock reply of “Ticketing can take 24 to 48 hours” but on one occasion the agent (in Fiji!) undertook to keep an eye on it and even went as far as to call me back several hours later to request I complete APIS information to enable ticketing – see next point.
   
   
5. Once your booking has appeared in Your bookings, enter APIS information. No sure why it should influence how long ticketing takes but no harm in doing it anyway.
   
   
6. If you feel like it, you can usually select seats at this point. Royal Jordanian (rj.com) seems to be the most reliable airline site for selecting seats on a OneWorld operator.
   
   
7. Wait(!!) for an email from Qantas Customer Services titled:
   “Confirmation and E-Ticket Flight Itinerary for <Booking reference> from <Origin> to <Destination> on <Date> for <surname>” with a PDF itinerary attached. In this attachment your eticket numbers should be listed against each passenger name.
   
   
8. The CheckMyTrip app can be useful to check booking and ticket details and to get notified of any itinerary changes – sometimes before Qantas does.
   
   
9. Use Finnair’s Request eticket Receipt page (Order your e-ticket receipt) to also receive eticket details – plus a full breakdown of taxes and charges

Good luck!

 

[Ktan89]

I'm confused..why couldn't you reply in the thread you were already reading instead of making a new one?

Also, if you are making a new booking online, you shouldn't have to worry about non-ticketing. It's only when you call up to make changes or adding more flights to the PNR. Oh and also when there are schedule changes...

 

[jase05]

Still some good J availability to other Asian ports if you are flexible.
Some good award availability on QF ex SYD to CGK and MNL, some smatterings on MH ADL-KUL and a whole heap of availability on CI BNE-TPE.
Have flown with CI numerous times and I do rate them and from TPE there should be availability to other destinations. Might need to get a bit creative but for those with a stack of points there are still options

 

[Princess Fiona]

<MOD HAT>
Multiple threads with overlapping questions by the OP about QF Awards and ticketing have been merged into this thread.

Apologies in advance if some posts seem out of sync.
<MOD HAT>

 

[adenda]

I'm confused..why couldn't you reply in the thread you were already reading instead of making a new one?

Also, if you are making a new booking online, you shouldn't have to worry about non-ticketing. It's only when you call up to make changes or adding more flights to the PNR. Oh and also when there are schedule changes...

I didn't make a new thread - see post #48 above

 

[Bolt]

Have good travel insurance,

Travel insurance may or may not cover your circumstances. You need to read the insurance PDS (product disclosure statement) to see if events are covered by airline cancellation.

Having recently reviewed travel insurance missed connection policies, if they have that cover, they're not very good at all. Sure, get travel insurance, but read your PDS carefully. Often you have to have a minimum connection time of at least 6 hours, whereas a good safe international connection time is about 2 hours. In other words, don't rely in travel insurance, they will do their best to let you down if you need to claim.

 

[Ktan89]

I didn't make a new thread - see post #48 above

Sorry, i wasn't talking about you. It was the post you replied to..#41 - it was a new thread.
Your post was informative

 

[Stargazer]

Thank you Adenda for your detailed reply. Could I just ask some follow up questions.

Once the email is received from Qantas Customer Service with confirmation and e-ticket number is there any likelihood of arriving at the airport to find the booking has gone pear shaped and the seats are not available.

what is the best way of dealing with Qantas ticketing if your itinerary includes sectors with non Qantas flights. I am concerned that delays could result in non Qantas flights being cancelled if tickets are not issued within the airlines booking requirements.

once the confirmation and e-ticket arrives are you than able to print off a boarding pass.

 

[adenda]

Once you've got your ticket - you've got your ticket. Your seat is more or less as secure as anyone else's on the flight. Seats would only be unavailable if Qantas (or other airline) has cancelled or altered your flight. Qantas should advise you of any of these changes and propose alternative options but this is where CheckMyTrip can be useful - I've had experiences where I was notified by CheckMyTrip of changes well before Qantas did. Even so I've learned to log in and view my booking periodically in case something has changed without warning.

There is always the possibility you can be bumped off a flight due to overbooking/aircraft change but that's a risk of flying with any airline. You would usually be compensated if this happened.

Apart from calling them, other possible contact options for dealing with Qantas are social media (Twitter, Facebook) although response times on those channels can be very long.

Boarding pass can only be printed after online check-in which opens 24 hours before the flight.

 

[adenda]

Having recently reviewed travel insurance missed connection policies, if they have that cover, they're not very good at all. Sure, get travel insurance, but read your PDS carefully. Often you have to have a minimum connection time of at least 6 hours, whereas a good safe international connection time is about 2 hours. In other words, don't rely in travel insurance, they will do their best to let you down if you need to claim.

Did you identify any companies offering adequate cancellation cover?

 

[Bolt]

Did you identify any companies offering adequate cancellation cover?

I didn't examine them for cancellation cover, only missed connection cover.

 

[adenda]

I didn't examine them for cancellation cover, only missed connection cover.

Apologies - I meant missed connections cover

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Apologies - I meant missed connections cover

General ‘missed connections’ cover is only offered by a few companies, and can come with restrictions as pointed out above. For example you need to make sure you are scheduled to arrive at your connecting point no later than when checkin opens for your connecting flight… so that could be four or three hours prior.

Most companies will cover missed connections for ‘important events’, which are usually defined to mean things like ‘you are a keynote speaker at a conference that cannot proceed without you’.

I think insureandgo and world nomads were at least two companies offering general missed connection cover.

 

[John in Melbourne]

Next year, I'm flying Qantas J MEL - SYD - LHR and return, leaving Melbourne 15 July and leaving London 15 August.
My QFF anniversary date is the end of July. My question is: do I lose the status credits I get for the Melbourne to London flights when my anniversary date ticks over while I'm still in London?

 

[AIRwin]

Next year, I'm flying Qantas J MEL - SYD - LHR and return, leaving Melbourne 15 July and leaving London 15 August.
My QFF anniversary date is the end of July. My question is: do I lose the status credits I get for the Melbourne to London flights when my anniversary date ticks over while I'm still in London?

Yes, any status credits from flights up to 31 July will expire...

 

[John in Melbourne]

Thanks, but cough*!!! (throwing a virtual tantrum)
Sorry, forgot to include your answer, AIRwin.