QFF Platinum requesting release of extra Classic Reward seats?

[Rangalad]

wow. assumption much? could be something that can't be booked online, like Origin DOH or CMB or wherever or carrier that does not show avail online.

yikes

Canberra/Melbourne.

 

[Rangalad]

Canberra/Melbourne.

Called again, answered by Suva. Requested a classic reward seat, agent said she need to check with her supervisor. Was advised I can’t request a reward seat. Very apologetic. Nothing can be done. I am explained this a benefit for WP and above. Checked again with the supervisor, this is not allowed. There is no such policy. Very apologetic again. I thanked her for her time. Booked VA instead.

 

[Virgin Bart]

Called again, answered by Suva. Requested a classic reward seat, agent said she need to check with her supervisor. Was advised I can’t request a reward seat. Very apologetic. Nothing can be done. I am explained this a benefit for WP and above. Checked again with the supervisor, this is not allowed. There is no such policy. Very apologetic again. I thanked her for her time. Booked VA instead.

Astounding.

 

[levelnine]

Booked VA instead.

This is increasingly becoming the solution to most problems with QF.

 

[azza_1992]

Successfully got some business rewards released for April/May 2023.

Lots of HUACA (7 tries to get through to HBA this morning), and quite a few disappointments after my hopes were raised by I-class inventory on expertflyer, but satisfying to finally get something that works.

LHR-PER - QF10 - I2 - Fail
LHR-MEL - QF10 - I7 - Fail
LHR-MEL - QF10 - I4 - Fail
LHR-SIN - QF2 - I7 - Fail
SIN-BNE - QF52 - I7 - Success (Declined)
LHR-SYD - QF2 - I9 - Fail
LHR-SYD - QF2 - I9 - Success

BNE-SIN - QF51 - I2 - Success (Declined)
SIN-LHR - QF2 - I2 - Fail
MEL-HND - QF79 - I9 - Fail
MEL-HND - QF79 - I9 - Success

 

[Ade]

So, QF WP here, requested one way CBR-MEL on 02 Jul 2022.

Called up the premium CC, got connected to a human being within 4 minutes. So far so good. I think I got the South Africa CC, judging on the accent. The person took forever to understand my request and place a request for a classic reward seat. After putting me on hold for a few minutes, he came back that there were no Y seats on any flights departing CBR on 02 July and only J seats were available. I said ok for a J seat. I'm requesting seats for a dear friend, who is going thru some stuffs ... Anyways, after 20 minutes on hold, he comes back to verify my FF number & status ??
Anyways, he then said the he had placed a request and it will take it up to 48 hours for the seat to be confirmed ... Now, this is new for me, because, so far IME, I have always had my requests approved instantly ... but not this time ...

Fingers crossed, Hopefully the booking & requests comes thru.

I can see the trip in my QF app, with status as "Requested". I don't want to say that I'm not happy ... but this time my experience is different to my previous experiences. Will update this thread as I progress

 

[ChrisMars]

So close to departure, and being WP, I would call again and hope to talk to hobart or NZ. Call at 7am tomorrow.

 

[sudoer]

I'm requesting seats for a dear friend, who is going thru some stuffs

Just be careful that you don't fall foul of the T&C - it's not possible to book award flights for friends from your own account, only extended family.

he then said the he had placed a request and it will take it up to 48 hours for the seat to be confirmed ... Now, this is new for me, because, so far IME, I have always had my requests approved instantly ... but not this time ...

This is pretty standard for non HBA/AKL staff. They have always told me to call back, and usually set the booking up incorrectly so it never processes the request without intervention by HBA/AKL.

 

[RichardMEL]

Looking at EF for CBR-MEL (all 717 flights) - the agent wasn't kidding. Y is chockers bar full fare on a few flights.

J looks best on the first two flights of the day. Indeed I9 and I7 which is promising, but I would call back anyway and try your luck with a different agent.

there's not a heap of capacity on this route on a Saturday and with this short notice I'm not entirely surprised.

hope it works out

 

[Ade]

only extended family.

yea, that's right. I told that he is my cousin .. not friend

This is pretty standard for non HBA/AKL staff. They have always told me to call back, and usually set the booking up incorrectly so it never processes the request without intervention by HBA/AKL.

Looks like it ... I need to call them 2mrw again during Canberra time just to ensure that the seat is booked ... I'm also on hold with VA to see if I can get a seat on VA service to MEL. Looking into the option of Rex, Have also booked a car on QF, just to be safe

 

[I love to travel]

Does anyone know the hours that the team who work on the seat releases operates? South Africa call centre just hopeless didn't know what I was talking about so going to keep trying to get through to HBA

 

[muppet]

Does anyone know the hours that the team who work on the seat releases operates? South Africa call centre just hopeless didn't know what I was talking about so going to keep trying to get through to HBA

I find first thing weekdays gives me the best odds. i.e 9am Mon-Fri i find good chance of getting HBA but as always YMMV

 

[kallinch]

So, QF WP here, requested one way CBR-MEL on 02 Jul 2022.

Called up the premium CC, got connected to a human being within 4 minutes. So far so good. I think I got the South Africa CC, judging on the accent. The person took forever to understand my request and place a request for a classic reward seat. After putting me on hold for a few minutes, he came back that there were no Y seats on any flights departing CBR on 02 July and only J seats were available. I said ok for a J seat. I'm requesting seats for a dear friend, who is going thru some stuffs ... Anyways, after 20 minutes on hold, he comes back to verify my FF number & status ??
Anyways, he then said the he had placed a request and it will take it up to 48 hours for the seat to be confirmed ... Now, this is new for me, because, so far IME, I have always had my requests approved instantly ... but not this time ...

Fingers crossed, Hopefully the booking & requests comes thru.

I can see the trip in my QF app, with status as "Requested". I don't want to say that I'm not happy ... but this time my experience is different to my previous experiences. Will update this thread as I progress

I had very similar call to this week or so ago with Sth Africa (unsuccessfully requesting MEL-SIN J and SIN-MEL J). Took over 1 hour for them to lodge requests (declined ~24hrs later), called again same day, think I got Hobart (prem). They confirmed same request placed, and declined in like 5minutes.

Had a further chat to the Hobart (prem) agent who said the system Sth Africa using is web based, very slow and planned for global rollout to all call centres (i.e. including Hobart). If true, I'd suggest we all make the most of Hobart "instant" check ability whilst we still have it!

 

[levelnine]

Had a further chat to the Hobart (prem) agent who said the system Sth Africa using is web based, very slow and planned for global rollout to all call centres (i.e. including Hobart). If true, I'd suggest we all make the most of Hobart "instant" check ability whilst we still have it!

It strikes me that, at that point, this benefit will basically disappear as it will be all but inaccessible.

 

[Danger]

A bizarre experience.

I called the platinum number today where my call was answered by Bualealani in Cape Town. I told the gentleman I was calling to request an award seat be released, to which he said, “Have you made a booking yet?” Perplexed (and somewhat frustrated) by his response, I said that I did not have a booking and that was the reason for the call. He said, “Okay. So … Please hold on, yeah? … Okay, sir. Please hold on. I’m just double-checking something on my end. I’ll deal with you just now.”

Bualealani asked for the date, then the origin and destination and finally my preferred flight number. He then asked me to confirm my last name, first name, phone number and email address because, apparently, that information was on another screen from the one on which he was making my request.

Next, Bualealani said, “What I’m going to need to do now is contact my support team to put in the request.” I was then placed on hold but without any hold music - and without him having asked my preferred class of travel. It was just a dead line. The hold music eventually started about 2 minutes later. After about 3.5 minutes in total, Bualealani returned to the call to say, “We’re nearly there … I just need you to confirm your frequent flyer number for me.” Back on hold again and again with no hold music. After about a further 5 minutes on hold, Bualealani returned to the call to say my request was confirmed and proceeded to give me the booking reference (#5CVRP5). The entire call lasted 21 minutes, the overwhelming bulk of which was spent with Bualealani or waiting on hold for him.

Throughout the many minutes on hold, I monitored my frequent flyer account and noticed the booking appear. And guess what? Bualealani had booked me in delta instead of uniform complete with "Confirmed" alongside it! I knew full well what he had done was entirely wrong, but I was very curious to see how it played out. Within an hour, the reservation had disappeared from my profile and an email had apparently been sent to an email address similar to mine but with an unnecessary period in it. When I phoned back that evening, I was – thank God – assisted by an agent in Auckland who processed my request and confirmed a seat in under a minute.

 

[MrJetset]

A bizarre experience.

I called the platinum number today where my call was answered by Bualealani in Cape Town. I told the gentleman I was calling to request an award seat be released, to which he said, “Have you made a booking yet?” Perplexed (and somewhat frustrated) by his response, I said that I did not have a booking and that was the reason for the call. He said, “Okay. So … Please hold on, yeah? … Okay, sir. Please hold on. I’m just double-checking something on my end. I’ll deal with you just now.”

Bualealani asked for the date, then the origin and destination and finally my preferred flight number. He then asked me to confirm my last name, first name, phone number and email address because, apparently, that information was on another screen from the one on which he was making my request.

Next, Bualealani said, “What I’m going to need to do now is contact my support team to put in the request.” I was then placed on hold but without any hold music - and without him having asked my preferred class of travel. It was just a dead line. The hold music eventually started about 2 minutes later. After about 3.5 minutes in total, Bualealani returned to the call to say, “We’re nearly there … I just need you to confirm your frequent flyer number for me.” Back on hold again and again with no hold music. After about a further 5 minutes on hold, Bualealani returned to the call to say my request was confirmed and proceeded to give me the booking reference (#5CVRP5). The entire call lasted 21 minutes, the overwhelming bulk of which was spent with Bualealani or waiting on hold for him.

Throughout the many minutes on hold, I monitored my frequent flyer account and noticed the booking appear. And guess what? Bualealani had booked me in delta instead of uniform complete with "Confirmed" alongside it! I knew full well what he had done was entirely wrong, but I was very curious to see how it played out. Within an hour, the reservation had disappeared from my profile and an email had apparently been sent to an email address similar to mine but with an unnecessary period in it. When I phoned back that evening, I was – thank God – assisted by an agent in Auckland who processed my request and confirmed a seat in under a minute.

The foreign call centres have been trained to make a commercial class booking and another in an award class. At least that's what Fiji was. As I previously documented, this is completely incorrect and there will be no request to the droid made.

I don't know who they call. Is it a local agent, a helpdesk? Regardless, even that process is an utter fail.

 

[dylarr]

One of the issues I've noticed with Fiji/SA trying to request release of reward seats is the ones who know about the process get most of it right but miss some of the required steps.

From what I understand they need to add the requested X/U/Z/P sectors to the PNR with 'GN' status which is an unconfirmed status (requested). Most of the interactions I've had the agents who know about releasing reward seats get this bit right.

However without any confirmed sectors on the PNR the frequent flyer number (FQTV/FQTR) will drop off and as such the droid won't approve the request. To get around this, agents add a "pseudo flight" sector with confirmed (HK) status to the booking (e.g. QF9098 which uses QZW/QZY airport codes) to the booking. With a confirmed sector on the booking the FQTV/FQTR sticks and the droid can do its thing. Most of the requests I've made that have been handled by Fiji/SA miss this bit and as such the requests never get actioned by the droid until someone (Hobart or Auckland) fixes it.

Once the droid approves the request and swaps out the requested (GN) sectors to confirmed (HK) ones, the agent processing payment of points and taxes will need to drop the pseudo flight sector before it can be ticketed.

 

[muppet]

One of the issues I've noticed with Fiji/SA trying to request release of reward seats is the ones who know about the process get most of it right but miss some of the required steps.

From what I understand they need to add the requested X/U/Z/P sectors to the PNR with 'GN' status which is an unconfirmed status (requested). Most of the interactions I've had the agents who know about releasing reward seats get this bit right.

However without any confirmed sectors on the PNR the frequent flyer number (FQTV) will drop off and as such the droid won't approve the request. To get around this, agents add a confirmed "pseudo flight" sector (the QF9xx_ flights using the ZZF airport code) to the booking. With a confirmed sector on the booking the FQTV sticks and the droid can do its thing. Most of the requests I've made that have been handled by Fiji/SA miss this bit and as such the requests never get actioned by the droid until someone (Hobart or Auckland) fixes it.

Once the droid approves the request and moves the requested sectors to confirmed (HK) status, the agent processing payment of points and taxes will need to drop the pseudo flight sector before it can be ticketed.

I’ll admit I have no idea how it actually works, but in my experience there has never been the existance of any pseudo flights.

If they have been a thing, I have never seen them in a PNR.

The new call centres add actual commercial fare classes into the PNR and then the system denies the request because the pax has a confirmed seat.

 

[dylarr]

I’ll admit I have no idea how it actually works, but in my experience there has never been the existance of any pseudo flights.

If they have been a thing, I have never seen them in a PNR.

The new call centres add actual commercial fare classes into the PNR and then the system denies the request because the pax has a confirmed seat.

Qantas MMB and app doesn't show pseudo flight segments because it suppresses them by design.

However if you type the PNR into MH MMB you will see the pseudo flight segment if the droid is yet to approve the request (if it has been set up correctly).

 

[SYD]

Qantas MMB and app doesn't show pseudo flight segments because it suppresses them by design.

However if you type the PNR into MH MMB you will see the pseudo flight segment if the droid is yet to approve the request (if it has been set up correctly).

CheckMyTrip probably shows that detail also. Anyone with a cancelled flight/credit might find some curious future trips if they look there.

I have a QF 9246 flight to “Fictitious Point” in three days that I’d completely forgotten about. Better start packing!