Tricked by Qantas booking engine

[cove]

Emptier and Emptor are pretty close in this thread where we could have QF empty your points account without delivering fair value. Buyer beware!

 

[medhead]

Emptier and Emptor are pretty close in this thread

Damn iPhone autotext, and fat fingers at 6 am. Correction made.

Actually it's a little more than a ! or *. Go back and have a look at the examples posted of the screens. As far as fine print goes, it's not really that 'fine'. They are fairly clear that you will be in economy class. And this is before you accept what has been offered.

Sometimes economy class is the only class offered on a sector,

I saw saw what it looks like, no need to go back. That doesn't change my fundamental point. TPA is about fairness to the customer. It is about how the relationship between business and customer is working. It would be fairer to just have the website say sorry none available.

If you went to purchase a Lamborghini, for example, and the salesman say yep no worries that'll be $500k sign the contract, which then has a ! that says actually your be getting an Audi A1; would you feel that was fair? There can be all the disclaimers in the world, that doesn't change the appearance of this type of transaction.

You can hardly claim there is no J seats on trans pacific routes.

 

[oz_mark]

Damn iPhone autotext, and fat fingers at 6 am. Correction made.

I saw saw what it looks like, no need to go back. That doesn't change my fundamental point. TPA is about fairness to the customer. It is about how the relationship between business and customer is working. It would be fairer to just have the website say sorry none available.

If you went to purchase a Lamborghini, for example, and the salesman say yep no worries that'll be $500k sign the contract, which then has a ! that says actually your be getting an Audi A1; would you feel that was fair? There can be all the disclaimers in the world, that doesn't change the appearance of this type of transaction.

You can hardly claim there is no J seats on trans pacific routes.

While I don't disagree that this case looks bad, and as I have siad, I don't believe it is fair, the booking engine is following the rules, and it is disclosing this before you accept.

Conisder someone wanting to travel say from Mildura to Los Angeles. Mildura-Melbourne has no business class, so should the engine just say no - nothing available, or should it say Mildura-Melbourne is in economy.

I can claim, from the evidence, that there are no redemption seats available trans-pac.

 

[medhead]

While I don't disagree that this case looks bad, and as I have siad, I don't believe it is fair, the booking engine is following the rules, and it is disclosing this before you accept.

Conisder someone wanting to travel say from Mildura to Los Angeles. Mildura-Melbourne has no business class, so should the engine just say no - nothing available, or should it say Mildura-Melbourne is in economy.

I can claim, from the evidence, that there are no redemption seats available trans-pac.

I'm only banging on about the fairness.

I have had a sorry none available message trying to get J awards ADL- SIN when there is no J award seats on the domestic leg via SYD or MEL.

Not sure it is valid to compare routes that physically don't have J with a limited situation where there are no J awards. Yet J seats physically exist. There is a big difference between sorry J doesn't exist it has to be economy and sorry we can't sell you a J seat.

 

[sambo517]

Just tried to book 2x business class tickets to LA on Q web site, engine showed no direct flight but could go via sydney from melb, and same return.
clicked on book, did all needed and was charged 384000 points and 700$+ for taxes.
I therefore assumed I had a valid ticket.
I followed up to review and what I saw made me shudder and wonder what Qantas has come to. The booking showed business Mel-Syd Economy Syd - LA and same return.
Q had charged me for full class all way but were only giving a 1 hour sector each way in business.
Of course complained but told read fine print. I did not book to go to Sydney then LA I booked Mel-LA. Canceled ticket but a very upset and irate FF member.:evil::evil:

I see you can go direct ( MEL - LAX ) Business.....QF93 flight out & QF94 return flight...Both flights A380-800's ....Try that....

 

[Alanslegal]

Wow, to the ordinary lay QF flyer, it could be very easy to be mislead! I know there is a small "!Note: Your Flight to xyz is in Economy" during the end of the booking phase but regardless!!

I had a quick look at DFW to SYD, and it showed First Class being available! DFW to LAX, then LAX to SYD on QF12. I'm all excited 336K points for 2 pax on the 388!. I follow through, and it says LAX to SYD will be in Economy! And this is AFTER I select the First Class option! Cheeky Qantas, very cheeky!!

 

[connieguy]

Wow, to the ordinary lay QF flyer, it could be very easy to be mislead! I know there is a small "!Note: Your Flight to xyz is in Economy" during the end of the booking phase but regardless!!

I had a quick look at DFW to SYD, and it showed First Class being available! DFW to LAX, then LAX to SYD on QF12. I'm all excited 336K points for 2 pax on the 388!. I follow through, and it says LAX to SYD will be in Economy! And this is AFTER I select the First Class option! Cheeky Qantas, very cheeky!!

ALWAYS check that the booking class for EACH flight segment is what you desire before you pay your money. ALWAYS.

If you are expecting the miles and SCs to post back to QF, ALSO check that airlines earning rules (for the indicated booking class) on the QF Earning Points airline's web page. One trap is Q class on AA for which you get nothing, even through AA would give you miles.

The truth is out there (if you know where to LOOK)! :shock:

Greg

 

[JohnK]

Sometimes economy class is the only class offered on a sector, and I would assume this is the reason for the rule existing on the QFF Terms as to what happens on a mixed class booking (you pay the highest amount - same as a paid DONE4 for example). I think if the economy portion was short then people would accept this, but how would one define the division between ok and not ok?

Everyone has different needs but I would say it is OK if the class required is not offered on a particular service. But then the booking engine may give you a connection via a port that does not offer the class required either.

Conisder someone wanting to travel say from Mildura to Los Angeles. Mildura-Melbourne has no business class, so should the engine just say no - nothing available, or should it say Mildura-Melbourne is in economy.

Perhaps in this situation it should offer the MQL-MEL flight in economy as long as the MEL-LAX flight was in business class.

Where I see the problem is in these type of scenarios where the award booking engine should not offer anything at all.

- Business class award requested

MQL-MEL-BNE-LAX is offered by award booking engine

Note MQL-MEL is in economy
Note BNE-LAX is in premium economy

So the only leg offered in business is MEL-BNE but the points required are for business on the whole itinerary. That is extremely deceptive regardless of how clearly the downgrade is displayed on the confirmation page.

 

[zahra01]

redeeming for a classic award Business seat from LAX to Mel or Syd problems

Hi All,
Whe I try to book a seat as above in Aug this year one way, I go into the award booking engine, put in my destination, tick "flexible with dates" and a whole screen of economy dates come up as a default, I then also tick business, premium econ, first class etc..and search again... then it still just shows the red seats, I click the date I want to travel even though only shows econ, and when I select that date it goes to the next screen with all the flight options, then it shows business seats available....hooray, i get excited..so I select business, and then it comes up with 96,000 points cost, fine, all looks good, when I get to the last screen and it says LAX-SYD sector is ECON and then the SYD-Mel sector is in business.....I am confused...so they are charging me 96,000 points one way all because a 40 minute sector in the trip is J ???
I have just bought star class tix to hawaii thanks to all the help from members on here, but was hoping to pop over to mainland usa and come home on a reward flight rather than popping through hawaii again on way home...

 

[Alanslegal]

So the only leg offered in business is MEL-BNE but the points required are for business on the whole itinerary. That is extremely deceptive regardless of how clearly the downgrade is displayed on the confirmation page.

Exactly.

In my example, DFW-LAX in First Class, LAX-SYD in Economy but charged the First Class award rate. And if you don't have OW status, you won't even get lounge access at DFW, even flying in F, or at LAX since it's in economy.

 

[gibbo8]

I do think that the lack of options for J seats direct from the point of departure is a problem and did not seem to occur as often in the past. For instance, it used to be quite easy to find J seat on QF93 if you booked far enough out, but now it is almost impossible to get a J seat on QF93 from MEL. Try QF25 as that does have seats available in J and you don't travel any Y.

Agree however that you always need to triple check, particularly now many more options are offered.

Cheers

 

[JohnK]

Re: redeeming for a classic award Business seat from LAX to Mel or Syd problems

I have just bought star class tix to hawaii thanks to all the help from members on here, but was hoping to pop over to mainland usa and come home on a reward flight rather than popping through hawaii again on way home...

What dates are you searching? There may not be any business class availability at that time and QF wants to trick you into giving up your hard earned points on a business class redemption in economy.

Also it has been noted that sometimes the direct flight may have business class availability and not offered as a connection or vv. So try LAX-BNE and LAX-SYD and see what results are returned. If you can find availability then purchase a cheap economy one-way from BNE/SYD-MEL.