So if you go back to post #3, you'll see that my original booking for this trip included a connection for MEL-CBR in J. When QF started stuffing around with the bookings, we ended up being routed via SYD, and the booking was dropped to a Y seat on a Dash-8 for the connecting leg SYD-CBR.
Some of you will also remember that a similar thing happened on our 2023 trip, and that it took me from March 2023-December 2023 to get ORC for the J connection plus the attached DSC. I am
still pursuing a fare refund for the difference between J MEL-CBR and Y SYD-CBR for that 2023 trip. So far it has been over 12 months and I cannot seem to get QF to even understand what I am asking for. Arghhhhh.
So the 1515 flight we were allocated is a jet service, and has J class on it. When I returned from my long hot shower, with a heaped plate of food and a glass of bubbles, Mr Seat 0A obviously judged my mood as "up for a challenge". Either that or he has a death wish! So he said - why don't you go to the front desk and see if they can give you J seats on this flight and then you won't have to go through all the palaver of seeking ORC again this year. I couldn't decide whether it was worth it or not (see how beaten down QF has made me!), but in the end I pulled up my original booking and headed over to the front desk to try my luck. I will admit to having a very low expectation of anything other than a brush off.
As I approached the desk, something strange happened. Three service agents were there, and all three looked up and smiled and almost competed for the chance to serve me
.
So one of them got the short straw, and I started explaining what I wanted - to get a free upgrade on the SYD-CBR leg as a replacement for the paid J MEL-CBR leg that had been turned into a Y SYD-CBR by multiple stuffing arounds. I honestly could not believe it when she understood the issue, first time
. She looked up the PNR and said "oh my goodness, you
have been stuffed around haven't you!" (see post #3 for details). "Let me see what I can do for you."
Well, she tried this and she tried that and she tried again, but did not seem able to make anything stick. Eventually she looked at me with a twinkle in her eye, passed over 2 boarding passes and said "congratulations Ms Seat
0A 0B, I am delighted to offer you and Mr Seat
0B0A a free upgrade for today's flight." And there it was, 2 J seats for the trip SYD-CBR. She said, "now I can see this booking attracts DSCs, and there is nothing I can do to fix that. If you want the DSCs, you'll have to put in a claim." I thanked her profusely.
So that was a pretty amazingly good end to a fairly rough re-entry to Australia.
I still haven't decided whether I can be bothered to go for the DSCs - I retained WP without them, they don;t count for loyalty bonus, I already have LTG and will
never make LTP, so after last year's bad experience sorting ORC and DSC out, I think I'm just going to let it go through to the keeper. What does the brains trust think?
The food on the SYD CBR flight was pretty good - certainly better than the food on either QF25 or QF 60 on this trip. Mr Seat 0A had a pie he said tasted nice, and I just had a chesse and rice cracker snack (having eaten quite nicely in the SYD lounge whilst waiting for the flight).
In the end, it took us over 24 hrs from leaving our hotel in Tokyo to landing at CBR airport, so it was a long journey home. But all's well that ends well.
In my next post, I will write up a few of my thoughts about Japan in 2024.
edit: To reverse my promotion to Captain - that never actually happened
!
