Frustrated

[Noel Mugavin]

Have been trying to book a multi city from Perth - Houston; JFK - LAX; LAX - Per, for the last 2 weeks or so, firstly on the website where I have been through to different stages of the booking, including getting to and passing the seat selection page, before getting an error messages (of differing types). Sent an email to them (2 weeks ago) via the webpage, finally got a reply this morning saying how sorry they are and how frustrated I must be and to give the call centre a ring, or skip the seat selection page. Which I did, and then received the generic error message. Within the last 2 weeks, call centre advised me to clear cookies, change browsers, which I did, on 3 browsers no less. Same again, so decided to go down the SMS path to book, 55 minutes with 20 minutes gaps between someone replying to a message, gave up on that. Tried the website again, same problems, different stages of booking again. Gave the call centre a bell again, this time advised to check the viewing tips on the page, did so, made a couple of adjustments to my browser, same issue again.
Enough was enough rang this morning to book, very helpful lady in the phone finally gave me a clear reason, different fare class for the LAX - PER sector. Had have known that from the get go, would have booked via the phone. Anyway, after a 30 minute process came back with a price $700 dearer than on the web page. Stupid me, biting the nose off to spite my face said thanks but no thanks.
A day of re-checking prices on internal US flights and telling myself to stop being a fool, it's only money, rang again 30 minutes or so again with the intention of booking. Anyway, end result, the agent this time can't find a fare due to different airlines used in the US (both American flights Dallas - Houston and JFK - LAX). Made it to the seat selection page yesterday, plenty of seats available on all flights. His advice go to a travel agent and they will be able to book the flights. Bear in mind these flights were the ones that came up on the Qantas web page search as my best flights.
I know I was stupid not to just book the flights this morning, but behind frustrated at this point, and finding it quite strange that Qantas can't find flights on their own network.

 

[serfty]

With anything other that "vanilla" bookings, a good TA (not Flight Center) can be invaluable.

Your booking requirements do not come across as "Vanilla".

 

[BD1959]

With anything other that "vanilla" bookings, a good TA (not Flight Center) can be invaluable.

Agree with serfty on this - not only to enable any non-vanilla booking but also to action in case of problems (especially if you're overseas on a partly completed itinerary).

Regards,

BD

 

[33kft]

For an itinerary like this, is there any reason it needs to be on the same PNR? Perhaps there's a pricing delta but I generally only worry about same PNR for connections or if I am booking return. I would probably just book this as 3 different legs and choose whatever cabin class I wanted for each, but don't take my word for it, I'm just interested to hear what others think.

 

[ozfflyer]

For an itinerary like this, is there any reason it needs to be on the same PNR? Perhaps there's a pricing delta but I generally only worry about same PNR for connections or if I am booking return. I would probably just book this as 3 different legs and choose whatever cabin class I wanted for each, but don't take my word for it, I'm just interested to hear what others think.

use Qantas ff pts for U.S. domestic & US/Canada flights a lot.

 

[Noel Mugavin]

Over my little sook from last night. Anyway got it all sorted by booking the New York - LAX flight o a separate ticket, and Qantas able to do the Perth - Houston and LAX - PER legs. Waived the phone booking fee, and also ended up being about $300 cheaper than price given by Qantas earlier in the day (including the JFK - LAX flight)

 

[33kft]

Over my little sook from last night. Anyway got it all sorted by booking the New York - LAX flight o a separate ticket, and Qantas able to do the Perth - Houston and LAX - PER legs. Waived the phone booking fee, and also ended up being about $300 cheaper than price given by Qantas earlier in the day (including the JFK - LAX flight)

Good outcome. This is how I'd have booked it too, with the little context that I have around what the ground sectors look like and how much time inbetween flights. I've always kept to the KISS principle when booking flights, I know the multi-city tool can only book around 3 sectors per day, and around 6-8 all up so I generally break up my trips into consecutive connections if I'm booking an asymmetric route and putting them through on separate booking PNRs.

As others have said, travel agents can help as well, I am sure we all have different opinions but whilst for business I utilize travel agents, I've only ever used a TA once for personal travel when booking my first *S round the world fare, since then I've never had an issue booking myself (touch wood) even with multi city itineraries.

Another trick I've used successfully plenty of times is when I have a symmetric multi city booking without same day connections, I'll often just book two returns on separate PNRs so I get a sort of nested booking.