Qantas award booking on UL and fees

[sergej77]

Good evening everyone, im asking for the advice.

I have booked UL flight SYD-CMB with 37400 + 220$. I have realised that want to continue my journey further to BLR a week later. I wanted to make another Award booking.Probably another separate ticket and reservation is required.
Of cource Qanats site does not alow me doing that.
But on multi-leg option I can see that CMB-BLR leg is available with 10 000points and 90$.

However when i called qantas award booking, very rude women wanted to charge me 220$ plus points. When i started to ask question and refer to the website costs she just hanged up on me

What should i do? Ring again, hoping for a better operator?
Can i cancell my leg? And rebook the same leg (SYD-CMB) + CMB-BLR on the same ticket?

Waiting for your advices

 

[encryptededdy]

Can i cancell my leg? And rebook the same leg (SYD-CMB) + CMB-BLR on the same ticket?

Assuming the award space is available, yes. I wouldn't bank on cancelling SYD-CMB to automatically return the seat to inventory, so only do it if you can book the new ticket before cancelling the old one.

Also you may or may not have to pay a 6000 points cancellation fee depending on when your SYD-CMB flight was booked (and whether it falls under the Fly Flexible Classic Rewards scheme)

wanted to charge me 220$ plus points

I wonder if they couldn't work out the currency conversion. AU$90 is approx. 22000 LKR, and the currency for a ticket originating CMB would be LKR.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Good evening everyone, im asking for the advice.

I have booked UL flight SYD-CMB with 37400 + 220$. I have realised that want to continue my journey further to BLR a week later. I wanted to make another Award booking.Probably another separate ticket and reservation is required.
Of cource Qanats site does not alow me doing that.
But on multi-leg option I can see that CMB-BLR leg is available with 10 000points and 90$.

My understanding is Qantas' booking system can be quite buggy, particularly when booking as a multi-city. Have you tried simply booking CMB <> BLR as a separate return booking using the normal roundtrip award search procedure? As an alternative, you could also simply book the flight as a cash fare since flights to/from India are cheap from neighbouring Sri Lanka. This has a number of benefits over an award booking. First you will earn Qantas Points and status credits on revenue flights taken with Sri Lankan. Second you'll have better schedule flexibility since you can simply select whatever flight suits you best. Third you don't have to deal with the QFF team should this sector go sideways on you.

Alternatively, yes in theory you could make a change to the award to add in the BLR sector. It would cost you 20,000 points in Y (assuming this is a return journey) + the 5,000 point change fee + whatever taxes and fees there are. However, I'd argue you'd still be better off making the separate booking, just ensure you provide enough time to make the connection (I'd conservatively say 8 hours, but a day would be ideal) on both sides (i.e. CMB > BLR and BLR > CMB).

However when i called qantas award booking, very rude women wanted to charge me 220$ plus points. When i started to ask question and refer to the website costs she just hanged up on me

What should i do? Ring again, hoping for a better operator?

You can do that, although there's no guarantee that will work. At the same time, there have been reports of agents mucking up award bookings with members having to chase down executives at Qantas to get it sorted (sometimes at the 11th hour).

Can i cancell my leg? And rebook the same leg (SYD-CMB) + CMB-BLR on the same ticket?

A confirmed ticket is always more valuable than speculating about what kind of booking you could have had.

 

[encryptededdy]

Have you tried simply booking CMB <> BLR as a separate return booking using the normal roundtrip award search procedure?

I believe Qantas does not have a Sri Lankan point of sale and therefore you cannot book standalone tickets originating Sri Lanka online.

 

[sergej77]

Many thanks for your replies!

Update 1.
I ve called QF call centre again, and 1 nice oprator was able to make a booking over phe phone. She said that new reservation CMB-BLR would be 10 000 + 220$ (approx). But if we add ne leg to existing one, it really is 10 000 + 90$, and 6000 points for booking fee (which she can waive).
So we agreed on that! i was quite happy.
She promised me that booking will be updated and ticketed within next day

Update 2.
Two days after that ive discovered that my reservation (even the 1st leg SYD-CMB) is gone.
37800 points are refunded (1st leg SYD-CMB) and new 47 800 points are charged again (but not the money).
Complete disaster.

Ive called them staraight away, and another operator told me that: booking was updated, leg added, points charged. But because payment didnt go throught, they had to cancel it.
Evrything, even my 1st leg booked 2 months ago ))))

Of course they are very sorry, but my booking is gone, a she cannot do anything.
If booking is cancelled, i should get refund, some time withing 8 weeks

What a @#$%!

Post automatically merged: Dec 26, 2022

Assuming the award space is available, yes. I wouldn't bank on cancelling SYD-CMB to automatically return the seat to inventory, so only do it if you can book the new ticket before cancelling the old one.

Also you may or may not have to pay a 6000 points cancellation fee depending on when your SYD-CMB flight was booked (and whether it falls under the Fly Flexible Classic Rewards scheme)


I wonder if they couldn't work out the currency conversion. AU$90 is approx. 22000 LKR, and the currency for a ticket originating CMB would be LKR.

For some reason, new reservation is 10 000 + 200$ (something), but if added to the existing one it is 10 000 + 90$. Dont know why

 

[sergej77]

I believe Qantas does not have a Sri Lankan point of sale and therefore you cannot book standalone tickets originating Sri Lanka online.

Yeah, there are few countries where you can not get point tickets online
can be done via multi-leg option (but it is offten not useful)

 

[wandering_fred]

Intra Asian flights on UL are quite reasonable sources for QF SC if the bid for upgrade is successful.
Mostly my bids have been successful at a bit over the minimums with the original economy ticket booked in a mid level fare.
Much better use of points (positive rather than negative) when wandering
Fred