QF Mystery: We can see but the agent can't

[levelnine]

Lo and behold the escalation email team responded positively to a request to look into changing a leg of a classic reward that the Suva call centre claimed they couldn’t see over the course of a couple of calls.

It's slightly wild how inconsistent this email is. Others have been flatly told no in similar circumstances, hence my response. Seems to be very much YMMV.

 

[madrooster]

So has this finally resolved the inability to add an Australian domestic sector to an international award?

It's still an issue and has been an issue ever since QF turned on origin/destination and point of commencement controls for redemption inventory. It was previously restricted to commercial inventory but not anymore. It also affects points upgrades and is partially the reason why points upgrades do not instantly process even if you can see U class on the domestic segment.

So essentially QF redemption inventory can be affected by both:

1. Origin/destination pair (U class available for SYD-SFO, but not ADL-SYD-SFO)
2. Point of commencement (U class available if the ticket starts from a given port, eg. SFO)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It's still an issue and has been an issue ever since QF turned on origin/destination and point of commencement controls for redemption inventory. It was previously restricted to commercial inventory but not anymore. It also affects points upgrades and is partially the reason why points upgrades do not instantly process even if you can see U class on the domestic segment.

So essentially QF redemption inventory can be affected by both:

1. Origin/destination pair (U class available for SYD-SFO, but not ADL-SYD-SFO)
2. Point of commencement (U class available if the ticket starts from a given port, eg. SFO)

Thanks! That makes sense even if i don’t like it!

I wonder if call centre agents know that? Or have they been told not to tell the public?

 

[madrooster]

I wonder if call centre agents know that? Or have they been told not to tell the public?

I believe they have no idea let alone any actual understanding of the underlying workings of revenue management.

For completeness, it's not just QF who does such a thing - most of the major oneworld carriers apply such controls too. Being AU based just means we are more affected by QF doing it than other carriers.

What status are you?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I believe they have no idea let alone any actual understanding of the underlying workings of revenue management.

For completeness, it's not just QF who does such a thing - most of the major oneworld carriers apply such controls too. Being AU based just means we are more affected by QF doing it than other carriers.

What status are you?

Just silver, so no possible access to hobart.

Keeping agents in the dark like that just wastes time for everyone

 

[madrooster]

Just silver, so no possible access to hobart.

I'm happy to have a look at it. Feel free to send me the record locator / full pax name(s) and which SYD-MEL you want privately - I'll have a look at it when I have a moment.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm happy to have a look at it. Feel free to send me the record locator / full pax name(s) and which SYD-MEL you want privately - I'll have a look at it when I have a moment.

Oh! Thanks! This was for my last trip - never got resolved so had to pay for the connector.

Current trip added a stopover in SYD and got the connector for free!

 

[MelbFlyer]

So, after a few weeks of looking for my desired flight / class on the date I'm specifically looking for, I can now see 2 x business class reward seats - great!

I call Qantas (as it's the only option to amend reward bookings) and again it's the same old cough - "there appears to be no classic reward seats in any class, on the date and flight number you're looking at" - all whilst I am looking at the available ribbons online (as per below)!

I HUACA 5 times (to give Qantas credit, I didn't have to wait on hold at all on any of those 5 occasions) and got the same response each time.



Why is this such a hassle / why is there such ongoing BS from Qantas on this?

If reward seats are showing online, isn't it false advertising that you can't change an existing rewards booking to available rewards seats that are showing online?

 

[DC3]

… "there appears to be no classic reward seats in any class, on the date and flight number you're looking at" - all whilst I am looking at the available ribbons online …

Phantom availability?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

So, after a few weeks of looking for my desired flight / class on the date I'm specifically looking for, I can now see 2 x business class reward seats - great!

I call Qantas (as it's the only option to amend reward bookings) and again it's the same old cough - "there appears to be no classic reward seats in any class, on the date and flight number you're looking at" - all whilst I am looking at the available ribbons online (as per below)!

I HUACA 5 times (to give Qantas credit, I didn't have to wait on hold at all on any of those 5 occasions) and got the same response each time.

View attachment 329940

Why is this such a hassle / why is there such ongoing BS from Qantas on this?

If reward seats are showing online, isn't it false advertising that you can't change an existing rewards booking to available rewards seats that are showing online?

Immediately following the SIN-MEL do you have a domestic connecting flight? If so, agents won’t be able to see the SIN-MEL.

You could cancel or move the connecting flight and that should allow agents to see the SIN-MEL.

 

[djkelly69]

Agree with above - we need a bit more info on your whole itinerary and may then be able to proffer an opinion on the real issue/s.

 

[MelbFlyer]

Phantom availability?

Definitely not - I can get to the page that lists the flights (rather than going back to the calendar view).

Immediately following the SIN-MEL do you have a domestic connecting flight? If so, agents won’t be able to see the SIN-MEL.

You could cancel or move the connecting flight and that should allow agents to see the SIN-MEL.

I currently have a Singapore to Melbourne flight on JQ economy and want to change to at least the QF one on the same day.

It's the last leg of my 6 leg itinerary.

 

[Seat0B]

Phantom availability?

Oh that triggers me after my recent experience with involuntary flight changes and repeatedly being told connecting flights between CBR-SYD were phantom availability. The changes to international flights, no drama. But those connections…. Took almost 2 hrs and a lucky connection to HBA call centre after repeated “computer says no” from JNB to make that happen.

 

[Assassin]

Hi all

Similar experience - I recently booked classic rewards flights SYD-MEL (in economy) and MEL-LAX in Business for December this year. The SYD-MEL leg was departing at 7am (arriving 8.30am) with the MEL-LAX leg departing at 11am.

Yesterday, Qantas changed the MEL-LAX flight to a 12.30pm departure time. No worries, except that left us with a 4 hour connection in Melboure. So I called Qantas to see if we could get on a later SYD-MEL flight. The web-site was showing classic reward availability on the 8am flight (in business and economy) as well as the 8.30am and 9am flights.

I called twice and on both occasions, I was told there was no availability until the 10am flight out of Sydney. This gets in at 11.35am, only 55 min before the MEL-LAX flight is due to depart and so would be an illegal connection, so not sure why they offered it. I mentioned that I could see classic reward seat availability on the earlier flights on the web-site and received basically a brush off where they suggested that availability was different when changing a booking as compared to making a new booking (yeah right).

So I called back a third time, was told the same story about no availability, but when I pressed that there was award seat availability showing, the agent asked me for the flight number, went away for a while and came back and told me she had managed to make the change. She booked us in economy when there were business seats available (and booking in business should not have cost any more points) but by this stage I was just happy to be able to get on the flight we wanted and save an hour sitting at Melbourne airport.

So three calls and an hour wasted for a simple request initiated by Qantas changing a flight time. My frustration level is high and it's hard to see any real improvement in the Qantas call centre service. All three calls answered by the SA team...

 

[tdimdad]

BTW, would a itinerary be ticketed if it us under the MCT?

According to ExpertFlyer, the MCT in MEL for QF I/D connections is 1:30. QF call centre tried to change me to a 1:20 connection because she couldn't see any later connections on the same day. I probably could have made the transfer with ease (presuming on-time arrival of the inbound). This time I told the agent to not book it but am wondering what would happen if I had said yes to the short connection?

 

[Himeno]

This makes me remember something I got a few years ago.
I was in Osaka traveling on a oneworld ticket, which allows unlimited free changes provided the ticketed points don't change and there is availability in the required booking class. I was booked on an evening ITM-HND flight and wanted to change to a morning flight, so I went to Itami airport and spoke to the JAL agents.
Normally, there isn't a problem with such changes and the agent would just make the change, I had made changes like this dozens of times on oneworld tickets over the years with different airlines. This time, they told me that they couldn't do it and Qantas (the ticket issuer) had to.

The JAL terminal at ITM has a large board in the check in area showing the JAL flights and their availability. The board said there was the availability I needed. Expert Flyer also said there was the needed availability on the morning JL flights to Tokyo.
When I got in contact with Qantas, they couldn't see anything. After an hour of going over different flights with the Qantas rep and them not being able to see anything, I went back to the JAL agents and showed them the message from Qantas. They then moved me to the next available flight themselves.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

BTW, would a itinerary be ticketed if it us under the MCT?

According to ExpertFlyer, the MCT in MEL for QF I/D connections is 1:30. QF call centre tried to change me to a 1:20 connection because she couldn't see any later connections on the same day. I probably could have made the transfer with ease (presuming on-time arrival of the inbound). This time I told the agent to not book it but am wondering what would happen if I had said yes to the short connection?

No, it won’t get ticketed if under MCT.

Om one of the discussions I was having with the call centre when they ‘couldn’t see connecting flights’ they offered me a flight that had 30 mins connecting time. I said ‘i’ll take it’. 20 mins later they came back to admit it couldn’t be booked!

The system deliberately shows flights that are impossible to book, and doesn’t show flights with valid connections.

 

[funnybrus]

BTW, would a itinerary be ticketed if it us under the MCT?

According to ExpertFlyer, the MCT in MEL for QF I/D connections is 1:30. QF call centre tried to change me to a 1:20 connection because she couldn't see any later connections on the same day. I probably could have made the transfer with ease (presuming on-time arrival of the inbound). This time I told the agent to not book it but am wondering what would happen if I had said yes to the short connection?

No, it won’t get ticketed if under MCT.

Om one of the discussions I was having with the call centre when they ‘couldn’t see connecting flights’ they offered me a flight that had 30 mins connecting time. I said ‘i’ll take it’. 20 mins later they came back to admit it couldn’t be booked!

The system deliberately shows flights that are impossible to book, and doesn’t show flights with valid connections.

On the contrary, I've agreed for an agent to book me a 60 minute I/D at SYD, which ticketed ok (Appeared to be manually, came in a text-only email). Ended up having my old man (platinum) call up once ticketed, explaining it was under MCT and a HBA agent gave me one flight later.

 

[MelbFlyer]

So, after a few weeks of looking for my desired flight / class on the date I'm specifically looking for, I can now see 2 x business class reward seats - great!

I call Qantas (as it's the only option to amend reward bookings) and again it's the same old cough - "there appears to be no classic reward seats in any class, on the date and flight number you're looking at" - all whilst I am looking at the available ribbons online (as per below)!

I HUACA 5 times (to give Qantas credit, I didn't have to wait on hold at all on any of those 5 occasions) and got the same response each time.

View attachment 329940

Why is this such a hassle / why is there such ongoing BS from Qantas on this?

If reward seats are showing online, isn't it false advertising that you can't change an existing rewards booking to available rewards seats that are showing online?

So after the above post the other day, I called again 12hrs, then 24hrs later and the same old response - they can't see the rewards seats I could see / their system is "the most up to date and the website may not yet be updated" / if you try to book the seats, it will fail, blah blah blah.

Fast forward to today, the business reward seats are now gone.

It's unfathomable on why it is so difficult to get reward itineries changed - surely there has to be a better or easier option?

I've tried all methods - Twitter / FB Messenger etc - these arent too useful as a response will take a day or more, and by that time, the seats would probably be gone.

I think tbh once I'm done with this trip, I'm done accumulating Qantas points and will probably sell my remaining points (around 1xx,xx_ points) and then continue accumulating VFF and/or Asia Miles only.

My CBA CC can convert Commbank Awards points into both VFF and Asia miles (amongst others too), but just at a poorer rate than my current Qantas Premier Platinum which is 1pt per $1.

VFF is 2 award points to 1 VFF point, Asia miles is 3.5 award points for 1 mile.

 

[levelnine]

I think tbh once I'm done with this trip, I'm done accumulating Qantas points and will probably sell my remaining points (around 1xx,xx_ points) and then continue accumulating VFF and/or Asia Miles only.

It is definitely a smart idea to move away from Qantas. Check out St George and Amex's offerings. They have competitive earn rates and transfer partners.