International Multi-city Booking

[JohnK]

Anyone else experiencing issues with booking overseas multi-city itineraries?

A simple itinerary such as

SIN-BNE 15 November 2013
BNE-SYD 22 November 2013
SYD-SIN 29 November 2013

is pricing at SGD811. Perfect! Well not quite. If I change the flights that it has recommended the airfare jumps ridiculous amounts not the small adjustments one would expect.

e.g BNE-SYD flight is the 5:00am flight. If I change to afternoon flight the increase is SGD379 which is clearly wrong. If I change back to 5:00am flight increase is still SGD379! :shock:

I hope this is just a temporary glitch as it is driving me nuts.

 

[cmon0005]

I think this is to do with the 'new' website I've noticed the same thing. Frustrating!

 

[JohnK]

Has there been a recent change apart from the one a couple of months ago?

I had no issues making a multi-city booking last month.

 

[Mattg]

I have seen this before. Don't remember how I fixed it but eventually it came good with a bit of playing around.

Edit: Just had a quick look at your dates, the QF website was spitting out SGD950 and to change the BNE-SYD sector they wanted $720! :shock:

That website is in serious need of some work.

 

[kermatu]

I've noticed this problem too attempting to plan some trips in 10 to 12 months - will quote wildly different J class fares for the same route (sometimes $3000 difference) - and looking at an alternative selection the price will spike a further $1500 for all alternatives listed, with no way to then get the original fare. I'll be booking an extensive journey within a month, and it is a bit concerning. (And very frustrating).

 

[cmon0005]

- and looking at an alternative selection the price will spike a further $1500 for all alternatives listed, with no way to then get the original fare. .

This is the same issue I get most of the time.

 

[JohnK]

So I decided to call Qantas.

Hmmm.The solution! I must sure I get 5 ticks on the webpage before they can look at the problem. What 5 ticks?

This is extremely embarassing. I just want to book some flights and the difference between the 5:00am BNE-SYD flight and the 5:00pm BNE-SYD flight is definitely not $379. And if I switch back to the 5:00am flight the difference is still not $379.

And the difference between the SIN-BNE flight and the SIN-SYD-BNE flight is not $846, it is more like $12 or $19.

Redroo this is not good enough. Bring back IT to Australia and stop outsourcing to Asia.

 

[Mattg]

So I decided to call Qantas.

Hmmm.The solution! I must sure I get 5 ticks on the webpage before they can look at the problem. What 5 ticks?

This is extremely embarassing. I just want to book some flights and the difference between the 5:00am BNE-SYD flight and the 5:00pm BNE-SYD flight is definitely not $379. And if I switch back to the 5:00am flight the difference is still not $379.

And the difference between the SIN-BNE flight and the SIN-SYD-BNE flight is not $846, it is more like $12 or $19.

Redroo this is not good enough. Bring back IT to Australia and stop outsourcing to Asia.

What on earth do they mean by five ticks? Did they allow you to book over the phone, waiving the assistance fee?

Totally agree, it's not good enough.

 

[mrfreeze]

What on earth do they mean by five ticks? Did they allow you to book over the phone, waiving the assistance fee?

Totally agree, it's not good enough.

At the bottom of the Qantas page is viewing tips.
Viewing Tips | Qantas

They "require" 5 ticks to appear on the Browser Status, even if you have the 5 ticks problems can and will be experienced

 

[mrfreeze]

I just tried the same dates and tab suggested flights from $873 on those dates but selecting them came up as $950.
Selecting the 5:00 BNE - SYD flight and changing was $240 extra for all available flights.
I selected one and then checked what it would be to go back to the 5:00 flight ...... $480 extra

Someone, somewhere is responsible for this train wreck.
I do not want excuses Qantas, I want solutions !!

I have also seen this behaviour for multi trips before and found it "corrected" itself after a day or two.
This is not good if you need to book now.

 

[Mattg]

It looks like the problem occurs when you try to change the selected flight. If you're desperate, you could just book SIN-BNE and SYD-SIN using the multicity booking, if you're happy with whatever the first option given is, then book BNE-SYD as a red-e-deal. Not that you should have to, but this should work.

 

[JohnK]

What on earth do they mean by five ticks? Did they allow you to book over the phone, waiving the assistance fee?

She offered to book it for me and wave the booking assistance fee but the price she was quoting sounded totally wrong.

There is something seriously wrong and I am hoping Redroo reads this thread and gets it sorted.

It looks like the problem occurs when you try to change the selected flight. If you're desperate, you could just book SIN-BNE and SYD-SIN using the multicity booking, if you're happy with whatever the first option given is, then book BNE-SYD as a red-e-deal. Not that you should have to, but this should work.

I am hoping to include a few extra flights in between and the times suggested by the booking engine are not suitable.

As I said I used it to book some flights last month and had no issues.

This is not good enough.

 

[Grooba]

Just about everything is not good enough when it comes to the QF website.

 

[kermatu]

To be fair, a lot of things work OK. But clearly many people have noticed significant backward steps in recent months. I have not read through every thread - but am curious to know has there been any official acknowledgment of problems or sense that it will improve?

 

[JohnK]

Just about everything is not good enough when it comes to the QF website.

But this is not quite a website issue. Or is it?

Disappointing really....

 

[Mattg]

But this is not quite a website issue. Or is it?

Disappointing really....

The issue is the bug where it tries to impose a ridiculously high extra cost to change the selected flights in a multi-city booking. I would say that is a website issue. And one that is so specific, they should be able to fix it relatively easily!

 

[NM]

My guess is that by changing the BNE-SYD flight you are in effect changing the booking class for the entire journey. The originally offered flights (incl 5:00am BNE-SYD) may have all been available in say N class. But the 5:00pm BNE-SYD is not available in N class and the cheapest for that sector may be say M class. So its now repricing the entire journey as M class (perhaps the fare rules for the N class fare does not permitted mixed class ticketing). Hence the extra $379 is not just the extra price for BNE-SYD, but the additional cost of the entire journey in the higher class.

Then when you change back to the 5:00am flight, the system is retaining the higher booking class (e.g. M in my example) rather than repricing back to the lowest booking class that would be applicable for the journey.

I am not suggesting this is how the system shoudl work, just posing a possible explanation as to why you are seeing this behavior.

 

[rotor]

I'd like to know how a browser version could change the pricing of airfares. Is there a version that will give me $0 fares?

 

[JohnK]

I am not suggesting this is how the system shoudl work, just posing a possible explanation as to why you are seeing this behavior.

Understand what you are saying but it cant be that every single itinerary I have tried only has 1 N class arfare available and any change is going up to a higher class of airfare.

 

[docjames]

As may have been mentioned, why not book an open jaw Sin-Bne, SYD-sin? Then just book the connector on a red e-deal?