Qantas Bookings not Ticketing?

[Maki]

I have a raised a complaint with Qantas to give them the opportunity to respond before taking it further. I encourage everyone in the same position to do the same. This service (not) provided by Qantas is unacceptable.

 

[Mattg]

Don't tell me that!! Now I have zero confidence that my ticket is going to be issued at all. How do we move the needle on this one? What can I do that's going to benefit the broader group that are in the same boat? Raise a complaint? Kick Joyce's door down?

There are some tips in this thread:

Qantas ticketing delays - likely risk of losing booking.

There are a few posts regarding problems with QF not ticketing partner award bookings for a considerable time and as a consequence, reservations booked on-line are subsequently cancelled by the respective partner airlines. This is despite, in some instances, a Oneworld booking being made on the...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Bundy Bear]

This might be a different problem but still a delayed.
Booked flight on points around14 Feb for travel on 19 Feb, points deducted quickly but Qantas only charged the credit card on the 6 March, as when i saw the charged wondered what it was, seems strange to take so long.

 

[Maki]

There are some tips in this thread:

Qantas ticketing delays - likely risk of losing booking.

There are a few posts regarding problems with QF not ticketing partner award bookings for a considerable time and as a consequence, reservations booked on-line are subsequently cancelled by the respective partner airlines. This is despite, in some instances, a Oneworld booking being made on the...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Thanks Mat! I've tried calling a couple of priority numbers inclusive of the ones in that thread with no success. Alot of numbers were "not attended".
I kept calling Qantas from the early morning today, juggling multiple phones, I've managed to get a callback option as well but wasn't sure if it's going to work as many peers reported it to malfunction.
I eventually got a call back around 9am, explained my frustration, I could not hear half the things the lady said as the line was so bad and breaking up. When she finally understood what I want and before she put me on hold,she started reading her notes out loud and figuring out what she needs to do. I had to interrupt her that I am still listening. At that stage I lost hopes for a positive outcome. She kept putting me on hold another 2-3 times to sort out the bad connection, I could not hear her at all. Finally, when she got through,she said that her systems are playing up and can't issue the ticket right now but she will fix that for me and call me. A familiar story. I've reiterated that I keep hearing the same story again and that I want her to issue the tickets while I'm waiting or to give me someone who knows how to issue a ticket. Eventually, I let her go hoping that my other callback would come through soon. An hour later I received a ticket in the inbox!! I couldn't believe it! But I got excited too early, the pdf was standard PDF that you receive from Qantas with booking details, ticket number and all the passenger info. But the field with the ticket number was missing!!! How could that happen? Eventually, after another approx 20 mins, I received another email with that had the same pdf with the ticket info!!I'll add the original ticket to my qantas memorabilia collection.I never got the follow up call from the rep to express my gratitude.
Checkmytrip has my ticket info now so looks like it's all legit. I went to select all my seats, btw flights are a combo of QF,BA,AY and JAL. All but JAL I was able to select seats, JAL gives me an error message that can't book seats as it appears I have another booking, to cancel before selecting seats. Hm, why would that be?
On the complaints side of things,not sure how soon these are responded to, given it's on Qantas time I might be waiting 3 months. I selected that I would like to be contacted. I'm also keen to share my experience with industry bodies as an FYI. Thoughts?

 

[Maki]

Upon checking my credit card transactions, the pending transaction from QF for the taxes for the booking now dropped off! Seriously! I even checked with the bank, it definitely dropped off.Do I now need to call Alan again and beg him to take my money? I hope that their finance dept going to pick that up when reconciling their $$$. In all seriousness, I don't want to be on on hold for another couple of hrs to now try to explain to them the $$ issue. If there's any risk of my ticket being canceled for this reason then I will pick up the phone. Anyone with similar experiences ?

 

[Maki]

Upon checking my credit card transactions, the pending transaction from QF for the taxes for the booking now dropped off! Seriously! I even checked with the bank, it definitely dropped off.Do I now need to call Alan again and beg him to take my money? I hope that their finance dept going to pick that up when reconciling their $$$. In all seriousness, I don't want to be on on hold for another couple of hrs to now try to explain to them the $$ issue. If there's any risk of my ticket being canceled for this reason then I will pick up the phone. Anyone with similar experiences ?

One final update on this one. Qantas ended up charging my cc and all good. But the my itinerary was short lived, AY changed their summer schedule due to Ukraine unrest and now only flies to NRT, which didn't work for our connecting flight out of HND. I've ended up finding an alternative on QF2 which was a surprise given the trip is in August. I had another option with QR HEL-DOH-SIN, the onward flight to SYD was in Y. Interesting, all the agents that I spoke to, couldn't see any J availability on QR, not sure why the discrepancy. Anyway, now flying out of LHR, due to involuntary change I didn't have to pay any difference in taxes which add up out of LHR. I had to call a couple of times to get the ticket finally issued, good thing about it was that with these changes you get a direct number and it's picked up within 2 mins.

 

[MJHoops]

Is anyone with some insider knowledge or better understanding of the ticketing system able to explain why there is a need for a manual ticketing queue at all?

I called and booked new flights using a flight credit more than 48 hours ago. I had to add one seat as my infant is now a child. No eticket. Agent fobbed me off with a “travel document” sent via Amadeus

 

[dylarr]

Is anyone with some insider knowledge or better understanding of the ticketing system able to explain why there is a need for a manual ticketing queue at all?

I called and booked new flights using a flight credit more than 48 hours ago. I had to add one seat as my infant is now a child. No eticket. Agent fobbed me off with a “travel document” sent via Amadeus

Most tickets are issued by automation and not by a person including bookings made through or changed via the call centre. The booking will be sent off for ticketing and if it has been set up correctly the automation will issue the ticket. If this process fails the booking will move to the manual queue where a human trained in ticketing will intervene.

 

[encryptededdy]

I guess the age of the system just makes it impossible to verify the validity of the proposed ticket at point of entry (i.e. before it goes into the queue)?

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

Most tickets are issued by automation and not by a person including bookings made through or changed via the call centre. The booking will be sent off for ticketing and if it has been set up correctly the automation will issue the ticket. If this process fails the booking will move to the manual queue where a human trained in ticketing will might (if you’re very lucky) intervene.

Fixed that for you…

 

[Franky]

Thanks Mat! I've tried calling a couple of priority numbers inclusive of the ones in that thread with no success. Alot of numbers were "not attended".
I kept calling Qantas from the early morning today, juggling multiple phones, I've managed to get a callback option as well but wasn't sure if it's going to work as many peers reported it to malfunction.
I eventually got a call back around 9am, explained my frustration, I could not hear half the things the lady said as the line was so bad and breaking up. When she finally understood what I want and before she put me on hold,she started reading her notes out loud and figuring out what she needs to do. I had to interrupt her that I am still listening. At that stage I lost hopes for a positive outcome. She kept putting me on hold another 2-3 times to sort out the bad connection, I could not hear her at all. Finally, when she got through,she said that her systems are playing up and can't issue the ticket right now but she will fix that for me and call me. A familiar story. I've reiterated that I keep hearing the same story again and that I want her to issue the tickets while I'm waiting or to give me someone who knows how to issue a ticket. Eventually, I let her go hoping that my other callback would come through soon. An hour later I received a ticket in the inbox!! I couldn't believe it! But I got excited too early, the pdf was standard PDF that you receive from Qantas with booking details, ticket number and all the passenger info. But the field with the ticket number was missing!!! How could that happen? Eventually, after another approx 20 mins, I received another email with that had the same pdf with the ticket info!!I'll add the original ticket to my qantas memorabilia collection.I never got the follow up call from the rep to express my gratitude.
Checkmytrip has my ticket info now so looks like it's all legit. I went to select all my seats, btw flights are a combo of QF,BA,AY and JAL. All but JAL I was able to select seats, JAL gives me an error message that can't book seats as it appears I have another booking, to cancel before selecting seats. Hm, why would that be?
On the complaints side of things,not sure how soon these are responded to, given it's on Qantas time I might be waiting 3 months. I selected that I would like to be contacted. I'm also keen to share my experience with industry bodies as an FYI. Thoughts?

 

[dylarr]

I guess the age of the system just makes it impossible to verify the validity of the proposed ticket at point of entry (i.e. before it goes into the queue)?

Problem is you need a trained call centre agent to identify and fix the issue then send it off to the bot again. Great if you are able to speak to Hobart or Auckland. If you get Cape Town or Suva, most cases whatever they do to "fix" the booking usually results in it going straight back into the manual queue again.

The new Manila call centre site supposedly handles ticketing but unsure if it's just a back office function or it's the actual agents on the phone speaking to customers who are trained in ticketing. Time will tell!

 

[dylarr]

Fixed that for you…

Ah yes, the ticketing black hole. Or as I've seen it affectionately referred to here on AFF, the "far queue".

 

[MJHoops]

Problem is you need a trained call centre agent to identify and fix the issue then send it off to the bot again. Great if you are able to speak to Hobart or Auckland. If you get Cape Town or Suva, most cases whatever they do to "fix" the booking usually results in it going straight back into the manual queue again.

The new Manila call centre site supposedly handles ticketing but unsure if it's just a back office function or it's the actual agents on the phone speaking to customers who are trained in ticketing. Time will tell!

This appears to accord with my experience

I had one ticket issued by MNL on 8 JUL
Did not happen to get MNL in the lottery of calls again