Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[encryptededdy]

I have sometimes found that if the agent can’t see what you can see, if you give them the flight number they can locate what you’re are seeing

I recently had a call with a (very helpful) Hobart agent to get an additional leg added to my existing reward booking (not an OWA, but probably similar limitations).

I told her that I wanted to add a flight connecting from LAX onto YVR on the same day, and she came back to me with 2 or 3 WestJet options (even though I knew there was an AA option available). I asked her about the AA option, and she agreed it was odd that she couldn't see it. I confirmed it still had award seats open. After giving her the exact time and flight number, she still couldn't find it.

Then, she said "could you give me the flight number again, I'll try a different search and see if I can find it". After a minute or two, she was able to find the AA flight I wanted using this "different search".

Once we had the new itinerary confirmed, she told me that it may take some time for me to receive the e-ticket, since it needed to be sent off to the ticketing team (I guess implying that this needed manual ticketing?). Around 36 hours later, I got my e-ticket in my inbox.

I have no idea what happened here, but my pure speculation seems to be that if the system doesn't let them add the leg, then ticketing can add it manually? Perhaps? Of course if this really is the case then I suspect whether you can get a leg added or not will depend heavily on what call centre agent you manage to talk to.

 

[gfraser]

I have no idea what happened here, but my pure speculation seems to be that if the system doesn't let them add the leg, then ticketing can add it manually? Perhaps? Of course if this really is the case then I suspect whether you can get a leg added or not will depend heavily on what call centre agent you manage to talk to.

I had exactly the same Today. After 14 phone calls to Qantas 131313, finally got Remy from Fiji ( excellent ) who couldn’t see what I wanted on her screen but I could see it on Qantas site. She then looked on the website then spoke to her Supervisor and had it added.
So sad that the previous 13 didn’t have the knowledge or the inclination to enable this.

 

[Mr H]

I had exactly the same Today. After 14 phone calls to Qantas 131313, finally got Remy from Fiji ( excellent ) who couldn’t see what I wanted on her screen but I could see it on Qantas site. She then looked on the website then spoke to her Supervisor and had it added.
So sad that the previous 13 didn’t have the knowledge or the inclination to enable this.

I had something similar - Venus in Fiji was not able to see a flight that had been on the Qantas site but vanished the moment I got through to an agent. She could not see it by route but when I asked her to keep trying, she was able to find it by flight number and date.

 

[Rach1616]

I have called Qantas (more times than I care to recall) to have an additional flight added to a ticketed award booking. These are the first few flights on what will end up a OWA booking but so far the itinerary hasn't reached the 318,000 points. Finally have the internal EU flight added to original Sydney to London booking and have received an e-ticket BUT I'm worried because......

1. the newly issued e-ticket number is the same number that was attached to the original booking (my previous experience is that whenever you add a new flight you get a new e-ticket number)
2. Check my trip shows the additional flight but it has no e-ticket number or FF number attached to that flight.

Do I need to call back and if so what do I ask them to check or correct? Dealing with the Qantas call centres is slowly destroying my soul.

Many thanks.

 

[Mr H]

I have called Qantas (more times than I care to recall) to have an additional flight added to a ticketed award booking. These are the first few flights on what will end up a OWA booking but so far the itinerary hasn't reached the 318,000 points. Finally have the internal EU flight added to original Sydney to London booking and have received an e-ticket BUT I'm worried because......

1. the newly issued e-ticket number is the same number that was attached to the original booking (my previous experience is that whenever you add a new flight you get a new e-ticket number)
2. Check my trip shows the additional flight but it has no e-ticket number or FF number attached to that flight.

Do I need to call back and if so what do I ask them to check or correct? Dealing with the Qantas call centres is slowly destroying my soul.

Many thanks.

Yes you need to call back. Your booking is only ticketed when CMT shows a ticket number for every flight.

 

[vetrade]

QF have just got a Shonky Award from Choice. I think that's fair.

 

[PaulyB]

I had something similar - Venus in Fiji was not able to see a flight that had been on the Qantas site but vanished the moment I got through to an agent. She could not see it by route but when I asked her to keep trying, she was able to find it by flight number and date.

This has been my experience a lot but I realised today that there are different situations where this manifests.

I have a J class One World award booking but could only get Economy back to Sydney from BKK with Japan Airlines. I can see Business Class for one of the legs and Premium on the other so that would be OK.

After going through the "I can see but they can't see" routine with about the 5th person I was told today that the problem is that those seats are only for NEW bookings! And that it is a JAL limitation.

So for example, if a BA or QANTAS or Cathay option came up, I could cancel the JAL flights and use the alternatives without a problem.
Is that a furphy or is it accurate? Quite a different problem than the agent not being able to see a flight....

 

[Warragul]

I have called Qantas (more times than I care to recall) to have an additional flight added to a ticketed award booking. These are the first few flights on what will end up a OWA booking but so far the itinerary hasn't reached the 318,000 points. Finally have the internal EU flight added to original Sydney to London booking and have received an e-ticket BUT I'm worried because......

1. the newly issued e-ticket number is the same number that was attached to the original booking (my previous experience is that whenever you add a new flight you get a new e-ticket number)
2. Check my trip shows the additional flight but it has no e-ticket number or FF number attached to that flight.

Do I need to call back and if so what do I ask them to check or correct? Dealing with the Qantas call centres is slowly destroying my soul.

Many thanks.

I've found myself in a similar situation, where a SYD-CBR hop was added to the itinerary and received an eticket email. Yet CMT did not have a ticket number for that last flight, all the others did. On closer inspection the eticket number had not changed since the previous change.

On calling Qantas, went through the process of putting the booking on the 'ticketing queue' and wait 48 hours, did this several times while keeping watch on the other flights (on AT/RJ and JL) with no new eticket issued. Received various reassurances that all is good and reasons as to what was happening and why - including a re price requiring 167000 points payment, didn't proceed with that option. After about 10 days no new eticket, but all the other flights are intact and ticketed (status on JL website is 'ticketed', the AT and RJ website still have the ticket number listed), an agent mentioned that unticketed status of the SYD-CBR flight will not affect the non QF flights and that the new eticket will be issued 'soon'. Who knows how accurate that is.

Anyway that was Monday and it is around 2 weeks since the last flight was booked. I'm giving it a little while before calling again, while being eagle eyed for changes on the other flights. None have changed to date..

 

[flapper]

This has been my experience a lot but I realised today that there are different situations where this manifests.

I have a J class One World award booking but could only get Economy back to Sydney from BKK with Japan Airlines. I can see Business Class for one of the legs and Premium on the other so that would be OK.

After going through the "I can see but they can't see" routine with about the 5th person I was told today that the problem is that those seats are only for NEW bookings! And that it is a JAL limitation.

So for example, if a BA or QANTAS or Cathay option came up, I could cancel the JAL flights and use the alternatives without a problem.
Is that a furphy or is it accurate? Quite a different problem than the agent not being able to see a flight....

I believe JL don't allow you to transit in J flying back to Oz, you have to make it a stop over or choose another class. I encountered the same problem when I booked some months ago, when Japan was still closed so couldn't risk a stopover. From memory I tested it using the QF multi city booking tool and sure enough J didn't appear in a transit booking but did as a single flight. I'm not sure of it is the same when departing Oz.

 

[Mr H]

I believe JL don't allow you to transit in J flying back to Oz, you have to make it a stop over or choose another class. I encountered the same problem when I booked some months ago, when Japan was still closed so couldn't risk a stopover. From memory I tested it using the QF multi city booking tool and sure enough J didn't appear in a transit booking but did as a single flight. I'm not sure of it is the same when departing Oz.

Can you sidestep that by flying in to one Tokyo airport and leaving from the other? I had a OWA route that had that transit with JL in J scheduled for October 2022 but I never got to fly it because I couldn't get a US visa.

 

[djkelly69]

I believe JL don't allow you to transit in J flying back to Oz, you have to make it a stop over or choose another class.

For the end of my OWA early next year, I was originally flying on JL from BKK-HND-SYD in J with a ~1hr layover at HND.

A JL schedule change means it is now PE BKK-HND with a 12hr layover, then J to SYD.

 

[PaulyB]

Can you sidestep that by flying in to one Tokyo airport and leaving from the other? I had a OWA route that had that transit with JL in J scheduled for October 2022 but I never got to fly it because I couldn't get a US visa.

That's a really good question. Possibly cancel those two flights and just rebook them but out of the two airports.. I had the impression that she (Ana in Fiji) was saying that delaying the Sydney leg by one day would make no difference because it was an existing booking.
But if I cancel the two flights and book two new ones, fly into Narita and then out of Haneda the next day and on a different flight to the one I originally had booked.

Hmm!!! Will try but gee, it's going to involve a cluey operator....

Thanks to you both.... I will report back...

 

[Maybloomer]

Hi everyone,
Long time since I have been on this page. Looking at options for OWA next year departing SYD to Europe. Found a few via HKG on QF and CX and noted taxes seemed very high, more than double than similar flights through SIN which I have now booked.

Has CX and HKG airport become an expensive transit destination. Used to be almost no fees or taxes out of there even flying QF.

Have you thought about a stopover or transiting through Bengaluru (Bangalore). Qantas fly direct to there from SYD and then you can BA it to Europe.

 

[PaulyB]

Have you thought about a stopover or transiting through Bengaluru (Bangalore). Qantas fly direct to there from SYD and then you can BA it to Europe

Oh wow. Thankyou so much for mentioning this. I had never thought of Bangalore and have just now changed my OneWorld Award in Oct '23 in J from Syd-Manila-Haneda-LHR with the last leg in PE ,to Syd - Bangalore - LHR all in J. with QF & BA.
I even had someone in Sth Africa helping who knew what she was doing....)

Bliss! Now all I have to do is find an equivalent return without spending time in Economy in Oct 23! THAT is proving hard...
Thanks!!

 

[am0985]

BA LHR/BLR flights are with the new Club Suite too...

 

[PaulyB]

So further to my update, yesterday with great excitement - seems the call centre operator didn't quite know what she was doing after all.
Nothing was ticketed so I called about 24 hours later...

The first person told me some of the flights were not 'logged'. Something to do with FF points. (This is an award booking with free changes until Dec. I was faithfully told I would be called back after she talked to support in about 30 mins. But no call. I really should have known better.

So 3 hours later I ring again and someone else contacts support (37min wait) and the same issue which she is going to fix and get it ticketed within a cple of hours...

We will see...

It leads me to wonder. These calls are recorded. Is there any way of getting an id (apart from a name) at the start of the call so we can send in a complete litany of complaints and errors?

 

[Mr H]

So further to my update, yesterday with great excitement - seems the call centre operator didn't quite know what she was doing after all.
Nothing was ticketed so I called about 24 hours later...

The first person told me some of the flights were not 'logged'. Something to do with FF points. (This is an award booking with free changes until Dec. I was faithfully told I would be called back after she talked to support in about 30 mins. But no call. I really should have known better.

So 3 hours later I ring again and someone else contacts support (37min wait) and the same issue which she is going to fix and get it ticketed within a cple of hours...

We will see...

It leads me to wonder. These calls are recorded. Is there any way of getting an id (apart from a name) at the start of the call so we can send in a complete litany of complaints and errors?

You can ask them at any point to repeat their name and confirm which call centre they are in. Do not believe any agent who tells you they will fix things after you ring off. Occasionally one will, but most will not.

 

[PaulyB]

You can ask them at any point to repeat their name and confirm which call centre they are in. Do not believe any agent who tells you they will fix things after you ring off. Occasionally one will, but most will not.

Sadly I have discovered that over the last few months. Well, these last 3 be test cases as I have the centers, names and times...

Of course, silly me to think that I could actually book a flight, make changes and expect it to be smooth and reliable... Qantas MUST know this is damaging their reputation. It's like the Ryan Air of Call center quality...

 

[PaulyB]

Pleased to report that after 4 calls in 3 days (and one call back as promised) I have an updated ticketed booking for 9 months time. Now I need to see what I can do to swap the current Economy from BKK to J, into Sydney next October. What could possibly go wrong! ?

 

[PointsTraveller!]

I've just booked our first leg of an OWA Business Class trip MEL>NRT>FRA on JL business class in November 2023.

My eventual itinerary is to be:
MEL - LCY
MAD (or CAS) - JFK
JFK - CUN
CUN - LAX
SFO - NRT
NRT - MEL

Understanding the issues of having any flight add-ons reticketed my questions are:

1. Am I best to wait until a few flights open up before calling and adding them on? eg. calling and adding FRA>LCY, MAD-JFK, JFK - CUN at the same time? Then in a few months calling again and having added CUN-LAX, SFO-NRT, NRT-MEL
2. OR adding each leg as soon as they come available. (as there is two of us is there a 5,000 per point fee per flight added per person)?
3. OR simply just making individual flight bookings and giving up on the idea of all legs in Business and the 318k points knowing this will cost more points but likely the safest bet.

Appreciate advice on past experiences as I know and am willing to make a few phone calls to make this happen but don't want to risk losing my first leg to FRA already booked.