Struggling to get Points from Finnair Code Share

[V1213]

Hi all,

I'm having a hard time getting Qantas to credit my account for a Finnair code share flight and I'm wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences where Qantas virtually refuse to credit?

The flight in question is AY4063 (YUL-JFK), which is a code share of AA3952.
After I took this flight it looked like the system tried to automatically credit to my account:

AY 4063 FLEXIBLE ECONOMY 13JAN18 YUL/JFK

However, the points and status columns for this entry were both:

-

As such I sent an email to the frequent flyer team with my boarding pass and e-ticket and requested it be credited manually.
Unfortunately the first response from Qantas was:

I'm unable to credit your account with Qantas Points for your travel on AY4063 with Finnair, as Charter flights or Industry fares aren't eligible for earning. Points for travel on Classic Flight Rewards are also ineligible for earning.

I then replied confirming that the flight was purchased as a revenue [non-industry] fare (I had already attached the e-ticket demonstrating this) and that the flight was a regularly-scheduled code share, not a charter.
The next response was:

For us to credit the points appropriately, please send a request to Finnair confirming that the flight was not a chartered flight and should be eligible to earn points. The confirmation from them should include the following:

- Flight number
- Date of travel
- Origin and destination

Once we have this letter, we'll be happy to credit your membership as soon as possible.

Clearly Qantas doesn't believe that AY4063 is not a charter flight. I note that when I use the online points earning calculator, Finnair is not an airline that it is aware of for earning points on YUL-JFK flights - just AA and QF appear.

While it is understandable that Qantas is going to have some holes in their database for somewhat obscure city pairs like this, I'm disappointed that they want me to do the leg work and harass Finnair about this. I would've expected Qantas to contact Finnair themselves to verify this, as it would appear Qantas are the ones with the incomplete data set and lack of staff empowerment to deal with it.

Has anyone else had to chase up partner airlines to provide Qantas with confirmation of the status of their flights?
Is it just me that thinks that Qantas has made this unnecessarily complicated?

Keen to hear your thoughts!

Thanks,
Tom

 

[oz_mark]

What was the booking class of the ticket?

 

[V1213]

It was an I class fare, but since this flight is operated by all-Economy aircraft this leg was in Y.

 

[Jack_OC]

I had a similar problem once - it was a BA code operated by EI. I got similar responses to you initially. I ended up dropping it - the flight was only going to earn something like 50 points and 10 SCs - initially I thought I might need the SCs, hence I chased it up originally. When it became clear that I didn't need the SCs, I gave up. I eventually got credited about 8 months later, out of the blue. It was actually after my QFF anniversary date though, so the SCs didn't count for anything anyway!

 

[dajop]

Maybe you could point them to the Finnair website with a screenshot showing the said flight? The problem may well be that Finnair can’t sell the sector in its own right so simply searching for YUL-JFK will not yield result, instead would need to search in conjunction with transatlantic sector (ie YUL-HEL which brings up this option via JFK).

 

[calmelb]

I had similar issues on a Finnar flight HEL-HKG & HEL-BIL (However that was on Finnair metal too). Told by the automated system & email that it was a charter and not eligible to earn. I ended up ringing them and the woman on the phone was confused why it said it was a charter.

Maybe ringing might help you? If you can explain it to them over the phone it might help out.

 

[serfty]

What was the actual fare Class for the segment in Question s shown on your e-ticket?

 

[vandy]

I've had issues with some Finnair sectors of a multi-city trip not crediting at all. I initially put them in the missing points form and the result was something like error incorrect city pair. A phone call to Qantas and they told me they can't help over the phone, please email a copy of your boarding pass and eTicket. Did this and was given a points adjustment.

 

[V1213]

What was the actual fare Class for the segment in Question s shown on your e-ticket?

The fare class for this segment was Y.

 

[V1213]

UPDATE:
After filling in a contact form on the Finnair website, they responded within a few days with a simple email:

Hello and thank you for contacting us.

AY4063 13JAN18 YUL-JFK was not a charter flight.

Hope it will help you!

This has now been forwarded to Qantas, so hopefully this resolve the issue...

 

[V1213]

RESOLUTION:
Qantas responded with:

We've reviewed your claim for flight in question, however, we're still unable to credit Qantas Points for your claim as your flight was operated by a different airline.

In order to maximise flight frequency, airlines sometimes share aircraft capacity with another airline, and these are called codeshare flights. These flights carry two flight numbers, one from the marketed airline and one from the operated airline.

This was, once again, infuriatingly incorrect as the flight was operated by AA and was therefore eligible for earning.

Instead of responding by email again I hopped on the phone and, after identifying myself, was put on hold for about 10 minutes before simply told that they would credit my account, without any mention of why it has been such a process to get to this stage.

I guess I should've called them sooner, as you guys suggested! haha
Either way, disappointing that this couldn't be resolved simply...

 

[serfty]

The Qantas Customer service portal is I belive outsourced to another company where seemingly the only important thing is having issues resolved closed as soon as possible and with the least effort.

The easiest way to do this with such miscredits is assume the computer has correctly said no and reject your issue outright.

If they can't do that, they request more infomation and close the case anyway.

So you send the info requested, another case is raised, which immediatly doubles the volume and halves the average resulution time/effort. They then close the new case with something like "can't read the attachment" without contacting you.

After you fruilessly wait a while with no contact you send a follow then send a third request in, so the volume is tripled, resulting time averages less etc.

All of which statistically looks good for them with KPIs but really provides poor service.

I have had the above happen to me with no less than 6 SR's raised for the one issue - only being resolved after three months by after raising a case with the Airline Customer Advocate (www.airlinecustomeradvocate.com.au).

 

[**TBA**]

Exact same thing happened to me about two years ago, with a Air Berlin flight booked in Y (as part of a J ticket on Finnair).

First they told me the booking class was ineligible, which is nonsense. And I hassled them enough that I eventually - a month later - received a phone call. The lady on the phone was rude, and said they thought it was a charter flight originally, but obviously someone looked into it properly eventually. I did also send through my boarding pass, so maybe send that through?

 

[RichardMEL]

It's so irritating when they just can't get something relatively simple like this right thr first time...

... or at least when queried rectify it quickly and simply the first time.

Glad you finally got it resolved!

 

[cmon0005]

Not as bad as your case, but i have noted as of late qff service centre (plat line) taking ages to resolve stuff, and even when obvious simple corrections are needed the agent can't seem to do the adjustment themselves.

I recently completed an international crowne plaza stay it posted as 500 points whereas the qf site says 600 so needed 100 points extra.

Agent said it would be done in 4-5 hours. Fast forward 3 days no credit so called again to be told they don't post the adjustments themselves and a 'product specialist' has to do it.

When I asked why they couldn't do a mesley 100 point adjustment they said qff policy doesn't allow them to anymore has to be done offline by a product specialist and have multiple days to do it.

Very poor state of affairs nowdays at qff service centre, compared to when it was based in melb?

 

[opusman]

Problems with AY flights crediting to QF continue. Over a year ago I had two AY flights (AY operated and marketed), neither credited automatically. I filled out the form on the QF website and about a week later my points activity showed the claims were denied due to invalid fare class. Now these were both I class which is a valid AY earn bucket for Qantas. So I emailed them and a few days later the flights were credited.

Fast forward to now, exactly the same thing has happened (this time D class which again is a valid earn bucket). There must be some problem with the way flight information is transferred from AY to QF, that they continue to see AY flights as being in the wrong fare class.

 

[PineappleSkip]

I filled out the form on the QF website and about a week later my points activity showed the claims were denied due to invalid fare class. Now these were both I class which is a valid AY earn bucket for Qantas. So I emailed them and a few days later the flights were credited.

The pineapples had an exact rerun of this problem. Same BS reason for denial of points and SCs. Emailed them together with another grievance about another BS reason for another wrongful denial on a QF flight a month later. Suspect that QFF is so swamped by IT stuffups that they're hitting the first button handy when people make claims. Poor service but efficient in reducing cost and second tier fix requests.

Cheers skip