So what is likely to happen if a sector gets cancelled on the day, or whilst I am already overseas having commenced the itinerary ? Will I have to call QF again to ask them to get a new seat released, or will the operating airline deal with it at the time ? I’m just nervous that a sector will get cancelled and they will say sorry we don’t have anymore J reward seats left to give you, here’s a refund of points (which won’t help in the slightest as I’ll still be without a flight booked)
Tbh this whole booking has been a bit of a stress test. As I booked the first leg originating in Hong Kong, all changes/re-ticketing has needed to be sent via Hong Kong which has caused a few issues. There has been at least 10 minor schedule changes across all the legs over the last 12 months, each time requiring me to call up and accept these, and ask for re-ticketing to be done (wouldn’t let me accept online I guess due to the Hong Kong issue). At least as WP I have been able to reach Hobart most times to assist, which has probably saved my sanity just an inch. Now I have the first cancelled leg, with the website again telling me I need to call to rectify (which I have done as per previous post).
There’s two sets of procedures in place.
On the day of travel, airline staff have virtually unlimited ability to reaccommodate you to get you to where you should be. Regardless of an award seat or paid fare, they can move you to another flight or even another airline. Airlines have agreements in place to handle this.
If the schedule change or cancellation occurs before the day of travel, what *should* happen is that the operating airline who cancels rebooks you onto another one of their services. They create a new booking within your existing reservation, and send an electronic message to Qantas to go ahead and ticket it.
Now it doesn’t always happen that the airline automatically rebooks you. In the cases where it doesn’t, you’d need to contact qantas and get them to chase it up. But as this will generally be a day or more before you’re due to fly, there should be time to get it fixed.
If something goes wrong, and if you end up flying at a different time or on another airline… once you arrive at your next stop, it’s wise to call qantas to confirm the rest of the ticket is still in tact and valid. Sometimes when you get out onto ant other flight the agents don’t necessarily have time to fix the rest of the ticket. They usually do, but sometimes it falls through the cracks.
You really have nothing to worry about. On the day of departure everything will get sorted. In 90% of cases if a cancellation happens before the day of travel the operating airline will look after you, and you just need to make sure qantas has accepted the new flights and tickets. If not, call qantas and get it sorted.
In any event the new seats and flights aren’t subject to award inventory. As long as there’s any seat on another flight in the same class, you get it.
The oneworld help desk can liaise with other airlines, but only within their remit.
