Qantas is taking steps to resolve a flaw with its ticketing system that has caused the unexpected cancellation of some Classic Flight Reward bookings on partner airlines.
This problem has particularly affected Classic Reward bookings on Malaysia Airlines when there have been flight changes.
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Some background on Qantas’ Classic Reward ticketing issues
There was a widespread issue a few years ago where Qantas was routinely failing to ticket (or re-ticket) Classic Flight reward bookings on partner airlines in a timely manner. As a result, Qantas’ partner airlines were cancelling these tickets. Qantas customers often weren’t even notified when this happened and often didn’t realise until they got to the airport. In some cases, Qantas was also unable to get those lost flights reinstated.
At the time, Australian Frequent Flyer worked with Qantas to find a solution. In January 2023, this culminated in Qantas setting up a dedicated team that monitors and re-tickets partner airline reward bookings as needed. This team now re-tickets almost all flight changes or cancellations on partner airline reward bookings within 24 hours.
Qantas Frequent Flyer members can also contact this team directly using the following email address: [email protected]
Some reward tickets have continued to fall through the cracks
This solution fixed the majority of those long-standing Qantas partner airline reward ticketing problems. Unfortunately, though, some lingering issues have remained. This is particularly the case for Qantas reward bookings operated by partner airlines such as Malaysia Airlines which have very short re-ticketing time limits.
For example, in July 2024, an AFF member posted on our forum:
I have just being pinged by this issue. Although, I think it is more MH’s fault than QF.
This afternoon I changed the date of a single flight in my [Oneworld Classic Flight Reward] booking. Paid taxes. Sent to ticketing. Within about 4 hours MH had cancelled the flights – the completely unchanged flights.
The same issue has happened repeatedly with Malaysia Airlines bookings
Unfortunately, this wasn’t just a one-off glitch. The same problem has affected numerous Qantas Frequent Flyer members when changing reward bookings that included one or more flights on Malaysia Airlines.
Another AFF member also posted about a similar issue in a different thread back in April 2024. There are posts on FlyerTalk about this as well, which relate to flights on Malaysia Airlines and other partners including China Airlines.
In fact, I’ve experienced this exact problem myself! Last year, I had redeemed some of my Qantas points to book a Malaysia Airlines Business Class reward flight from Singapore to Bangkok via Kuala Lumpur, and later decided to change to a different Singapore-Kuala Lumpur flight. I went to the Qantas website, chose a new flight and paid the change fee.
A few hours later, my ticket no longer existed. Malaysia Airlines had cancelled my flights because Qantas had failed to re-issue my ticket within the time limit. I didn’t receive any notification about this, nor did Qantas automatically refund my points. My flights simply disappeared into some sort of black hole.
In my case, I was eventually able to rebook onto the same flights over the phone with a Qantas contact centre agent in Hobart. Luckily, this was possible because there were still Business reward seats available on my original flights. But this wasted a lot of my time and never should have happened in the first place.
It’s also possible that Malaysia Airlines could cancel flights on tickets that require manual re-ticketing following an airline schedule change that was not initiated by the customer. That schedule change could even be for another flight on the ticket which isn’t operated by Malaysia Airlines.
Why are these tickets getting cancelled?
A Qantas spokesperson explained to Australian Frequent Flyer that after being changed, some reward tickets need to be manually re-ticketed by a person if the automated ticketing system detects a mismatch in the taxes & carrier charges payable. This could occur, for example, if Malaysia Airlines adjusts its carrier charges or the exchange rate has fluctuated significantly since the original booking was made.
Unfortunately, this becomes a problem when Qantas’ partner airlines also have very short re-ticketing windows. In the case of Malaysia Airlines, this is just a few hours. In instances where Qantas’ contact centre agents don’t re-issue the ticket within that short time limit, Malaysia Airlines will simply cancel the booking.
“We have worked hard to build an extensive network of partners, providing more ways for members to travel internationally using their points,” the Qantas spokesperson said.
“Several bookings that involve partner airlines have been impacted by an intermittent ticketing issue, caused by a mismatch in ticket information coupled with a short partner re-ticketing window. We sincerely apologise to impacted members.
“Protecting these reward seat bookings is extremely important to us, and we have invested significantly in our contact centres to manage these issues when they occur.”
While this issue has been ongoing for some time, we understand that Malaysia Airlines has cancelled less than 10 Qantas reward bookings in the past three months due to this specific issue.
What Qantas is doing to resolve this problem
The good news is that Qantas is aware of this issue and has taken steps to address it since Australian Frequent Flyer brought it to the airline’s attention.
Qantas recently reorganised its manual ticket handling queues to resolve the most time-sensitive reward seat bookings first.
The airline is also working with its partner airlines with shorter re-ticketing windows, such as Malaysia Airlines, to try to get this period extended to 24 hours. This would allow Qantas more time to process and re-issue tickets following changes.
In the meantime, if you make a change to a Qantas reward booking that involves travel on partner airlines, keep an eye on your ticket. If your booking doesn’t get re-ticketed quickly, you might need to call Qantas or email the reward ticketing escalations team.
