Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[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.

 

[Captain Halliday]

@Familyman1 It’s unclear from your post if you don’t understand the explanation provided by @madrooster or if you just don’t agree with the response.

If it’s the former, perhaps this explanation of Married Segment Control that I provided to another AFFer some months back may assist your understanding.

Wiki - "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

 

[Familyman1]

@Familyman1 It’s unclear from your post if you don’t understand the explanation provided by @madrooster or if you just don’t agree with the response.

If it’s the former, perhaps this explanation of Married Segment Control that I provided to another AFFer some months back may assist your understanding.

Wiki - "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

I understand what married segments are. I guess the take home message here is that we should not assume that the people at the Qantas Premium Call Centre understand what they are. I guess we should assume there is incompetence in every call centre.

 

[jetpack]

I wish I could still put the Qantas call centre in as high regard as you do. Sadly I see it only as a call centre that thinks its ok to have normal wait times of one hour or more and a culture that encourages hanging up on customers. I've spoken to a few premium call centre agents thinking that they sounded knowledgeable and helpful only to be disappointed because nothing ends up getting done and I have to call back again anyway to try and get the same issue resolved.

 

[melbkate]

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.

No worries (btw Vladi was the finnair person on messenger) If the segments I have which is AY HEL-NRT then QF NRT-MEL are married I believe the Qantas booking system married them when I booked as it also has 'transfer time' on the booking ref.

I researched every segment individually on BA and Qantas. And added them 1 by 1 when I booked the flights with a rep. I didn't book the NCE-HEL at that time as I was hoping for a better flight from Bordeaux which is a new route for Finnair. I believe I would have been able to start from NCE and get same flights though as I also did a multi-booking test. I don't know much but I wish they could divorce those flights, there has to be a way!

 

[Familyman1]

No worries (btw Vladi was the finnair person on messenger) If the segments I have which is AY HEL-NRT then QF NRT-MEL are married I believe the Qantas booking system married them when I booked as it also has 'transfer time' on the booking ref.

I researched every segment individually on BA and Qantas. And added them 1 by 1 when I booked the flights with a rep. I didn't book the NCE-HEL at that time as I was hoping for a better flight from Bordeaux which is a new route for Finnair. I believe I would have been able to start from NCE and get same flights though as I also did a multi-booking test. I don't know much but I wish they could divorce those flights, there has to be a way!

Sorry about the mix up with your name. I am not an expert on married segments but I believe they are only between flights from the same airline. So AY HEL-NRT then QF NRT-MEL would not be married. It would be NCE-HEL and HEL-NRT that are married.

 

[melbkate]

Sorry about the mix up with your name. I am not an expert on married segments but I believe they are only between flights from the same airline. So AY HEL-NRT then QF NRT-MEL would not be married. It would be NCE-HEL and HEL-NRT that are married.

oh okay. well if you get any joy, do let us know. I also have another separate issue with an Iberia connection that changed so can't make 2nd flight in time, but qantas can't cancel 1 leg without canceling the other which I don't want to do. So now in my booking I have 2 IB flights MAD-EAS one at 1pm (linked to FC)-MAD) the other at around 6pm. . hmmm. And I got charged 5,000 points for the pleasure.