"oneworld" award (132.4K/249.6K/318K/455K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

[Mr H]

Should I risk the whole ticket and call QF to change the booking as there is now availability on connecting flights OR because of the horror stories of people losing their ticketed flights due to QF call center incompetency when changing bookings, should I just book the connecting flights and allow some extra transit time or a night in HEL? What would you guys do? Are the QF call center staff really that bad these days that this should even be a worry?

I would call up and have the flights added, but before calling I would write down the extra flight numbers, dates, times and class. Then, when I call, I would open with "I want to add flights to an existing booking and here are the flight details...". The ones that go wrong seem to be where there is less certainty - the ones that start with "I wonder whether..." or "How can I..." or "How much would it cost to...".

But, be aware that since the special military operations started in the Ukraine, surcharges have gone up a lot - so adding flights to a pre-March booking may cause the tickets to be re-priced to the point that it would be cheaper to book revenue tickets to Rovniemi. And when you ask to compare prices and to go away and think about it, that is when bookings get lost.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Honestly it is likely going to be such a headache, why bother?

Be sure to take the train for the experience in at least one direction.

 

[DC3]

… Are the QF call center staff really that bad these days that this should even be a worry?

I suspect that you already have an answer to this.

 

[Mr H]

Be sure to take the train for the experience in at least one direction.

It's a long time since I did to, but the train is just a standard sleeper compartment, isn't it? And overnight, so no view.

 

[DC3]

Honestly it is likely going to be such a headache, why bother?

Be sure to take the train for the experience in at least one direction.

Yes, there are options

 

[thecat]

Very interesting reading about ticketing delays! I've recently booked my first itinerary in J for April 2023 (very excited, of course) and needed to change a couple of dates - sadly it seems! Nothing too complex:

12/4: MEL-SYD-HND-JFK (QF dom/JL intl)
19/4: JFK-LHR-MAA (BA)
25/4: DEL-HND (JL)
29/4: NRT-MEL (JL)

Date changes to the final two segments were made online on 4 May and yet to be reticketed - all flights still thankfully showing in MMB. Have had 318k points refunded and rebilled on 5 May, but no slight change in taxes charged.

Does anyone have recent experience in how long its taking for QF to reticket date changes? Reckon there's any cause for concern and to start with the call centre lottery?

 

[DC3]

Does anyone have recent experience in how long its taking for QF to reticket date changes? Reckon there's any cause for concern and to start with the call centre lottery?

On occasions, when I have chased it up, earlier this year, Hobart has managed to re-ticket within a couple of hours, by “walking it through” I was told. JL can be a bit fussy about holding a booking that isn’t ticketed.

Although I monitor MMB, it’s not really any indication as to ticketing, until suddenly MMB loses flights, without any notification from QF (AA in my case, which was totally surprising). And then you need to try and get the flights re-instated. JL could be an issue for you, until ticketed.

E-ticket issue/re-issue needs close monitoring, as we are well aware.

Edited

 

[anil.3425]

Hi all

I am trying to plan One world award trip for 2023 which goes from the USA to south america and then over to London.

Ideally we would like to go from New York (JFK) to Mexico, and then down to Peru (Lima), however am really struggling to find any J class tickets on this sort of route (both JFK to Mexico, and Mexico to Peru) which doesn't include Latam Airways.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can get from New York to Lima in J class using the one world award?

 

[Mr H]

Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can get from New York to Lima in J class using the one world award?

Via Miami or Dallas?

 

[anil.3425]

Via Miami or Dallas?

Have been looking at both cities, however both J class legs seem to only include Latam Airways, even when checking 331 days in advance on the day flights are released... Economy seems to be plentiful though.

 

[jaseb]

Additional dollars (taxes) were deducted from my bank card for the new flight but I don't see any ticket number on the new flight. More worryingly, the original flights, which prior to the call had ticket numbers attached to them now have no ticket numbers attached to them either

As I feared, the original flights (MXP-DOH-KUL on QR in J) have now disappeared from MMB.
The additional flight added last week (KUL-MEL on MH in Y) remains.
I've been charged taxes but not had points deducted for the additional flight.
No refund of taxes or points for the original flights.

I'm not sure how to proceed in this situation. The original reward flights do not show as available on the QF booking site. Any advice? Are they gone?

 

[levelnine]

Any advice? Are they gone?

You need to call QF ASAP to get the flights reinstated. The longer you wait, the worse your situation will become.

 

[DC3]

I'm not sure how to proceed in this situation. The original reward flights do not show as available on the QF booking site. Any advice? Are they gone?

As already suggested, phone the Call Centre so as they can submit a request through the oneworld desk for the flights to be reinstated.

QR fights are known to drop off if not ticketed within 24-48 hours.

 

[jaseb]

As already suggested, phone the Call Centre so as they can submit a request through the oneworld desk for the flights to be reinstated.

QR fights are known to drop off if not ticketed within 24-48 hours.

No luck. I'm extremely frustrated with myself for allowing this to happen. I should never have allowed the agent off the phone on Saturday once the ticket numbers for the original flights dropped off.
I phoned this morning and after holding for ~90 minutes I got an extremely helpful and empathetic agent. He was of the opinion the agent should have known the flights would disappear if not re-ticketed with Qatar. Nonetheless he has submitted a reinstatement request with QR - in his experience, though, these are almost always unsuccessful with no status. Apparently, most of the time QR don't even respond to the reinstatement requests.

The extremely helpful agent spent ~40 minutes looking for alternative routes home. We searched ZRH/FCO/MXP via DOH/DXB to KUL/BKK etc +/- 3 days of the original flights
Finally we found award seats in J on QR MXP-DOH-BKK. It's a couple of days out from our original dates. Points and taxes have already been charged, I'm just waiting on ticketing numbers to come through. All in all it's a much better outcome than what I had expected to occur today.

edit: Will save double posting and update here - 6 hours later and new flights still not ticketed. Phoned up, got an SA Agent, she said there was a note on the booking - ticketing dept didn't ticket the flights as they appear to be duplicates (of the now cancelled, non-ticketed booking?!!). Seriously, can these departments do anything right at the moment? Explained situation to SA Agent in that these new flights are absolutely not duplicates and implored her to have them ticketed whilst I was on the phone. It took some coercing but I eventually got placed on hold for 40 minutes and had the flights ticketed whilst I was on the call

 

[FenderQF]

I suspect that you already have an answer to this.

As expected, after a couple of attempts with the call center staff. They just couldn't get the process right and guarantee I wouldn't lose any legs in business (having done a dummy booking again, all but 1 leg have no availability in J). I think I will take the opportunity to either get the train one direction or just book flights with more of a gap between inbound/outbound legs.

I know it can be complex but the staff I spoke to really have no idea re: points redemptions and especially RTW criteria that have to be met. I have absolutely no faith in ever relying on a QF staff member to reissue/amend rewards bookings.

The only positive to come out of this is I was only on hold for 30 minutes each time I called!

 

[thecat]

On occasions, when I have chased it up, earlier this year, Hobart has managed to re-ticket within a couple of hours, by “walking it through” I was told. JL can be a bit fussy about holding a booking that isn’t ticketed.

Cheers for the push, a nice experience to add a data point from my end, called this evening and was quoted 30-60 min, answered in 50 min (didn't sound like HBA). Asked nicely for assistance ticketing and the lovely guy didn't even put me on hold - but spent 5 min tapping his keyboard and humming - and viola he mentioned "it's now been ticketed"! 60 seconds later there's an email with ticket numbers and I can sleep easy tonight! Thankfully nothing dropped off, but a bit of unnecessary stress waiting for action nonetheless

 

[Danger]

As already suggested, phone the Call Centre so as they can submit a request through the oneworld desk for the flights to be reinstated.

QR fights are known to drop off if not ticketed within 24-48 hours.

With this happening so often, one would think that the oneworld desk's recorded message includes something like "If you're calling from Qantas and were too incompetent to ticket a Qatar award booking, press one".

 

[FenderQF]

With this happening so often, one would think that the oneworld desk's recorded message includes something like "If you're calling from Qantas and were too incompetent to ticket a Qatar award booking, press one".

Who's to say it doesn't!

 

[Mr H]

Who's to say it doesn't!

There should at least be some recognition within Qantas or within Oneworld that there are more stuff-ups coming on Qantas bookings than should be expected. There overseas call centres must be costing more in time (and revenue?) correcting errors than they save on wages. A false economy - and that's why many companies have repatriated their call centres.

 

[jkcfc]

We have a dilemma. Currently have a fully ticketed OWA which at the start has:

MEL-DOH (QR*) J (14h35m)
DOH-CMB (QR) J (4h55m)
2h35m transit
CMB-MLE (UL) x (1h25m)

There is now 2x J seats available on DOH-MLE (4h55m) direct which was our original preference.

I don't know if its worth calling to change and then go through all the headaches of ticketing etc or just keep our current itinerary because it is locked in.

Think I'm leaning towards keeping current booking to avoid Qantas call centre at all costs.

So we are finally on our way for our honeymoon.

We landed in DOH and when we entered the lounge a Qatar airlines staff member came up to us because our flight DOH-CMB had been delayed and we would miss our connecting flight to MLE.

We are currently on the direct flight DOH-MLE!!! (only just made it with how long it took them to re-issue our tickets).

I just logged into my Qantas account and can see that the DOH-CMB leg was cancelled but the CMB-MLE leg is still there (after being assured the two flights will be deleted when the direct flight is added).

This has me quite concerned given we have another 8 flights on this PRN and worried that if they think we have missed that flight that the rest of the flights automatically cancel.

Has anyone experienced this in the past? Any advice?

I can't do anything at the moment so just ordering some drinks (yes I know its 9am here) and preparing myself for having to call Qantas if it all goes pear shaped.