Denied Frequent Flyer Claim

[oz_mark]

Some other programs are a bit more explicit about which flights are excluded. For example, BA Avios:

"Excludes MASWings carrier code MH3000 series, MH4000 series,MH5000 series, freighter (MH6000 series), Charter flights (MH8000 series), flights operated by Firefly (coded MH/FY), industry/agency discount ticketsoperated by non one world"

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/collecting-avios/flights

As for the comparison with QFLink, it is worth noting that QantasLink (Sunstate, Eastern and Network Aviation) are all oneWorld affiliates. MASWings is not an affiliate.

 

[Quickstatus]

QF's position is consistent with its points calculator

MYY is an airport recognised by the points calculator for example you can insert KUL-MYY or MYY-KUL
However MZV is not

......

It's pretty much an MH flight operated by MY situation

Correct...
I believe a codeshare is a flight that is operated by another airline other than the one whose moniker appears in the flight number. Additionally the words " operated by..." also appears as a requirement.
i understand your point that typically a codeshare implies that both the operating and marketing carrier flights numbers are able to be booked. However, the point is that QF does not recognise it any other way.

The MY booking website also clearly states that MH is not the operating carrier:


QF in this case specifically excludes:

oneworld benefits did apply when I flew such as extra bag allowance and lounge access.

That QF disallows FF points in such MH flights does not necessarily negate other OW benefits such as baggage allowance or lounge access especially when its provided by MH who is the marketing airline based on your exisiting OW Tier. OW also does not dictate how member airlines operate their FF programs - that is a bilateral agreement between member airlines

MH is not alone in this.
Many partner airlines also do not earn on Partner airlines codeshare flights operated by other non OW airlines or QF such as:
AS, CX, LY, AY, IB, JL, QR, AT, RJ, UL, WS
EK, MU, FJ, KLM, Latam, marketed codeshare flights not operated by QF are not eligible flights either

Basically the best way to ensure the flight you are booking is to check with the QF points calculator

 

[justinbrett]

The difference is these flights only carry the MH flight number. It's pretty much an MH flight operated by MY situation. You simply cannot buy these flights with an MY flight number. At the airport, there is only MH branding including regular oneworld signage. You also do get additional baggage allowance and lounge access with QF Gold and your oneworld status does appear on the boarding pass so you can see how that's not the same as your QF-JQ example.

I did have a look at BA and AA and they do specifically exclude these flights. I guess I will probably just bite the bullet. That said, I am not sure if MY used to sell their own tickets and then this became a legacy issue.

I don't fly oneworld that often but if this was Star Alliance, chances were they would have been eligible, eg., LH flights operated by Air Dolomiti, or A3 flights operated by OA, etc.

In similar situations (Qantas - Qantaslink, AA - American Eagle, BA - BA CityFlyer), they are all Oneworld affiliate airlines.

It is unusual that MH haven’t applied Oneworld affiliate status to MASwings considering they (now at least) fly on MH codes.

However QF didn’t enrol Jetstar as an affiliate due to the increased cost, so we can only assume the same is the case for MH here.

 

[roby]

Just an update on this claim. After sending my ticket copy and my boarding passes to QF, one agent replied and determined that the flights were eligible and asked me to forward boarding passes (which were attached to the email she replied from!!!).


After sending my boarding passes again, a different agent replied and said the flights were not eligible and asked me to contact my travel agent (whatever that means!) so I am running in circles. After reminding them that a previous agent had already determined the eligibility of these flights, a third agent replied and said the these flights were codeshare flights operated by a non oneworld airline.

However, this is not what my ticket says. I know a few mentioned above that these flights were operated by MASwings but the flights did not carry MASwing's IATA designator. The primary flight numbers were MH. As far as the flights go, they were operated and marketed by MH. The ticket cannot be clear enough.

 

[Danger]

I admire your tenacity in staying on this, roby.

It's clear from the multiple typos in Qantas's response that you're dealing with an offshore call centre which is undoubtedly a big part of the problem.

All I can say is keep at it.

 

[roby]

I admire your tenacity in staying on this, roby.

It's clear from the multiple typos in Qantas's response that you're dealing with an offshore call centre which is undoubtedly a big part of the problem.

All I can say is keep at it.

Yes, I noticed. It's as if the original email asking me to send boarding passes was so that my reply would be another agent's concern. The agent never had any intention of solving my problem. I had a similar issue with a missing flight credit with China Eastern a while ago where I simply just gave up after months' of trying. They would come back with the flight being not eligible, codeshare flight, operating airlines having final discretion, BS like that. I even involved Ombudsman and Qantas Guest Relations but eventually they would again refer the issue to the QFF team for review and the result would come back the same.

Apart from [email protected], I don't know where else to go.

 

[Danger]

You could try the Airline Consumer Advocate.

 

[roby]

You could try the Airline Consumer Advocate.

You know what, as I mentioned above, I did try them for another claim. The airline did come back to me but it was the same team with the same BS answer. The Adcocate then said there was nothing more they could do to help.

 

[tdimdad]

They would come back with the flight being not eligible, codeshare flight, operating airlines having final discretion, BS like that.

I've also gotten that "operating airlines discretion" line back. But if you think of an FF program, wouldn't that be logically impossible?

As a layman, I would have suggested that the logic follows along the lines of an airline telling their partners that "if you spot our membership numbers in your bookings (as in pax having boarded & travelled), send us the numbers, their flight details and booking class so we can credit them as per our award chart". There's nothing the operating airline would need to do other than pass on the data for the FF program to decide on who gets what points. No discretion needed. So how can the QF agents even come up with such an excuse? Or am I completely on the wrong track and the QF offshore rules?

 

[roby]

I've also gotten that "operating airlines discretion" line back. But if you think of an FF program, wouldn't that be logically impossible?

As a layman, I would have suggested that the logic follows along the lines of an airline telling their partners that "if you spot our membership numbers in your bookings (as in pax having boarded & travelled), send us the numbers, their flight details and booking class so we can credit them as per our award chart". There's nothing the operating airline would need to do other than pass on the data for the FF program to decide on who gets what points. No discretion needed. So how can the QF agents even come up with such an excuse? Or am I completely on the wrong track and the QF offshore rules?

You are 100% spot on. What needs to happen between QF and their partners behind the scene should not be the customers' concern. You publish an earn chart and that should be what dictates the earning. What I think is happening is QF offshore agents making things up to get stuff off their backs. This is not the worst part. What's worst is there isn't a place where you can escalate and have a conversation with a competent agent.

Sometimes things do go wrong and flights do need to be credited manually. It's such a shame that during my travels, I find that even smaller carriers in less developed countries handle customers' queries better than QF.

 

[Himeno]

Back when Flybe Nordic had just started operation, I had a Finnair flight operated by Flybe Nordic (as part of a oneworld explorer ticket).
The flight was operated in the same way that QFLink flights operated by Alliance are.

QFF tried to deny the points claiming that "Flybe is not a oneworld member".
They finally gave me the points after weeks of debate.