Award re-routed (and made direct)

[Leroy87]

Needed to get a family member home from Perth yesterday at short notice. Cash fares had gone through the roof (I'm guessing in part because Qantas and Virgin had A330s tied up with Hong Kong troubles) so jumped on to look for award space PER-MEL.

Didn't find anything direct until Sunday so settled for the red-eye last night to BNE and then a tag onto MEL this morning. When the family member went to check in online, the flight had been changed to QF648 direct to Melbourne with no notice from QF at all (text/email: nothing). While a lot of time was saved and the family member was pretty thankful for getting a direct flight I thought this was pretty unusual: has anyone had this sort of thing happen before?

What's more, given I paid a bunch of airport taxes (BNE) and other fees for passenger movements that never happened, as well as 2k more points, should I expect a refund? (I don't seriously expect anything, but it would be interesting if this was for an international booking and the stakes were much higher).

 

[michaelj]

Not the same issue, but similar and a very pleasant experience from QFF this week worth reporting.

I had booked a reward ticket in J PER-LHR on CX when they became available last year. With HKG troubles, I rang the platinum line on Wednesday and was very quickly rerouted on QF9 still in J with change fees etc waived. I’m very happy?,

 

[zenyattamondatta]

Not the same issue, but similar and a very pleasant experience from QFF this week worth reporting. I had booked a reward ticket in J PER-LHR on CX when they became available last year. With HKG troubles, I rang the platinum line on Wednesday and was very quickly rerouted on QF9 still in J with change fees etc waived. I’m very happy?,

Decent chance you’ll earn points and status credits on it, too.

 

[BD1959]

Decent chance you’ll earn points and status credits on it, too.

How come?

Regards,

BD

 

[michaelj]

Surely not

 

[Kangol]

Decent chance you’ll earn points and status credits on it, too.

On QF metal, unlikely.
On other metal, likely.
I've had this happen for both scenarios more than once.
That's why I posted the above.

 

[michaelj]

Decent chance you’ll earn points and status credits on it, too.

had a great flight and returned home via HKG with no problems. There was no glitch and I did not receive points or status credits.

 

[BD1959]

... and I did not receive points or status credits.

Nor would you expect to on an award flight (not that you did) ...

Regards,

BD

 

[michaelj]

Nor would you expect to on an award flight (not that you did) ...

Regards,

BD

Exactly

 

[Pushka]

Nor would you expect to on an award flight (not that you did) ...

Regards,

BD

I don’t even know why it was even raised as a possibility.

 

[zenyattamondatta]

I don’t even know why it was even raised as a possibility.

At least some people are capable of reading between the lines.

Within the past year I have examples of Qantas rebooking me onto another QF flight and Qantas rebooking me onto a different EK flight, and in all three cases received points and SCs for awards due to the way that new booking ended up being handled. And I'm not alone within my office. Looking beyond just QF, I reckon I've received points more often than not when an award has been rebooked due to irrops, irrespective of who's issued the ticket. More luck when it's done at the airport than a few days ahead of time, but it's happened in both cases.

Apologies for the distress I appear to have caused so many of you.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Needed to get a family member home from Perth yesterday at short notice. Cash fares had gone through the roof (I'm guessing in part because Qantas and Virgin had A330s tied up with Hong Kong troubles) so jumped on to look for award space PER-MEL.

Didn't find anything direct until Sunday so settled for the red-eye last night to BNE and then a tag onto MEL this morning. When the family member went to check in online, the flight had been changed to QF648 direct to Melbourne with no notice from QF at all (text/email: nothing). While a lot of time was saved and the family member was pretty thankful for getting a direct flight I thought this was pretty unusual: has anyone had this sort of thing happen before?

What's more, given I paid a bunch of airport taxes (BNE) and other fees for passenger movements that never happened, as well as 2k more points, should I expect a refund? (I don't seriously expect anything, but it would be interesting if this was for an international booking and the stakes were much higher).

On several occasions when I have fronted at check in I have been offered a more direct flight.
However these have all been when I deliberately selected something like BNE-SYD-PER to maximise the status credits on a paid booking.
So I have politely declined.

 

[BD1959]

Within the past year I have examples of Qantas rebooking me onto another QF flight and Qantas rebooking me onto a different EK flight, and in all three cases received points and SCs for awards due to the way that new booking ended up being handled. And I'm not alone within my office. Looking beyond just QF, I reckon I've received points more often than not when an award has been rebooked due to irrops, irrespective of who's issued the ticket. More luck when it's done at the airport than a few days ahead of time, but it's happened in both cases.

Apologies for the distress I appear to have caused so many of you.

No distress zenyattamondatta (that'd make a good album title!) just curious as it's *never* happened to me nor to anyone else I know - is your office part of the Tatts group?

The "more luck at the airport" reference intrigues me since I would have expected IROPS to handled by EK once at the airport and would not require Qantas "rebooking onto a different EK flight" ... what exactly happened here??

Regards,

BD

 

[zenyattamondatta]

The "more luck at the airport" reference intrigues me since I would have expected IROPS to handled by EK once at the airport and would not require Qantas "rebooking onto a different EK flight" ... what exactly happened here??

That one wasn't at the airport... it was a HND-DXB-xx_ flight where runway work at DXB reduced the frequency of the DXB-xx_ flight meaning that the flights had to be moved a day forward or a day back... I ended up with 11,100 points for that (no SCs because EK).

Partner's most recent one was a QF award, JL NRT-MEL QF MEL-SYD rebooked on the day to QF HND-SYD, earned full points and SCs for the QF flight. But you're right, I guess it was JL looking after that at the airport.

 

[blackcat20]

I don’t even know why it was even raised as a possibility.

Because its not unknown for it to happen.

 

[Kangol]

That one wasn't at the airport... it was a HND-DXB-xx_ flight where runway work at DXB reduced the frequency of the DXB-xx_ flight meaning that the flights had to be moved a day forward or a day back... I ended up with 11,100 points for that (no SCs because EK).

Partner's most recent one was a QF award, JL NRT-MEL QF MEL-SYD rebooked on the day to QF HND-SYD, earned full points and SCs for the QF flight. But you're right, I guess it was JL looking after that at the airport.

It would make sense for a non-QF airline to NOT have access to QF award inventory when at the airport - and vice versa.

Sounds like none of the times you refer to were "looked after by QF" because they were not the onward carrier.

I've not had a non-QF carrier rebook me onto QF, only the three other possibilities, and the above has applied from my earlier post. Which from a back end sense is reasonable and sensible.
All with 081 issued awards.

 

[sjk]

It would make sense for a non-QF airline to NOT have access to QF award inventory when at the airport - and vice versa.

Sounds like none of the times you refer to were "looked after by QF" because they were not the onward carrier.

I've not had a non-QF carrier rebook me onto QF, only the three other possibilities, and the above has applied from my earlier post. Which from a back end sense is reasonable and sensible.
All with 081 issued awards.

We have multiple cases of 081 awards and QF to QF changes that have resulted in points and status credits, both domestically and abroad. Is it really such a surprise that QF sometimes gets things ‘wrong’? ‘Reasonable and sensible ‘ is not a phrase I would ordinarily apply to their IT systems.

I note also that zen said ‘decent chance’, not ‘ironclad guarantee’.

 

[BD1959]

I note also that zen said ‘decent chance’, not ‘ironclad guarantee’.

"Decent chance" in my book is >50% which appears to be the experience of zenyattamondatta too "received points more often than not when an award has been rebooked due to irrops" ... certainly not my experience, but you too my have experienced this?

Regards,

BD

 

[Kangol]

We have multiple cases of 081 awards and QF to QF changes that have resulted in points and status credits, both domestically and abroad. Is it really such a surprise that QF sometimes gets things ‘wrong’? ‘Reasonable and sensible ‘ is not a phrase I would ordinarily apply to their IT systems.

I note also that zen said ‘decent chance’, not ‘ironclad guarantee’.

Good thing "back end sense" did not apply to only their IT systems, but the reasoning behind particular circumstances. As in the entire back end, not just a small part that you chose to refer to.
It's not about a surprise that QF sometimes get it wrong.

"Decent chance" has not been shown to be true.
If you have some data on what has happened in the instances of say 10 flights, does that automatically mean it will occur, or is highly likely to occur, in the identical instances of the other tens or hundreds of thousands that occur?
You (not "you", but *you*) literally don't know. You lack the knowledge.

No judgement. Look up the term "external validity" for an understanding of the concept.

 

[zenyattamondatta]

Good thing "back end sense" did not apply to only their IT systems, but the reasoning behind particular circumstances. As in the entire back end, not just a small part that you chose to refer to.
It's not about a surprise that QF sometimes get it wrong.

"Decent chance" has not been shown to be true.
If you have some data on what has happened in the instances of say 10 flights, does that automatically mean it will occur, or is highly likely to occur, in the identical instances of the other tens or hundreds of thousands that occur?
You (not "you", but *you*) literally don't know. You lack the knowledge.

No judgement. Look up the term "external validity" for an understanding of the concept.

We'll have to agree to differ over the meaning of "decent chance", then. I still don't see a problem with what I said based on my own experience. Saying after the fact that something that was never a sure thing "wasn't true" seems a little disingenuous to me.

My answer to your question: "If you have some data on what has happened in the instances of say 10 flights, does that automatically mean it will occur, or is highly likely to occur, in the identical instances of the other tens or hundreds of thousands that occur?" would be "No. Like, duh." Not that I said "automatically" or even "highly likely to occur" in the first place.

So with the benefit of hindsight, would you have been happier if I'd just said that I've received points for rebooked awards more often than not?

Not wanting to speak for sjk, but your last sentence is on the wrong side of the borders with patronizing and condescending from my perspective.