Award booking cancelled without notice

[madrooster]

Assuming there is still 2 non-QF carriers to validate the Award if QR are lost.On my award QF had ticketed 4 x J LAX SYD AA73.My flight before this was QF12 JFK-LAX....which could only connect to an onward QF flight.They called me to advise AA73 must be cancelled, and offered LAX-SFO-SYD (which had 4 J available) in its place.I said a bit disappointed they confirmed LAX-SYD direct with AA for me, and now I have lost my direct flight.They 'magically' found 4 x J LAX SYD QF12 for me (as NB this is never available via normal release).I was thankful, and asked 'how?'. The helpful QF agent said he 'did something behind the scenes'.Extra taxes, but a good outcome.So, do try and make QF find a solution for you (and not make you rely on the award availability gods).

Involuntary overbooking. There is a procedure for that.

 

[cjd600]

Involuntary overbooking. There is a procedure for that.

Meaning its okay if 'involuntary' ?
Not sure how much faith I'd have in QF 'procedure' given their issues turning around a ticket on all of these QR issues that have recently arisen

 

[downgraded]

Late ticketing has also worked to my advantage where QF hasn't charged change fees where incremental changes I've made to my booking have not attracted change fees as the bookings weren't ticketed when changes were made.

 

[Inuniform]

Late ticketing has also worked to my advantage where QF hasn't charged change fees where incremental changes I've made to my booking have not attracted change fees as the bookings weren't ticketed when changes were made.

I was wondering if this was something I could negotiate or if it was a fixed cost of making changes. I will bring it up at the appropriate time, at the moment though, my focus is on getting tickets booked at dates that work for me.

 

[Mattg]

I've had QF flights that have taken weeks to ticket. It's not a huge problem if you're flying on Qantas metal, but has proven to be a very big problem in this instance.

I now call back after around 24 hours if my ticket still hasn't been issued. That way they'll usually get it done manually on the spot. I often need to do this with vouchers, and sometimes also with award bookings.

I'm not sure what Qantas can really do for you in this case, but I'm quite sure that they need to make it right in one way or another as they are at fault here (and have acknowledged this).

 

[Ultan Lankford]

Making me worried now as I will have to add some QR seats to my OW Award booking later.
I hear that QR will cancel held seats after 24 hours if they are not ticketed? Or is it 3 days?
Regardless, can one ask QF to ticket them on the spot citing concerns that something like this will happen?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Making me worried now as I will have to add some QR seats to my OW Award booking later.
I hear that QR will cancel held seats after 24 hours if they are not ticketed? Or is it 3 days?
Regardless, can one ask QF to ticket them on the spot citing concerns that something like this will happen?

Absolutely you can ask QF to ticket immediately as QR will cancel reservations if not ticketed within 24/72 hours (or whatever it is). If you have read 24 hours, make sure QF has ticketed by that stage. The three days is not mandatory. SQ used to require instant ticketing, then went to 24 hours. I think they hold longer now.

 

[madrooster]

QR usually allow 1 week for newly added segments. The problem at the moment is segments that were previously ticketed and are then setup for a ticket exchange. As I posted in the oneworld award thread, I had QR segments get cancelled 19 minutes after I had the PNR setup for a ticket exchange.

 

[JohnPhelan]

Just to clarify, I was told that my cancellation fee of 10000 points would be refunded. It's not much of a consolation at this stage though.

Yes, but the points refund is in QF's control. Getting QR to release an award seat is not.

It's not of any help, but it's a good example of why it's better to book all sectors of award trips all at the same time - so no need for reticketing (but yes, I know availability is the issue if you wait for the final legs to become available).

 

[Inuniform]

An update if anyone is interested? I called QF today and explained my situation again. The CSR said that QR were yet to respond to an email that had been sent by QF asking for the J seats to be reinstated. I notice that I now have a booking with the original flights and dates but it appears that they are in Y. There is also a booking with BA in J from DOH to LHR. I was told that this was a back up but that's going to be another battle if it gets to that because QR to BA is a massive downgrade in my book. I have been told to ring back 'next week' to check in on the progress of QF's request to get my J seats back. Will update again when I have more information.

 

[Mattg]

An update if anyone is interested? I called QF today and explained my situation again. The CSR said that QR were yet to respond to an email that had been sent by QF asking for the J seats to be reinstated. I notice that I now have a booking with the original flights and dates but it appears that they are in Y. There is also a booking with BA in J from DOH to LHR. I was told that this was a back up but that's going to be another battle if it gets to that because QR to BA is a massive downgrade in my book. I have been told to ring back 'next week' to check in on the progress of QF's request to get my J seats back. Will update again when I have more information.

Thanks for the update. Hopefully a good outcome is reached.

I would like to know why Qantas thinks you should have to go to the effort of calling back next week though. This is Qantas' mistake - why can't they be proactive and call you back instead?

 

[RichardMEL]

I'm with Matt. thanks for the update but I would have asked why QF can't run with this and be proactive rather than waiting for you to call

(I pretty much feel I know why but goodness me this is poor making you chase!)

 

[Inuniform]

I'm with Matt. thanks for the update but I would have asked why QF can't run with this and be proactive rather than waiting for you to call

(I pretty much feel I know why but goodness me this is poor making you chase!)

I was contemplating asking them to call me back but didn't want to miss their call. If I call them I can at least do it when I want. They never offered to call me back but did suggest to check the status of my tickets online from time to time. I am thankful that I don't need to book my next leg for a couple of weeks but that is based on being ticketed my original departure flight. It's all just wait and see at this stage.

 

[RichardMEL]

I was contemplating asking them to call me back but didn't want to miss their call. If I call them I can at least do it when I want. They never offered to call me back but did suggest to check the status of my tickets online from time to time. I am thankful that I don't need to book my next leg for a couple of weeks but that is based on being ticketed my original departure flight. It's all just wait and see at this stage.

Well there's nothing stopping you calling as much as you like.. I just think they should own this and it's slack to just say to you that you call back. In a good customer service culture(and I realise QF has millions of passengers and bookings a year to handle, but someone should take ownership of this and follow it through IMHO).

You don't give an indication of any FF status (not that this should matter to the general thought I have) but I wonder if this would have any bearing as to how much they chase this with QR.

For instance, I'd hope as a Plat or P1(in my case) in a similar situation that QF should own *their* issue and follow it through proactively. Not wait for me to call to ask "so has there been any movement at the station"

just my 2 cents(again )

 

[Ausbt]

How do you know a ticket has been 'issued'? I have a QF itinerary listing a booking ref which is a J award with KA & CX - do I actually need to call Q to find out if this is 'real'?

 

[Mattg]

How do you know a ticket has been 'issued'? I have a QF itinerary listing a booking ref which is a J award with KA & CX - do I actually need to call Q to find out if this is 'real'?

If you have received a booking confirmation email with a ticket attached, and the flights show as "Confirmed" where it says "status", then you should be fine.

 

[OATEK]

How do you know a ticket has been 'issued'? I have a QF itinerary listing a booking ref which is a J award with KA & CX - do I actually need to call Q to find out if this is 'real'?

You can also use the "Classic check my trip" service operated by Amadeus to see the status of the tickets.

 

[eminere]

You can also use the "Classic check my trip" service operated by Amadeus to see the status of the tickets.

Seconded. If CheckMyTrip displays a ticket number for your booking then you're good to go.

 

[BAM1748]

An update if anyone is interested? I called QF today and explained my situation again. The CSR said that QR were yet to respond to an email that had been sent by QF asking for the J seats to be reinstated. I notice that I now have a booking with the original flights and dates but it appears that they are in Y. There is also a booking with BA in J from DOH to LHR. I was told that this was a back up but that's going to be another battle if it gets to that because QR to BA is a massive downgrade in my book. I have been told to ring back 'next week' to check in on the progress of QF's request to get my J seats back. Will update again when I have more information.

This sort of says it all. Why didn't a manager at QF wait back after 5 and pick up the phone and ring his/her counterpart at QR and get it sorted. Perhaps QF managers also need a lesson in how to sort problems fast and through to finality.

Annoying to say the least, and mediocre action.

 

[madrooster]

This sort of says it all. Why didn't a manager at QF wait back after 5 and pick up the phone and ring his/her counterpart at QR and get it sorted. Perhaps QF managers also need a lesson in how to sort problems fast and through to finality.

Annoying to say the least, and mediocre action.

Easy to say, but that's not how it works. Each airline has a oneworld helpdesk for contact from other oneworld carriers and these requests have to go through QR's oneworld helpdesk. They are based in Doha so the time difference can be a problem.