Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[madrooster]

Thanks for that - it's funny as I did a new dummy booking with points on Qantas and I could do NCE-HEL-NRT-MEL

If you can do that then they can just scrap HEL-NRT-MEL, save the booking and then put in NCE-HEL-NRT-MEL.

 

[melbkate]

If you can do that then they can just scrap HEL-NRT-MEL, save the booking and then put in NCE-HEL-NRT-MEL.

Except can only get Premium Econ on HEL-SIN and Econ on NRT-SYD

 

[Aus ATC]

I have noticed on our e-ticket details (well my wife's actually), that despite putting in the correct QFF number, my number has been recorded for my wife in both the Iberia and Qatar sectors. As a result, I was not able to select seats for the Qatar legs (CDG-DOH-SIN), as the system would not let me proceed with the same QFF number for both pax - nor could I change it on line. A call to Qatar (and 35 minutes holding) has fixed it and we now have a "couples seat' on our Qsuites equipped sector. I don't think I'll bother with Iberia as seat selection seems challenging on their website anyway.

It seems that for some carriers in a OWA booking, the "lead passenger" FF number is applied to all passengers. Any explanation from the "brains trust" (aside from incompetence on the part of the booking system software kids)?

 

[madrooster]

Except can only get Premium Econ on HEL-SIN and Econ on NRT-SYD

That does not count then. I thought you meant you could get J the entire way.

 

[Familyman1]

AY sells their segments based on origin destination including for awards. The availability for NCE-SIN is not the same as HEL-SIN. AY may be willing to give an award seat for HEL-SIN but not NCE-HEL-SIN. This is the issue you have - they won't give you NCE-HEL-SIN which is why you can't add NCE-HEL.

Whilst there's many QF premium reps that are great, and may spend hours working on a problem, the fact they spent hours on the problem says a lot about whether they really know their stuff. To any seasoned rep, they would've been able to tell you why it wasn't working in 30 seconds.

Your kids are in Y, Y and J are not the same cabin. AY may have been quite happy to give you X class availability for NCE-HEL-SIN but not U class availability.



See my above explanation - it applies to your situation as well.

No. The Qantas Premium Call Center person said he tried cancelling our SIN-HEL flight and booking the SIN-HEL-DUS together but still no luck. So it's not a "married segment" issue. So I don't know what is going on. Hopefully Finnair can sort out the glitch.

 

[ellen10]

I have noticed on our e-ticket details (well my wife's actually), that despite putting in the correct QFF number, my number has been recorded for my wife in both the Iberia and Qatar sectors. As a result, I was not able to select seats for the Qatar legs (CDG-DOH-SIN), as the system would not let me proceed with the same QFF number for both pax - nor could I change it on line. A call to Qatar (and 35 minutes holding) has fixed it and we now have a "couples seat' on our Qsuites equipped sector. I don't think I'll bother with Iberia as seat selection seems challenging on their website anyway.

It seems that for some carriers in a OWA booking, the "lead passenger" FF number is applied to all passengers. Any explanation from the "brains trust" (aside from incompetence on the part of the booking system software kids)?

I cannot even select any seats on my Qatar legs.

 

[jeza]

I cannot even select any seats on my Qatar legs.

I was able to initially select Qatar seats via the Manage Booking on the Cathay Pacific website but am unable to edit them now.

 

[cjd600]

I've always been able to select QR seats on the QR website

 

[madrooster]

No. The Qantas Premium Call Center person said he tried cancelling our SIN-HEL flight and booking the SIN-HEL-DUS together but still no luck. So it's not a "married segment" issue. So I don't know what is going on. Hopefully Finnair can sort out the glitch.

I don't know why you refuse to believe me when I say it's definitely a married segment issue. There are many long time members here who will vouch for the fact that I am generally accurate when it comes to issues to do with reservations and ticketing.

Cancelling the SIN-HEL segment and then immediately trying to sell SIN-HEL-DUS does NOT do anything useful as it does not release that SIN-HEL back to inventory which is what must occur before AY's inventory system recognises that they've gotten those seats back. The PNR must be saved for the release of seats to occur. The risk there is you lose the SIN-HEL seats entirely as AY's system may decide to not return them to award inventory...

 

[ellen10]

I was able to initially select Qatar seats via the Manage Booking on the Cathay Pacific website but am unable to edit them now.

Initially I could select my Cathay seats but when I tried to edit them no luck. And I have tried on the Cathay site no luck either.

I've always been able to select QR seats on the QR website

I have tried a dozen times and it just does not work. The wheels spin for about 10mins and then it is all greyed out.

 

[Familyman1]

I don't know why you refuse to believe me when I say it's definitely a married segment issue. There are many long time members here who will vouch for the fact that I am generally accurate when it comes to issues to do with reservations and ticketing.

Cancelling the SIN-HEL segment and then immediately trying to sell SIN-HEL-DUS does NOT do anything useful as it does not release that SIN-HEL back to inventory which is what must occur before AY's inventory system recognises that they've gotten those seats back. The PNR must be saved for the release of seats to occur. The risk there is you lose the SIN-HEL seats entirely as AY's system may decide to not return them to award inventory...

It's not that I am refusing to believe you. I am just trying to make a decision between whose opinion is likely to be more accurate. The Qantas Premium Call Center person and his supervisor who worked on this problem for over an hour, with my specific booking details and with access to the booking systems of all the Oneworld airlines in front of them (and who concluded there is a glitch in the system), versus your opinion which is based on years of experience and I'm sure is also very reliable. I guess I will find out what the story is eventually. Thanks for your help.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

It's not that I am refusing to believe you. I am just trying to make a decision between whose opinion is likely to be more accurate. The Qantas Premium Call Center person and his supervisor who worked on this problem for over an hour, with my specific booking details and with access to the booking systems of all the Oneworld airlines in front of them (and who concluded there is a glitch in the system), versus your opinion which is based on years of experience and I'm sure is also very reliable. I guess I will find out what the story is eventually. Thanks for your help.

I'm backing Madrooster!!!

 

[Familyman1]

I'm backing Madrooster!!!

I'll let you know the outcome. If Madrooster is correct and the Qantas Premium Call Center person and his supervisor have never heard of married segments, everyone needs to know just how bad things have got at qantas.

 

[cjd600]

Will be stunned if Madrooster does not prevail in this chook fight.
A long standing respected champion

 

[rock86]

Will be stunned if Madrooster does not prevail in this chook fight.
A long standing respected champion

Agreed.

 

[wingtip626]

Last night I called up to add more flights to my award booking. I spoke to a helpful agent in Hobart who put in a request for seats on a Qantas service along with adding some additional oneworld segments. Early this morning the QF request came back successful so I called up to price and ticket the booking. Over two calls and almost 1.25 hours on the phone, the agents tried to argue that I had too many stopovers as the surface segments counted as additional stops.

I asked them to provide details of where in the terms and conditions it states that a surface segment counts as a stopover. They directed me to the following page, Round the World with oneworld | Qantas and specifically this paragraph:


Oh dear, game on! I reminded them that no where in the terms and conditions that are publicly available on the Qantas website is any mention of surface segments counting towards the five stopovers. Drawing attention specifically to clauses 13.2.4, 14.5.4 and 14.5.5. Eventually they agreed to price and ticket the booking. Strangely, the taxes couldn't be calculated automatically and had to be done manually. Total taxes are now ~$1500.

It seems this "unwritten regulation" is becoming more commonplace, which is certainly evident in this thread over recent months. My advice is politely ask for evidence and then draw attention to the fact this "regulation" is not in the terms and conditions.
It simply shouldn't be this hard.

 

[melbkate]

It's not that I am refusing to believe you. I am just trying to make a decision between whose opinion is likely to be more accurate. The Qantas Premium Call Center person and his supervisor who worked on this problem for over an hour, with my specific booking details and with access to the booking systems of all the Oneworld airlines in front of them (and who concluded there is a glitch in the system), versus your opinion which is based on years of experience and I'm sure is also very reliable. I guess I will find out what the story is eventually. Thanks for your help.

This what finnair said to me with very similar issue:

In order to add an extra flight leg to an already issued ticket, your tickets should be re-issued and rerouting allowed. Please contact the ticket issuer - Qantas Airways - to check if that is possible. Otherwise you would need to book that flight on a separate new booking. Regards, Vladi

and then this:

We have availability for that flight so far, so if Qantas cannot book it for some reason, you would need to book it separately with us as a new booking. Regards, Vladi

I believe I would have been able to book it at the start when I booked the other legs. So annoying.

 

[cjd600]

This what finnair said to me with very similar issue:

In order to add an extra flight leg to an already issued ticket, your tickets should be re-issued and rerouting allowed. Please contact the ticket issuer - Qantas Airways - to check if that is possible. Otherwise you would need to book that flight on a separate new booking. Regards, Vladi

and then this:

We have availability for that flight so far, so if Qantas cannot book it for some reason, you would need to book it separately with us as a new booking. Regards, Vladi

I believe I would have been able to book it at the start when I booked the other legs. So annoying.

Yep, the “new booking only thing”.
Caused me grief on AY and IB

 

[JohnM]

Last night I called up to add more flights to my award booking. I spoke to a helpful agent in Hobart who put in a request for seats on a Qantas service along with adding some additional oneworld segments. Early this morning the QF request came back successful so I called up to price and ticket the booking. Over two calls and almost 1.25 hours on the phone, the agents tried to argue that I had too many stopovers as the surface segments counted as additional stops.

I asked them to provide details of where in the terms and conditions it states that a surface segment counts as a stopover. They directed me to the following page, Round the World with oneworld | Qantas and specifically this paragraph:

View attachment 147873
Oh dear, game on! I reminded them that no where in the terms and conditions that are publicly available on the Qantas website is any mention of surface segments counting towards the five stopovers. Drawing attention specifically to clauses 13.2.4, 14.5.4 and 14.5.5. Eventually they agreed to price and ticket the booking. Strangely, the taxes couldn't be calculated automatically and had to be done manually. Total taxes are now ~$1500.

It seems this "unwritten regulation" is becoming more commonplace, which is certainly evident in this thread over recent months. My advice is politely ask for evidence and then draw attention to the fact this "regulation" is not in the terms and conditions.
It simply shouldn't be this hard.

Hmmm - QF is potentially mightily confusing a OneWorld Explorer and a 140/280K OneWorld points award by sticking two entirely different things on the same webpage.

 

[Familyman1]

This what finnair said to me with very similar issue:

In order to add an extra flight leg to an already issued ticket, your tickets should be re-issued and rerouting allowed. Please contact the ticket issuer - Qantas Airways - to check if that is possible. Otherwise you would need to book that flight on a separate new booking. Regards, Vladi

and then this:

We have availability for that flight so far, so if Qantas cannot book it for some reason, you would need to book it separately with us as a new booking. Regards, Vladi

I believe I would have been able to book it at the start when I booked the other legs. So annoying.

Thanks for the update on your Finnair problem Vladi. You haven't really been given a proper explanation for the problem. But it will help me decide what I should do. Based on your experience, Madrooster's advise (and the support from his fan club), it will probably be safest for me and my wife to give up on Finnair and fly from Singapore to Germany with Qatar. I can see business class availability and I think the flights will include QSuites. As mentioned earlier, I had no problem booking SIN-HEL-DUS for my sons and daughter in economy with Finnair but Qantas's computers were not allowing these connections in business. Our family can reunite in Germany for Christmas in winter 2019.