The definitive thread on Qantas IT gripes

[dylarr]

1. You must try again sir, we don't have access to do this, only you can do it.
2. You must wait nearer the time to link lounge invitations (less than 24 hours)
3. The lounge might be full.
4. The system is being upgraded.

All fob-off answers designed to get you off the phone.

Telling people they must link the invitations less than 24 hours to departure is hilariously bad advice however. The Complimentary Lounge Invitations Terms and Conditions explicitly states:

Eligible Customers must link the Invitation to an Eligible Flight in the Portal at least 24 hours prior to flight departure.

(In practice and under some circumstances, the system does allow you to link lounge invitations close to departure though)

 

[justinbrett]

So I received the dreaded "We've had to make some changes ..." e-mail - two, actually, both replacing HBA-ADL direct flights; one points in Biz , the other revenue, in whY ( ). I think it was an all economy cabin on an Alliance plane.

This is what Qantas IT managed to send me (both the same for different dates)

View attachment 278159

Yeah, typical - I thought- substitue a flight Hobart to Adelaide with one from Melbourne to Adelaide. So I called (gritted teeth but Plat line answered in 15 mins).

Turns out, that they had actually already put me onto HBA-MEL, MEL-ADL flights. Yeah, so why not show these on the changed flights e-mail? They weren't optimal, but I may have accepted them. On both days I have all day to get to Adelaide.

This is so, so dumb. Just dumb. I called and used the call centre unnecessarily. Qantas IT strikes again! Although the HBA call centre was great and upgraded me to Business for the second flight.




Doesn't bother me - I'm bemused by someone coming into the QF IT gripes (problems) thread and expressing that they experienced something that simply worked as it should, and thinking it brings 'balance' to about 490 prior posts over 3 years, 25 pages of problems . And I dunno what the 'narrative' thing is - butI think if there is a 'narrative', this thread encapsulates it.

So this is exactly why I posted my account. How did you view this change to your booking? I used the phone app, clicked the manage booking option and then there was a link next to the cancelled flight to view options.

The reason I posted is to show, much to my surprise, the qantas tech can in fact work despite complications like corporate travel agent booking, international connection etc. I would be interested if you used a different method to view your changes, and we could identify if there are better ways than others to make your changes.

 

[encryptededdy]

So this is exactly why I posted my account. How did you view this change to your booking? I used the phone app, clicked the manage booking option and then there was a link next to the cancelled flight to view options.

I think RooFlyer just viewed the email. I've had this issue with Qantas emails in the past too.

I think what happens is the "flight changed" email is only capable of showing one flight as the old flight, and one flight as the new flight. Thus, if Qantas changes you from a connecting flight to a direct flight or vice-versa, the email can show you something misleading (e.g. the above looks like the destination is changing from Melbourne to Sydney, but in reality if you check in MMB you can see that it's changed to PER - SYD - MEL, it's just the email never shows the second flight).

Of course I always check MMB or the app which shows a lot more detail about the change, but if you only rely on emails then you could be mislead by this.

Since we're talking about Qantas IT gripes, another quirk of the flight change email system is that it only shows the "+1" for next day on only one of the two flights. If you look at the below I suppose you could think the old flight landed same day whereas the new flight lands next day, whereas in reality they both land the same day, the system just never adds "+1" to the old flight for some reason.


Also I've had the system do truly weird things such as this

Why would you move the flight from 6:30pm to 6am if the 6:30pm flight is cancelled? To their credit MMB let me pick a different flight at 6:00PM instead, but I have no idea why the system would suggest a flight 12 hours earlier as the default.

 

[RooFlyer]

How did you view this change to your booking? I used the phone app,

Of course I checked the phone app before I tried a possibly hour+wait on the phone. Do you think anyone would choose to do that, if it could be avoided? But of course the app was showing the original flights, no change. Freak'n hopeless.

BUT even if it did show the changed flights and I could select or actually manage the alternatives there - why the hell can't the e-mail show all/both the new flights? Is it incompetence amongst the IT mob, or that Qantas management just doesn't give a stuff? Meh, let them figure it out.

Why would you move the flight from 6:30pm to 6am if the 6:30pm flight is cancelled?.

For the same reason it will often give gives new flights departing before the connecting flight arrives etc. I've opined up thread (I think this one) that the system deliberately gives unworkable options when a workable option isn't available, hence prompting you to call. But nah, its probably just a screw-up.

 

[Quickstatus]

but I feel like maybe this isn't ticketed

It is not ticketed without a ticket number.
But there could be a ticket number - just the airline has not informed you yet.\

A PNR is just that - a passenger name record. It may or may not contain a ticket

 

[Mothy]

I have not received a flight change or cancellation email or text, despite my Naples - Paris - Hong Kong - Melbourne flight now looking like this when I log in. A boat from London to Hong Kong perhaps?
Departing in eight weeks.

 

[justinbrett]

Of course I checked the phone app before I tried a possibly hour+wait on the phone. Do you think anyone would choose to do that, if it could be avoided? But of course the app was showing the original flights, no change. Freak'n hopeless.

BUT even if it did show the changed flights and I could select or actually manage the alternatives there - why the hell can't the e-mail show all/both the new flights? Is it incompetence amongst the IT mob, or that Qantas management just doesn't give a stuff? Meh, let them figure it out.



For the same reason it will often give gives new flights departing before the connecting flight arrives etc. I've opined up thread (I think this one) that the system deliberately gives unworkable options when a workable option isn't available, hence prompting you to call. But nah, its probably just a screw-up.

You’re very defensive and angry. I simply asked you a question.

 

[Guvner]

You’re very defensive and angry. I simply asked you a question.

Can we move on please?

 

[teamhamsandwich]

I've been hit with the old Qantas Generic Error. Cleared cache, cleared history, tried different browser, tried phone. Qantas does not want me booking these flights.

 

[Hvr]

A new one today. Was boarding and had just scanned my BP from the phone. As I walked to the plane door a message is sent to advise that boarding has commenced.

This hid the BP and meant that the BP had to be found again to show to the FA at the plane door.

 

[SydneySwan]

My latest problem. Going to Manila from Sydney with Mrs SS on 25/5. Successfully allocated a lounge voucher to Mrs SS this morning. Tried to allocate a lounge voucher to myself but fails every time.

Please review the following items:

• Something went wrong. Please try again later.

I have rung Qantas but have received nonsense answers. Here is a selection;

1. You must try again sir, we don't have access to do this, only you can do it.
2. You must wait nearer the time to link lounge invitations (less than 24 hours)
3. The lounge might be full.
4. The system is being upgraded.

The current situation is that the Manila call centre have promised to escalate internally and call me back within 24-48 hours. Just a totally unsatisfactory response with no-one senior able to talk with me now.

Update - I have now successfully linked a lounge voucher for my flight for tomorrow. I kept the pressure on with Manila and eventually I had a call earlier this evening asking me to try and link my lounge voucher and it worked. So my persistence paid off in that I was refusing to take no for an answer but really it shouldn't be that hard. No explanation as to what happened and how they managed to resolve it but at least it did get resolved.

 

[JohnM]

A new one today. Was boarding and had just scanned my BP from the phone. As I walked to the plane door a message is sent to advise that boarding has commenced.

This hid the BP and meant that the BP had to be found again to show to the FA at the plane door.

I had exactly the same thing happen at BNE today, except that it occurred just as I approached the scanner.

 

[RooFlyer]

You’re very defensive and angry. I simply asked you a question.

And your question allowed me to describe a second Qantas IT failure. What on earth do I have to be defensive about? I'm not the one making the screw-ups or defending them . Angry? I got a great result by calling the HBA call centre (albeit with a longer wait than there should be for a Plat) , including J cabins rather than Y and more SC and points earned on the revenue fare. Pretty happy with that! No, as I said above, I'm bemused that there would be this solo waving the Qantas flag in a massive thread of Qantas IT failures. Just like a white patch placed on a black wall, this contrast just re-inforces the massive weight of IT failures.

 

[levelnine]

This hid the BP and meant that the BP had to be found again to show to the FA at the plane door.

Happens all the time for me. Often the Qantas app crashes or reloads or does something else right before boarding or on the jet bridge, which is why I save the BP to Apple Wallet now.

 

[RooFlyer]

A new one today. Was boarding and had just scanned my BP from the phone. As I walked to the plane door a message is sent to advise that boarding has commenced.

This hid the BP and meant that the BP had to be found again to show to the FA at the plane door.

I had exactly the same thing happen at BNE today, except that it occurred just as I approached the scanner.

Sounds like another good reason to avoid the Qantas tech a bit and stick with paper BPs (ie swap OLCI for paper at the lounge).

 

[ChrisMars]

Sounds like another good reason to avoid the Qantas tech a bit and stick with paper BPs (ie swap OLCI for paper at the lounge).

I usually take a screenshot of my BP, to mitigate the risk of app issue, and I try to get a paper one at self service kiosk when its possible, in case phone dies, netwrok issue etc... I do that more with foreign airlines than with Qantas thought.

 

[JohnM]

Sounds like another good reason to avoid the Qantas tech a bit and stick with paper BPs (ie swap OLCI for paper at the lounge).

It was not a problem. It's just that I had my BP showing on the screen and was about to scan it when the boarding commenced message popped up on my phone. Basically, that just dominated the screen momentarily and then it dropped back to the primary screen, meaning I had to select 'Show BP' again. It was just slightly inconvenient timing as it would have seemed to people behind that this guy didn't have his BP ready to scan.

It was really just that the momentary boarding message hit my phone just at an inconvenient time by a few seconds.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I've been a member of QFF since 2009 and my name has been fine. I've never progressed beyond silver as most of my flying is about once a year in J to UK and more often than not, I don't get a forward and return journey in the same membership year. So I joined QC recently and now it shows my surname as my first name and my first name as my surname. Is that something they can / will fix? Or should I just ignore it?

Heh.
Leave it alone.
Then track and see how far your name gets onsold.
Ps and yes, I do what its like having that surname...
Wry smile.
I have to say I am Asian when I call a call centre/center.

 

[Vic]

First the good... the missing flights online claim form has been update to request both PNR and ticket number, which seems much more robust in allowing someone to track down the missing flight. My experience in the past has been a fail for the online form when they didn't request this info; not surprising since they're just trying to find a flight they've already missed.

The bad... While Qantas will let you search for flights to "BER" with the name Berlin (not Brandenburg). The missing flights form doesn't have "BER" as a destination only TXL, with the name Tegel.

I bet this is why the flight didn't credit to start with, all the other flights appeared ok. I further bet my online missing flights claim will fail since I've submitted the wrong destination. Waiting my 14 days to find out... lol

Not sure why it's hard to refer to the same look up list...

 

[RooFlyer]

So Qantas hotels has faith in my longevity, but they can't put me up . It won't let me change the date.