Misleading Classic Award Seat Availability?

[drex]

Hi All,

Have been looking into booking a SYD-JFK one way Classic Awards flight in Business for 2 people early next March. I looked at the calculator and could see that I had enough points and when I selected my date, "Seat" was available under Business. I went to book the flight and I received a notification saying that the SYD-LAX leg would be in Economy and that the LAX-JFK leg would be in Business (on AA). I tried several other days/times around the same time and received the same story, available on the initial search page but then unavailable when it came to book. I even ticked the flexible dates box and filtered it by Business and a date appeared that would have been suitable to fly but once again it downgraded the main leg to Economy.

I called Qantas and the lady couldn't understand why there was any availability showing on the website because there was no Business availability for any of the dates I was after, she even searched two weeks either side and there was nothing.

The best she could do was BNE-LAX in Premium Economy and the rest of the legs (SYD-BNE, LAX-JFK) in Economy. She said that these seats fill up really quickly so I panicked and booked. I also got slugged the 6000 point fee x 2 (I opted to pay cash).

Has this happened to anybody else before? Is this is a common occurrence? Feeling pretty disappointed.

Thanks, Ben

 

[serfty]

...
Has this happened to anybody else before? Is this is a common occurrence? Feeling pretty disappointed.
...

Unfortunately it is a common occurrence.

Worse still is you get slugged for the full Business experience, even when in economy trans pacific.

How much in points did it cost for SYD-(X)-xBNE-(Z)-xLAX-(X)-xJFK?

BTW, it may have been less expensive points-wise to book the SYD-BNE and LAX-JFK separately.

 

[Limewood]

I find this like others do. On occasions even near a year out for a J seat i look up SYS/LAX return to find they want to route me thru another city like SYD/BNE or vice versa, that I don't want, then when I select it, get Y or Y+ appears on international legs, and pay the same 192K points!, I did think once I became SG recently this J availability situation would change but it hasn't. Its all wrong IMO.

 

[drex]

Unfortunately it is a common occurrence.

Worse still is you get slugged for the full Business experience, even when in economy trans pacific.

How much in points did it cost for SYD-(X)-xBNE-(Z)-xLAX-(X)-xJFK?

BTW, it may have been less expensive points-wise to book the SYD-BNE and LAX-JFK separately.

It's very frustrating! The positive to come out of it was that she only charged the points per leg based on the class. Saying that I can't actually see the booking yet to confirm. Not sure if whinging to them will help any more.

What I can see now is that a seat will show up as available in Business if part of that leg involves travelling in Business (ie: routing through Brisbane) and this explains why all of the direct flights show no availability.

 

[Limewood]

Im getting rather annoyed at not being able to find on QFF site direct flights in J SYD/LAX return for flights May 2012, it keeps wanting to route me via another capital city, then international legs in Y, what gives?.

 

[jamesatfish]

What I can see now is that a seat will show up as available in Business if part of that leg involves travelling in Business (ie: routing through Brisbane) and this explains why all of the direct flights show no availability.

This seems like a relatively recent change and yes, it's really annoying.

Being based in CBR I would usually search awards flights as CBR-<destination>, and this recent change means pretty much every date searched will show Business availability where the CBR-SYD/MEL/BNE leg is in Business and the international sector is in Economy.

Of course the 'Your flight from SYD-LAX will be in Economy' is in teeny-tiny writing, and you are still charged as if the entire CBR-SYD-LAX trip was in Business. Very annoying, and bordering on misleading.

To be honest with Classic Award bookings I've given up on the Qantas website - it's far easier just to bite the bullet with the booking fees and get the call centre to do the searching / requesting for you.

 

[drex]

This seems like a relatively recent change and yes, it's really annoying.

I just wish I knew what I was getting myself into before transferring ~150000 AMEX Points across to Qantas.

Oh well, live and learn!

 

[casp]

I have just posted my even worse experience under another Thread:

Two weeks ago I booked a Business class PEK/HKG/SYD online.

While booking it's indicate as Business for both sector, ticket shows business for both sector, and Qantas deducted business point 91000 instead of 85000 (Economy PEKHKG 20000 + Business HKGSYD 65000).

When I select the seat, I found I was seating in economy for PEKHKG and business for HKGSYD.

I called Qantas ask why, the lady replied me: Because your PEKHKG ticket was in Economy. I asked her why? The Qantas website 'manage my trip' showing I am in business for both sector. After put me on hold for 5 minutes, she said she has talked to supervisor, the website is faulty and they have reported this error to IT department to fix it, but you are seating in Economy!

My second questions to her: Then why you deducted business point 91000 instead of economy+business point 85000? Her reply was: That's how system works.

My last question: There are still business class seats available, why the website booked me in economy? She replied: there is no business award seat available. I told her there is, showing on the Qantas website now. She said there isn't seats available. I asked her check the Qantas website immediately.

After another 5 minutes on hold, she back: This is Cathay Pacific system problem. Although it's showing you there is a business class seats available, there isn't. We apologise for this inconvenience but you are defintely seating in economy.

If you would like to change to another flights which has Business available, you need to pay 3500 telephone assistant fee +8500 points change fee.

Very unreasonable!

 

[UP4014]

To be honest with Classic Award bookings I've given up on the Qantas website - it's far easier just to bite the bullet with the booking fees and get the call centre to do the searching / requesting for you.

Can avoid the surcharge in points by trying the web site, then ringing up saying the web page tell you one thing but does another when you try to book it. I had similar trouble and phoned and they booked it with no surcharge. (as they should)

 

[UP4014]

The best she could do was BNE-LAX in Premium Economy and the rest of the legs (SYD-BNE, LAX-JFK) in Economy. She said that these seats fill up really quickly so I panicked and booked. I also got slugged the 6000 point fee x 2 (I opted to pay cash).

Has this happened to anybody else before? Is this is a common occurrence? Feeling pretty disappointed.

Thanks, Ben

It happened to me, I just went via Brisbane, no big deal really....is it?

 

[drex]

It happened to me, I just went via Brisbane, no big deal really....is it?

I don't mind going through Brisbane at all, I just wish I was getting a Business Class seat on the trip over to LAX.