What’s wrong with this QFF itinerary?

[spunkarooney]

The terms and conditions list the main limitations, including the 35,000 mile restriction and 5 stopovers.

Thanks for drawing my attention to that.

 

[spunkarooney]

OK, this is where the plan to book the BA and IB segments separately comes unstuck – the following error:

· Up to DATA(LIMIT) segments can be requested for the same date. Please modify your last selection and resubmit your request.(#7121)
​

That “LIMIT” whilst not specified in the error message is two. I know this from previous experience. What it means is that you cannot have any two flights with a “Depart” date on the same day.

So while booking the following is OK (even though three flights are actually required to get you from “A” to “B”):

· Warsaw à Tenerife
​

Booking the following is not (as more than three rows on the booking page will have the same “Depart” date):

· Warsaw à London
· London à Madrid
· Madrid à Tenerife
​

I see no sense in placing a two row limit on departure dates.

So, if I want to book my preferred itinerary it must be done over the phone.

 

[spunkarooney]

I give up on the stupid Qantas booking site.

I have now tried the same itinerary (minus the Tenerife side trip, that is minus any Iberia flights) and yet I still get the same error.

Qantas, please fix your multi-city booking pages!

What a most frustrating experience.

 

[Dave Noble]

Given that they will waive the 2500 point cost, why worry about the website issues with it; just get on the phone n book it.

Dave

 

[spunkarooney]

Given that they will waive the 2500 point cost, why worry about the website issues with it; just get on the phone n book it.

Well, I will eventually. I haven’t thus far because:

· I wanted to see if I was doing anything wrong
· I wanted to understand what additional rules were being applied to my itinerary that I wasn’t perhaps aware of
· I wanted to resolve the website issues – they should be fixed – but clearly they won’t as they’ve known about that error since 2007
· The 2,500 really isn’t any special offer as it wasn’t payable for that type of award anyway.
​

 

[serfty]

... What was not mentioned to me was that I can only have a “maximum of 16 segments”. ...

That is right there:

• Frequent Flyer - About the Program - Terms & Conditions

13. Redeeming Points for Award Flights
...

13.2.4 An Award Flight Itinerary must contain no more than 16 Segments (including any Surface Segments). ...

 

[AnonymousCoward]

Well, I will eventually. I haven’t thus far because:

· I wanted to see if I was doing anything wrong
· I wanted to understand what additional rules were being applied to my itinerary that I wasn’t perhaps aware of
· I wanted to resolve the website issues – they should be fixed – but clearly they won’t as they’ve known about that error since 2007
· The 2,500 really isn’t any special offer as it wasn’t payable for that type of award anyway.
​

Hi,

I imagine that writing a booking engine that caters for all the various fare rules, and schedule changes, and so forth, is a fairly complex endeavour. The OneWorld Explorer website has similar bugs for an equally complex product.

The 2500 points is payable for all assisted bookings (a normal OW award is 140,000 in economy, plus 2500 if you need assistance in booking it)

 

[spunkarooney]

Hi,

I imagine that writing a booking engine that caters for all the various fare rules, and schedule changes, and so forth, is a fairly complex endeavour. The OneWorld Explorer website has similar bugs for an equally complex product.

The 2500 points is payable for all assisted bookings (a normal OW award is 140,000 in economy, plus 2500 if you need assistance in booking it)

I agree that the product is complex but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t make known issues available to the customer. If Qantas knows enough to throw up an error code, then it knows enough to provide a detailed explanation of what the issue is and that perhaps the customer should phone to make that type of booking.

As for the 2,500 fee, I guess I wasn’t clear as I could have been about that. For the “oneworld Classic Award table” the points shown “Includes Assisted Award booking fee”, whereas for “Partner Classic Award table” and “Qantas Classic Award table (world-wide) excluding surcharges, fees and taxes” the fee is not included in the figures shown in the table.

 

[Dave Noble]

As for the 2,500 fee, I guess I wasn’t clear as I could have been about that. For the “oneworld Classic Award table” the points shown “Includes Assisted Award booking fee”, whereas for “Partner Classic Award table” and “Qantas Classic Award table (world-wide) excluding surcharges, fees and taxes” the fee is not included in the figures shown in the table.

iirc, online it will only charge 140k rather than 142.5k for economy so their saving on that is genuine

Most online tools have difficulty with complex itineraries and rather than trying to beat over it , just use the phone and save hours of time

Dave

 

[spunkarooney]

Most online tools have difficulty with complex itineraries and rather than trying to beat over it , just use the phone and save hours of time

I have moved on, however, that doesn’t mean we should accept mediocrity.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

As for the 2,500 fee, I guess I wasn’t clear as I could have been about that. For the “oneworld Classic Award table” the points shown “Includes Assisted Award booking fee”,

In reality, if you manage to book a OW award online, you will only be charged 140k points. Additionally, if they are offering to waive the fee, and only charge you 140k points for booking it over the phone, I don't understand how you've come to the conclusion you aren't saving some points...

 

[JohnK]

I have moved on, however, that doesn’t mean we should accept mediocrity.

Unfortunately in "our so called evolution" we have come the point where we want to do everything on our own and we do accept mediocrity. Sad but true. Personally I find most websites, and the internet in general, to be an absolute joke.

Why provide a "service" with poor error handling, flaky databases and total inconsistency. Give me a mainframe application that has been written by a real programmer using a real programming language anyday....