Reward flights missing from my bookings

[MEL_Traveller]

Well I finally got hold of Qantas. They claim that Cathay have cancelled our seats on the HKG-LHR leg because they've sold the seats to full fare customers. Whilst I tried to explain that this doesn't seem correct, there was no changing things. I asked why I wasn't informed. No response. I'm glad I checked and didn't just turn up at the airport in August.
Now I just need to find a way to Europe mid August.
Thanks everyone for your help.

Agree with NM. The call centre agent has no idea why your ticket was cancelled and seems to have made something up.

A possible scenario is a failure to reticket in time leading to CX cancelling their sectors. But also worth noting that the CX237 departing HKG at 0015 no longer operates… it is now CX255 departing at 0025.

It might be worth contacting Cathay reservations to see what’s happened at their end.. it might be that their auto-protect didn’t kick in and has left you off the new flight.

There are still business class seats for sale on the new CX255… so it’s not like they needed your seats to give to paying customers.

I would also contact qantas again. Explain that there’s been a change in flight number and departure times and this seems to have removed your flights… ask them to contact the OneWorld disruption desk to see if you can get your flights reinstated on the new flight numbers.

 

[DC3]

And I suggest that you keep phoning the Call Centre. HUACA if necessary, as painful as that is, until you get someone who is prepared to actually assist you.

As already mentioned, above, the Call Centre can request the oneworld desk to have your CX booking “re-instated”. Any decent Call Centre operator would have pro-actively offered this to you.

It may take a couple of days, or more to get confirmation of re-instatement, although my recent re-instatement request was fixed within 24 hours. I only discovered this while monitoring MMB. The re-issued e-ticket followed.

And, reservation changes/issues are dealt with by phone, not by email, just to clarify.

Edited

 

[renatts]

Well I finally got hold of Qantas. They claim that Cathay have cancelled our seats on the HKG-LHR leg because they've sold the seats to full fare customers. Whilst I tried to explain that this doesn't seem correct, there was no changing things. I asked why I wasn't informed. No response. I'm glad I checked and didn't just turn up at the airport in August.
Now I just need to find a way to Europe mid August.
Thanks everyone for your help.

This is absolutely not true.
As NM said, and as I suspected in my earlier post, Qantas have not reissued the tickets after making a domestic change before Cathays ticketing time limit was reached and they have autocancelled the flights. Someone else has seen the availability appear and booked them, or the seats never went back into the FF pool.

This exact thing happened to me with Qatar. Qantas didn't re-issue the tickets fast enough after a time change from a QF Domestic leg of the Oneworld award. The Qatar flights disappeared from my booking without notice. When I logged in a week after they had disappeared the flights were gone, and someone else had booked the award seats. The agent told me the cancel date, and she told me they have specific rules around Qatar that tickets must be issued straight away. I asked if any other airlines are like this for future reference and she said Cathay. She had revenue seats HKG to BNE on QF converted to award seats because it was a Qantas mistake.
Funnily enough this happened to me a bunch more times, but I was checking daily so never lost my seats. After the 8th time I gave up on Qatar and found a different route home, can only call Qantas weekly for so long before giving up.

As has been suggested, call back, and keep calling until someone offers you a solution.

I would advise telling the agent you know they were autocancelled due to the tickets not being reissued within the ticketing time limit, and this is now in Qantas hands to fix (as nicely as possible).
Go to the Qantas call centre long wait times post and use the numbers up top there.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It’s a bit more too it than that though… the original CX flight doesn’t exist anymore.

 

[NM]

It’s a bit more too it than that though… the original CX flight doesn’t exist anymore.

The thick plottens, as the lysdexic author would write.

And of course if there was a ticketed FF award itinerary using the cancelled CX flight, QF should have notified the traveller in a timely manner and offered options for re-accommodation or a full refund if no suitable re-accommodation could be identified. So either way, its very poor customer service.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The thick plottens, as the lysdexic author would write.

And of course if there was a ticketed FF award itinerary using the cancelled CX flight, QF should have notified the traveller in a timely manner and offered options for re-accommodation or a full refund if no suitable re-accommodation could be identified. So either way, its very poor customer service.

I’m wondering if this somehow fell through the cracks. CX is usually pretty good at protecting pax on the next available flight so the change of time and flight number shouldn’t have been an issue, but maybe something went wrong. Or maybe combined with a change in the domestic sector it caused some disconnect.

it might not necessarily be 100% QF’s fault here. Maybe just 95%

Hopefully a call to either CX or QF can get the flights reinstated as there are seats still available that can be converted to awards.

 

[NM]

I’m wondering if this somehow fell through the cracks. CX is usually pretty good at protecting pax on the next available flight so the change of time and flight number shouldn’t have been an issue, but maybe something went wrong. Or maybe combined with a change in the domestic sector it caused some disconnect.

it might not necessarily be 100% QF’s fault here. Maybe just 95%

Hopefully a call to either CX or QF can get the flights reinstated as there are seats still available that can be converted to awards.

When I had an FF award flight cancelled by CX early in the COVID cancellations, they were very much proactive in letting me know and asking what option I wanted (refund or reschedule). In my case, the FF redemption was using CX Asia Miles for a flight operated by QF, so the opposite situation to this circumstance. But the difference in customer service is chalk and cheese. The day QF cancelled the flight (about 3 months before flight date), I received a phone call from CX (agent in Hong Kong) apologising for the inconvenience, and asking if I wanted a refund of Asia Miles and co-payment back to my credit card, or to rebook for a later date for a flight that will still scheduled to operate. I opted for the refund and it was all processed (points and credit card refund) withing 3 days.

While CX is notorious for auto-cancelling non-issued bookings, QF's track record of reissuing tickets and dealing with flight disruptions has been consistently poor. So I'll suggest the fault here is likely somewhere between the 95% and 100% mark in QF's "favour".

 

[renatts]

It’s a bit more too it than that though… the original CX flight doesn’t exist anymore.

Where did you read that?
From OPs posts I gathered the flight he booked is still running but his award seats are gone.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Where did you read that?
From OPs posts I gathered the flight he booked is still running but his award seats are gone.

If you have a look at their posted itinerary (screenshot in an earlier post) and then cross-reference against CX’s schedule. The original flight ex HKG is no longer the same flight number or departure time.

 

[renatts]

If you have a look at their posted itinerary (screenshot in an earlier post) and then cross-reference against CX’s schedule. The original flight ex HKG is no longer the same flight number or departure time.

Ahh yes, now its CX255 departing 10 whole minutes later than CX237.

@jrbridge I just did a search and CX104 from MEL - HKG is showing at least 2 business awards available on QF search.
I'm not sure what option you're willing to take - but on from HKG on 14.08.22 there is Premium Economy to Madrid then you can connect on to Paris from there - at least to get something booked in while you look for better options.

 

[renatts]

How adventurous are you feeling..

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Sorry to hear of your loss. However, you are in a fairly powerful position at this very moment. You have reward flights booked and QF/CX messed up that ticket. Any agent that tells you that you need to cancel the ticket and rebook on your own is either misinformed or lying to you. The airlines are the ones who stuffed up the ticket so they are the ones who must fix it, even if it means having to open up availability on partner airlines to make it happen. My recommendation, and what I've done in the past when I've encountered this issue is to point that out and ask what options they have available. If you get any pushback remind them that they were the ones who stuffed up and that they should get in touch with the OneWorld disruption desk to get this sorted. If they still aren't listening I'd ask for a supervisor. Be polite but firm with them. They screwed up your reservation and need to make good on it.

-RooFlyer88

 

[mikeQFF]

And I suggest that you keep phoning the Call Centre. HUACA if necessary, as painful as that is, until you get someone who is prepared to actually assist you.

As already mentioned, above, the Call Centre can request the oneworld desk to have your CX booking “re-instated”. Any decent Call Centre operator would have pro-actively offered this to you.

It may take a couple of days, or more to get confirmation of re-instatement, although my recent re-instatement request was fixed within 24 hours. I only discovered this while monitoring MMB. The re-issued e-ticket followed.

And, reservation changes/issues are dealt with by phone, not by email, just to clarify.

Edited

Has your general experience been that they were able to reinstate the flights with no issues?

Seems like one of my CX legs had a flight number and time change and I was never reticketed by Qantas, causing me to lose the CX flight and 2 QR flights. Change happened last Thurs, noticed it on MMB yesterday.

I am waiting to hear back from the OneWorld desk but bricking it that they will say that theres nothing they can do. If you've generally had a good experience it'll help me stress less haha.

 

[DC3]

Has your general experience been that they were able to reinstate the flights with no issues?

Seems like one of my CX legs had a flight number and time change and I was never reticketed by Qantas, causing me to lose the CX flight and 2 QR flights. Change happened last Thurs, noticed it on MMB yesterday.

I am waiting to hear back from the OneWorld desk but bricking it that they will say that theres nothing they can do. If you've generally had a good experience it'll help me stress less haha.

Due to QF causing an AA flight to drop off my itinerary, the Hobart Call Centre sent a request to the oneworld desk for re-instatement. There were no longer awards available. I was told to expect to hear back within seven days. I noticed re-instatement in MMB within 48 hours, but no other advice received, other than subsequent e-ticket re-issue.

 

[mikeQFF]

Due to QF causing an AA flight to drop off my itinerary, the Hobart Call Centre sent a request to the oneworld desk for re-instatement. There were no longer awards available. I was told to expect to hear back within seven days. I noticed re-instatement in MMB within 48 hours, but no other advice received, other than subsequent e-ticket re-issue.

How goods that! Just confirming that they reinstated the same rewards class as you had before it dropped off?

 

[encryptededdy]

Has your general experience been that they were able to reinstate the flights with no issues?

Per Rewards seats changed from QR to QF without approval and from J to Y
It looks like you're unlikely to have any luck with QR sadly

 

[DC3]

How goods that! Just confirming that they reinstated the same rewards class as you had before it dropped off?

Yes, U Class, 2 x award seats on AA

 

[mikeQFF]

Per Rewards seats changed from QR to QF without approval and from J to Y
It looks like you're unlikely to have any luck with QR sadly

Oh wow.. I wonder if I could plead my case to QR and see if they can do anything at all but that's not looking good at all