Qantas Promises to Fix Ongoing Reward Flight Ticketing Failures

[Must...Fly!]

Could @MelbFlyer issues not be married sector related?

Thanks for tip re Twitter, will have to be a backup in case calling or the email fails to get me anywhere...

 

[encryptededdy]

(I have a strong suspicion the Twitter/X channel is handled by HBA staff)

I feel like I remember one of the AFF insiders confirming this.

 

[MelbFlyer]

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)

This won't help if there's a reward seat showing at the time of messaging, but by the time your message is tended to - the reward seats are taken by someone else.

Could @MelbFlyer issues not be married sector related?

Definitely not. It was a specific search for a specific route with no connections and was showing available reward seats at the time of calling (it was Singapore to Melbourne direct, no connections whatsoever).

I had a JQ Economy seat that I wanted to change to QF business as I saw new seats were available.

I was eventually able to change after 100 x HUACA.

 

[djkelly69]

I feel like I remember one of the AFF insiders confirming this.

Can't speak for X/Twitter, but I have had a couple of issues dealt with via FB Messenger recently.

One interaction involved them calling me for credit card details to pay some additional taxes. The person who called said 'I am XX we have been speaking on Messenger about YY issue', and she definitely sounded South African.

 

[BriarFlyer]

I contacted FB Messenger for a refund of points that hasn't happened, despite receiving an email to say the refund has been processed. The interaction was fine and I was told the points would be in my account in 3-5 days. 10 days later and nothing. Looks like I'll have to call.

 

[clifford]

Yesterday I managed to get through to an agent in Auckland (at least that's where his accent suggested he might be), regarding my lack of a refund for an award booking (ex BKK, which is the problem) I cancelled 7 weeks ago. I was fairly interested in getting the cash refund (points had already been refunded) as the sum involved was $750+ in taxes/charges

The agent was very helpful and said that he would contact the refunds people and ring me back, which he did about an hour later. Unfortunately I was unable to take the call, and he left a message saying I should ring back. I tried this a couple of times, but couldn't get through (I gave up after 30 minutes each time). So I left it at that.

Later in the day I received a call from Bangkok, which again I missed. Then they sent me an email explaining that they couldn't process the refund as they only had the last 4 digits of my credit card (!) and asked me to provide them with the first 11. This I did and within 15 minutes I received confirmation that the refund had been processed (IATA refund notice attached).

So it seems that my efforts yesterday to get the refund processed have been successful, but I do wonder how someone with little or no status would have fared. Qantas still has some enormous mountains to climb, despite apologies, I think.

 

[PineappleSkip]

I had a JQ Economy seat that I wanted to change to QF business as I saw new seats were available.

I was eventually able to change after 100 x HUACA.

Well done! For a change like that I'd be ringing up 100 times too!

 

[MelbFlyer]

Well done! For a change like that I'd be ringing up 100 times too!

Yes! I eventually got it (Singapore to Melbourne in QF business to replace JQ economy), but don't understand why it took me that many calls to get a simple rewards change done.

I'm Bronze so I don't get Hobart by default. I also didn't want to book it separately so I could benefit from OWA capping.

 

[adenda]

This won't help if there's a reward seat showing at the time of messaging, but by the time your message is tended to - the reward seats are taken by someone else.

Well, believe it or not, I managed to get around 6 of the 10 flights in my recent OWA booked and ticketed via the Twitter channel - but I might just have been very lucky.
One thing they do understand is the short timeframes for ticketing for flights on MH, QR and others and have always managed to get the ticketing done in time.
But the main caveat - as MelbFlyer alluded to - is that it can be a looooong wait between messages - up to 24 hours.

 

[papeto]

+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.

I had the same issue with Qantas. I booked a flight that wasn’t online for two pax and was charged 7,700x2 points. I called the call centre to querry the charge and they agreed to refund the points. This was three months ago. Subsequently I called three times as the points refund was not refunded. The excuses varied from - the previous operator did not press send, to the entered the points amount incorrectly 7007 and it was rejected. I put this down to poor training by Qantas of the call centre operators. The time frame given to refund the points also varied from 72 hours to 10 business days depending on who you spoke too. I finally gave up and registered a formal complaint. Two days ago I filed a follow up compliant. Amazingly on Friday I got an email response to my complaint, apologizing for the poor service and promising to refund the points in 7 BD. Here’s hoping.

 

[Mr H]

I had the same issue with Qantas. I booked a flight that wasn’t online for two pax and was charged 7,700x2 points. I called the call centre to querry the charge and they agreed to refund the points. This was three months ago. Subsequently I called three times as the points refund was not refunded. The excuses varied from - the previous operator did not press send, to the entered the points amount incorrectly 7007 and it was rejected. I put this down to poor training by Qantas of the call centre operators. The time frame given to refund the points also varied from 72 hours to 10 business days depending on who you spoke too. I finally gave up and registered a formal complaint. Two days ago I filed a follow up compliant. Amazingly on Friday I got an email response to my complaint, apologizing for the poor service and promising to refund the points in 7 BD. Here’s hoping.

When I was charged the 7,700 points incorrectly a month ago, I called the FF team and was able to get them refunded instantly.

 

[doctorstrangelove]

When I was charged the 7,700 points incorrectly a month ago, I called the FF team and was able to get them refunded instantly.

Kind of a win relative to my perspective, but you still had to waste probably 10-15 minutes of your life getting Qantas to undo an error that never should have occurred. It really is a lottery as to whether the person you get on the line to address that mistake is fit for purpose as the contrast between your outcome vs mine and @papeto shows.

I'm still putting this down to incompetence, but there's a little part of me that's beginning to wonder if there is a deliberate policy by QFF to charge even after they agree to waive, knowing that there will always be some customers that won't check their balance too closely and other customers where they'll consider it too much of a hassle to chase them up for the lost points. It would fit with the skulduggery inherent in their other business practices.

 

[Mr H]

Kind of a win relative to my perspective, but you still had to waste probably 10-15 minutes of your life getting Qantas to undo an error that never should have occurred. It really is a lottery as to whether the person you get on the line to address that mistake is fit for purpose as the contrast between your outcome vs mine and @papeto shows.

I'm still putting this down to incompetence, but there's a little part of me that's beginning to wonder if there is a deliberate policy by QFF to charge even after they agree to waive, knowing that there will always be some customers that won't check their balance too closely and other customers where they'll consider it too much of a hassle to chase them up for the lost points. It would fit with the skulduggery inherent in their other business practices.

I was told the charge is generated by the system, not by the operator. The call centre operator who makes the booking will genuinely believe they have waived the fee for you, and the computer adds it back on in the back end.

I was assisted in the refund by a Frequent Flyer agent - and I am supposed to get premium service from them as a PC+ member. I assumed that was just marketing guff, but maybe it really is a thing.

I posted to let people know that an instant refund is possible, despite what some people have been told.

 

[Happy Dude]

Well it's new to me at least.

Trying to get from Hamburg to Abu Dhabi. No luck with VA points but QF tosses up an EK flight paired with a bus to Abu Dhabi that also had an EK number.

Booked it. Got confirmation, booking ref, fees pending from credit card, shows up in MMB etc- but no ticket after a few hours and couldn't send an itinerary from MMB.

Called up and, eventually, was told the final destination was not valid so no ticket. Agent offered to cancel and rebook HAM-DXB. It took over an hour, despite it being a 3-minute exercise on the QF site. The agent managed to get the departure date wrong, clearly mixing it up with the next-day arrival date.

The salt in the wound was being charged 7,700 points assistance fee per person, despite no mention of that.

Back on the phone and second agent can see what's happened and agrees assistance fee should not be charged. But now the original departure time for my date is unavailable for some reason. Then after yet more hours, I get a ticket for an earlier flight on the right day and agent then suggests the assistance fee should apply.

Email to the reward ticket escalation address fired off. Entirely within QF's control and their making and yet I get the red hot poker. Mercy!

So this new ticket escalation service is quite the hero, even if QF shouldn't need it.

Within a day, and on a Saturday no less, I received a ticket (not a reservation or travel document or whatever) confirming our original date and time. Happy with that outcome however we now have to make our own way between DXB and AUH. Not the end of the world but we did like the idea of the surface segment being included, one less thing to pay for and worry about.

It remains a mystery as to why it offered the destination and then couldn't be ticketed. It could be removed from/changed in the system as quickly as it takes to say "Taiwan is not separate country".

Anyway, great recovery but still need to fix the reasons for getting into the mess in the first place. Also glad we don't have to worry about EU261, if applicable. I'm sure @kangarooflyer88 could set up a decent side hustle acting for affected pax

Joy following pain is particularly sweet but sadly short-lived in my case.

The QF "hero" cancelled my tickets, all points refunded, then booked them again. The points were correctly taken from my account but against the same booking reference. However a new booking reference was created and ticketed accordingly. All seemed fine.

Two months later I get an email from QF demanding payment for awards relating to the new booking ref, and points were automatically taken from my account. But I didn't have enough points so they could only take enough for 3 tix. This means that I've now paid 1.75x for the tix.

Three calls to QF explaining each time the situation were made and each time the agent says the 3 x points will be refunded and there is a valid ticket - even though it must appear at their end that 1 tix has not be paid for. The flight is taken without a hitch but of course nothing happens in regard to the refund of the 3 x points.

I've been "chatting" with QF on messenger, one message each per day, for the last 5 days.

I reckon this has cost me 10hrs of my life, all because they couldn't/wouldn't ticket HAM-DXB-(bus o/l sector)-AUH, even though I could book it. We did end up taking the free bus to AUH from DXB but it was a risk without a reservation/ticket. We just showed the driver our BPs but if the bus was full, we would have been SOOL.

 

[BriarFlyer]

I contacted FB Messenger for a refund of points that hasn't happened, despite receiving an email to say the refund has been processed. The interaction was fine and I was told the points would be in my account in 3-5 days. 10 days later and nothing. Looks like I'll have to call.

So, I got back on FB Messenger yesterday and last night was told that I wouldn't be getting a points refund as "travel had commenced." Which it hadn't, unfortunately, as the whole trip was cancelled.

I've just spoken to Hobart and apparently the booking is notated as taxes only refund as travel had commenced. The agent tapped away for a bit, sighed heavily, then assured me that I will get the points back. She had no explanation as to what had happened.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I got an email overnight (48h after emailing the escalations team) with my e-ticket and now showing a ticket number on RJ. Didn't receive a specific reply to my email query but I assume it has all been done correctly, now.
As above the original points were refunded and then the increased amount taken out again. Presumably the additional taxes (as no longer paying UK APD) will be on their way back. I would prefer not to chase them up...

 

[BriarFlyer]

I've just spoken to Hobart and apparently the booking is notated as taxes only refund as travel had commenced. The agent tapped away for a bit, sighed heavily, then assured me that I will get the points back. She had no explanation as to what had happened.

And the points are in my account. All it took was getting through to a HBA agent. Now where have I heard that before...

 

[doctorstrangelove]

I was told the charge is generated by the system, not by the operator. The call centre operator who makes the booking will genuinely believe they have waived the fee for you, and the computer adds it back on in the back end.

I was assisted in the refund by a Frequent Flyer agent - and I am supposed to get premium service from them as a PC+ member. I assumed that was just marketing guff, but maybe it really is a thing.

I posted to let people know that an instant refund is possible, despite what some people have been told.

Sounds like Qantas need to educate their call centre staff a little better.

PC+ here too, and that didn't shield me from poor service.

I agree an instant refund is completely possible, and that's what I got when I stopped being Mr Nice Guy and told them in no uncertain terms that I wasn't going anywhere until they resolved this issue in the here and now. The question remains why the first two agents were unable to do so.

 

[kaktusdigital]

Does anyone know roughly how long a re-issue of ticket takes? I called up earlier today to remove 2 legs from a 4 leg flight, but now the booking doesn't show on my bookings page. The remainder flights are on CX and CI , and so far they're still there, but showing as 'not ticketed'.

should i be somewhat concerned?

 

[MelbFlyer]

Does anyone know roughly how long a re-issue of ticket takes? I called up earlier today to remove 2 legs from a 4 leg flight, but now the booking doesn't show on my bookings page. The remainder flights are on CX and CI , and so far they're still there, but showing as 'not ticketed'.

should i be somewhat concerned?

It can take 24-48hrs to be re-ticketed.

Email [email protected] with your QFF number, they're actually okay with their response times these days (usually <24hrs for a response) and you should get your trip re-ticketed in a reasonable amount of time.