Pain in the you-now-what

[Johnc]

Tyring to book an international flight for the first time.....
Wow...what a pain.

Seems the momment you have 2 legs to a flight, Q automatically puts in a 1.5 leg to some obscure place that doubles your flight time.

In one option, I can get there, but can't get back for 3 months.
In another option, Sydney to LA, via HK.

I guess this is the normal screw around from Q?

Very frustrating.

Are here any tips or easier ways?

 

[Dave Noble]

Umm.. Try a different site to make the booking or phone an airline/travel agent

Dave

 

[straitman]

John,

Welcome to the forum.

Which booking engine did you try to book through :?:

 

[one9]

i am presuming that you are booking an award flight for the first time, and have neglected to mention this.

it seems there are a lot of cathay pacific flights available if you transit through hong kong.

I often find booking at the last minute will have flights available. Of course the risk of this is that you will not get the flight.

But if you don't believe me, try searching for flights for next week.

But it also depends on availability and demand as well.

If you have points both with Frequent Flyer and with a credit card flight scheme (eg Citibank take flight or NAB Harvery World Travel), then you can try to book at the last minute using Frequent flyer points, and if you are unlucky and there are no flights then you can use your credit card points through the credit card flights program to book flights this way. (of course you need to have plenty of spare points - both in frequent flyer and in your credit card scheme).

If you are just talking about booking a paid flight, and I have assumed wrong, then my apologies for the above.

 

[moa999]

Award redemptions to LAX and LHR (LA and London) are probably the most popular and fill up quickly.

Try and book 12 months in advance and you get more availability.

Also before the 25 May changes a lot of people went on point spending sprees to lock in flights at the old levels, would expect availability to open up after June.

 

[freaky]

Hard to say if it's the normal screw around or just a special screw around in your case.

Points flights are tough. I helped a friend with 2 U class oneworld bookings to LON and DUB in December. Tough going and took 45 minutes with QF on the phone, but got it done (via NRT on the way there, PVG the way back)

Be patient, be positive, be flexible! My friends didn't plan on Tokyo or Shanghai but are now thrilled with those stops. Make the most of it!

 

[Johnc]

The real frustration - perhaps being new to this, but I have had a gut full.

I have heard all about the Qantas arrogance, complications and headaches about booking flights using frequent flyer points – and always took this with a pinch of salt.

Now that I have tries to book 2 flights, I fully understand these sentiments. I now feel frustrated, angry and cheated by Qantas.

Point 1
Online booking
A I went to points calculator and saw the points between destinations.
B I went to booking as saw flight availabilities. Looks good – lots of flights. Lots as in 4-5 on 2-3 days in tghe week.

All great – so I transfer more points to QFF to cover my anticipated flights.

Come the next morning.
Check my transferred points have been credited to my QFF acct. Yes.
Go to book flights – All flights have gone.

So, somehow in the hours between 10pm and 9am all have disappeared!


Point 2
When I try for a different destination, I completed the on-line screens for 2 return seats. I go through the whole booking issue…some 30 mins later a screen pops us for me to confirm ONE seat? What happen to the second seat?

Why don’t they inform you up front, there is NO availability for 2 seats – make it crystal clear - rather than go through the whole tedious booking procedure and try to sneak in a 1 seat booking? Rather devious I’d say.

Point 3
Points calculator shows x points for a destination.
Yet, when one tries to do a booking, the points are some 40-50% more!

I phoned the booking line and it was explained to me that when another carrier is used, they also charge their points.
Why don’t they make this clear?

No doubt all these points, and more, will be covered somewhere in their ‘small print’, but they certainly don’t make it at all easy for customers.

Point 4
Now I have 200,000+ points sitting in my QFF acct that I now cannot use for what I intended them for, I am stuck and unhappy. They are smiling all the way to the bank.
I know I can uses them at a future date (after this experience, I even wonder at that?) but that is not the point. Their unclear methods are deceptive and unfairly disadvantage customers.

Just a very disappointing and grossly negative experience!

 

[serfty]

... Now I have 200,000+ points sitting in my QFF acct that I now cannot use for what I intended them for, I am stuck and unhappy. They are smiling all the way to the bank.
I know I can uses them at a future date (after this experience, I even wonder at that?) but that is not the point. Their unclear methods are deceptive and unfairly disadvantage customers.

Just a very disappointing and grossly negative experience!

Johnc,

Where exaclty are you trying to get from and to? What class? And how soon are you trying get there?

Answers to these questions can have a direct bearing on any advice you may get. Some destinations/classes require booking nearly 12 months ahead & in some cases can't bee booked during certain periods.

 

[Maca44]

With only 200K+ points it would appear you are trying to book 2 X Y class award seats from Sydney to Los Angeles. I just wonder if you have considered flying to San Francisco as when I do searches for award seats on that leg in August/September 2006 there seems to be plenty of availabilty. However, you have not provided the date of your proposed trip.

 

[Johnc]

I was first looking for Brisbane to LA as well as Brisbane to Johannesburg.
I do realize the earlier you book, the better.

However, what got me, was that last night there were multiple seats to LA in the first week of April. By multiple, I mean there were 4-5 every day for the first week of April, and as many coming back late April. I felt comfortable to transfer points to cover this. This morning all the seats to LA have all vanished. I have been monitoring this for the past month, and just waiting for dates I can be away from the office.

The BNE to JHB has to be via HK, and on return via HK & Singapore, and for that little number, the points go up by 40% - to nearly 160,000 per person. The flight calculater states 96,000 per person. Quite a difference!. I have looked up the 247 Q&A points Qantas has on their site, and I cannot find any reference to this.

What really irks me is now I have these points that I am forced to use with Q, and I firmly believe they were very deceptive in the way the con the public.

The quicker Singapore, Virgin et al get up and going here – and give Q a BIG Wake-UP Call - the better.

IMHO, it adds credence to the oxymoron –“Qantas…spirit of Australia”


Thanks
John

 

[JohnK]

The BNE to JHB has to be via HK, and on return via HK & Singapore, and for that little number, the points go up by 40% - to nearly 160,000 per person. The flight calculater states 96,000 per person. Quite a difference!. I have looked up the 247 Q&A points Qantas has on their site, and I cannot find any reference to this.

Please note Johannesburg is JNB not JHB Johar Bahru.

If you were going BNE-JNB return on a direct route then the points cost would be 96,000 each.

I am assuming that by going via HKG outbound and HKG & SIN inbound that you will be stopping over. Because of the QFF changes post may 25, 2005 this then becomes a series of one-way flights (5 segments total 22971 miles) BNE-HKG-JNB-HKG-SIN-BNE and ~160,000 would sound just about right. You can get a zone10 one world award for 142,500 points as long as you fly QF and 2 other 1world carriers. Should not be hard with your itninerary to fly QF, CX and BA.

For more info the link is here.

 

[Johnc]

Thanks John

Lots to learn.

 

[JohnK]

No problem.

Patience is required when dealing with award flight redemptions.

What I went through to find a suitable SYD-BKK-SYD award flight. No way unless had to spend over 3 months in BKK.

By being patient and creative I managed to get there using SYD-BNE-SIN-BNE-SYD and paying a little extra out of pocket to get SIN-BKK-SIN.

 

[Johnc]

I have come to the conclusion it is all a farce, a rip and big deviousness from Qantas.
They do not publish ALL the rules they play with.
Its like playing chess, and they have a counter to every move you make.
If there was a way to remove or reverse my points and close my QFF acct, I would not hesitate to do so.
Cannot wait for other airlines to get proper rights here.
Realise I will get flamed, but that is how I feel.

 

[markis10]

Sometimes you might need to think outside the square when booking flights, for instance have a look at perth-joberg and then a seperate trip to perth from Bris. Often the computer has limited connecting flights to intl legs and this restricts award availability if there are no seat on the connectors yet the actual intl leg may have a lot.

 

[straitman]

I have come to the conclusion it is all a farce, a rip and big deviousness from Qantas.
They do not publish ALL the rules they play with.
Its like playing chess, and they have a counter to every move you make.
If there was a way to remove or reverse my points and close my QFF acct, I would not hesitate to do so.
Cannot wait for other airlines to get proper rights here.
Realise I will get flamed, but that is how I feel.

Johnc,
No flaming however I think (as you mentioned earlier) you have a lot to learn about how it all works. QF can be a huge pain to deal with however they are there to deal with, unlike Ansett and (potentially) numerous US based carriers who have a variety of different issues. These vary from poor yield management to plane old poor management. Play the game, be polite and you will mostly do pretty well out of the system.

Good luck and as someone mentioned try looking and thinking outside the square. :idea:

8)