WARNING : Cancellation of one leg of a status booking, error with Qantas system

[SB01]

Hi all,

I had recently booked return flights from MEL -> NRT (Tokyo) return with classic economy rewards.
Recently, when I checked there had became a business class rewards available, but the QFF staff were unable to change the booking, so recommended I book it and cancel the return leg (NRT - MEL) of my existing booking.

Once I had booked the business leg (NRT - MEL) I called and was told they had cancelled my return leg. An hour later, the whole booking had disappeared and I was unable to find the outbound leg (MEL - NRT). On the initial refund, the agent was very clear he was only cancelling one leg, and had checked this multiple times.

After calling up they informed me the whole booking had been cancelled and they would attempt to re-instate the first leg. They said this was an error of the agent, but luckily the lady I had contacted was the one who initially advised me to book separately and cancel the leg. After about 45 minutes on the phone they had resolved the issue and also waived the original cancellation fee of 6,000 points per passenger.

It seems from this thread :

My Reward Booking has disappeared and I'm supposed to fly tomorrow morning

Hey guys, I have a reward booking with JAL and few other airlines booked using QF points and and it's been ticketed. I cancelled one of the leg with QF Call Centre due to Japan was still closed but everything was OK and I received a new itinerary on 20/09/2022. I have been checking my booking...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

this is a very common scenario, and a systemic issue with their cancellation process. I am posting this as a warning to anyone looking to cancel or change a leg of a rewards booking, as I fear they will not be as lucky as I was.

 

[fletty]

This is why it's often useful to book international reward flights as separate one way bookings.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

This is why it's often useful to book international reward flights as separate one way bookings.

It can be, but check the taxes fees and charges. They can sometimes be different (more expensive) if buying two one ways.

 

[dajop]

It can be, but check the taxes fees and charges. They can sometimes be different (more expensive) if buying two one ways.

And sometimes cheaper too.

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF, @SB01 . Lucky you got the resolution you did, many, many have not, as you see in that thread.

this is a very common scenario, and a systemic issue with their cancellation process. I am posting this as a warning to anyone looking to cancel or change a leg of a rewards booking, as I fear they will not be as lucky as I was.

Its not just a systemic issue with the cancellation process. Unfortunately its a problem with poorly trained offshore call centres, for all transaction types, and has been for many years.

 

[encryptededdy]

Was this a JAL or Qantas flight?

 

[SB01]

Was this a JAL or Qantas flight?

All flights were Qantas flights.

 

[OATEK]

It can be, but check the taxes fees and charges. They can sometimes be different (more expensive) if buying two one ways.

Must admit I am in the book separately camp - and damn the $$ difference. I had a similar change experience some years ago when it took many hours on the phone pleading to sort it out (was only SG etc the time). I regularly book positioning flights to Asia as CRs, and always keep them separate. Would have saved the OP some grief.

 

[Optics]

It doesn't seem possible to cancel on-line just one leg of a return booking made with reward points. It seems from this thread that it can be done by calling the service center, but will they charge the service fee of 4,500 points?

 

[offshore171]

This is why it's often useful to book international reward flights as separate one way bookings.

I thought everyone did this