New indicator on QF site when award booking is mixed-class

[burrco]

I may have missed an existing thread , but just noticed an improvement when making award bookings. I was looking for a J flight MEL-FRA and noticed that the options now have an information tag which you can house over showing booking class information. This shows for example that the Sydney - Frankfurt leg is in premium economy - still not perfect - but a lot easier than the old system where you'd have to go through each entry individually.

 

[simongr]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

I saw that today doing some "costings" for awards. I think it is a good improvement in communication - the eye is drawn straight to the ! - sadly I initially thought it was like the "Hurry up" tag for seats indicating there weren't many available.

What was even more telling for me though was on a SYD-LHR-SYD award there were virtually no J seats available (for 3 people) 11 months out for the legs into SYD - whereas there was generally decent awards availability flying Asia-LHR-Asia...

 

[anat0l]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

Of course the most ideal situation is to auto-filter out the options which leave the "most significant sector" in the lowest class of service. (I assume there aren't any concrete heads out there that would seriously hand over a stack of points to get MEL-SYD in J but SYD-LAX in only Y or even W, so auto-filtering out these options would be fine).

It is, however, definitely an improvement. The light orange on white background might pose some readability issues for some people, but at least it also gives the information required (i.e. which leg is not in the class required).

Interestingly whilst playing around with the new search engine I can sometimes get options that are a "flip" of the problem, i.e. a connecting flight to international gateway in Y but the most significant sector out of the gateway in J. Obviously not as bad as the previous problem (though concerning that one can't get a J seat on that day for a connecting flight). Of course, these kinds of flights are also flagged with a ! with the correct information.

I know many people would disagree with me, but I give a thumbs up to QF for this change.

 

[nlagalle]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

Definitely a good change, but then there is the debate on whether they should fix that anomoly or leave it as it can work in reverse...

 

[danny09]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

Deffinetly a a good change. It has been quiet a discussion on this website about how many people have complained about this in the past. Well done QANTAS

 

[yo yo ma]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

Definitely a good change, but then there is the debate on whether they should fix that anomoly or leave it as it can work in reverse...

Love it when it works in reverse!

 

[Limewood]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

Do hope if one sector is shown in another class (like booked J get Y) then appropriate points are shown and deducted.

 

[markis10]

Do hope if one sector is shown in another class (like booked J get Y) then appropriate points are shown and deducted.

They have been doing this all along, the appropriate points payable is the highest class for the journey redemption level regardless of how much of the journey is done in that class, as per the rules I am afraid.

 

[amaroo]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

I think it's a big improvement - well done QF.

It has made my life better now that my other half can clearly see for herself that there are no J available for the date/route she wants.

 

[Limewood]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

They have been doing this all along, the appropriate points payable is the highest class for the journey redemption level regardless of how much of the journey is done in that class, as per the rules I am afraid.

What I meant was if one books J all the way then to find one sector is Y then should be charged 1 x j and 1 xY my recollection was all was charged as J in that instance.

 

[markis10]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

What I meant was if one books J all the way then to find one sector is Y then should be charged 1 x j and 1 xY my recollection was all was charged as J in that instance.

I understand that, the rules of the program from day 1 have said in that case, the redemption will be made as if the highest class was being flown all the way.

Where mixed-class travel is booked on a Trip, the Points required for that Trip will be calculated using the Points level for the highest class of travel flown on that Trip.

 

[TheInsider]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

Any reason why QF is charging the J class points rate for the Y cabin??

 

[medhead]

Any reason why QF is charging the J class points rate for the Y cabin??

Yes, because mixed class travel is charged at the highest cabin class for the entire trip as stated in the T&C.


Sent from the Throne

 

[markis10]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

Any reason why QF is charging the J class points rate for the Y cabin??

The booking rules for a QF/Partner classic award!

 

[TheInsider]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

The booking rules for a QF/Partner classic award!

View attachment 6623

Well there you go then, seems really stupid.

Can't say i'm too aware of the FF points side of the business!

 

[yo yo ma]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

What I meant was if one books J all the way then to find one sector is Y then should be charged 1 x j and 1 xY my recollection was all was charged as J in that instance.

Hope not - my upcoming JASA HKG-xMEL-BNE is allocated in F for the first leg. I am happy if they keep things the way they are.

 

[Stephen65]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

Yes, because mixed class travel is charged at the highest cabin class for the entire trip as stated in the T&C.

Sent from the Throne

There is some logical basis for this because you usually can't break up a multi-segment award journey into separate point costs by segment. For example, MEL - SYD is 16K points and SYD - LHR is 128K points but MEL - LHR is also 128K points whether or not you fly direct or via SYD. There isn't any obvious way therefore to cost a MEL - SYD - LHR fare that is say Y on the segment to SYD and then J to LHR. You could devise some sort of mathematical formula to break total fare into notional fares by segment and then discount the segment that is in Y but I don't think QF are inclined to try and do this. It's easier and more profitable for them to charge the higher rate for the whole trip.

 

[Limewood]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

I understand that, the rules of the program from day 1 have said in that case, the redemption will be made as if the highest class was being flown all the way.

Still not morally right IMO, not getting what one pays for with points. Maybe QFF should have this unjust regulation in 18point for all to easily see

 

[simongr]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

Hope not - my upcoming JASA HKG-xMEL-BNE is allocated in F for the first leg. I am happy if they keep things the way they are.

I think JASA might be different but if not then you should be charged F points for the entire trip.

There is some logical basis for this because you usually can't break up a multi-segment award journey into separate point costs by segment. For example, MEL - SYD is 16K points and SYD - LHR is 128K points but MEL - LHR is also 128K points whether or not you fly direct or via SYD. There isn't any obvious way therefore to cost a MEL - SYD - LHR fare that is say Y on the segment to SYD and then J to LHR. You could devise some sort of mathematical formula to break total fare into notional fares by segment and then discount the segment that is in Y but I don't think QF are inclined to try and do this. It's easier and more profitable for them to charge the higher rate for the whole trip.

Is that correct? I thought that QF charged the routing rather than the point to point distance (origin/dest). It was a clear distinction between the AA and QF pograms that essentialy "created" more awards - on AA you could fly syd-hkg-lax for the same points as syd-lax which meant you could essentially get access to a broader range of awards at the same price point.

 

[oz_mark]

Re: Minor improvement to Qantas Award Booking engine.

Is that correct? I thought that QF charged the routing rather than the point to point distance (origin/dest). It was a clear distinction between the AA and QF pograms that essentialy "created" more awards - on AA you could fly syd-hkg-lax for the same points as syd-lax which meant you could essentially get access to a broader range of awards at the same price point.

They charge classic awards on the routing in as much as they add the individual distances up

So if the distance LHR-MEL and the distance of LHR-SYD + SYD-MEL end up in the same zone, then the charge will be the same.

IF LHR-SYD + SYD-MEL ended up in a the next zone, you would pay the extra.