Qantas Promises to Fix Ongoing Reward Flight Ticketing Failures

[drron]

A TA can certainly book different airlines on one PNR. On our first trip to Africa the main flights were on a DONE 5 but being sloppy I had not used maximum sectors. We neede to get a couple of SAA sectors and I was having trouble booking on line so got our TA to do it. She asked if I wanted all flights on the one PNR so she did. Helped with a short transit at JNB from Comair to SAA.

 

[RichardMEL]

A TA can certainly book different airlines on one PNR. On our first trip to Africa the main flights were on a DONE 5 but being sloppy I had not used maximum sectors. We neede to get a couple of SAA sectors and I was having trouble booking on line so got our TA to do it. She asked if I wanted all flights on the one PNR so she did. Helped with a short transit at JNB from Comair to SAA.

of course. that's normal or can be with revenue fares etc. The only stickler for me is about adding reward bookings. Sure, a PNR is a PNR is a PNR, but the TA can't, as far as I know, book those directly so it was more about how does that work ie in your situation adding some (back then) Star Alliance award seats on SA into a oneworld DONE5 commercial booking.

similar of course, but also slightly different.

Anyway not at all saying it can;t be done of course, just more curious about the mechanics of it.

 

[RooFlyer]

reward bookings. Sure, a PNR is a PNR is a PNR, but the TA can't, as far as I know, book those directly

A TA could book an award seat if you give them access to your FF account. I mean that’s not really that difficult or controversial. Not sure if it would breach the T&Cs of the account though.

 

[RichardMEL]

A TA could book an award seat if you give them access to your FF account. I mean that’s not really that difficult or controversial. Not sure if it would breach the T&Cs of the account though.

ok sure, but one still ends up with a airline generated PNR/reference for that reward booking.

What I was meaning is that a TA can't go into their friendly GDS platform and just book QF 1 into U class and have it HK - ie they can't book it directly as they might with any other commercial sectors.

so I come back to the thought that what we're really talking about is a TA having a "primary PNR" for a trip containing multiple separate booking references for trip elements.

sorry this is all a bit OT and feels even a bit annoying to me now lol.. I just was curious about it. I think I have my head around it now

 

[drron]

of course. that's normal or can be with revenue fares etc. The only stickler for me is about adding reward bookings. Sure, a PNR is a PNR is a PNR, but the TA can't, as far as I know, book those directly so it was more about how does that work ie in your situation adding some (back then) Star Alliance award seats on SA into a oneworld DONE5 commercial booking.

similar of course, but also slightly different.

Anyway not at all saying it can;t be done of course, just more curious about the mechanics of it.

We did have an award flight on that trip and our TA said it was possible to put that on the same PNR but for reasons given by @RooFlyer she wouldn’t do the award flight.

 

[RooFlyer]

I just asked my travel agent directly, if they booked me a Qantas reward flight, and then a connecting SAS revenue flight, whether they can go on one PNR. Answer was no. And also

We can try to cross reference but QF frequent flyer bookings are not very friendly with normal bookings and you can't do anything online in that regard you have to call them and rely on them to do the process.

 

[serfty]

Time to suggest people stop speculating.

I have great respect for @madrooster and if they indicate this can be done, then it can be done, has been done and people have travelled after it has been done.

@madrooster is not your regular travel agent ... they have a sophisticated technical background and understand the back end processes of GDS's.

 

[drron]

I just asked my travel agent directly, if they booked me a Qantas reward flight, and then a connecting SAS revenue flight, whether they can go on one PNR. Answer was no. And also

I think it’s more likely to be wouldn’t rather than couldn’t just like my TA.

 

[tooten69]

I am currently working through a classic reward flight cancellation issue. Que 12 o'clock email!

I will report back my experience!

Just wanted to report back as promised.

My wife's booking that had multiple issues was fixed last night by a lady called Nicole. It is clear she knew what she was doing. She attempted to call my wife and then communicated via email.

In the meantime I had another schedule change (different award booking) not ticket. This was also picked up by the team (John) who fixed the issue and issued the ticket.

I am very happy with the service, team and initiative qantas put in place!

Thank you!

 

[RooFlyer]

Time to suggest people stop speculating.

I have great respect for @madrooster and if they indicate this can be done, then it can be done, has been done and people have travelled after it has been done.

@madrooster is not your regular travel agent ... they have a sophisticated technical background and understand the back end processes of GDS's.

I too have great respect for madrooster - he has sent me round the world quite happily. But your last para probably indicates that his answer may not be a general one.

 

[Aceskywalker]

I've been working through a family of 4 RTW classic reward booking (Mostly J) which was an absolute nightmare to book, I still have PTSD from the many phone calls.

Booked 9 months ago, Was ticketed but CX legs dropped off a few weeks ago lax-hkg & hkg-syd after a time change on the first leg. Plus another time change had us arriving in London after a connecting flight had left ( : , no time machine unfortunately. I've been to the airport a few times to get priority number but no luck getting competent phone staff, no wait but still getting fiji, SA & Manila only.

Emailed: [email protected] on 1st Feb. A week later, I got a one ring call from Qantas, so emailed again explaining this, when I finally got an email back, hallelujah fxxen lujah, Christmas is here, or so I thought....

Agent email -
apologised, which was nice to hear
Rebooked CX legs
Rebooked Europe leg which ended up being more direct (fantastic)
Oh no but did not ticket ) :

I sent a follow up email just enquiring about the few errors that I could see...& that it has not been ticketed, no reply.

In looking at it in more detail, CX legs are waitlisted, Europe flights have dropped away in the last few days & an old Europe flight is still on booking.

I've emailed again this morning, which they've come back & said they will look into...Not sure if this is a CX or Qantas issue.

Will wait & update all on progress...

 

[Someone]

Hello everyone, first time caller, long time listener.

I'm seriously about to lose my sh... with Qantas. Had a reward booking on Qatar. One day it changed, I was fine with the changes. Then about 3 months ago, the flights disappeared out of the booking.

For three months I've been trying through multiple channels, their social media team (whose response time ranges from a few days to a few weeks), the call centres (some of whom just hung up), and via the escalations team email (which hasn't responded).

Most recently, the social media team advised they're just going to cancel and refund the ticket (ignoring that it was booked in the EU, under EU terms and conditions), because there aren't any reward seats available left (which is unsurprising given the stuffed around and it's now 1 month from the flight!!

Vent over - but any other suggestions on who to try? I need it fixed, not refunded. Unsurprisingly, I don't have a spare $20,000 to buy replacement flights.

EDIT: The Qantas Social Media team are claiming the Rewards Ticketing Escalations email address is a scam??????

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

Hello everyone, first time caller, long time listener.

I'm seriously about to lose my sh... with Qantas. Had a reward booking on Qatar. One day it changed, I was fine with the changes. Then about 3 months ago, the flights disappeared out of the booking.

For three months I've been trying through multiple channels, their social media team (whose response time ranges from a few days to a few weeks), the call centres (some of whom just hung up), and via the escalations team email (which hasn't responded).

Most recently, the social media team advised they're just going to cancel and refund the ticket (ignoring that it was booked in the EU, under EU terms and conditions), because there aren't any reward seats available left (which is unsurprising given the stuffed around and it's now 1 month from the flight!!

Vent over - but any other suggestions on who to try? I need it fixed, not refunded. Unsurprisingly, I don't have a spare $20,000 to buy replacement flights.

EDIT: The Qantas Social Media team are claiming the Rewards Ticketing Escalations email address is a scam??????

Send a copy of your correspondence to a few journalists I’m sure they will have fun with it. Including that the escalation email address is a scam. Qantas is not their favorite at the moment.

 

[Danger]

...

EDIT: The Qantas Social Media team are claiming the Rewards Ticketing Escalations email address is a scam??????

Ha. That suggests to me the social media team is on the receiving end of these emails and is now outrageously overworked.

 

[Lynda2475]

That suggests to me the social media team is on the receiving end of these emails and is now outrageously overworked

Doubtful.

 

[Aceskywalker]

Hello everyone, first time caller, long time listener.

I'm seriously about to lose my sh... with Qantas. Had a reward booking on Qatar. One day it changed, I was fine with the changes. Then about 3 months ago, the flights disappeared out of the booking.

For three months I've been trying through multiple channels, their social media team (whose response time ranges from a few days to a few weeks), the call centres (some of whom just hung up), and via the escalations team email (which hasn't responded).

Most recently, the social media team advised they're just going to cancel and refund the ticket (ignoring that it was booked in the EU, under EU terms and conditions), because there aren't any reward seats available left (which is unsurprising given the stuffed around and it's now 1 month from the flight!!

Vent over - but any other suggestions on who to try? I need it fixed, not refunded. Unsurprisingly, I don't have a spare $20,000 to buy replacement flights.

EDIT: The Qantas Social Media team are claiming the Rewards Ticketing Escalations email address is a

Hello everyone, first time caller, long time listener.

I'm seriously about to lose my sh... with Qantas. Had a reward booking on Qatar. One day it changed, I was fine with the changes. Then about 3 months ago, the flights disappeared out of the booking.

For three months I've been trying through multiple channels, their social media team (whose response time ranges from a few days to a few weeks), the call centres (some of whom just hung up), and via the escalations team email (which hasn't responded).

Most recently, the social media team advised they're just going to cancel and refund the ticket (ignoring that it was booked in the EU, under EU terms and conditions), because there aren't any reward seats available left (which is unsurprising given the stuffed around and it's now 1 month from the flight!!

Vent over - but any other suggestions on who to try? I need it fixed, not refunded. Unsurprisingly, I don't have a spare $20,000 to buy replacement flights.

EDIT: The Qantas Social Media team are claiming the Rewards Ticketing Escalations email address is a scam??????

I'd suggest that 'Tom' from the social media team has no oversight or knowledge of brand new organisational changes or teams happening at Qantas.

Would like to see a screen shot of that comment though. Just highlights how much the customer service team fudge there knowledge. Shouldn't the first rule be, If you don't know the answer, refer up the chain...

Although, that would probably ground the fleet... so few know the answers.

 

[Someone]

Interesting you mention 'Tom', the messages were all signed off by a 'TS'.

They're insistent I just pay cash to get the flights they had previously confirmed.

 

[justinbrett]

Interesting you mention 'Tom', the messages were all signed off by a 'TS'.

They're insistent I just pay cash to get the flights they had previously confirmed.

Maybe they are the scammers!

 

[Mr H]

Interesting you mention 'Tom', the messages were all signed off by a 'TS'.

They're insistent I just pay cash to get the flights they had previously confirmed.

I suspect the social media team are not the best people to be approaching for assistance with booking and ticketing.

 

[Someone]

I suspect the social media team are not the best people to be approaching for assistance with booking and ticketing.

I suspect you’re right.

They have been useful in previous years, but on this it’s just been woeful.