Refund of points on multi city booking

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Pierre_a

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Jul 13, 2015
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Hi All,

I have just been fortunate enough to book 2 x J award on JAL HEL - NRT - MEL for October next year.

These things are like hens teeth so when I found the availability as the seats were released this morning I jumped on them. Unfortunately the multi-booking tool threw me out with its usual error code (4002 7597).

Because I've been watching these JAL seats over the last several months I knew they disappear within hours each day. I therefore booked the itinerary segment by segment (whilst waiting in a 45 minute queue).

Unfortunately this means I was charged 2 x 78k points for each booking instead of 1 x 139k points. Therefore I am down 34k points all up. I didn't twig to this as I booked them.

Speaking to customer service operators this afternoon (after a 1 hour 15 hold!) the information I was given is that in order to process the refund he would have to cancel the seats and re-book as a single itinerary. This opens me up to fairly significant risk of losing the seats completely - I'm not open to this risk.

Is there any advice on how to proceed to take this further? My contention is I was unable to book the seats any other way due to Qantas system failure. Qantas should therefore refund the difference.

Thoughts appreciated. Meanwhile I console myself with the knowledge I have successfully closed the loop on another trip to Europe in J.
 
Yes I think that's right. The agent will need to cancel the seats on one of the tickets and then add them in to the other - if they even return to award seat inventory. So you'd lose 6000 points for the cancellation of one leg, and incur a 5000 point fee to change the other ticket (to include the seats from the other ticket). So you'd incur 11,000 points in fees anyway (per passenger, or 22,000 all up)

So it may not really be worth the while to do that given the risks of the seats not vcoming back at all. (Now if two new seats come up on one of the sectors, that would be different, you'd be able to claw back 12K points (ie 34K-22K change and cancel fees = 12K better off))
 
I wouldn't risk it.

Not all airlines automatically release inventory back after an award seat is cancelled. For what it's worth I did that exact itinerary (HEL-NRT-MEL on Japan Airlines) in J and I can say it is an exceptional experience that is worth so much more than even the higher points you have (admittedly annoyingly) had to pay. So if I were you I would treat it as a sunk cost and just enjoy!

Also, not sure if you're spending time in Helsinki but it's a lot of fun too.
 
Thanks for the replies. I will focus on the positive - an excellent result, albeit it at a premium of points. However in the context of the 850k total points spend - a small %.

On the negative side of the ledger my (by then) seven year old daughter will continue to think all planes only have 'bed seats'. She's ruined!
 
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On the negative side of the ledger my (by then) seven year old daughter will continue to think all planes only have 'bed seats'. She's ruined!

What are you talking about... All planes do have bed seats :p
 
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