QF 29 & 30 pay for J & get F seats.

[winfred]

I just booked 2 J tickets HK-MEL-HK for my parents in Jan/Feb next year via the QF HK website.

I then tried to upgrade them using points but was told the credit card needs to be verified before etickets are issued. As upgrade can only be done after tickets has been issued I simply can't do it. I then had a 45 minutes arguement with the lady over the phone at QF Australia with no joy.

After given up hope of an upgrade, I tried to get better seats by selecting them early. To my joy I found out that the first class cabins are usd by J class and I manage to get 4E & 4F for both flights.

After my parents have completed their journey I will launch a massive attack on QF regarding the incompetence of their staff.

 

[djfuzz]

So, you would have been able to upgrade them on points after the e-tickets were issued (which can't have taken all that long - maybe a couple of days max) and in any case it didn't matter as no F service was sold on the flight and you were able to select F cabin seats for them anyway.

I may have missed something, but what exactly are you complaining to Qantas about?

 

[winfred]

My complaints are:

1. I called to find out why I can't upgrade on the web. I was told that e-tickets needs to be issued before I can upgrade. Since e-tickets will only be issued after credit card used to pay airfare has been verified at check-in, I will never be able to upgrade. within 12 hours I received the e-tickets and I definitely have not checked in or have my cc verified.
2. For the whole 45 minutes I was not told 1st class was not offered on those flights.
3. I was offered another fare so that credit card verification is not required and it only cost A$2500 extra per pas.
4. I was sold tickets that can't be paid in Australia and I end up having to pay 3% FX transaction fee by Amex. I was offered the option to pay cash in Hong Kong which is ridiculous. No Bpay, EFT options available.
5. After I talked to Aus QF office, I called their HK office to confirm that there is no way around having to be present at check in to have the credit card verified. I would be in Mel on the day which makes it hard for me to be at the HK airport. QF HK office said it is absolutely not necesary and all I need to do is to fax a copy of the credit card with the booking details. I then call Aus QF office and they said they have no idea what QF HK is talking about.
6. I should have the option to have the credit card verified in a QF office in Aus but was told it is not possible due to HK gov't regulations. That is rubbish as I bought some SQ tickets originating in HK and I can go to any SQ office in the world to have the credit card verified.

That would be all for now.

 

[ejb]

I assume the complaint will start with "I paid for J and got F seating for free and this just is not good enough I wanted to spend my points. How dare you try to stop me"

I would not be complaining F seating/J service.......

ejb

 

[equus]

As upgrade can only be done after tickets has been issued I simply can't do it.

If you want to be technically completely accurate, for International flights a points upgrade won't be done until 24 hours or less before the flight (as well as the ticket having been issued before that). All that can be done by you before that is you could lodge a request for upgrade. It wouldn't be processed (clear or reject) until sometime between 24 and 5 (something like that) hours before the flight. Whilst time of lodging the request might be a tie breaker in determing who gets upgraded in the event of pax status equality (and other items), the order in which upgrades are procesed is firstly determined by many factors other than when the request was lodged.

In short - you couldn't have "upgraded" your parents even if the tickets had been issued, only lodged a request. Even then, as F was not being sold on the flight, you would almost certainly not have been able to lodger a request anyway.

Not sure what you are so wound up about.

 

[djfuzz]

I called to find out why I can't upgrade on the web. I was told that e-tickets needs to be issued before I can upgrade. Since e-tickets will only be issued after credit card used to pay airfare has been verified at check-in, I will never be able to upgrade. within 12 hours I received the e-tickets and I definitely have not checked in or have my cc verified.

I see the issue here - whenever I've booked e-tickets out of HKG they've had this requirement to verify the credit card on checkin - I assume it is regulatory. I wasn't aware that this precluded the issue of the e-tickets, as you point out - following which, I can't imagine why you couldn't lodge a request for a points upgrade. There does seem to be a bit of an issue with miscommunication or incomplete information here, fair enough.

For the whole 45 minutes I was not told 1st class was not offered on those flights.

This is correct - F is not offered. But for those of us lucky enough to do so (I did the same!), it does allow the enjoyment of J service in an F seat.

I was offered another fare so that credit card verification is not required and it only cost A$2500 extra per pas.

No idea what's going on there.

I was sold tickets that can't be paid in Australia and I end up having to pay 3% FX transaction fee by Amex. I was offered the option to pay cash in Hong Kong which is ridiculous. No Bpay, EFT options available.

I assume that's because the ticket is ex-HKG. Not much you can do about that, it's just the way it is.

After I talked to Aus QF office, I called their HK office to confirm that there is no way around having to be present at check in to have the credit card verified. I would be in Mel on the day which makes it hard for me to be at the HK airport. QF HK office said it is absolutely not necesary and all I need to do is to fax a copy of the credit card with the booking details. I then call Aus QF office and they said they have no idea what QF HK is talking about.

I should have the option to have the credit card verified in a QF office in Aus but was told it is not possible due to HK gov't regulations. That is rubbish as I bought some SQ tickets originating in HK and I can go to any SQ office in the world to have the credit card verified.

Yeah, the right hand's not talking to the left. However, given that QF HK is issuing the ticket, I'd take their word for it.

If they sold you a ticket for pax not including yourself, but have a requirement that you must be there in person at checkin to verify the card, then they should find a way to work around it or give you a refund (unless they excluded it in their terms and you agreed to it by accepting those terms). Seems fair enough.

That would be all for now.

Why wait? You've got their seats selected. Just make the complaint now.

 

[winfred]

I do not like the idea of wasting 45 minutes of my time + cost of phone calls to HK + more time talking to QF about something relating to their business that they are not certain about. they could tell me during the first 3 minutes of the conversation that F is not available and that would be the end of the conversation.

I also do not like to be told to do something that I do not enjoy/not capable of doing (like being present in HK to check in my parents when I am in Mel) when it doesn't need to be done. The HK gov't did not impose different laws to SQ as oppose to QF.

I did make it clear that I will only complain after my parents trips as I do like the idea of paying for J and get F seats and do not want them to lose those seats.

Technically speaking, yes I should point out that I was trying to request an upgrade. But international upgrade can only be requested at least 24 hours prior to departure and it definitely can't be done at check in.

 

[ejb]

I do not like the idea of wasting 45 minutes of my time + cost of phone calls to HK + more time talking to QF about something relating to their business that they are not certain about. they could tell me during the first 3 minutes of the conversation that F is not available and that would be the end of the conversation.

I also do not like to be told to do something that I do not enjoy/not capable of doing (like being present in HK to check in my parents when I am in Mel) when it doesn't need to be done. The HK gov't did not impose different laws to SQ as oppose to QF.

I did make it clear that I will only complain after my parents trips as I do like the idea of paying for J and get F seats.

Technically speaking, yes I should point out that I was trying to request an upgrade. But international upgrade can only be requested at least 24 hours prior to departure and it definitely can't be done at check in.

I think to solve the CC problem QF offered to ticket in Aust, hence the $2500 extra price. To get the cheap price you have to deal with the issues, not unlike the extra work certain AFFers do when ticketing DONE4's ex DPS etc.

ejb

 

[thewinchester]

1) I called to find out why I can't upgrade on the web. I was told that e-tickets needs to be issued before I can upgrade. Since e-tickets will only be issued after credit card used to pay airfare has been verified at check-in, I will never be able to upgrade. within 12 hours I received the e-tickets and I definitely have not checked in or have my cc verified.
2) For the whole 45 minutes I was not told 1st class was not offered on those flights.

I'm with the crowd on this one. Equus is spot on that upgrades on international flights aren't locked in until 24hrs before first departure, so it would have been luck of the draw any which way you looked at it. And F cabin seats with the J service is nothing to sneeze at.

4) I was sold tickets that can't be paid in Australia and I end up having to pay 3% FX transaction fee by Amex. I was offered the option to pay cash in Hong Kong which is ridiculous. No Bpay, EFT options available.

On this one I do agree with you, and its something I've never been able to understand - but I don't think its worth the time complaining about.

Having said that - If I'm in Australia, and want to book travel starting both to and from a destination outside of Australia, why should I have to visit a local country booking site and have to pay the fare in that currency.

An example of this is a fellow QFNB went for an one-way award flight from PER-SIN, and of course had to pay for the SIN-PER leg back - in SGD of course because he couldn't book that on the Australian website.

It's the same airline, same planes, same FA's - so why can't I book through the Australian website.

I'm sure there's a sensible explaination for this one - does anyone know what it is?

5) After I talked to Aus QF office, I called their HK office to confirm that there is no way around having to be present at check in to have the credit card verified. I would be in Mel on the day which makes it hard for me to be at the HK airport. QF HK office said it is absolutely not necesary and all I need to do is to fax a copy of the credit card with the booking details. I then call Aus QF office and they said they have no idea what QF HK is talking about.
6) I should have the option to have the credit card verified in a QF office in Aus but was told it is not possible due to HK gov't regulations. That is rubbish as I bought some SQ tickets originating in HK and I can go to any SQ office in the world to have the credit card verified.

Seems like there's an issue with the documentation international reservations have access to on this front - and this would be something I'd want to bring to their attention, in that you were getting conflicting information from two groups of people within the company. Put it to QF like this, and they'll happily go on their way to find out the right answer and make sure everyone gets/has access to the correct information.

 

[djfuzz]

I did make it clear that I will only complain after my parents trips as I do like the idea of paying for J and get F seats and do not want them to lose those seats.

They may lose the seats anyway if some operational reason arises. I don't think they'll be taken away by Qantas vindictively because you have a complaint (probably the opposite if anything) - as thewinchester mentioned, if you bring up a genuine issue the resolution of which is operationally beneficial to them, why would they be anything but gracious?

I only suggest doing so soon because the issue is fresh and you're spending the same amount of time on this thread that you would be making a genuine complaint. But of course, if you'd rather not, that is your prerogative.

 

[winfred]

OK I will lodge the complaint tonight via email.

My time posting on this thread will not be wasted as I will be able to copy & paste most of the issues to the email.

 

[thewinchester]

I only suggest doing so soon because the issue is fresh and you're spending the same amount of time on this thread that you would be making a genuine complaint. But of course, if you'd rather not, that is your prerogative.

Just a shame that you'll not hear anything from QF for at least 30 days on any complaint, sigh.

 

[N860CR]

And even then don't expect much, I've really struggled to have any sucess through Qantas "Customer Care" centre even with some pretty big issues that they've stuffed up.

Even today I spoke with somebody regarding some very badly managed schedule changes and delays and all I got was a "we don't work with scheduling - what do you want me to do I can't reschedule the plane for you can I??". From someone who so proudly announced they were a "premium" consultant.

 

[Mal]

I find this a little weird.

Maybe it's because I'm Plat, but I have not had to show a credit card on either of my Ex-HKG bookings this year at check-in as claimed. (Both have been checking in at the airport, normally in the F or J type queues).

Indeed, the flights have been ticketed fairly quickly (within 2 or 3 days), and my credit card charged.

So I don't really understand what is going on here. Methinks it's lots of confusion at Qantas, or some special treatment I got.

Oh, and if you need to refund your tickets for whatever reason, be prepared to wait! ~5 weeks and counting for me after cancelling an ex-HKG ticket. Once I confirm the date I cancelled the ticket, then I'll wait my 6 weeks and start questioning.

 

[Gold Member]

Interesting thread, which reminds me that for some reason when I booked an internal SAA flight from Nelspruit to CPT about 6 months ago they also insisted on presenting the credit card which I had used to pay online at check-in. Is this a common event for other airlines?

A few days after processing the transaction with my Earth Plat, I realised that my plan to cancel the card (after their 3:1 QFF points promo offer expired) wasn't gonna happen. Had to hold onto it for a while longer just so I could present it at Checkin in South Africa!

 

[Mwenenzi]

... within 12 hours I received the e-tickets and I definitely have not checked in or have my cc verified

.

...but I have not had to show a credit card on either of my Ex-HKG bookings this year at check-in as claimed......
...
Indeed, the flights have been ticketed fairly quickly (within 2 or 3 days), and my credit card charged..

May be because the CC used is not owned the 2 passengers travelling

CC fraud is common. If you CC numbers you can but all manner of products/services on line

The e-ticket would have issued are verfiying with the CC company. Within 12 hrs or indeed 2 or 3 days, as above, seem reasonable.

OP seem to be confusing the time delay between when an e-ticket is issued (emailed) and presenting the CC at checkin. I have waited for an e-ticket to be isssued before requesting points upgrade

 

[Mal]

.
May be because the CC used is not owned the 2 passengers travelling

CC fraud is common. If you CC numbers you can but all manner of products/services on line

Cathay will often ask for the credit card if booked directly with them. Maybe Qantas operates on a suspicion ratio or randomly selects people for further verification .

 

[Sprucegoose]

I do not like the idea of wasting 45 minutes of my time + cost of phone calls to HK + more time talking to QF about something relating to their business that they are not certain about. they could tell me during the first 3 minutes of the conversation that F is not available and that would be the end of the conversation.

I also do not like to be told to do something that I do not enjoy/not capable of doing (like being present in HK to check in my parents when I am in Mel) when it doesn't need to be done. The HK gov't did not impose different laws to SQ as oppose to QF.

I did make it clear that I will only complain after my parents trips as I do like the idea of paying for J and get F seats and do not want them to lose those seats.

Technically speaking, yes I should point out that I was trying to request an upgrade. But international upgrade can only be requested at least 24 hours prior to departure and it definitely can't be done at check in.

dont worry - be happy.......................

 

[blue_bug]

Cathay will often ask for the credit card if booked directly with them. Maybe Qantas operates on a suspicion ratio or randomly selects people for further verification .

I think it's random, as I had been asked to show my CC once out of my 3 ex-HKG this year.