- Joined
- May 25, 2013
- Posts
- 1,754
Today I came across a situation where QF followed their rulebook but was left wondering how on earth would it make commercial sense to them: inflexible approach to changing a classic reward flight in an involuntary change situation. To top it off, their IT system also offered entertainment as a side effect.
I had a CR booking for BNE-SYD (which in itself was a nice deal: Red E-Deals went for $242 but rewards were available when I booked it) for the 1810 departure. Today, at 1150 a text message "sorry, we cancelled your flight" and a few minutes later "we've rebooked you to the 1910 departure" (and the app showed that, as well). I called them soon after, asking for an earlier flight (suggesting 1710 departure). According to EF, there were 9 revenue seats available in several economy booking classes throughout the afternoon.
The call centre agent told that my booking can't be moved to any other flight. When I asked if in involuntary changes the airline would convert a revenue seat into a reward seat to accommodate the change, he said he tried to submit the request to ticketing but it came back negative. He promised to do another submission but gave no guarantees. To try my luck, I went early to the airport to see what the lounge angels can do, arriving there at about 1515 to catch any of the three earlier flights available. Again, the system said no and I was looking to spend 3.5 hours in the lounge and arrive home at about 2200 - a lot later than I wished for.
This gave me too much time to check what other options there are to get home earlier. In the meantime, the QF system had added the 1710 flight to my booking in addition to the 1910 departure. Bizarre... Went back to the lounge desk to show my double booking and asking if I actually had a seat at 1710 and after trawling through their system and a quick call somewhere, he told the same story: CR's can't be moved to another flight.
Fair enough. I went to book myself a cheap Rex flight home, happily walked to the other end of the terminal, got my ZL boarding pass, and proceeded to cancel my QF ticket at about 1600. And arrived home 2h+ earlier than the QF option would have given me. After the CR ticket's taxes get refunded later, the extra cost comes to about $100.
The commercial sense??? Me having too much empty time in the lounge pushed me to seek for a better option from the competitors. Should QF flexed the rule in an involuntary change and not leave that void there, I would happily have stayed instead of opting to hand my money over to elsewhere. Plus, QF ended up paying for my security check and lounge food (thank you very much). Tell me how does this make commercial sense to QF?
The IT entertainment came from two aspects: the booking doubling up my flights. How is this even possible in their system??? And on top of that, even after cancelling my QF ticket well before the first option, the app prompted me to board both flights. System slow, perhaps??? You can't make this stuff up, even if you would work at QF IT. I'm afraid I may now have had my first ever personal pages in the lounge, twice the same day...
I had a CR booking for BNE-SYD (which in itself was a nice deal: Red E-Deals went for $242 but rewards were available when I booked it) for the 1810 departure. Today, at 1150 a text message "sorry, we cancelled your flight" and a few minutes later "we've rebooked you to the 1910 departure" (and the app showed that, as well). I called them soon after, asking for an earlier flight (suggesting 1710 departure). According to EF, there were 9 revenue seats available in several economy booking classes throughout the afternoon.
The call centre agent told that my booking can't be moved to any other flight. When I asked if in involuntary changes the airline would convert a revenue seat into a reward seat to accommodate the change, he said he tried to submit the request to ticketing but it came back negative. He promised to do another submission but gave no guarantees. To try my luck, I went early to the airport to see what the lounge angels can do, arriving there at about 1515 to catch any of the three earlier flights available. Again, the system said no and I was looking to spend 3.5 hours in the lounge and arrive home at about 2200 - a lot later than I wished for.
This gave me too much time to check what other options there are to get home earlier. In the meantime, the QF system had added the 1710 flight to my booking in addition to the 1910 departure. Bizarre... Went back to the lounge desk to show my double booking and asking if I actually had a seat at 1710 and after trawling through their system and a quick call somewhere, he told the same story: CR's can't be moved to another flight.
Fair enough. I went to book myself a cheap Rex flight home, happily walked to the other end of the terminal, got my ZL boarding pass, and proceeded to cancel my QF ticket at about 1600. And arrived home 2h+ earlier than the QF option would have given me. After the CR ticket's taxes get refunded later, the extra cost comes to about $100.
The commercial sense??? Me having too much empty time in the lounge pushed me to seek for a better option from the competitors. Should QF flexed the rule in an involuntary change and not leave that void there, I would happily have stayed instead of opting to hand my money over to elsewhere. Plus, QF ended up paying for my security check and lounge food (thank you very much). Tell me how does this make commercial sense to QF?
The IT entertainment came from two aspects: the booking doubling up my flights. How is this even possible in their system??? And on top of that, even after cancelling my QF ticket well before the first option, the app prompted me to board both flights. System slow, perhaps??? You can't make this stuff up, even if you would work at QF IT. I'm afraid I may now have had my first ever personal pages in the lounge, twice the same day...
