Travel Agent (Falsely) Claiming Zero Availability on QF

[trippin_the_rift]

OP: I would call them out publicly if what you say is true. Who was the TA?

 

[tuapekastar]

I think there has been an assumption here (mostly) that the TA lied. Unless one could see what was showing on his screen when he claimed 'no seats on QF' then one cannot reasonably make that assumption, regardless of what availability you see on QF's site or Expert Flyer etc (and this alluded to in Post #7 of this thread).

One may strongly suspect it (and one may well be right, but one does not know), but that is not grounds to proclaim the TA a liar as a statement of fact.

I haven't used a TA since 2006 (when I had to because MS would not sell me tickets, I used a friend who is a TA), not because I dislike them but because I have been able to handle all my own travel bookings OK and enjoy doing it, but I have friends who recently went to Asia and researched a Singapore hotel online. Their TA (they have used one ever since something went belly-up somewhere O/S and they had no recourse) gave them the exact same price, but with daily breakfast thrown in. So there certainly can be value in using TAs if that is one's preference.

I've no doubt there are great TAs out there, along with some hopeless ones, with most somewhere in between. There will be some liars because there are dishonest people in all industries, but I would think they are a small minority (and that statement is not based on fact, just my own speculation).

If the OP continues to be upset about this then I suggest a call to the TA in question is in order to hear what he says when advised of the availability you saw on QF, and see what he says. It may not satisfy you, but then again it may.

 

[paris3008]

yeah someone with some common sense, totally agree, you cant make that assumption. I do KNOW that what I see on the screen isnt necessarily what is on the website and I can only imagine that the fact was checked several hours after the fact, and availability can change and airlines add more seats to fares, and who is to say the agent lied. To me there is still no evidence that this occurred.

 

[Pushka]

Maybe TA's don't get much incentive from booking one airline or the other but they seem to get free trips several times a year from airlines. Not linked to a particular ticket but an overall incentive for them.

 

[puppysparkes]

yeah someone with some common sense, totally agree, you cant make that assumption. I do KNOW that what I see on the screen isnt necessarily what is on the website and I can only imagine that the fact was checked several hours after the fact, and availability can change and airlines add more seats to fares, and who is to say the agent lied. To me there is still no evidence that this occurred.

Pulling metadata from the screenshot would be a start. You could work backwards from there. Not impossible and OP's post is certainly plausible. There are free online tools to do this. I can offer a link via pm or google metadata reader. Of course results are not guaranteed.

 

[shellthom]

I think the best solution for the OP and family is to place their trust in the OP.

The agent may have lied, the agent may have an incentive (they do exist but it may depend on the company/agency - paris3008 your agency may not get them but we certainly did get them in my store when I was at flight centre), the agent may be new, the system may have been down and not loaded the qantas flights (if a flight centre and using their little app for domestic bookings) or the gds may not have connected with qantas at the moment they checked... there could be a number of reasons, the easiest to assume is some kind of benefit for the consultant but it could also be lack of training, arrogance, personal preference of an airline or personal dislike of qantas etc...

Whatever the reason I think the OP is probably better versed and educated in travel than that particular agent and possibly all/most near to the OP's parents so the experience I am sure would now lend to faith being placed in the OP for any future travel and rightly so...

But I do also agree that a call to the agency should be made to clarify what has happened (if they lied they wont admit it obviously) but also highlight there is an issue... a friendly call to state the facts and see what they say and hopefully at the very least they will offer an apology for the lacking service.

 

[paris3008]

again someone who is not an agent and throws this around. we dont get free tickets, we do attend famils and attend training overseas, other people have this perk in their jobs to attend conferences overseas, I know this because I book them. My last famil was to Hong Kong for 2 nights and we visiting 30 hotels in this time, and had 1.5 hours free time on a sunday afternoon to do what we wanted. Were meals included, mostly were the flights free , mostly but we pay the taxes which is more than the airfares these days. does the airline do this to showcase their product, yes, do we we get upgrades , sometimes only and not at a passengers expense. so please dont give me the free trip thing, walk a mile in someones shoes please.

 

[Dougo]

again someone who is not an agent and throws this around. we dont get free tickets, we do attend famils and attend training overseas, other people have this perk in their jobs to attend conferences overseas, I know this because I book them. My last famil was to Hong Kong for 2 nights and we visiting 30 hotels in this time, and had 1.5 hours free time on a sunday afternoon to do what we wanted. Were meals included, mostly were the flights free , mostly but we pay the taxes which is more than the airfares these days. does the airline do this to showcase their product, yes, do we we get upgrades , sometimes only and not at a passengers expense. so please dont give me the free trip thing, walk a mile in someones shoes please.

I know a TA who was given a cruise on the Queen Mary when she was in Australia last year - no training or famil involved. I know another one from another agency who is doing a coach tour around Europe ... she didn't tell me it was training but it was offered to her agency as they booked a helluva lot of coach tours for their clients last year. And that same agency has also been the recipient of many many vouchers which they could use in their travels which the owner of the agency certainly did.

And while I do agree about the need to walk a mile in someone's shoes ... it works both ways ...

 

[Pushka]

Flight Centre people receive many famils a year and the work they have to do seems like a lot of fun to me.

 

[shellthom]

Paris3008, at flight centre I was given (separately) free flights to fiji, a cruise tour of fiji, free flights to vanuatu, free hotel stay in malaysia, free flights to NZ with emirates, free flights to cook islands with air new zealand - none of these I could take due to not being able to have the time off but I was given them.
I was also given a free stay at the sheraton on the park in sydney - i did take this because I didn't need any time off to do so, it included the buffet breakfast.
I won/was awarded these for putting x amount of $ or x amount of bookings, or being the top sales agent for domestic bookings with x airline etc etc in a month or quarter or what ever the promotional period was and the incentive attached.
So they are out there and agents do get them, but again weather your particular agency or store subscribes to them or not is another thing.
Some of the incentives were generic and available to any agency, I would read the magazines and online information houses to find out about them because yes my base wage was under 30k so i lived for the tiny commissions i got... anything travel related that I could get I went for. And succeeded with most.
But I also worked and currently work in insurance - travel and insurance is what i do - and we also get plenty of free stuff for exceeding the benchmarks ..
so ill take the massively higher wage, the ability to take leave when i want, and the information i have from being a travel agent and move on and be happy with my life.
I don't consider a famil as a free trip, it is an extension of your education, basically a paid presentation/informercial and none of the free things above are famils. Had I been able to take the flights I could have done as I please, had I been able to go on the cruise tour, i would have been as any other guest. most of the winnings went to waste, only the fiji cruise tour and flights was able to be transferred to agents who were able to go (it was for me plus a friend - they did not have to be an agent i could take who i wanted).

We don't know what has occurred so running to the defence of the agent is just the same as accusing the agent. A phone call may resolve the uncertainty but it wont resolve the greater issue, which is the OP's parents cant trust the agent to book what was their preference for whatever reason - they dont want to do it and lied about being able too, the agent has no access to those flights...
well if they lied or if they have no access the result is the same, the agent can't book the OP's parents on Qantas when there are seats available and Qantas is their preferred method of travel (as it is mine) so that agent is not a suitable agent for their travel needs.

 

[puppysparkes]

again someone who is not an agent and throws this around. we dont get free tickets, we do attend famils and attend training overseas, other people have this perk in their jobs to attend conferences overseas, I know this because I book them. My last famil was to Hong Kong for 2 nights and we visiting 30 hotels in this time, and had 1.5 hours free time on a sunday afternoon to do what we wanted. Were meals included, mostly were the flights free , mostly but we pay the taxes which is more than the airfares these days. does the airline do this to showcase their product, yes, do we we get upgrades , sometimes only and not at a passengers expense. so please dont give me the free trip thing, walk a mile in someones shoes please.

Agents get incentives. My partner was a TA during and after uni. I have personally benefitted from her employment. All inclusive stay for 10 staff at spicers peak lodge in QLD. Not to mention another staff member who picked up J fares x 2 to Paris for selling the most Korean Air products. Then there are are the buzz nights that are sponsored by the industry. We also got industry rates at hotels.

 

[Travel Guru]

Interesting thread...I think there's enough current and/or former TA's commenting on the thread, I think I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride :mrgreen::mrgreen:.

TG

 

[shellthom]

I was looking forward to your comments

Interesting thread...I think there's enough current and/or former TA's commenting on the thread, I think I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride :mrgreen::mrgreen:.

TG

 

[Travel Guru]

I was looking forward to your comments

I don't even know where to begin :shock:

TG

 

[jukebox333]

Geez, talk about a Lazarus thread...

Let's take these one at a time:

*snip*
There is no excuse and I agree but i still dont believe that the venom to the agent is warranted. I know on occassions my screen shows no availability and surprise the next day there are plenty of seats, the airline manages yields on a constant basis and constantly changes the availability on what they sell to agents and customers direct.
*snip*

No venom, really (honest). Just contempt for someone who claims to be a professional, but who clearly is not

OP: I would call them out publicly if what you say is true. Who was the TA?

I have deliberately kept the business name out of the frame, as the actions of one person should not impact on the livelihood of others. There is nothing to gain by name and shaming. Better to flag it as a poor practice that is happening out there, so more people are alert to it.

I think there has been an assumption here (mostly) that the TA lied. Unless one could see what was showing on his screen when he claimed 'no seats on QF' then one cannot reasonably make that assumption, regardless of what availability you see on QF's site or Expert Flyer etc (and this alluded to in Post #7 of this thread).

One may strongly suspect it (and one may well be right, but one does not know), but that is not grounds to proclaim the TA a liar as a statement of fact.

*snip*

A T/A on the central coast of NSW that cannot sell QF domestic? Sorry, but I do not buy that excuse for one minute.

Pulling metadata from the screenshot would be a start. You could work backwards from there. Not impossible and OP's post is certainly plausible. There are free online tools to do this. I can offer a link via pm or google metadata reader. Of course results are not guaranteed.

What is this ~ CSI AFF? :shock: Why would I even start to fake a screenshot of seat availability?????? As for the questioning of metadata, were there not other posters early in the thread who confirmed the availability of seats? Remember, the advice was QF were SOLD OUT, not just limited availability, or high fare buckets...

I think the best solution for the OP and family is to place their trust in the OP.

The agent may have lied, the agent may have an incentive (they do exist but it may depend on the company/agency - paris3008 your agency may not get them but we certainly did get them in my store when I was at flight centre), the agent may be new, the system may have been down and not loaded the qantas flights (if a flight centre and using their little app for domestic bookings) or the gds may not have connected with qantas at the moment they checked... there could be a number of reasons, the easiest to assume is some kind of benefit for the consultant but it could also be lack of training, arrogance, personal preference of an airline or personal dislike of qantas etc...

Whatever the reason I think the OP is probably better versed and educated in travel than that particular agent and possibly all/most near to the OP's parents so the experience I am sure would now lend to faith being placed in the OP for any future travel and rightly so...

But I do also agree that a call to the agency should be made to clarify what has happened (if they lied they wont admit it obviously) but also highlight there is an issue... a friendly call to state the facts and see what they say and hopefully at the very least they will offer an apology for the lacking service.

DING! DING! DING! We have a winner. Not much in that post I don't agree with. I had a good long talk to my parents, and they are pretty clear now on what went on, and how to avoid it. I'm disappointed for them as much as anything else, but am not going to get into a stew over it - after all, no money was lost, and they will still fly over. To all the TA's defending their industry, I do sympathise with you, and agree that one poor example does not mean you are all not to be trusted. To AFF's out there, my advice is to try and educate your elderly relatives so they can avoid in a similar situation.

 

[puppysparkes]

Geez, talk about a Lazarus thread...

Let's take these one at a time:



No venom, really (honest). Just contempt for someone who claims to be a professional, but who clearly is not



I have deliberately kept the business name out of the frame, as the actions of one person should not impact on the livelihood of others. There is nothing to gain by name and shaming. Better to flag it as a poor practice that is happening out there, so more people are alert to it.



A T/A on the central coast of NSW that cannot sell QF domestic? Sorry, but I do not buy that excuse for one minute.



What is this ~ CSI AFF? :shock: Why would I even start to fake a screenshot of seat availability?????? As for the questioning of metadata, were there not other posters early in the thread who confirmed the availability of seats? Remember, the advice was QF were SOLD OUT, not just limited availability, or high fare buckets...



DING! DING! DING! We have a winner. Not much in that post I don't agree with. I had a good long talk to my parents, and they are pretty clear now on what went on, and how to avoid it. I'm disappointed for them as much as anything else, but am not going to get into a stew over it - after all, no money was lost, and they will still fly over. To all the TA's defending their industry, I do sympathise with you, and agree that one poor example does not mean you are all not to be trusted. To AFF's out there, my advice is to try and educate your elderly relatives so they can avoid in a similar situation.

Never claimed you faked a screen shot. Quite the opposite, rather you could use it to support your position. Editing Metadata is a task well beyond someone that needs to prove a point in your circumstance.

 

[Dougo]

What is this ~ CSI AFF?

Now surely there's a golden opportunity for a TA or former TA to makes some bucks !!

 

[jukebox333]

Never claimed you faked a screen shot. Quite the opposite, rather you could use it to support your position. Editing Metadata is a task well beyond someone that needs to prove a point in your circumstance.

My unreserved apologies - I read it as suggesting checking the metadata from the screenshots I posted might show they were from an alternate date... (hence the "why would I?" response).

 

[jukebox333]

Now surely there's a golden opportunity for a TA or former TA to makes some bucks !!

Like this?



Of course the theme music would then need to be The Who's "5:15" from Quadrophenia, right?

 

[Dougo]

Very funny