Qatar Airways manage booking error. No ticket number?

[Lost Redditor]

I redeemed Velocity points to get my sister to Australia and back. She's supposed to fly out tomorrow. She was able to check in online but we are not having any luck getting into Manage Booking. I booked it in her name using my Velocity account, so I am able to talk to Qatar and VA about it, but Qatar was not helpful at all.

This is the transcript from Qatar chat

Me : I have made a booking for my sister using my Velocity points through Virgin Australia. We are trying to select seats using the Manage Booking website, but we get an error message saying the service is unavailable when we try to update the contact details
Me : Booking ref ###### MEL-DOH-OSL
Me : for Sister Name
Agent: Kindly help with full name of passenger as per the booking.
Me : Her full name is Sister Name
Agent: And may I know how you are related with the passenger?
Me : I am her brother
Agent: Thanks, Before I proceed, I need to go through some verification check on your booking. * Kindly help with the below details as appears on the booking: > Email address > Contact number > Date of purchase of ticket.
*snip*
Agent: Thank you for verifying the details.
Christian : no problem
Agent: As I reviewed your booking the ticket is not valid, I request you to please contact Virgin Australia to get your valid ticket number.
Me : I'm sorry what do you mean not valid?
Me : I have another booking reference that belongs to Virgin Australia ######
Agent: It means you will not be able to travel with this booking.
Agent: The booking number xx_xx_ is not valid.
Me : Are you able to tell me why it is not valid?
Me : She was able to check in online
Agent: Unfortunately we do not have the information. I request you to please contact Virgin Australia or get the valid ticket number.
Me : I have this Ticket number: 79###########
Agent: It's the same ticket number which is not valid, I request you to please contact them you will get the valid ticket number.

I just got off the phone with a supervisor at the Virgin Australia call center and she instructed me to cancel the check-in. I tried that but that didn't work either, some generic error message stopped me. She said she's liaising with Qatar at the moment, but she's finishing her shift so another supervisor is going to call me

Has anyone has ticket numbers going missing like this before? Is there anything I can do here? Also, if the redemption cannot be salvaged, can her travel insurance cover the cost of my points+taxes and/or her own return flight?

What a stressful thing to happen...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I redeemed Velocity points to get my sister to Australia and back. She's supposed to fly out tomorrow. She was able to check in online but we are not having any luck getting into Manage Booking. I booked it in her name using my Velocity account, so I am able to talk to Qatar and VA about it, but Qatar was not helpful at all.

This is the transcript from Qatar chat



I just got off the phone with a supervisor at the Virgin Australia call center and she instructed me to cancel the check-in. I tried that but that didn't work either, some generic error message stopped me. She said she's liaising with Qatar at the moment, but she's finishing her shift so another supervisor is going to call me

Has anyone has ticket numbers going missing like this before? Is there anything I can do here? Also, if the redemption cannot be salvaged, can her travel insurance cover the cost of my points+taxes and/or her own return flight?

What a stressful thing to happen...

If the ticket is not valid, it’s unlikely travel insurance will cover anything. It’s not the sort of thing travel insurance covers.

However, if there is a problem with the ticket and if it has to ultimately get refunded, you’ll get a full refund of the points and taxes, so you won’t be out of pocket.

You say you have checked in… have you got a boarding pass and seat number? Or simply checked in but unable to issue a BP?

This should get resolved, I’d head for the airport anyway.

 

[Lost Redditor]

If the ticket is not valid, it’s unlikely travel insurance will cover anything. It’s not the sort of thing travel insurance covers.

However, if there is a problem with the ticket and if it has to ultimately get refunded, you’ll get a full refund of the points and taxes, so you won’t be out of pocket.

You say you have checked in… have you got a boarding pass and seat number? Or simply checked in but unable to issue a BP?

This should get resolved, I’d head for the airport anyway.

She was able to check in and, yes, she has been allocated seats (terrible ones, but still)

I'm hoping it gets resolved. But even with a full refund, I'll still be out of pocket as she really does need to fly home tomorrow, and one-way tickets aren't much cheaper than return ones.

 

[DC3]

Qatar was not helpful at all.

That quoted text from Qatar chat seems totally unhelpfull

 

[MEL_Traveller]

She was able to check in and, yes, she has been allocated seats (terrible ones, but still)

I'm hoping it gets resolved. But even with a full refund, I'll still be out of pocket as she really does need to fly home tomorrow, and one-way tickets aren't much cheaper than return ones.

So your sister originated outside Australia, is now in Australia, and has to fly out tomorrow?

That makes it easier being in Australia given VA is also here. I would head to the airport as planned… allowing plenty of time. If they haven’t sorted it out before they will at the airport.

Was the any issue with the inbound travel to australia… like a delayed or cancelled flight and your sister was out on another flight or airline? air not re-ticketed correctly it can appear as a ‘no show’ and the remainder of the ticket is cancelled. Again, not your sister’s issue to manage.

You should contact your sister’s insurance company before incurring any out of pocket expenses if you are looking to make a claim. They will advise if you are covered, and if so, which ticket to buy.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

That quoted text from Qatar chat seems totally unhelpfull

I’m not sure what they can do, unless there were IRROPS on the inbound and somehow QR cancelled the ticket as a no show.

Otherwise you’d need to go back to VA to track down a valid ticket.

 

[DC3]

Otherwise you’d need to go back to VA to track down a valid ticket.

Yes, keep on to VA. You may as well be talking to the Man on the Moon if Qatar chat is that unhelpful.

 

[Lost Redditor]

So your sister originated outside Australia, is now in Australia, and has to fly out tomorrow?

That makes it easier being in Australia given VA is also here. I would head to the airport as planned… allowing plenty of time. If they haven’t sorted it out before they will at the airport.

Was the any issue with the inbound travel to australia… like a delayed or cancelled flight and your sister was out on another flight or airline? air not re-ticketed correctly it can appear as a ‘no show’ and the remainder of the ticket is cancelled. Again, not your sister’s issue to manage.

My sister arrived on 19/12 and the inbound flight was totally uneventful, no problems. It was also a separate booking as I held out hope that I would find some business class rewards seats but peak travel season didn't allow for that.

I will assume that they'll sort it out for her by the time she gets to the airport. Luckily the NTL-MEL flight provides a 6 hour buffer at MEL.

ExpertFlyer seat maps shows it as a fully booked flight so hopefully she hasn't been bumped from it

 

[MEL_Traveller]

My sister arrived on 19/12 and the inbound flight was totally uneventful, no problems. It was also a separate booking as I held out hope that I would find some business class rewards seats but peak travel season didn't allow for that.

I will assume that they'll sort it out for her by the time she gets to the airport. Luckily the NTL-MEL flight provides a 6 hour buffer at MEL.

ExpertFlyer seat maps shows it as a fully booked flight so hopefully she hasn't been bumped from it

Given the report in another thread, I’d call VA back in the morning to follow this up. In the other thread there was allegedly a VA ticketing ‘problem’ and they never called back (thankfully that was to the member’s advantage). But i wouldn’t wait for VA.

 

[Lost Redditor]

Update

VA booking supervisor called me and told me that he confirmed with QR that the ticket number I have (that was reissued during a flight change on 13 Dec) is confirmed for the flight. The booking ref and the VA reservation code are both useless, but if my sister provides the check-in staff with only the ticket number, they should be able to look up PNR history and reconcile the booking(?)

Really hoping this is true. Several times have I been instructed by someone at a call center only to get to the ground staff and they have no clue.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Update

VA booking supervisor called me and told me that he confirmed with QR that the ticket number I have (that was reissued during a flight change on 13 Dec) is confirmed for the flight. The booking ref and the VA reservation code are both useless, but if my sister provides the check-in staff with only the ticket number, they should be able to look up PNR history and reconcile the booking(?)

Really hoping this is true. Several times have I been instructed by someone at a call center only to get to the ground staff and they have no clue.

Isn’t she already checked in? I’m sure it will sort out at the airport. And still plenty of time once check in opens to contact VA if there are any issues.

 

[Lost Redditor]

Yes somehow she managed to check-in, not sure how if the booking ref has no valid ticket attached

She'll have plenty of time to work it out at the airport

 

[Lost Redditor]

And of course the NTL-MEL flight is cancelled, so she's put on JQ473 (but shows as JQ123 on the new ticket?) at 6.20pm. Leaving her with pretty much exactly 3 hours check-in time if it's on time.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Several times have I been instructed by someone at a call center only to get to the ground staff and they have no clue.

We call it duck shoving..........always get a name and something printed ideally it carries more authority.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

And of course the NTL-MEL flight is cancelled, so she's put on JQ473 (but shows as JQ123 on the new ticket?) at 6.20pm. Leaving her with pretty much exactly 3 hours check-in time if it's on time.

We’re all waiting to find out what happens! Hopefully there’ll be an outcome soon!

 

[Lost Redditor]

Just got word now that she has two boarding passes in hand
I'm so relieved - her English isn't the best and she's not an experienced traveler.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Just got word now that she has two boarding passes in hand
I'm so relieved - her English isn't the best and she's not an experienced traveler.

Excellent news.

Sounds like some system glitch between QR and VA. The ticket must have been valid - as evidenced by check-in. And now good to board!

Frustrating to have to deal with this though.

 

[Sprucegoose]

I'm so relieved - her English isn't the best and she's not an experienced traveler.

Thats at least half the population - she's in very good hands.

 

[DC3]

Just got word now that she has two boarding passes in hand

All fixed? How about that.

 

[Lost Redditor]

Yeah all fixed! I've learned a bit about ticketing and booking systems in the last couple of days by just trying to make sense of it.

Seems to me what happened is that with both bookings (NTL-MEL and MEL-DOH-OSL) the reissuing of ticket numbers failed to update original booking reference. Both booking references were "missing a valid ticket number". Both had rescheduling happen.
This might be an issue when redeeming Velocity points for Qatar flights on behalf of someone else? Could be coincidence of course, but my software engineer spidey senses are tingling.

I'll be flying mum in next. I might just transfer points to her and book tickets that way to hopefully avoid these issues