Can't book award seats using Multi-City booking engine, but individual sectors available

[bkf]

Hi all,

I was attempting to book Award seats for 5pax on NAN/SYD (operated by FJ) and then SYD/MEL

I checked each sector separately all the way up to the payment page, and both sectors had Classic Award availability.

I then tried to book the same flights using the Multi-City tool as it was 30K less points, and the flights would be on the same ticket, but just before the payment page, I kept getting this error:

We are unable to confirm your selected flights. Select ‘Start over’ and choose alternative flights. (15079 - 23951 - 421)

I called up the helpline and tried to book over the phone, but was told by the operator that there were no Award seats left on the NAN/SYD sector, and that is why I received that error.
However, I could see these seats, and was able to get up to the payment page, but they were quite adamant there were no Award seats left on the flight. I even called back and spoke to someone else and was given the same answer.

I ended up actually booking the 2 sperate sectors individually as Award seats as I didn't want them to sell out, so there WAS availability.
I'm wondering if I was given incorrect information, or if there was some sort of allocation of Award seats only for pax that were not travelling onwards (?). I also asked the operator if perhaps I was holding the last of the Award seat capacity on the booking engine at the same time, but they said that was not the case.

It's just a bit annoying that I now have 2 separate bookings, and it cost 30K more points.

(Note- I was using the multi city booking engine as the 'one-way' search results were sending me NAN - MEL via 3 separate flights)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

You’ve hit the block on *voluntary connecting awards* where you arrive at one international gateway and want to travel to another.

The QF booking system will show this on multi-city, but it can’t be booked online, or by the regular call centres. It may be possible the call centres established for platinums and above cou,d get it booked, but it’s near impossible for those of us without access to those call centres.

If a single award search - as opposed to multi-city - shows the connection it’s fine (as you found out with the triple connection). But not if you try to force it.

The block means that when the call centre enters in the SYD-MEL connector the NAN-SYD seats disappear, preventing them from making the booking, Similarly if they started with the NAN-SYD leg all award availability SYD-MEL disappears.

In both these cases they will tell you that ‘there are no awards left’, or ‘you are looking at outdated availability and the systems hasn’t updated yet’.

The call centre can do the same as you, book two separate awards, charging you for each. The only advantage to this would be if your inbound is late they will reaccommodate you in the next sector.

Unfortunately this issue has been going on for months and there is no solution.

 

[bkf]

Thank you for the explanation MEL_Traveller. At least I know it wasn't possible to book both sectors on the one ticket, and I did the right thing just booking the sectors individually.

It's a shame the customer service reps weren't able to articulate what the issue was.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thank you for the explanation MEL_Traveller. At least I know it wasn't possible to book both sectors on the one ticket, and I did the right thing just booking the sectors individually.

It's a shame the customer service reps weren't able to articulate what the issue was.

Unfortunately they don’t know the reason!

One explanation given to me was that there are no seats because ‘qantas doesn’t fly between Sydney and Melbourne after 8am’… ‘on any day of the week’.

The sad part is the extra points required

 

[randomly_chaotic]

I've had a similar experience. I can see the individual J awards (international) and could book them separately, or get them together if I do one leg in J and one in Y, even though there's J available in both! I wanted to do a single booking so I can book through my luggage. Exactly the same flight connection is available for cash....

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I've had a similar experience. I can see the individual J awards (international) and could book them separately, or get them together if I do one leg in J and one in Y, even though there's J available in both! I wanted to do a single booking so I can book through my luggage. Exactly the same flight connection is available for cash....

This is more likely a case of married segments. The airline is willing to sell A-B and B-C as awards, but not A-C.

Looking for example at the ‘australia tax’ where we’re paying $9k return to europe business class, you can see why they might want to restrict A-C!

If you book A-B and B-C you should still be able to check all the way through if on the one airline. Just check their terms and conditions.

The block on domestic connectors is just silly, and a grab for additional points

 

[randomly_chaotic]

This is more likely a case of married segments. The airline is willing to sell A-B and B-C as awards, but not A-C.

Looking for example at the ‘australia tax’ where we’re paying $9k return to europe business class, you can see why they might want to restrict A-C!

If you book A-B and B-C you should still be able to check all the way through if on the one airline. Just check their terms and conditions.

The block on domestic connectors is just silly, and a grab for additional points

Thank you, it's an AY codeshare, unfortunately separately the awards are AY and QF, and not enough time between in HK to comfortably collect bags and check back in.

 

[funnybrus]

Thank you, it's an AY codeshare, unfortunately separately the awards are AY and QF, and not enough time between in HK to comfortably collect bags and check back in.

I had success with a CX BNE-HKG-LHR booking, could find both legs on multi city but not as a BNE-LHR search and it errored out if I tried to book them as seperate legs. Call centre were able to book it for me.

 

[jeromegeorge]

Slightly different problem but when I search for award flights in the "Where can I go?" section on the Qantas website, for one way flights out of SYD, it shows J availability to multiple different cities in Europe either on Cathay Pacific or BA but when I then click the "Book your flight" button from there, none of the flights show up as available! Any idea why this is?

 

[Tiki]

Maybe if you book the triple connection, then wait for the inevitable schedule change and they would be forced to give you the connection you want?

 

[encryptededdy]

I had success with a CX BNE-HKG-LHR booking, could find both legs on multi city but not as a BNE-LHR search and it errored out if I tried to book them as seperate legs. Call centre were able to book it for me.

This is quite curious. I had a similar issue with SYD-HKG-TPE as you described (shows up separately but not together, cannot book together in one multi-city as it causes an error), but when I called up (and got the Hobart call center), I was told this was a limitation by Cathay Pacific. I didn't even explain my problem, just told them what itinerary I wanted to book and they instantly came back to me with "ah, yeah you can't have this connection, Cathay only wants these tickets for Hong Kong traffic, not connecting traffic. You need at least 24 hours between these flights".

Do you know what call center you talked to? I wonder if maybe only some agents at Hobart are able to override the system, or perhaps only some are willing to override the system. Or maybe some don't know the reason why the booking is disallowed by the system, and therefore just overrides it.

 

[funnybrus]

This is quite curious. I had a similar issue with SYD-HKG-TPE as you described (shows up separately but not together, cannot book together in one multi-city as it causes an error), but when I called up (and got the Hobart call center), I was told this was a limitation by Cathay Pacific. I didn't even explain my problem, just told them what itinerary I wanted to book and they instantly came back to me with "ah, yeah you can't have this connection, Cathay only wants these tickets for Hong Kong traffic, not connecting traffic. You need at least 24 hours between these flights".

Do you know what call center you talked to? I wonder if maybe only some agents at Hobart are able to override the system, or perhaps only some are willing to override the system. Or maybe some don't know the reason why the booking is disallowed by the system, and therefore just overrides it.

Cape Town. She didn't mention any issues on her end but she did take about 10 minutes to book and ask for card details. Ticketed within an hour.

 

[encryptededdy]

Cape Town. She didn't mention any issues on her end but she did take about 10 minutes to book and ask for card details. Ticketed within an hour.

I wonder if your ticket was different in some way or if the agent just overrode the system somehow.

 

[RealtimeY]

Having just run into this problem attempting to book LAX-BNE-SYD, what are my options now? If I book the two flights separately, will Qantas still accommodate me if I miss my connection?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Having just run into this problem attempting to book LAX-BNE-SYD, what are my options now? If I book the two flights separately, will Qantas still accommodate me if I miss my connection?

No, they won’t. You’d be better booking the separate flight with plenty of connecting time, or getting something refundable. Rex might be a good option, for example their $349 business class fares are refundable, but also if you need to change, the $349 is usually available same day of departure. VA’s fares increase to $599 upwards on day of departure.

 

[funnybrus]

Having just run into this problem attempting to book LAX-BNE-SYD, what are my options now? If I book the two flights separately, will Qantas still accommodate me if I miss my connection?

Called Qantas for yvr-syd-bne the other day with a similar story. Have ended up on one ticket with a 60 minute intl>dom connection because the agent assured me that was all that wasn't completely sold out (including commercial fares). Just completely planning to ask for a new boarding pass at the connection desk in Sydney.

 

[RealtimeY]

Is that even a legal connection? I was initially offered a 0 minute connection when I asked originally, but they couldn’t see any of the later connections that were actually legal. Ultimately they just told me I needed to book them separately. Really bizarre

 

[jpp42]

Called Qantas for yvr-syd-bne the other day with a similar story. Have ended up on one ticket with a 60 minute intl>dom connection because the agent assured me that was all that wasn't completely sold out (including commercial fares). Just completely planning to ask for a new boarding pass at the connection desk in Sydney.

Did you get an e-ticket for this itinerary? The ticketing process is supposed to validate against the minimum connection time and block this kind of thing from being ticketed. If there is no e-ticket number, you will need to call back to get this fixed somehow.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Did you get an e-ticket for this itinerary? The ticketing process is supposed to validate against the minimum connection time and block this kind of thing from being ticketed. If there is no e-ticket number, you will need to call back to get this fixed somehow.

I got offered something similar… QF’s ONLY flight of the day between Sydney and Melbourne… at 8am (no other flights were operated by qantas that day, even for paid tickets). The agent offered to ticket, but of course it got rejected because of MCT.

 

[funnybrus]

Did you get an e-ticket for this itinerary? The ticketing process is supposed to validate against the minimum connection time and block this kind of thing from being ticketed. If there is no e-ticket number, you will need to call back to get this fixed somehow.

Yep. I was initially worried when it wasn't there but it came about 10h after I filled out the APIS form.