Tickets cancelled by 3rd party

[Tassey69]

Any body suffered the cancellation of flights by a 3rd party (Delta Airlines) when overseas, whilst travelling with (SWSBO) from Denver (USA) to Mel via Dallas, Brisbane and Sydney on Friday 15th. On arrival at Denver flight details to Dallas OK but AA staff had trouble printing boarding passes and baggage through to Mel, they arranged tags for luggage OK but advised us to get boarding passes at Dallas. On arrival at Dallas lounge staff issued PE boarding passes for QF8, me in one row and SWSBO in another row, when questioned why our confirmed seat reservation in PE had not been allocated (had printed confirmation with me) they could not answer. Only one of the Dallas check-in crew was good enough to juggle seats so that we could sit together in middle of 4 row in PE, these were possibly last seats available on a 15hr flight which was fully booked.
On arrival in Brisbane QClub lounge staff reassigned us to our original preferred seats on the next leg to Sydney but could not book through to Mel, excellent service in Brisbane, on arrival in Sydney went to transfer desk in International Term to get boarding passes where Customer Service advised that our original home-ward booking had been cancelled by Delta Airlines in the USA. On arrival in Sydney domestic QClub staff again excellent arranged complimentary upgrade to J but damage had been done.
No advice to us in the USA by Qantas by SMS or email of the cancellation, we had access to both services, because of this cancellation an upgrade to J request was not processed and we believe that we had a strong chance of an upgrade for this long flight, very unhappy at way QF allows these bookings to be cancelled by third party, have had a few minor problems that have occurred after over 30yrs + travel with OF but nothing as annoying as this, now about to write to QF and ask for a reason why and what they plan to do about the inconvenience, I wonder what story they will tell this time

 

[TheInsider]

Love how Qantas did nothing, yet still get the blame!

 

[JohnPhelan]

This is a bit confusing. How did Delta get involved at all? Did you fly Delta at any time during your trip - or did your ticket for the whole trip ever include a Delta flight that you did not end up taking?

From what you've said here, it appears you flew only on AA and QF. Delta cannot have cancelled a ticket that (a) was not issued by them, or (b) did not involve a Delta flight somewhere along the line.

 

[mannej]

Can you summarise this to make it clearer?

It is quite confusing as to what happened.

 

[SeatBackForward]

The OP had their requested PE seats from DFW to BNE changed (for whatever reason) and could not get them reassigned from BNE to MEL. at BNE the QC staff got them onto their ogiinal seats for the BNE to SYD sector, when they arrived at SYD, the transfer desk told them DELTa had cancelled their SYD to MEL secto, but the SYD QC staff got them onto a flight.

I'm also not sure what DELTA have to do with any of this. One Possibility is the staff at the SYD INTL transfer desk mistakenly said Delta when they meant AA, as it was probably not a dedicated QF transfer counter

 

[Tassey69]

I arrived in Dallas expecting confirmed seats that had been cancelled. Have never ever flown Delta, was advised by Qantas Customer Service Staff in Sydney that booking was cancelled by Delta, my gripe was that my booking was supposedly cancelled by a third party and I was not advised about the cancellation, that is were I have an issue with Qantas!!

 

[mannej]

I still don't get where Delta come into this?

Are you saying that your booking was cancelled, or the seats you allocated prior to the flights.

If your seats had changed, it happens. Why would QF notify you of this.

Again, it also sounds very suss that a third party would have access to your booking to cancel it.

Something is missing here...

 

[juddles]

.... One Possibility is the staff at the SYD INTL transfer desk mistakenly said Delta when they meant AA....

+1

I suspect Qantas did nothing wrong here. Except for the person who got confused with the major carrier names (probably has never been past Bali himself)

 

[mannej]

I am still trying to figure out whether the allocated seats were changed, or whether it was the ticket that was cancelled.

I have a feeling that it was the allocated seats, which makes the thread title misleading.

Unfortunately, allocated seats are not guaranteed.

 

[ric_melb]

Maybe mannej you have hit on the situation. Allocated seats may have been reallocated. After all if the ticket had been cancelled, how would the OP have flown the flights? Without a lot of intervention by Qantas.

 

[dajop]

I am still trying to figure out whether the allocated seats were changed, or whether it was the ticket that was cancelled.

It may well have been that the seat allocations were cancelled when checking in at Denver, although this would be surprising. I have twice lost exit row seats when checking in to QF from other carriers (first time SA->QF CPT-JNB-SYD and second LP CUZ-LIM-LAX-MEL), although these were in 2004 & 2006 and thought that AA and QF worked much closer together than to have an agent from AA lose a seat allocation on QF.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Maybe Denver was misheard as Delta? They're sort if similar....

Sent from my HTC Desire using AustFreqFly

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I arrived in Dallas expecting confirmed seats that had been cancelled. Have never ever flown Delta, was advised by Qantas Customer Service Staff in Sydney that booking was cancelled by Delta, my gripe was that my booking was supposedly cancelled by a third party and I was not advised about the cancellation, that is were I have an issue with Qantas!!

The scenario below is one theory on what may have happened based on past experience working for a GDS.

Was the ground handling agent in DEN Delta or if not do they use the same GDS as DL? For example the GDS Sabre is the same as the AA res system so if there was any cancellation done by anyone who used the Sabre system it would look like AA had cancelled the flight so the same thing could happen for DL.

Your AA pnr didn't begin with the letters DL by any chance did it? Another thing could be that the CSA at DEN could have had the initials of DL which could possibly lead to someone mistaking the fact that any actions to your booking were done by Delta.

What may be possible is that the DFW/SYD flight was overbooked in PE cabin (not the whole flight) so when you got checked in at DEN it put you on standby for the QF8 DFW/SYD. It's not to say you wouldn't have got on the flight, but the airline may not have adjusted the oversale ie op-up'd elite pax eg WPs into J at that point in time. That could explain you not being issued with your QF boarding passes DFW/SYD/MEL when you checked in at DEN.

What can happen is that if the first flight is put on standby ie QF8 DFW/SYD, then all remaining flights you checked in for at that time ie the SYD/MEL flight would also go to standby until such time you were onloaded. This would also explain losing your seat allocation for those sectors.

QF advise pax if there is a cancellation to their flights instigated by them via reservations however this is a different scenario altogether which happened at DEN Airport. I doubt your actual booking was cancelled in the Amadeus res system and was probably still intact but the above scenario that occurred when checking in ccould lead you to make that conclusion.

Had you checked in at DFW and PE was oversold causing you to momentarily be put on standby, the issue would have been sorted then and there by QF. The time lapse between when you checked in at DEN & when you spoke to QF at DFW would explain why your original seats could have been reassigned to other pax in the meantime.

AA in DEN would not see that you're on standby for the QF flight so as far as they're concerned it's just a case of the boarding passes not printing out hence referring you to QF in DFW. This could be a case of simply checking in at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Again, the above scenario is purely speculative & just my theory of what could have happened.

 

[Tassey69]

Thanks for that explanation, whilst as you say it is speculative it is also very plausible

 

[mannej]

Thanks for that explanation, whilst as you say it is speculative it is also very plausible

Can you actually confirm as to what happened?

Did you lose your spot on the flight, or did you lose your allocated seat?

 

[beardoc]

It does sound like the OP got the original flights they had booked, but didn't get their seat allocaitions. More information is needed to flesh this story out.

 

[Tassey69]

Now waiting on the Qantas explanation??

 

[mannej]

Now waiting on the Qantas explanation??

Can you answer as to whether your actual booking was cancelled or your seat allocations had been moved?

Your OP is ambiguous and doesn't really help us to help you

 

[markis10]

Now waiting on the Qantas explanation??

Who did you book with, a TA or direct to QF?

 

[Tassey69]

Direct with OF