Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[DC3]

… Question: for a lot of the segments (multiple Finnair + one JAL) they said they weren't available as they were on "waitlist" despite them being searchable and bookable on the Qantas website.

Does this just mean I need a more experienced ticketing agent? Or is there some weird restriction where tickets are available for booking reward seats on the website but not as part of a OneWorld Award?

Incompetence/poor training. Or, perhaps phantom availability on the QF site.

No weird restrictions that I know about, other than perhaps some Call Centre staff making it up as they go, so as to get you off the phone.

 

[ozflier]

I don't know if this is related .

Incompetence/poor training. Or, perhaps phantom availability on the QF site.

No weird restrictions that I know about, other than perhaps some Call Centre staff making it up as they go, so as to get you off the phone.

I was doing award seat searches on the QFF site this am and came across more phantom availability than I have seen before today.
None were on Qantas flights but a lot on JAL and BA!

 

[vetrade]

AFAIK there is no such thing as a "waitlist" for award seats. I'd say the agent made that up.
Having said that, there are definitely restrictions on availability of award seats for people booking OWAs - award seats which are readily bookable for standard reward redemptions. This was discussed not long ago in this thread. The most obvious example is MEL - SYD or SYD - MEL J rewards. There are flights at 30 min intervals for most of the day on this route and (using Sept 22 as an example) there are both Y and J award seats on nearly every one of them, but if you call to book one as part of a OWA you will find the agent can only book seats on one or two flights around 8 - 8.30am if you are lucky. Agents have told me they have been explicity instructed not to book awards on other flights for OWA itineraries.

 

[Mr H]

The most obvious example is MEL - SYD or SYD - MEL J rewards. There are flights at 30 min intervals for most of the day on this route and (using Sept 22 as an example) there are both Y and J award seats on nearly every one of them, but if you call to book one as part of a OWA you will find the agent can only book seats on one or two flights around 8 - 8.30am if you are lucky. Agents have told me they have been explicity instructed not to book awards on other flights for OWA itineraries.

Thinking out loud - is that because this is the most likely route for regular people (as distinct from points addicts like us) to want to redeem and their whole points currency breaks down if regular people can't get seats on their preferred domestic routes?

 

[Guvner]

Theoretically you could try booking any available MEL-SYD online initially then call (!) and add the remaining OWA flights. Interested to see if the agent modified the first flight..

 

[ozflier]

Thinking out loud - is that because this is the most likely route for regular people (as distinct from points addicts like us) to want to redeem and their whole points currency breaks down if regular people can't get seats on their preferred domestic routes?

Is this an example of the QF version of "married segments" for which Cathay used to be famous for?

 

[Mr H]

Is this an example of the QF version of "married segments" for which Cathay used to be famous for?

I think married segments is about segments only being available as a pair and not singly - but maybe it works both ways.

 

[Doctore1003]

Hi all, if I have a QF economy flight within a OWA J award, can I request an upgrade on that specific flight via QFF?

 

[vetrade]

I think married segments is about segments only being available as a pair and not singly - but maybe it works both ways.

Married segmants definitely work both ways - they are merely a means of inventory control by airlines. Some flights you can only book if paired with another flight and some flights are not bookable if you do try to pair them with some other flight.

Post automatically merged: Mar 15, 2022

Hi all, if I have a QF economy flight within a OWA J award, can I request an upgrade on that specific flight via QFF?

Yes, but only if there are J award seats available

 

[vetrade]

Is this an example of the QF version of "married segments" for which Cathay used to be famous for?

Only peripherally. Yes, it is a form of inventory control but it's not an example of specifically linking, or separating, specific pairs of flights

Post automatically merged: Mar 15, 2022

Theoretically you could try booking any available MEL-SYD online initially then call (!) and add the remaining OWA flights. Interested to see if the agent modified the first flight..

Pretty sure this would work ok, but not many ppl start off a OWA with only one dom flight

 

[vetrade]

Thinking out loud - is that because this is the most likely route for regular people (as distinct from points addicts like us) to want to redeem and their whole points currency breaks down if regular people can't get seats on their preferred domestic routes?

I think it's more to do with preserving the J awards for their P1 & WP business customers on their regular interstate trips

 

[Guvner]

Pretty sure this would work ok, but not many ppl start off a OWA with only one dom flight

Hence the theoretical. In practice it would be nigh impossible.

 

[Oubline]

Hi all, if I have a QF economy flight within a OWA J award, can I request an upgrade on that specific flight via QFF?

I’d be worried about this needing to be reticketed and then opening up the issues of flights potentially dropping off from partner airlines in the meantime. At least that’s what has held me off pressing that ‘Request Upgrade’ button on my own OWA.

 

[stirlo]

as part of a OWA you will find the agent can only book seats on one or two flights around 8 - 8.30am if you are lucky. Agents have told me they have been explicity instructed not to book awards on other flights for OWA itineraries.

Interesting and disappointing.

It would seem weird if this is a Qantas rule when the main flights I noticed impacted were short inter-European ones like HEL-ZRH or HEL-CPH. It seems weird that Qantas would care about how award seats were used on FinAir flights…

 

[DC3]

… It seems weird that Qantas would care about how award seats were used on FinAir flights…

But they don’t. However, QF can only offer awards that partner airlines make available.

The real issue is that you are probably being fed porky pies by Call Centre staff.

 

[vetrade]

Interesting and disappointing.

It would seem weird if this is a Qantas rule when the main flights I noticed impacted were short inter-European ones like HEL-ZRH or HEL-CPH. It seems weird that Qantas would care about how award seats were used on FinAir flights…

Perhaps my post was ambiguous. I wrote "Agents have told me they have been explicity instructed not to book awards on other flights for OWA itineraries", in the context of QF domestic flights, specifically on the MEL - SYD route. I certainly didn't want to give the impression that QF was blocking access to awards on any other airline's flights. I was making a direct comparison of people being able to log into the QF website and booking J awards on multiple flights daily flying MEL - SYD or SYD - MEL but anyone calling QF to add those MEL - SYD J award seats to their OWA itinerary were blocked from doing so.
My comments had absolutely nothing to do with flights of other airlines, outside of Aus.

 

[jkcfc]

Hi all, I'm a bit stressed after reading the last 10 or so pages of this thread.

I have a similar situation to many with the horrific number of calls to Qantas to get flights sorted for our honeymoon in May.

On one booking I have the text based Qantas E-Ticket Itinerary and Receipt which has our 081- e-ticket numbers but the confirmation email and pdf doesn't have our QFF number, e-ticket number or total taxes.

I've put it in CMT and it doesn't say the e-ticket number but it does on the RJ, Malaysian sites when I selected seats.

Should I be calling again to get the PDF updated or is the text based email with ticket numbers etc sufficient?

(Original booking was changed and taxes recalculated and I was on the phone with the agent until card was charged and eticket receipts issued with 081-numbers).

Thanks,
JK

 

[vetrade]

Hi all, I'm a bit stressed after reading the last 10 or so pages of this thread.

I have a similar situation to many with the horrific number of calls to Qantas to get flights sorted for our honeymoon in May.

On one booking I have the text based Qantas E-Ticket Itinerary and Receipt which has our 081- e-ticket numbers but the confirmation email and pdf doesn't have our QFF number, e-ticket number or total taxes.

I've put it in CMT and it doesn't say the e-ticket number but it does on the RJ, Malaysian sites when I selected seats.

Should I be calling again to get the PDF updated or is the text based email with ticket numbers etc sufficient?

(Original booking was changed and taxes recalculated and I was on the phone with the agent until card was charged and eticket receipts issued with 081-numbers).

Thanks,
JK

The only document that matters is the "E-Ticket Itinerary & Receipt" with the QF logo in the top left corner and your booking reference on the right top corner. If you haven't received an updated one of those since you last made changes to your itinerary, then you are not properly ticketed yet. If you added or changed international flights then you should have been given new E-Ticket numbers too.

What the RJ & MH sites (and others like QR and AY) show is no indication that your changes have been locked in. I have often seen my changed flights displayed on those sites and been able to select seats before QF has properly issed a new E-Ticket. The give-away is that the E-Ticket number shown at RJ etc will be the old one. The last few digits of the E-Ticket number will change when the ticketing is correctly finalised so if that hasn't happened you will need to call QF back and say you would like the ticketing process to be finalised.

N.B. You are not alone with this dilemma. Every time I have added flights / changed our OWA itinerary, I have been told it will be ticketed in 24-48hrs but every time I have found myself calling back after a few days because it just hasn't been done. It recently took me 3 calls to QF over 8-9 days to finally get my recent OWA changes to be ticketed properly. Eventually you will get a CSA who will look back through the history of your booking, see it has been stuck in "the queue" for ages and take upon themselves to refer it to a supervisor to be fixed.

Edit: I always call first thing in the morning when the phone menu gives you the option of a call back. If you call in the afternoon you will just be placed on hold and have to listen to their on-hold music and announcements.

 

[bnr032]

So after another 2 hours today, i was told again they cannot see the available business seat for my flight (even though i can on qantas booking site).
She suggested i 'manage my booking' and add it,
However i cannot do this, even when i can click 'change' it is treating the BNE-HND-LAX as one trip, So i have to look at flights from brisbane, which means i would loose my BNE-HND business ticket (no more availability).
The Service agent was adamant i can just add the flight online to original booking. But now when i click change - it just refreshes that page to my 'manage booking' not the actual edit booking screen.
Any Suggestions?

Is there a way if i book the flight seperately online i can merge the bookings?

 

[vetrade]

So after another 2 hours today, i was told again they cannot see the available business seat for my flight (even though i can on qantas booking site).
She suggested i 'manage my booking' and add it,
However i cannot do this, even when i can click 'change' it is treating the BNE-HND-LAX as one trip, So i have to look at flights from brisbane, which means i would loose my BNE-HND business ticket (no more availability).
The Service agent was adamant i can just add the flight online to original booking. But now when i click change - it just refreshes that page to my 'manage booking' not the actual edit booking screen.
Any Suggestions?

Is there a way if i book the flight seperately online i can merge the bookings?

The agent is 100% wrong and just shows they don't even understand the basic rules. You cannot add flights via online MMB to an existing OWA booking. You can only do that via the call centre. You also cannot merge bookings under any circumstances and if you make another booking and cancel it, you may well find your points taking a while to be credited back to you.

Your only option is to keep calling back until you get someone knowledgeable but I suspect the real explanation to your problem is inventory control i.e., the dreaded married segments issue