Qantas Promises to Fix Ongoing Reward Flight Ticketing Failures

[encryptededdy]

That really is quite shocking at the Platinum level! I guess they are more interested in paying their CEO's millions of dollars than keeping their customers happy even those who are truly frequent flyers like yourself!

Before they made this change the wait time was about ~15-20 minutes, so I reckon someone got a KPI or something based on average time to answer call, not realising (or more likely not caring) that the experience for customers is significantly worse with the outsourced call centres.

 

[dgoody2]

It seems fair to say, 18 months later, Qantas's promise never eventuated.

The problem is the way they have implemented the “fix”. It’s very manual and relies on complex understanding of the GDS, different partner airline policies and ticketing time limits etc. Unsurprisingly when Qantas outsourced its contact centres and moved the International ticketing team from BNE to the Phillipines all this knowledge was lost…and now we have a ticketing mess.

 

[dgoody2]

Ha this is very apt as I'm currently on hold for the third time trying to sort through my added infant not being ticketed (whilst showing in the app). If it wasn't for seeing the issue through this forum I would have had 3 International Flights in the last 12 months screwed because of Qantas' ticketing team not doing their one job of processing tickets.

Had the exact same problem flying on a CR Qantas issued ticket. Each of JAL, Finnair and British Airways had the issue. The status in Amadeus was not set to “OK” meaning boarding passes could not be issued. It took each of the check in agents off those airlines significant time on the phone to the Oneworld helpdesk to get Qantas to correctly ticket…so poor

 

[tuck]

@AFF Editor
Your article is quite timely. I was about to reach out to you with a horror story which Qantas has been quite dismal at even acknowledging any issues. In short, I spent over 30 hours on the phone with Qantas making a One World business class redemption booking (which is almost a Unicorn these days) and had my flights cancelled multiple times by Malaysian Airlines, Japan Airlines and Sri Lankan Airways. I had Qantas staff call me a liar, I had incorrect details provided to me by staff (one staff member, and a supervisor, insisted tickets were only valid from 12 months from date of initial ticket issue, which is incorrect given it is actually 12 months from first date of departure).

Given I had a similar experience with my last 2 bookings, this time I recorded dates, times and names of all conversations to provide to Qantas and the only conclusion I can reach after going through the complaints process, and then emailing incoming Chairman John Mullen, is all of the media hype and promises made by the new CEO and the incoming Chairman John Mullen are disingenuous!

I worked for Qantas for 3 years, most of that time in Telesales in the Brisbane office, so I am more familiar than most with the processes and procedures of booking and issuing frequent flyer tickets.

I would love to connect with you Matt and share my experience to see if there is anyway you are able to assist in getting Qantas to take my complaint seriously. I have written a media release and am ready to fire on all cylinders, including making enquiries into a class action given the serious misconduct of some staff and the inability of Qantas to issue eTKT receipts with the correct amounts paid (my last eTKT shows I have paid $0 in taxes when in fact I have paid almost $2000) - surely that is bordering in fraudulent behaviour.

Anyway, I hope you are able to assist or give some guidance if you are able to review my complaint to Qantas.

Thanks
Sonja

please let me know when you are starting the class action and I will join you.

 

[Flightseeker]

Just happened to me. Changed a booking yesterday to add flights to our RTW (in progress booking) and what do I see, ADL-KUL on Malaysian has disappeared.. No award availability either. Someone else now has our seats. And the auto reply from escalations, "we are prioritising by departure date". Will I be waiting 11 months for an answer? This happened before abut two years ago and the flights were not re-instated. And Qantas is wondering why I am abandoning their scam UNREWARDS program.

 

[muppet]

Just happened to me. Changed a booking yesterday to add flights to our RTW (in progress booking) and what do I see, ADL-KUL on Malaysian has disappeared.. No award availability either. Someone else now has our seats. And the auto reply from escalations, "we are prioritising by departure date". Will I be waiting 11 months for an answer? This happened before abut two years ago and the flights were not re-instated. And Qantas is wondering why I am abandoning their scam UNREWARDS program.

The escalations email is a bit lax on replies, but give them a week or so.

In my case in 8 days they’d negotiated with MH and found a solution (however I had found alternatives before).

By monitoring the booking you will see they are working on options.

I know it is stressful if its an important trip, but give them a chance at fixing it.

 

[drron]

A warm welcome @sonjabella71. Great to have you aboard. Quite amazing that you as a former employee in the BNE call centre get the run around from the new staff who try and tell you things that are so obviously false.

 

[sonjabella71]

A warm welcome @sonjabella71. Great to have you aboard. Quite amazing that you as a former employee in the BNE call centre get the run around from the new staff who try and tell you things that are so obviously false.

Thanks for the welcome Unfortunately it's become more and more frustratingly difficult to get Telesales staff who actually know what they are doing!

 

[kangarooflyer88]

This may or not belong here, but I was booked on a classic reward for MH128 this coming Saturday that was cancelled by MH. Because it was a change by Malaysia, they rebooked me. Except to depart from Sydney instead.

Presumably you could’ve booked your own flight to Sydney in business then just bill Malaysia for the cost of the ticket. You’d also earn status credits and points on this award ticket. Remember Malaysia is on the hook for up to $7,000 USD in damages when they cause disruptions like this under the Montreal Convention

 

[Mattg]

Presumably you could’ve booked your own flight to Sydney in business then just bill Malaysia for the cost of the ticket. You’d also earn status credits and points on this award ticket. Remember Malaysia is on the hook for up to $7,000 USD in damages when they cause disruptions like this under the Montreal Convention

I find it very unlikely MH would agree to pay those costs after the fact. Certainly not without a fight, and I find it a bit disingenuous that you suggest this as a strategy to earn points and SCs on an award ticket.

Sorry, but I don’t think this is particularly helpful advice for most people reading this forum.

 

[ChrisMars]

Presumably you could’ve booked your own flight to Sydney in business then just bill Malaysia for the cost of the ticket. You’d also earn status credits and points on this award ticket. Remember Malaysia is on the hook for up to $7,000 USD in damages when they cause disruptions like this under the Montreal Convention

Judging by the amount of time you mention the montreal convention in this forum, one can only assume you are an expert on this mater. Would you mind telling us your personal experience using it with airlines to get a favorable outcome?
Give us details, i.e. which category of the convention, which airline, did you have to start some sort of formal/legal action, or did you just mention it while discussing with an airline representative? Also, for my curiosity, can it be used on passengers too, i.e. when queing in a lounge?