QFF Platinum requesting release of extra Classic Reward seats?

[dvt]

I've had a very average experience with qantas these past few weeks. I booked QR business class award seats to London over Easter. I booked these as soon as they were released knowing this would be a busy time to travel.

QR cancelled my flight 2 weeks ago and put me on a flight 2 days later. This flight didn't work with my plans so I called qantas for options. I was told that I had no options and that they could cancel my flight if needed. I pushed them for options and they agreed to go back to QR with a request. I also pushed them to release seats on their own planes given loadings were extremely light in J for that entire week. I was then waitlisted for business seats with QF but when I called back I was notified that the request was rejected. QR also rejected the request.

I did some creative searching myself and managed to piece together a business award with QR and BA to get me to London on time, although it did amount to over 30 hours of travelling! This week I decided to renew my expert flyer subscription. Out of the blue I was notified of business awards seats with QF on QF9.

I'm extremely happy that I got the flight but extremely disappointed with Qantas. I've been platinum for the past 5 years and they did not want to help one bit. But then they release seats the following week, great customer service!

 

[fifo]

I've had a very average experience with qantas these past few weeks. I booked QR business class award seats to London over Easter. I booked these as soon as they were released knowing this would be a busy time to travel.

QR cancelled my flight 2 weeks ago and put me on a flight 2 days later. This flight didn't work with my plans so I called qantas for options. I was told that I had no options and that they could cancel my flight if needed. I pushed them for options and they agreed to go back to QR with a request. I also pushed them to release seats on their own planes given loadings were extremely light in J for that entire week. I was then waitlisted for business seats with QF but when I called back I was notified that the request was rejected. QR also rejected the request.

I did some creative searching myself and managed to piece together a business award with QR and BA to get me to London on time, although it did amount to over 30 hours of travelling! This week I decided to renew my expert flyer subscription. Out of the blue I was notified of business awards seats with QF on QF9.

I'm extremely happy that I got the flight but extremely disappointed with Qantas. I've been platinum for the past 5 years and they did not want to help one bit. But then they release seats the following week, great customer service!

Sorry for your troubles. That is not ideal at all. Loyalty goes both ways imo.

 

[ChrisMars]

I'm extremely happy that I got the flight but extremely disappointed with Qantas. I've been platinum for the past 5 years and they did not want to help one bit. But then they release seats the following week, great customer service!

The disappointment is understandable. Just pointing out that the seat you snatched is more likely a reward cancellation from another customer, rather than Qantas releasing additional award seats.

 

[dvt]

The disappointment is understandable. Just pointing out that the seat you snatched is more likely a reward cancellation from another customer, rather than Qantas releasing additional award seats.

I actually think they were released. When I got the alert there were around 10 business seats and a number of premium seats from either Melbourne and Sydney across the month of April.

 

[Matt_01]

I'm extremely happy that I got the flight but extremely disappointed with Qantas. I've been platinum for the past 5 years and they did not want to help one bit. But then they release seats the following week, great customer service!

Over the years I have been through the same thought process as I have been P1 for around 9 years and am questioning the value not only of P1 but also WP.

The disappointment is understandable. Just pointing out that the seat you snatched is more likely a reward cancellation from another customer, rather than Qantas releasing additional award seats.

I seriously doubt it was a 'seat snatch' the QF ITS are not that so sophisticated.

 

[kpc]

I did get 3 J award seats (one was bookable online so ended up with a total of 4 J awards) released by Qf for Syd to Hnd a few years back as a Plat...they were requested about 10-11 months prior...and from memory I had a couple of Y awards seats on hold in case the J awards were not released...need not have bothered as the onboard service was so bad I made a complaint to the IFS within an hour of take-off I suspect this Plat award release would not happen now post Covid!

 

[ChrisMars]

I seriously doubt it was a 'seat snatch' the QF ITS are not that so sophisticated.

Maybe I used the expression seat snatch without understanding it. Do you mind explaining its meaning, and how it relates the level of IT sophistication?

 

[Matt_01]

Maybe I used the expression seat snatch without understanding it. Do you mind explaining its meaning, and how it relates the level of IT sophistication?

Re reading your post I may have miss understood your reference to 'seat snatch' in the context of this thread. My interpretation of your post was you may have been suggesting that seat request that was approved subsequently cancelled will go back to the U bucket and become available to someone else. I would assume that requested seats if cancelled would return to what ever the lowest fare bucket available at the time of cancellation be J/C/D/I. There isn't a specific seat snatch term in IT sophistication, most airline booking engines are re skinned global systems be it Amadeus, Sabre etc. Please accept my apology if I have caused offence.

 

[ChrisMars]

Re reading your post I may have miss understood your reference to 'seat snatch' in the context of this thread. My interpretation of your post was you may have been suggesting that seat request that was approved subsequently cancelled will go back to the U bucket and become available to someone else. I would assume that requested seats if cancelled would return to what ever the lowest fare bucket available at the time of cancellation be J/C/D/I. There isn't a specific seat snatch term in IT sophistication, most airline booking engines are re skinned global systems be it Amadeus, Sabre etc. Please accept my apology if I have caused offence.

Ah got it, all good. No worries couldn't fell offended, cause I didn't understand. Between frequent flyer terms, an non-native english, this happens from time to time, so I prefer to ask, thanks for the explanations.

Like @dvt I have been looking at SYD/MEL-LHR on Qantas for mid April, and I saw a few J awards. I called Qantas (Tuesday?) to optimistically (D0-I0) ask for a release on my date, she say no way, there is no sales fare. I pointed out there was a few J awards on other days, yet only Flex fare on those days, she was quick to say those would be cancelled award. Could make sense, many FF are using their million points to book more trips than needed, and cancel. Plus Covid is rising again over there. Anyway, I now have my EF alerts setup for my date. Let's see.

 

[dvt]

Ah got it, all good. No worries couldn't fell offended, cause I didn't understand. Between frequent flyer terms, an non-native english, this happens from time to time, so I prefer to ask, thanks for the explanations.

Like @dvt I have been looking at SYD/MEL-LHR on Qantas for mid April, and I saw a few J awards. I called Qantas (Tuesday?) to optimistically (D0-I0) ask for a release on my date, she say no way, there is no sales fare. I pointed out there was a few J awards on other days, yet only Flex fare on those days, she was quick to say those would be cancelled award. Could make sense, many FF are using their million points to book more trips than needed, and cancel. Plus Covid is rising again over there. Anyway, I now have my EF alerts setup for my date. Let's see.

Fingers crossed you get something. Going by my experience and the alert that I set up, it looks as if Qantas are indeed releasing a number of seats at a given time. In the morning there were no seats for the whole month of April but at 3.30 pm there were more than 10 business seats across random dates in April, luckily one of them aligned with my plans.

 

[ozflier]

I

Fingers crossed you get something. Going by my experience and the alert that I set up, it looks as if Qantas are indeed releasing a number of seats at a given time. In the morning there were no seats for the whole month of April but at 3.30 pm there were more than 10 business seats across random dates in April, luckily one of them aligned with my plans.

I've always assumed award seat release time for QF flights was 1000 hrs .
Maybe its changing?

 

[sudoer]

I've always assumed award seat release time for QF flights was 1000 hrs .
Maybe its changing?

It's 0000 GMT (10/11am Sydney time depending on DST) for the awards being released a year in advance, what @dvt describes sounds like some last minute award inventory being added by yield management - presumably because they do not expect the seats to sell for cash.

 

[ozmouse]

Dont know about extra award seat, but received email today saying my 26APR QF35 MEL-SIN was changed to 27th. When you go online, flight not flying?!?! So called plat line, call back 52 minutes later, requested routing thru sydney on 26th instead of date change, and no problem 3 minute job done. Good customer service and plat benefit if that is what it was.... sydney first lounge here i come!

 

[Nickor]

Success yesterday 2 x J SYD-LAX Wed 11 May

 

[jakeseven7]

A PDF from previous years informing call centre agents of blanket bans for award release requests during school holidays, weekends and certain peak travel times.

My point is the droid is configured by revenue management. Given this ban has been in place in previous years, current experience by many reports indicate they are being rejected.

Given QF 11/12 and 1/2 are flying full atm due to reduced capacity and revenge travel, it makes business sense for QF to restrict awards. Most airlines are doing this as well as partner blocking.

Yes the international bookings are apparently building quite quickly.

The imminent removal of pre flight testing to get back to Australia will be a another demand booster.

We all need all airlines to keep building their capacity so we get a return to more ‘normalised’ capacity for us FF’s to work our magic again

 

[Jean Prouvaire]

Requested two business class seats to be released on Saturday as a Platinum member:

• 1 x J SYD-LAX 20 May - declined after several days of a placeholder booking giving me hope
• 1 x J LAX-SYD 6 June - approved

The above serves as a data point, what follows is just narrative on the process and a related booking.

The placeholder booking was actually the MEL-LAX leg of a SYD-MEL-LAX journey. The SYD-MEL leg was approved and the MEL-LAX leg eventually declined.

When I requested the reward seats to be released I said I would be happy to go either direct, or indirect via Melbourne or Brisbane, so the powers that be must have tried a couple of different options as the outbound trip under consideration was indirect and the return trip direct.

What was strange is that the MEL-LAX placeholder booking was visible only in the Qantas app. The website showed only the SYD-MEL leg of the outbound journey, but the MEL-LAX leg wasn't visible at all.

It seems the Qantas app accesses the underlying booking system in a different manner to the website. And, in fact, Qantas staff use another access method yet again. Which is why you sometimes get different results and access to different functionality talking to a call centre staff member, going through the website, or using the app. For example, you can add a carbon offset to a trip through the website or app when booking a rewards flight, but the call centre could not do this for me.

Which is why I ended up booking the outbound and return legs as separate trips - one in J (released upon request via the call centre) and one in Y (booked normally through the app, with carbon offset added - which also got me to Green Tier).

Similarly, I tried to book the economy outbound leg on the morning after the rewards system was down overnight for maintenance, so no classic rewards flights appeared at all on the website. But they did appear via the app.

When speaking to a call centre rep a few days later on a related issue (the economy leg didn't ticket due to a hiccup with the extra legroom seat I selected) she said that classic rewards flights booked via the app go through as "points plus pay" bookings and so (if I understood her correctly) had to be manually transformed into class rewards booking before being released.

TLDR: Qantas booking systems and processes seem to bolted together willy nilly.

 

[ChrisMars]

she said that classic rewards flights booked via the app go through as "points plus pay" bookings and so (if I understood her correctly) had to be manually transformed into class rewards booking before being released.

That bit is scary. There was a fair bit of reports of flight booked as classic reward by members, but treated as points plus pay by Qantas staff later down the track, which caused a bunch of unfair issue, I think when the member wanted to cancel. Wondering if what you mention is the root cause of that problem.

 

[levelnine]

she said that classic rewards flights booked via the app go through as "points plus pay" bookings

When bookings are made through the Qantas app, doesn't it simply launch an in-app Internet browser (ie they're made through the same avenue as the web)?

 

[diesel canberra]

Requested 2 x J seats SYD to HND on 25 July. Q kindly declined my request. A bit unfortunate as the Syd flight connects more efficiently than the Bris flight we are currently booked on through to our final destination. Really the only dismal part of the experience is spending three hours on hold waiting to be declined....aghhhh

 

[BLK343]

Requested 2 x J seats SYD to HND on 25 July. Q kindly declined my request. A bit unfortunate as the Syd flight connects more efficiently than the Bris flight we are currently booked on through to our final destination. Really the only dismal part of the experience is spending three hours on hold waiting to be declined....aghhhh

Shame as "I" bucket still available!