Qantas Promises to Fix Ongoing Reward Flight Ticketing Failures

[PaulyB]

It’s interesting seeing these two responses. I know it’s not entirely representative but I have been wondering if they are getting their act together (at least in fixing call centre fubars. Is it possible that all the fixer uppers are *gosh* well trained and maybe local?

 

[tdimdad]

It’s interesting seeing these two responses. I know it’s not entirely representative but I have been wondering if they are getting their act together (at least in fixing call centre fubars. Is it possible that all the fixer uppers are *gosh* well trained and maybe local?

I appears that the resolution team is an Australian one. The couple I've dealt with in that team come across like the know and operate the system well which would hint on them being a part or an extension to the Hobart team. Though, it doesn't matter who & where as long as they do the right actions in an efficient way.

 

[kdubz]

Well, I got an email from Escalations that they have requested CX to reinstate. An hour later, the flight reappeared in my booking, but no new ticket yet. I emailed back and ask for reticket ASAP. nothing yet... fingers crossed....

CX Manage Booking said the seat is 'waitlist confirmed' awaiting ticketing.

 

[MrJetset]

This is odd. I cancelled QF11 F, booked a new route to the EU on EK F then rerouted again.

Both times QF HBA advised that they ticket EK, CX and others immediately to meet the ticketing deadline. I was told that the points would be “logged” and not to worry.

For the first flight I specifically asked them to hold the EK flights, cancel QF and then get the points refunded immediately which they did.

It’s odd that they have a practice to avoid missing ticketing deadlines but pax are still having issue.

 

[Mr H]

It’s odd that they have a practice to avoid missing ticketing deadlines but pax are still having issue.

You appear to have been dealing with HBA - where agents are empowered to ticket immediately or to expedite ticketing. The ones that go wrong are usually dealt with by the overseas centres where agents are not empowered to do ticketing, meet resistance if they try to expedite ticketing, and often have no idea about how the more obscure bits of the system work. In fairness, the tales of woe have almost dried up since the escalations team was formed and stuff ups could get fixed.

 

[clifford]

You appear to have been dealing with HBA - where agents are empowered to ticket immediately or to expedite ticketing. The ones that go wrong are usually dealt with by the overseas centres where agents are not empowered to do ticketing, meet resistance if they try to expedite ticketing, and often have no idea about how the more obscure bits of the system work. In fairness, the tales of woe have almost dried up since the escalations team was formed and stuff ups could get fixed.

I tried to make an online booking today for a Japan domestic itinerary (MYJ-cough-KTM) for early next week (in order to try and steer clear of the oncoming typhoon Lan). Unfortunately the system was unable to ticket it, due to its own shortcomings.

So I had no option but to call Qantas. I was immediately put through (no wait time at all) to a very helpful female agent, who had a bit of an accent, which I couldn't place. So I assumed she was in an overseas call centre.

She was able to make the booking, didn't attempt to try and charge me a booking fee, and said she would personally shepherd the booking through, to ensure I had it for my flight on Monday. The ticket arrived within minutes and I'm extremely grateful.

Now I assume she was actually in Hobart, and my recent experience with Qantas call centres is challenging my long-standing view of how poor QF's customer service is. Perhaps it's something to do with my newly minted WP status?

 

[Mr H]

Perhaps it's something to do with my newly minted WP status?

That would be it.

 

[Youfah Mizzum]

I tried to make an online booking today .... Unfortunately the system was unable to ticket it, due to its own shortcomings.

So I had no option but to call Qantas. I was immediately put through (no wait time at all) to a very helpful female agent, who had a bit of an accent, which I couldn't place. So I assumed she was in an overseas call centre.

I had a similar experience.
I've been trying to book a very simple SYD - HND - SYD flight for next Feb 2024.
Reward points booking.

I found suitable dates but the website kept throwing errors & asked me to restart. I could see my flights in my shopping cart but never let me click on the cart to continue the booking process. Incredibly frustrating.

I ended up ringing up Qantas on the 131313 number and I got straight through to a consultant! Absolutely incredible as I was resigned to a 3 or 4 hour wait (I'm a lowly bronze). This is late Sunday arvo.
Whilst they couldn't retrieve my cart, and the return J seats were now unavailable on my chosen dates (I bet because I had grabbed them earlier) the staffer found alternative dates, not ideal but it is what it is.
Anyway I got my booking organised via the phone instead of the website & it was actually a pretty painless experience. I just can't believe how the phone service has improved over the past year or so. Well done to Qantas but boo-hiss for their coughpy website & constant errors.

The agent also had an accent but still perfectly acceptable English. Flights got ticketed overnight. Happy camper here.

Looks like things are slowly on the improve for QF.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Related question but where on the CMT app (if anywhere) should I see a ticket number?

 

[doctorstrangelove]

I tried to make an online booking today for a Japan domestic itinerary (MYJ-cough-KTM) for early next week (in order to try and steer clear of the oncoming typhoon Lan). Unfortunately the system was unable to ticket it, due to its own shortcomings.

So I had no option but to call Qantas. I was immediately put through (no wait time at all) to a very helpful female agent, who had a bit of an accent, which I couldn't place. So I assumed she was in an overseas call centre.

She was able to make the booking, didn't attempt to try and charge me a booking fee, and said she would personally shepherd the booking through, to ensure I had it for my flight on Monday. The ticket arrived within minutes and I'm extremely grateful.

Now I assume she was actually in Hobart, and my recent experience with Qantas call centres is challenging my long-standing view of how poor QF's customer service is. Perhaps it's something to do with my newly minted WP status?

+1 the WP status making the difference. I'm not actively collecting Qantas points anymore but am trying to burn through my existing balance. I recently had to call up Qantas post AJ's departure as a lowly silver to book a flight that I was unable to do for myself online. I informed them of this and asked not to be charged a booking fee - the agent agreed and went ahead and booked my flight. Lo and behold when I check my points account 2 weeks later I see 7,700 points deducted as a "rewards assistance fee". I then hop back on the magic call roundabout in the hope of finding a competent agent to get this charge reversed: I have two different agents on two separate occasions state that they will alert the relevant team and I should have my points refunded in the next 72 hours. It never happens. I finally get my points refunded on my third attempt by being quite short with the agent and refusing to get off the phone until she had dealt with it there and then.

The incompetence on ongoing display is astonishing. Nothing has changed.

 

[dylarr]

Related question but where on the CMT app (if anywhere) should I see a ticket number?

You can't - they enhanced it away a while ago sadly.

 

[Must...Fly!]

You can't - they enhanced it away a while ago sadly.

Oh bother. Anywhere else I can go? RJ.com?

 

[dylarr]

Oh bother. Anywhere else I can go? RJ.com?

rj.com or malaysiaairlines.com will show you the ticket number in MMB. I'd use it cautiously though — whilst it will show you if there is a ticket associated with the booking, it won't show if there are any underlying issues with the ticket itself especially if there have been schedule changes.

CMT used to show ticket numbers against each flight on the booking and if the ticket number was missing against a flight that was a good indication that something was wrong but unfortunately something with that type of granularity doesn't really exist since it was gutted.

 

[Must...Fly!]

rj.com or malaysiaairlines.com will show you the ticket number in MMB. I'd use it cautiously though — whilst it will show you if there is a ticket associated with the booking, it won't show if there are any underlying issues with the ticket itself especially if there have been schedule changes.

CMT used to show ticket numbers against each flight on the booking and if the ticket number was missing against a flight that was a good indication that something was wrong but unfortunately something with that type of granularity doesn't really exist since it was gutted.

Yes those were the good old days I guess.

Thank you though. I see zero evidence of a ticket number. Will send an email tonight. Just under a week to travel so still some time to sort it out.

 

[MelbFlyer]

So fed up. After a grueling 18+ phone calls

I feel your pain - I recently went through 100+ calls in the space of a few months just to change my reward seats to either another date or another flight which had business reward seats availability (I had 1 leg in economy that I wanted to change to business as new reward seats were released after my initial booking).

95% of the time, the agents couldn't see what I could see online (the business reward seats), and just told me that they're only available for new bookings. There's nothing that states this on the Qantas website.

complaint lodged online

I've done around 5, and not once have I received a response. It's complete garbage.

I changed an international reward booking from a QF to a BA flight when I saw availability

As per above, you're lucky you were able to get an agent within those 18 calls that could see and change your reward seats to another reward seat.

I HUACA (hung up and called again) many, many times and got the same BS response most of the time.

On most days, I HUACA at least 5 times to attempt to get an agent who could see the reward seats and make the change. Most of the time I gave up as all came back with the same response.

I then kept looking almost daily for any new reward seats and called up as soon as I saw one - eventually I got an agent who could see and change my itinerary.

What are your experiences is it likely they will cancel the booking even after ticketing if they haven't deducted the right points?

What Qantas does when you change reward bookings - is they refund the entire points charged and then re-charge the updated itinerary in full.

ie. If your old itinerary was 70k in points, then you make a change that costs another 30k points, instead of charging 30k points - they'll refund the 70k points, then charge 100k, then refund 70k points.

Change fees may take a while to pop up, but eventually they'll pop up.

Taxes however, are just whatever is additional or less - and to Qantas' credit (giving credit where due - no pun intended) the taxes are actually refunded relatively quick.

The last change I made on my itinerary which was cancelling a leg, I got the refund of taxes within 2 business days.

I'm only Silver so have never gotten through to AUS or NZ staff

I'm even lower - Bronze, so out of those 100+ calls, I got through to an overseas agent at least 98% of the time.

I did encounter Hobart staff on 2 calls - this was presumably because I had already called up 10+ times on that particular day and maybe I was triaged to Hobart as a repeat caller.

I did however, use a combination of a few numbers:
13 13 13
1300 304 318
13 12 11

Overall, even as a lowly Bronze member I feel that there shouldn't be segregation of getting someone in a centre that has less authority over others, but more so maybe just a segregation of wait times instead.

ie. now - Anyone below Gold gets an overseas call centre with less visibility / authority, and anyone Gold or above getting Hobart with "better" agents.

It does Qantas no favours that Bronze members like myself have to call 100+ times just to get a simple change done (which in reality, should just be able to be changed online ourselves - it would cost Qantas so much less to implement this online). It'll free up agents for more complex issues instead.

 

[djkelly69]

ie. now - Anyone below Gold gets an overseas call centre with less visibility / authority, and anyone Gold or above getting Hobart with "better" agents.

Gold definitely doesn't get Hobart, and I think Plats or higher have reported having to HUACA a number of times and still not getting Hobart.

 

[Mattg]

I feel your pain - I recently went through 100+ calls in the space of a few months just to change my reward seats to either another date or another flight which had business reward seats availability (I had 1 leg in economy that I wanted to change to business as new reward seats were released after my initial booking).

95% of the time, the agents couldn't see what I could see online (the business reward seats), and just told me that they're only available for new bookings. There's nothing that states this on the Qantas website.

Reading this makes me happy that I've diversified away from just Qantas and also have Velocity points, among other points/miles.

I have an upcoming Velocity reward booking from YVR-SYD on Air Canada, originally in Y. Yesterday I noticed that AC had released a J reward seat on YVR-BNE on the same date, so I called Velocity. Within 15 minutes the agent had cancelled my original booking, refunded the points & taxes, and made a new booking for me on the new flight. The fee was $60 and I had a new ticket in my inbox, with a ticket number, before the call ended.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yesterday I noticed that AC had released a J reward seat on YVR-BNE on the same date, so I called Velocity. Within 15 minutes the agent had cancelled my original booking, refunded the points & taxes, and made a new booking for me on the new flight. The fee was $60 and I had a new ticket in my inbox, with a ticket number, before the call ended.

Now mattg c’mon,

The qantas call centre would have done *exactly* the same…

… up to the bit where they cancelled your booking!

 

[MelbFlyer]

Reading this makes me happy that I've diversified away from just Qantas and also have Velocity points, among other points/miles.

I have an upcoming Velocity reward booking from YVR-SYD on Air Canada, originally in Y. Yesterday I noticed that AC had released a J reward seat on YVR-BNE on the same date, so I called Velocity. Within 15 minutes the agent had cancelled my original booking, refunded the points & taxes, and made a new booking for me on the new flight. The fee was $60 and I had a new ticket in my inbox, with a ticket number, before the call ended.

I've also diversified into VFF in the past too and redeemed a business reward flight via VFF (Melbourne to Singapore on SQ, return).

The process was seamless, however QFF has the advantage of having OWAs. VFF on the other hand, you have to book rewards flights one by one rather than having a multi-city option (unless the multi-city option now includes international? (at the time of the above booking, there was only domestic multi-city, same as now))

Issue is, there's not many good deals for bonus points from CC sign-ups for VFF compared to QFF (I'll concede, this is where the majority of my QFF points come from - churning CCs and then cancelling once the bonus points are awarded) - my last VFF earning card was an AMEX card and it was not as easy as VISA/Mastercard based cards to find eligible spend.

I had to resort to paying my health insurance for 1 year in advance to meet the minimum spend requirement for the bonus points (a lot of other "normal" spend I had didn't accept AMEX).

Overall for me, it's not about chasing status as I don't fly enough to get status anyway (I'm just a corporate office worker with no requirement to travel via air, and travel overseas once a year on average) - it's about redeeming my points for reward seats.

Also on top of that, I don't get status from redemption flights anyway.

Qantas just makes it hard when / if you need to make a change.

 

[adenda]

I feel your pain - I recently went through 100+ calls in the space of a few months just to change my reward seats to either another date or another flight which had business reward seats availability (I had 1 leg in economy that I wanted to change to business as new reward seats were released after my initial booking).

95% of the time, the agents couldn't see what I could see online (the business reward seats), and just told me that they're only available for new bookings. There's nothing that states this on the Qantas website.


I've done around 5, and not once have I received a response. It's complete garbage.



As per above, you're lucky you were able to get an agent within those 18 calls that could see and change your reward seats to another reward seat.

I HUACA (hung up and called again) many, many times and got the same BS response most of the time.

On most days, I HUACA at least 5 times to attempt to get an agent who could see the reward seats and make the change. Most of the time I gave up as all came back with the same response.

I then kept looking almost daily for any new reward seats and called up as soon as I saw one - eventually I got an agent who could see and change my itinerary.



What Qantas does when you change reward bookings - is they refund the entire points charged and then re-charge the updated itinerary in full.

ie. If your old itinerary was 70k in points, then you make a change that costs another 30k points, instead of charging 30k points - they'll refund the 70k points, then charge 100k, then refund 70k points.

Change fees may take a while to pop up, but eventually they'll pop up.

Taxes however, are just whatever is additional or less - and to Qantas' credit (giving credit where due - no pun intended) the taxes are actually refunded relatively quick.

The last change I made on my itinerary which was cancelling a leg, I got the refund of taxes within 2 business days.



I'm even lower - Bronze, so out of those 100+ calls, I got through to an overseas agent at least 98% of the time.

I did encounter Hobart staff on 2 calls - this was presumably because I had already called up 10+ times on that particular day and maybe I was triaged to Hobart as a repeat caller.

I did however, use a combination of a few numbers:
13 13 13
1300 304 318
13 12 11

Overall, even as a lowly Bronze member I feel that there shouldn't be segregation of getting someone in a centre that has less authority over others, but more so maybe just a segregation of wait times instead.

ie. now - Anyone below Gold gets an overseas call centre with less visibility / authority, and anyone Gold or above getting Hobart with "better" agents.

It does Qantas no favours that Bronze members like myself have to call 100+ times just to get a simple change done (which in reality, should just be able to be changed online ourselves - it would cost Qantas so much less to implement this online). It'll free up agents for more complex issues instead.

Highly recommend next time you need to contact the call centre you try their Twitter/X channel first. Responses can take a while but in my experience they're very competent and able to get things done with minimal fuss. (I have a strong suspicion the Twitter/X channel is handled by HBA staff)