"oneworld" award (132.4K/249.6K/318K/455K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

[Mr H]

If you can’t rely on “fully ticketed”, then what hope is there?

I know. The flights that have gone are the MH, QR and AT ones - so presumably there was a need for reticketing and it was not reticketed within 24 hours. The agent on the phone right now (Api in Fiji) can see the flights that should have been there and he is trying to rebuild the itinerary.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

I know. The flights that have gone are the MH, QR and AT ones - so presumably there was a need for reticketing and it was not reticketed within 24 hours. The agent on the phone right now (Api in Fiji) can see the flights that should have been there and he is trying to rebuild the itinerary.

Fingers crossed. Let us know how you get on.

 

[levelnine]

Would Qantas entertain the notion of them paying for a revenue fare on Qatar from KUL to DOH if I pushed it? Or even just ADL>DOH? Do they do that with partner airlines? No award fares left on any of these flights or anything around them.

If you read through this thread and some other Qantas complaint threads (there are a few in the Qantas forum), you'll see that some people have had luck getting Qantas to convert a revenue ticket to an award ticket on their own flights. That's probably as best you can hope for. Note it may take a lot of patience finding a phone agent able and willing to do it for you. That's what I'd be doing in your shoes.

Also keep checking availability on QR. They just opened up more award space on one of my flights I'm taking in January.

 

[Mr H]

Fingers crossed. Let us know how you get on.

So, 1 hour 22 minutes on the phone to Api in Fiji.

The missing flights are now in my itinerary showing as Pending. This means they are not confirmed. Api says he has contacted the airlines seeking reinstatement of these flights. Api said specifically and more than once that he (i.e. Qantas) guarantees that the flights will be reinstated and ticketed. I pressed for a timeframe and was told after some difficulty that they would be fully ticketed within 72 hours.

I asked for a copy of the recording and was told no, despite multiple requests. I was told that a copy of the recording is stored against my booking reference number. Yeah, right.

There is not much I can do for the next 72 hours, it seems.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

So, 1 hour 22 minutes on the phone to Api in Fiji.

The missing flights are now in my itinerary showing as Pending. This means they are not confirmed. Api says he has contacted the airlines seeking reinstatement of these flights. Api said specifically and more than once that he (i.e. Qantas) guarantees that the flights will be reinstated and ticketed. I pressed for a timeframe and was told after some difficulty that they would be fully ticketed within 72 hours.

I asked for a copy of the recording and was told no, despite multiple requests. I was told that a copy of the recording is stored against my booking reference number. Yeah, right.

There is not much I can do for the next 72 hours, it seems.

Good luck.
In my recent similar issue, it took 20 days (and many phone calls) for a Reinstatement Request to go from Waitlisted to Confirmed.

 

[Mr H]

Good luck.
In my recent similar issue, it took 20 days (and many phone calls) for a Reinstatement Request to go from Waitlisted to Confirmed.

I know - I read about your ordeal.

 

[squid01]

If you read through this thread and some other Qantas complaint threads (there are a few in the Qantas forum), you'll see that some people have had luck getting Qantas to convert a revenue ticket to an award ticket on their own flights. That's probably as best you can hope for. Note it may take a lot of patience finding a phone agent able and willing to do it for you. That's what I'd be doing in your shoes.

Also keep checking availability on QR. They just opened up more award space on one of my flights I'm taking in January.

Just got off a lengthy call with QF. Called and was on hold for a min then got through to NZ! (I’m a bronze). But this girl was new and wasn’t trained in award bookings. She transferred me to award team but it was just Manila. They then transferred me again and I got SA.

Explained that I now have a gap in my leg from ADL>LHR and they need to sort out a solution to get me to LHR. I cheekily pushed for them to put in a request with the Oneworld desk for Qatar to open some seats on a flight from ADL to DOH to LHR. They put the request in (took a long time on hold for some reason). Not counting on it but who knows. May as well try that and if it fails will probably make them open up QF seats on the direct PER to LHR flight.

I have had success in getting seats opened up on QF metal. In the same OWA I was doing LAX>SYD>MEL to get home they cancelled the domestic flight and suggested a later time in the day. I phoned and asked them to open seats on the LAX>MEL flight and they did! Anyway fingers crossed but not counting on this Qatar flight to be opened up.

 

[melbkate]

Thanks for that - well update I got through to Fiji and great consultant who saw it hadn't been ticketed - went on hold to 'the team' siad it would take too long and she would call me back. She did an hour later and hey presto got the email with proper e-ticket so thanks for advice and this forum for alerting me that my confidence in my booking was remiss I had no idea bout this reticketing business so thank you

Follow up question to those in the know - if I want to add a flight to my OWA now what is the best way to address the reticketing issue and make sure I don't lose legs - my flights currently MEL-CBR (QF) - CBR-DOH-FCO (QR) CDG-HEL (AY) HEL-NRT (AY) NRT-MEL (JL) thanks

 

[levelnine]

Follow up question to those in the know - if I want to add a flight to my OWA now what is the best way to address the reticketing issue and make sure I don't lose legs - my flights currently MEL-CBR (QF) - CBR-DOH-FCO (QR) CDG-HEL (AY) HEL-NRT (AY) NRT-MEL (JL) thanks

Call early in the day and ask the agent to have the booking ticketed immediately due to the risk of the Qatar sectors being lost if it does not occur straight away. They'll probably tell you it's been put in the queue and say it'll be done in an hour or two. Hang up, wait 20 minutes and call again. Ask for it to be ticketed. Keep doing this all day until someone gets it done.

---

Has anyone ever had any luck unmarrying two Qatar segments? I want to change the second sector to J now that J is available, but it has become married to the longer Australia-Qatar sector in J. Only way agent knew of getting around the issue would be to cancel the Australia-Qatar sector and try to book the whole thing again. I definitely don't want to do that as it risks losing the Australia-Qatar seats if they don't go back into award inventory.

 

[Mr H]

Good luck.
In my recent similar issue, it took 20 days (and many phone calls) for a Reinstatement Request to go from Waitlisted to Confirmed.

I am a pessimist and yesterday/last night I was distraught.

Then I had a flash of perspective.

Basically, a OWA is (up to) six point to point flights. Looking at my broken itinerary, there are now three missing sectors:

• MEL-SYD-KUL-DEL (two MH flights gone) - this could be salvaged if QF released a seat on their direct MEL-DEL flight giving me an extra day at home (save a day's annual leave) or in Delhi.
• LHR-DOH-IKA (two QR flights gone) - there are economy revenue flights to Tehran with LH for around $1000 or business class options for around $2500 that would save me an overnight in Doha, giving me an extra day with my mum in England.
• IKA-DOH-CMN-TUN (two QR flights and one AT flight gone) - there are economy options for around $700 and there is a business class option with TK for around $2000 that could avoid overnights in DOH and CMN, giving me two extra days in Tunis.

This makes me happier that I will, at least, be able to travel and I can see upsides to each of the alternatives, even if it is not what I had originally planned. So let's see what QF can do to retrieve the situation, but I feel much more at peace with myself now. Everything will be alright.

 

[ozflier]

I know. The flights that have gone are the MH, QR and AT ones - so presumably there was a need for reticketing and it was not reticketed within 24 hours. The agent on the phone right now (Api in Fiji) can see the flights that should have been there and he is trying to rebuild the itinerary.

I have suffered many non qantas airline flight cancellations on my remaining OWAs. Your situation is a recurring nightmare for me . Good luck.

 

[Mr H]

I have suffered many non qantas airline flight cancellations on my remaining OWAs. Your situation is a recurring nightmare for me . Good luck.

In this case, I think it was a retiming of a QR flight by five minutes. I had to accept the change, which I did online (big mistake). This presumably triggered a need to reticket the entire itinerary and when that was not done within 24 hours, every MH, QR and AT booking was cancelled. This seems to be a fundamental weakness in the system and will presumably impact many people.

 

[melbkate]

In this case, I think it was a retiming of a QR flight by five minutes. I had to accept the change, which I did online (big mistake). This presumably triggered a need to reticket the entire itinerary and when that was not done within 24 hours, every MH, QR and AT booking was cancelled. This seems to be a fundamental weakness in the system and will presumably impact many people.

That is terrible! Why was it a 'big mistake'? Could it have been avoided do you think?

 

[Mr H]

That is terrible! Why was it a 'big mistake'? Could it have been avoided do you think?

If I had known it would lead to a reticketing, I would have phoned up and tried to stay on the line while it was reticketed. I think accepting the change online was pretty much equivalent to clicking a button saying "please cancel my booking without refund".

 

[acinod]

One of my destinations is Osaka but I have to fly to Tokyo Haneda in order to be under the 35000 limit for the oneworld award. I'm thinking of booking a ticket straight after I land in Tokyo but how much time do I need to allow for luggage? I think I'll need to pick up my luggage and check in again given it's a separate ticket? Say I land at 1pm, would I be safe booking a flight to Osaka departing at 3pm?

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

One of my destinations is Osaka but I have to fly to Tokyo Haneda in order to be under the 35000 limit for the oneworld award. I'm thinking of booking a ticket straight after I land in Tokyo but how much time do I need to allow for luggage? I think I'll need to pick up my luggage and check in again given it's a separate ticket? Say I land at 1pm, would I be safe booking a flight to Osaka departing at 3pm?

That sounds very optimistic to me.
It wouldn’t take much to go wrong to cause you to miss the 2nd flight.
Late departure flight 1, arrival airport congestion causing holding pattern, congestion at immigration, slow luggage offloading, congestion at customs, etc., etc…

 

[FishFood]

One of my destinations is Osaka but I have to fly to Tokyo Haneda in order to be under the 35000 limit for the oneworld award. I'm thinking of booking a ticket straight after I land in Tokyo but how much time do I need to allow for luggage? I think I'll need to pick up my luggage and check in again given it's a separate ticket? Say I land at 1pm, would I be safe booking a flight to Osaka departing at 3pm?

Have you considered the Shinkansen?

 

[acinod]

Have you considered the Shinkansen?

At first I disregarded this since it takes 3 hours and slightly more expensive. But it's going to take more than 3 hours for me to pick up my luggage, wait for the next flight and train into Osaka then Shinkansen seems to be more worth. Now to work out what time I should book my Shinkansen ticket. Or am I better off buying it when I get there?

 

[Mr H]

Api said specifically and more than once that he (i.e. Qantas) guarantees that the flights will be reinstated and ticketed. I pressed for a timeframe and was told after some difficulty that they would be fully ticketed within 72 hours.

Called again today for a progress update. Efa in Fiji now says it takes at least a week to hear back from the other airlines. He is trying to blame them for cancelling the flights - really, three airlines decide to cancel my flights all on the same morning!

I asked about whether I could book revenue flights and get reimbursed by Qantas. He said yes. So I asked, just to be clear, that I could go ahead with the booking and be guaranteed that Qantas would pay. Oh no, he said, I was welcome to book and then apply for compensation but it was not guaranteed this would be paid.

 

[jeza]

In this case, I think it was a retiming of a QR flight by five minutes. I had to accept the change, which I did online (big mistake). This presumably triggered a need to reticket the entire itinerary and when that was not done within 24 hours, every MH, QR and AT booking was cancelled. This seems to be a fundamental weakness in the system and will presumably impact many people.

I had a retimed QR flight & aircraft change alert come through on CMT last night. Logged into QF, accepted the change & received new E-ticket about half an hour later. This is the 2nd retiming on this ticket I've had.

So it appears it does work sometimes, I'm wondering if there is point where the system can no longer do the process automatically. My ticket was booked online in the one go with no flights added or removed since that point. The only changes are the 2 flight retiming & 1 aircraft change..

The only issue is it's tightened up my layover time at DOH to 1hr 10min which leaves me a bit nervous...