Seats Lost in Qantas Call Centre Stuff-Up

Seats Lost: Qantas Cancels Ticket in Call Centre Stuff-Up
The Qantas call centre somehow cancelled a confirmed Business Class booking, then wouldn’t reinstate it for weeks. Photo: Bilal EL-Daou from Pixabay.

When calling an airline to make a simple enquiry about a confirmed booking, you certainly wouldn’t expect them to cancel your entire ticket without your consent or knowledge. But that’s exactly what happened to a Qantas Frequent Flyer member recently after they called Qantas to enquire about changing their Business Class flights.

AFF member davidhes had redeemed Qantas points for two Classic Reward seats in Business Class from Brisbane to London on Qatar Airways. A week after receiving a confirmed ticket, this member then noticed that Qantas Business Class reward seats appeared to be available. So, they phoned the Qantas call centre to enquire about the possibility of changing to the Qantas flights.

After waiting four hours on hold to speak to somebody at Qantas, davidhes finally got through to somebody at one of Qantas’ outsourced overseas call centres. Despite them showing on the Qantas website, this staff member advised that there were no Business reward seats available on Qantas. After this, the call disconnected and the operator never called back, even though davidhes had specifically asked the operator to do this if the call dropped out – as often happens when calling Qantas – and provided his mobile number at the start of the call.

At no point did this customer ask Qantas to cancel the original booking. So he was quite surprised a week later to discover that his confirmed flights on Qatar Airways had disappeared from the booking and been replaced with flights on Qantas in Economy! He had not been notified of this, nor had Qantas refunded any points or money.

In the weeks that followed, davidhes called Qantas multiple times, waiting hours on hold with each attempt. While the Qantas call centre staff admitted that the original flights should not have been cancelled, the airline was either unwilling or unable to reinstate the Qatar Airways Business Class flights.

The reason that the Qatar Airways flights were lost in the first place is that the original call centre operator made a mistake and did not follow the correct processes. This is likely the result of poor training.

How this eventually got resolved

After trying for weeks to get this resolved and posting about his experience on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum, this AFF member eventually tried directly emailing the Qantas Chief Customer Officer. We also contacted Qantas.

This finally seemed to get the gears turning into motion and Qantas eventually rebooked davidhes on a Qantas Business Class flight to London via Perth. Qantas has also now refunded the difference in the points and taxes for the new flights.

Yet another Qantas call centre horror story

While this customer received a reasonable outcome in the end, it should never have come to this! In particular, this incident highlights the need for better training of the overseas call centre staff employed by Mindpearl. It’s astonishing that such a serious error could be made by a Qantas call centre operator which has effectively cancelled this person’s existing, confirmed booking without their knowledge or consent.

Many AFF members are now concerned that a similar thing could happen to them if they contact the Qantas call centre about their own tickets. Sadly, this is just one of many horror stories about incompetent service received from Qantas’ outsourced call centres.

The Qantas contact centres in Hobart and Auckland do typically offer excellent service, with the staff at those locations highly trained and experienced. But Qantas has intentionally made it almost impossible to get through to these call centres unless you have Platinum status – leaving everyone else to deal with call centre staff who are so poorly trained they might accidentally cancel your booking!

The fact that emailing the Chief Customer Officer was the only way to get a resolution to this problem of Qantas’ own making is also a disgrace. For weeks, Qantas made no attempt to remedy the situation via its regular contact channels. That’s not good enough.

Australian Frequent Flyer requested a statement from Qantas about this incident. A spokesperson said that the airline was investigating and apologised for the inconvenience.

After the matter was resolved, davidhes did finally receive an apology from Qantas Customer Care.

“You should receive capable, helpful service from all of our staff, and I would like to assure you that your experience was not the service we strive to deliver in our Contact Centres,” part of the email read.

“We’re committed to giving you the best service and advice, so are grateful you took the time to let us know about your experience. I hope that you will give us the opportunity to welcome you on board again soon and apologise for the inconvenience caused,” the email also said.

Many Qantas reward bookings not getting ticketed

Sadly, this is far from the only problem experienced recently by Qantas Frequent Flyer members when booking reward tickets on partner airlines. Many AFF members have also complained that Qantas hasn’t issued their ticket after making a booking.

When a reservation is not ticketed by the ticketing deadline, seats on partner airlines are automatically cancelled – so this is a serious problem!

One AFF member even posted recently on our forum that Qantas never issued their reward ticket, and still haven’t refunded the points that were taken when the booking was made either! In this case, Qantas says they have no record of the booking – even though the points have been deducted from the member’s Qantas Frequent Flyer account.

If your Qantas reservation hasn’t been ticketed within a few hours of booking, it has likely been placed in a manual processing queue. This could take weeks to be processed, depending on your flight’s departure date, by which time many Qantas partner airlines will have already cancelled your reservation. The only way to expedite the process seems to be to phone the call centre and (politely) insist that you won’t hang up until Qantas tickets the booking.

Many Qantas Frequent Flyer members have also had problems when one or more flights on their Classic Flight Reward itinerary have been cancelled and Qantas hasn’t provided any alternatives, other than a refund (which may take 8+ weeks to arrive).

Another AFF member recently lost six flights on their Oneworld Classic Flight Reward booking after there was a schedule change, and Qantas didn’t re-issue the ticket on time. This resulted in the flights operated by Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways getting cancelled and disappearing from the booking.

Qantas has not responded to our request for comment about bookings not being ticketed.

It’s appalling that so many Qantas customers need to jump through all these hoops to book a Classic Flight Reward – and that even once you have a confirmed booking, it won’t get cancelled. Qantas clearly has some serious issues with its call centre and ticketing processes which still have not been adequately addressed.

 

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Rewards seats changed from QR to QF without approval and from J to Y

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and can help offer any advice to get my issues fixed. Here is the story:

I had confirmed and ticketed business class reward seats on Qatar airways from brisbane to Doha, Doha to London (Heathrow). A week after booking them Qantas released some J reward seats on Qantas to London that I could see online. I called up to enquire about the availability and if changing would be possible. After eventually getting through (4hrs on hold) the staff member looked into it and said that there were no J seats available. I was then disconnected and not called back (even after specifically requesting to be called back if disconnected as I’d heard the stories, and provided my mobile number). Anyways I told myself oh well, will just stay with what we have and got on with life.
A week later I was in my Qantas account and noticed that without my approvalchanges to my booking had occurred. It had been changed to a Qantas flight from brisbane to Sydney, Sydney to London. And changed from business to economy. No notice given, no email, no updated eticket. And with no refund of the lower points or taxes into my account.

Called and have had multiple people over several weeks trying to fix it and admitting that it shouldn’t have happened. Countless hours on hold each time and each time with a promise of a callback (which never occurred).
The flights I was originally on briefly appeared in my account as “under request”. They’ve now disappeared, and after getting through again, been advised the request for the flights has come back as denied with no explanation. I’m guessing because Qatar no longer has those seats available.
I have spent countless hours on the phone on hold, countless hours talking about it to call staff, all for a Qantas mistake! And now don’t have the flights and seats that I booked and paid for.

I almost don’t care which flights I’m now on, as long as it’s in J and I’m charged the correct points and taxes for what they put me on. The problem is that there is no J reward seats on any airlines around the date we are looking, 20 Oct 2022. So all the call agents just say there is nothing they can do.

Finally got escalated to a lady who is apparently some kind of manager today. She was understanding and could see the mistake that Qantas had made (which reading between the lines sounds like the first lady didn’t know what she was doing and changed my flights when she was looking at availability and then hung up on me when the error had been made). She has submitted a higher level request for the original flights to be reinstated or for reward seats on a Qantas flight to be created for me. Apparently she will call me back within 24hrs with an answer… I’m not holding my breath.

Has anyone had this happen to them and been able to resolve it positively? Any tips if I don’t get a positive response in 24hrs?

We saved these points for ages to go visit my wife’s dad in England with our newborn. Haven’t seen him in years because of covid and he is too unwell to travel. Wanted to get there in as relative comfort as possible for our first time travelling internationally with a baby. The amount of time wasted and stress over this has been horrendous. Qantas really has gone downhill.

Thanks,

David

Sad story. Yesterday, I was going back thru some old emails from 2018/2019 onwards, where I had stored some AFF tips about QF, as well as their vagaries. There were numerous emails from disgruntled QF flyers, and increased in numbers the further forward I came. It seems it’s not going to get any better any time soon.

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Had something similar happen on MH from SYD to LHR in J class as part of a OTW booking. Flights just mysteriously dropped from the booking because one of the qantas agents made a mistake by cancelling it from my booking when adjusting other flights on the booking.

Call centre team put in a "reinstatement request" for the flights as they were no longer showing as available to book as a reward since someone else snapped them up. If that didn't work, then they were going to put me on a paid seat on QF metal.
In the off chance that you don't get your QR flights reinstated, I would demand for them to convert a revenue seat on QF metal to LHR via SIN because of their mistake - don't hang up until they agree or put in a request.

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Had something similar happen on MH from SYD to LHR in J class as part of a OTW booking. Flights just mysteriously dropped from the booking because one of the qantas agents made a mistake by cancelling it from my booking when adjusting other flights on the booking.

Call centre team put in a "reinstatement request" for the flights as they were no longer showing as available to book as a reward since someone else snapped them up. If that didn't work, then they were going to put me on a paid seat on QF metal.
In the off chance that you don't get your QR flights reinstated, I would demand for them to convert a revenue seat on QF metal to LHR via SIN because of their mistake - don't hang up until they agree or put in a request.

Thanks for the reply. I’ll definitely demand a revenue seat like you suggest if the request isn’t approved. Just really hope this final lady actually calls me back in 24hrs… and hopefully with positive news..

I can now see both the brisbane to Perth, Perth to London and brisbane to Doha, Doha to London flights she has requested in my account again. She submitted the request for the reinstatement again and if that wasn’t possible, to put us on the Qantas flights in created reward seats for us. I’m happy with either outcome, but not holding my breath that either will happen.

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Well no call back occurred as expected. Called again and spent 2hrs on hold to get though again. Finally got through and asked to speak to the manager I’d spoken to previously. Had her actual name. Agent spoke to her, she didn’t take my call herself, agent come back and advised that she said she would call in the next couple of days when there is an answer from Qatar. But that the option to create us seats on a Qantas flight had been rejected. Beyond furious.

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the option to create us seats on a Qantas flight had been rejected.

This has to be some of the most appalling behaviour from Qantas I've ever seen. They screw up your booking, causing you to lose your business class seats. Then refuse to fix it, refusing to release business class seats on a Qantas flight. That is astonishing.

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This has to be some of the most appalling behaviour from Qantas I've ever seen. They screw up your booking, causing you to lose your business class seats. Then refuse to fix it, refusing to release business class seats on a Qantas flight. That is astonishing.

Yep tell me about it.. causing so much angst at home too as the wife is pretty mad that I’ve spent so many hours wasted on the phone and with me being in a coughpy mood everytime I get off the phone from them.

There’s just nowhere to go though. I’ve submitted a complaint on Qantas’s website which I doubt will ever be responded to. Have posted on their Facebook and Twitter. Messaged their messenger account and DMed them. Posted on multiple forums in the hope a staff member sees this and maybe offers to help. Just atrocious.

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Well no call back occurred as expected. Called again and spent 2hrs on hold to get though again. Finally got through and asked to speak to the manager I’d spoken to previously. Had her actual name. Agent spoke to her, she didn’t take my call herself, agent come back and advised that she said she would call in the next couple of days when there is an answer from Qatar. But that the option to create us seats on a Qantas flight had been rejected. Beyond furious.

I suspect (hope) the option is only off the table until they get the response from qatar.

If they persist in refusing i would escalate to the Australian Airline Consumer Advocate, and a direct message to Alan Joyce’s office.

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I suspect (hope) the option is only off the table until they get the response from qatar.

If they persist in refusing i would escalate to the Australian Airline Consumer Advocate, and a direct message to Alan Joyce’s office.

I hope you’re right too… Thanks for the info, didn’t know that was a thing. Will definitely move to that next if they don’t come through.

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I hope you’re right too… Thanks for the info, didn’t know that was a thing. Will definitely move to that next if they don’t come through.

From a previous thread

I would email Stephanie Tully - people are still saying they are getting a response.

Do not get emotional but just lay out the facts and ask how they are going to resolve it

Good luck

View image at the forums

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I suspect (hope) the option is only off the table until they get the response from qatar.

If they persist in refusing i would escalate to the Australian Airline Consumer Advocate, and a direct message to Alan Joyce’s office.

Yep tell me about it.. causing so much angst at home too as the wife is pretty mad that I’ve spent so many hours wasted on the phone and with me being in a coughpy mood everytime I get off the phone from them.

There’s just nowhere to go though. I’ve submitted a complaint on Qantas’s website which I doubt will ever be responded to. Have posted on their Facebook and Twitter. Messaged their messenger account and DMed them. Posted on multiple forums in the hope a staff member sees this and maybe offers to help. Just atrocious.

Would lodge a claim now Airline Customer Advocate (ACA)
Just do not expect much of a reply, but has the dispute in writing to a supposedly independent organisation (paid for by the airlines)
QF can open up seats on there own aircraft, but not other airlines.

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