Monumental Stuff up by Qantas

[Pele]

Gday

One good thing to come out of this saga is that it has triggered me to go and see if i have an eticket number for all of my current bookings. Luckily i do. What i couldnt do was find the eticket number in the qantas website or on their app (it was only visible in the email). Krisflyer it is easy to see. Am i looking in the wrong place?

Pele.

 

[get me outta here]

I have had QF bkgs where I have had to work really hard to get them to give me an etkt number. It made me quite worried that I had a valid bkg at all.

 

[straitman]

- 18th Sept 2017 :l made a call to Qantas FF Customer Support to make an award booking using QFF points. I already had the itinerary and availability found for me by QFF Flyer Solutions. The call lasted 1hr 15mins and resulted in an award booking in J from HAV - MAD - LIS flying Iberia.

- 24th Sept 2017: l receive an email asking me to provide more information via a link to complete my booking.
I go to the link and provide the required info.

- 4th Jan 2018: l receive an email from Qantas quoting my booking number telling me that there is a 25min time change to the above-mentioned award flight.

It was an email saying that they could not complete the booking as they needed more details. In other words, it made it very clear that the booking was not confirmed at that point.

I agree that the email on 4 Jan may have suggested to a layperson that the booking was fine. But what about during the 3+ months before then? Given her failure to seek (or apparently expect) any confirmation of the booking prior to 4 Jan, it's hard to be convinced that the email on 4 Jan actually made any difference.

Jack3193, I see the logic you are using however cannot agree with it. The OP’s words and your rewrite mean substantially different things.

Also I have just asked three non FF savvy people their thoughts on the scenario and each said they would expect that everything was OK, especially after the last email re the time change. Most of us would look further but it is easy to get caught out by an unusual scenario.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Also I have just asked three non FF savvy people their thoughts on the scenario and each said they would expect that everything was OK, especially after the last email re the time change. Most of us would look further but it is easy to get caught out by an unusual scenario.

Maybe this comes down to how tech savvy the sample audience was? it seems with most people in the office, in the period leading up to travel they're checking their bookings, checking baggage allowances, seat numbers, check-in times (particularly because almost none have status and want to secure good seats). They're excited they're travelling and part of that is checking their flights! I guess part of that too is that many are travelling on budget, and something like an airfare not being deducted from their credit cards would be very noticeable.

 

[straitman]

Maybe this comes down to how tech savvy the sample audience was? it seems with most people in the office, in the period leading up to travel they're checking their bookings, checking baggage allowances, seat numbers, check-in times (particularly because almost none have status and want to secure good seats). They're excited they're travelling and part of that is checking their flights! I guess part of that too is that many are travelling on budget, and something like an airfare not being deducted from their credit cards would be very noticeable.

Thanks for that reply which is sort of what I was hoping for.

Try this scenario which happened to me recently. I was trying to make a booking that required a stop but it wouldn't appear on the Qantas web site or via Amex. (I was checking Amex as I had a travel credit I wanted to use and the answers I got were the same from both) When I checked via the multi-city tool there were many options showing but most of them proved to be unbookable. It was only when I put in about a 6.5 hr stopover that they became bookable. Ultimately I booked via Amex and with the long stop over.

Due to the many attempted bookings there were numerous pending transactions for about $1.38 on my Amex card and finally one for the full amount. After several days ALL the pending transactions disappeared.

What to do now? I had emails, I picked seats and the booking was ticketed.

Is it a legal booking even though it had not been paid for?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks for that reply which is sort of what I was hoping for.

Try this scenario which happened to me recently. I was trying to make a booking that required a stop but it wouldn't appear on the Qantas web site or via Amex. (I was checking Amex as I had a travel credit I wanted to use and the answers I got were the same from both) When I checked via the multi-city tool there were many options showing but most of them proved to be unbookable. It was only when I put in about a 6.5 hr stopover that they became bookable. Ultimately I booked via Amex and with the long stop over.

Due to the many attempted bookings there were numerous pending transactions for about $1.38 on my Amex card and finally one for the full amount. After several days ALL the pending transactions disappeared.

What to do now? I had emails, I picked seats and the booking was ticketed.

Is it a legal booking even though it had not been paid for?

The booking is legal. The airline has ticketed it, and that will be against AMEX as the agent to forward payment to the airline. At some stage AMEX will come looking for payment from the cardholder. If payment hasn't been taken before departure I'd be following it up, as I wouldn't trust the computer systems to realise human error rather than a failure to pay (and cancel the ticket). I suppose if you had a 'novice' in this situation they wouldn't understand what a ticket number is, so they'd be following up with AMEX straight away to find out what happened and if everything was ok.

 

[ayebee]

Sorry to hear about the experience, but thanks for sharing so we / I can learn what is important to pay attention to when it comes to ticketing.
Glad your Cuba experience was wonderful. It is on my wish list.

 

[Sheenaec7]

I rely heavily on the Tripit Pro app on my phone.

So, having been there and done it you can picture the scenario

I'll look into Tripit Pro. I've been using Tripcase for a few years and it's been faultless (apart from accepting this recent flight in question as a solid booking).

Happy travels

 

[Sheenaec7]

No advice but wanted to send my internet support as this must have been incredibly stressful and upsetting. Yes, in hindsight the points blah blah blah but still horribly stressful and I would have been in tears. Good luck.

Thanks Denali. I was too stunned to cry. Have done a bit since though

 

[Sheenaec7]

It is on my wish list.

Thanks ayebee.
I'd get there sooner rather than later .
Happy travels

 

[Sheenaec7]

EDIT: PS - did you ever get any kind of email confirmation from QF saying that the flights had been booked (not necessarily ticketed)? In my experience, when I have made award bookings and they have taken a while to ticket, I have received no email confirmation whatsoever until ticketing takes place - even though the (unticketed) booking shows up online.

Thanks for your response and yes I will be highly motivated to constantly be checking any future bookings. I never want to be in that situation again.

Yes, l got the email confirmation with booking number.

 

[Sheenaec7]

Thanks for your response

You did get a couple of things misconstrued particularly points 6 and 8 but as I'm getting RSI from responding on my phone (which l had with me in Cuba but with no Wi-Fi and roaming not happening there, effectively l had 'no phone') I'll keep my response short.

You were, however, spot-on with points 4 and 7.

Happy travels

 

[Quickstatus]

The booking is legal. The airline has ticketed it, and that will be against AMEX as the agent to forward payment to the airline. At some stage AMEX will come looking for payment from the cardholder. If payment hasn't been taken before departure I'd be following it up, as I wouldn't trust the computer systems to realise human error rather than a failure to pay (and cancel the ticket). I suppose if you had a 'novice' in this situation they wouldn't understand what a ticket number is, so they'd be following up with AMEX straight away to find out what happened and if everything was ok.

While an Eticket is the proper verification for a flight booking, an Eticket can also be cancelled. If issued then cancelled you are in a much stronger positioning . It is important to review and update passenger contact details, and also to verify the reservation often especially for destinations requiring multi sector or time critical itineraries.

 

[blacksultan]

It can't do any harm.

The Airline Customer Advocate (ACA)

While a lot of the advice in this thread is true, most are not aware of the nuances of air travel such as e-tickets and the like.

The only thing that may be an issue of any claim is the failure of QFF to deduct the points from your account; even to a layman that should raise a red flag.

actualy from my experience the QFF points can take a while for deduction sometimes even after the ticket is issued.
I was in a situation once where the ticket was issued and the points were not deducted and I used them for another booking.
they called me the eve before departure to say I would not be able to fly unless the points were topped up.

 

[Sheenaec7]

Hi All

Thanks for the responses. I'm still on the move and working with my phone only. Finding that it's messy trying to keep up with responses. Looking forward to reading them all when I'm back on a proper screen in a couple of weeks.

 

[Jack_OC]

Jack3193, I see the logic you are using however cannot agree with it. The OP’s words and your rewrite mean substantially different things.

I certainly didn't intend to change the meaning of the OP's words. Anyway, going back to her exact words:

- 18th Sept 2017 :l made a call to Qantas FF Customer Support to make an award booking using QFF points. I already had the itinerary and availability found for me by QFF Flyer Solutions. The call lasted 1hr 15mins and resulted in an award booking in J from HAV - MAD - LIS flying Iberia.

- 24th Sept 2017: l receive an email asking me to provide more information via a link to complete my booking.

If you are told that you need to do something additional to complete your booking, it means that your booking has not yet been completed. I don't think that's debatable, or something that an AFFer would interpret differently to a member of the general public.

Again, I understand why she expected that her booking would have been completed after she provided the additional information. Nonetheless, the email of 24 Sept made it clear that the booking had not yet been completed at that time.

Also I have just asked three non FF savvy people their thoughts on the scenario and each said they would expect that everything was OK, especially after the last email re the time change. Most of us would look further but it is easy to get caught out by an unusual scenario.

I have agreed all along that the email on 4 Jan would have been very confusing. I think it would have confused almost anyone (FF savvy or not), and it could certainly have led to someone assuming that the booking still existed in some form. However, this email was sent more than 3 months after the original booking, and the OP has already said that she assumed the booking had been completed successfully before receiving this email. That's the bit I was unable to understand - although the OP has now followed up to say she did get a confirmation email before then - see below.

By the way, just as a data point: I was originally booked on a QF flight leaving tonight, but I cancelled it ages ago. Despite that, I woke up this morning to find a notification on my phone from the QF app reminding me to check in for this flight. This suggests that there is definitely a glitch in their system, which results in people continuing to get automated notifications about flights that they are no longer booked on. They definitely need to sort that out (among many other IT failures).

Thanks for your response and yes I will be highly motivated to constantly be checking any future bookings. I never want to be in that situation again.

Yes, l got the email confirmation with booking number.

Thanks for clarifying this - as I mentioned previously, this is an absolutely crucial point in my opinion. Can you clarify when you got this email and what exactly it said?

 

[SOPOOR]

Geez there seems to be so many recent qqnats and their poor customer service incidents
This case seems quite unique where the customer could be partially blamed for the outcome

However the way Qantas handled is terrible once again

 

[travelislife]

I certainly didn't intend to change the meaning of the OP's words. Anyway, going back to her exact words:



If you are told that you need to do something additional to complete your booking, it means that your booking has not yet been completed. I don't think that's debatable, or something that an AFFer would interpret differently to a member of the general public.

Again, I understand why she expected that her booking would have been completed after she provided the additional information. Nonetheless, the email of 24 Sept made it clear that the booking had not yet been completed at that time.



I have agreed all along that the email on 4 Jan would have been very confusing. I think it would have confused almost anyone (FF savvy or not), and it could certainly have led to someone assuming that the booking still existed in some form. However, this email was sent more than 3 months after the original booking, and the OP has already said that she assumed the booking had been completed successfully before receiving this email. That's the bit I was unable to understand - although the OP has now followed up to say she did get a confirmation email before then - see below.

By the way, just as a data point: I was originally booked on a QF flight leaving tonight, but I cancelled it ages ago. Despite that, I woke up this morning to find a notification on my phone from the QF app reminding me to check in for this flight. This suggests that there is definitely a glitch in their system, which results in people continuing to get automated notifications about flights that they are no longer booked on. They definitely need to sort that out (among many other IT failures).



Thanks for clarifying this - as I mentioned previously, this is an absolutely crucial point in my opinion. Can you clarify when you got this email and what exactly it said?

DOB and middle name aren’t needed for a booking. So saying it couldn’t be completed because of this is a furphy. Absolutely you would assume the booking has been completed from the information given over the phone and then email received reflecting as such.

 

[PJF]

DOB and middle name aren’t needed for a booking. So saying it couldn’t be completed because of this is a furphy. Absolutely you would assume the booking has been completed from the information given over the phone and then email received reflecting as such.

Yes what if you don';t have a middle name ??????????????

 

[drron]

DOB and middle name aren’t needed for a booking. So saying it couldn’t be completed because of this is a furphy. Absolutely you would assume the booking has been completed from the information given over the phone and then email received reflecting as such.

And when you completed that information after the email of 24/9 you would assume the booking is now right.Especially if you checked on Trip It and the booking was there.