Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

[WanderBug]

@WanderBug did you get the new ticket with the new ticket number... If not how long does it take to take the new ticket after the change is done

It took about 12 hours from finishing the call to receiving the new ticket. I don't have any CX sectors in mine though

 

[atulhumane]

Ticketing should be pretty quick. If they’re waiting for Cathay to confirm the seats, it could take 24-48 hours to get that confirmation, then they’d ticket.

Cathay auto cancels very quickly, so the ticketing needs to be be done as soon as possible.

If you are sure the flights added back in are confirmed, rather than pending approval, call qantas back and ask them to ticket.

@MEL_Traveller , I just saw the itinerary the status for 2 flights for cathay is showing Requested . I hope it gets confirmed. Calling them again now As I did not receive the tickets yet.

Is this normal procedure and does CX allot the seat back ? Just asking what your experiencesays

 

[MEL_Traveller]

@MEL_Traveller , I just saw the itinerary the status for 2 flights for cathay is showing Requested . I hope it gets confirmed. Calling them again now As I did not receive the tickets yet.

Is this normal procedure and does CX allot the seat back ? Just asking what your experiencesays

If it’s ‘requested’ it can’t be ticketed. Qantas will have to wait for cathay to respond. I believe it’s fairly common to have the seats reinstated. The only time there may be problems is if the flight is very full and there’s a waitlist of CX members for the flight… in those cases the seats you had might have gone to them as they’re on the waitlist.

You should be ok, but you won’t get a ticket until it’s confirmed.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

@MEL_Traveller , I just saw the itinerary the status for 2 flights for cathay is showing Requested . I hope it gets confirmed. Calling them again now As I did not receive the tickets yet.

Is this normal procedure and does CX allot the seat back ? Just asking what your experiencesays

Keep in mind that even if you see a status of “Confirmed” (which seems like it should mean something…), the game isn’t really finished until you get a new ticket number 081xx_xx_xx.
Sorry for going on like a cracked record (do the younger folk understand that metaphor any more?), but it comes from bitter experience……

 

[atulhumane]

Keep in mind that even if you see a status of “Confirmed” (which seems like it should mean something…), the game isn’t really finished until you get a new ticket number 081xx_xx_xx.
Sorry for going on like a cracked record (do the younger folk understand that metaphor any more?), but it comes from bitter experience……

Thanks, I completely get it , that's why I am after them after every 2-3 hrs

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks, I completely get it , that's why I am after them after every 2-3 hrs

No one can hurry cathay. You’ll have to wait till it gets confirmed, THEN chase up every couple of hours until it’s issued.

 

[logos 01]

Indeed, so it should work.

A further update, another flight option HKG-BNE came available with CX. So I decided to go with that. Rang up and they added the flights (I couldn't get BNE-MEL despite availability showing on the website because "new bookings only", but they offered BNE-SYD-MEL so I said fine).

But they can't price the itinerary and calculate the taxes. The 2nd consultant I spoke to today (who least seemed to know and understand the Oneworld Award and it's rules), confirmed that my booking complies with the rules, but he just couldn't get it to price. He spoke to "offline teams" who got him to try various things with no joy. Neither he nor the 'offline teams' he spoke to could give a reason why I couldn't book. He agreed that it the points should be the same (318k pp) so I just need to pay the additional taxes.

All he could do is escalate it to a case manager. He gave me a case number and said someone would be in touch. An hour later I get an email from about my case saying "for upcoming bookings ring QF on 13 13 13 for assistance". Sigh. So ring back again..... 3rd consultant same problem, can't price it.

"Oh you have too many stopovers, you can only have 5."
"I only have 5."
"No you have 6, you go back to Melbourne."
"That's not a stopover, that the end of the itinerary."
"Yes you're right".

She said someone would call me back in 15-20, it's been 40mins and counting. I'm thinking she might have just wanted to get me off the phone

Once again in case I'm missing something my booking is:
MEL-HKG-TFU (stop 1)
surface
PVG-HEL-ARN (stop 2)
surface
BER-HEL-MAD (stop 3)
MAD-AMM-IST (stop 4)
IST-AMM-RUH-HKG (stop 5)
Now Trying to add
HKG-BNE-SYD-MEL (home)

I thought I felt frustrated when award seats were saying available but weren't. Now they're there but saying we still can't do it is beyond infuriating.

An update on my booking from earlier this month. Apologies for taking so long to update, and thank you to those who replied with suggestions and the encouragement to persist. After that horrendous experience with QF on the phone I just had to step away for a bit.

But all's well that ends well. At least for the booking (hopefully the flight themselves go smoothly!).

After another lengthy call to QF and getting no where with them being unable to price the itinerary, and almost giving up. They called me back! (Manila I think being SG). I nearly fell off my chair. They said they were able to price it (318k per person as expected) & taxes. We got it paid and ticketed, and all looks as it should.

I asked what made the difference, so I could know for next time if I had any issues. The consultant said, "oh we had to use another system to calculate the taxes manually." Which is only what I'd been asking them to do for days and days. They had previously said they already had tried or that they couldn't etc etc. So I'm none the wiser really, a QF black box.

So all I can say to people in similar situations is to be persistent, know the OW award rules (and quote them if necessary), HUCA, and pray to the booking gods for a good operator.

 

[atulhumane]

No one can hurry cathay. You’ll have to wait till it gets confirmed, THEN chase up every couple of hours until it’s issued.

Yep, just finished the call with call center. It's 24 hrs wait and watch game. Crossing fingers for tomorrow....

 

[adenda]

I called the call center last night to add 1 flight and remove 1 flight. They said the booking is updated and will take 24 hrs to be reflected or ticketed. It's been 10 hrs now and I see the change requested but some how 3 other flights which I didn't request the change are not there in the itenary any more.

Is the system still processing it or what's happening.... I'm very stressed now....in the waiting queue with call center now... Please help

Had a very similar experience recently with what I believe was the Manila call centre. I wanted to make changes to my business OWA and after the call the Qantas app showed every thing was ok. However a few hours later and 3 flights - completely unrelated to my requested changes and not MH flights- were gone!
I immediately got onto FB Messenger - explaining that my itinerary had effectvely been ruined through no action of mine - and fairly quickly got a response followed by everything being fixed up.

There really is no substitute for the social media team - excepy maybe the unreachable Hobart team.

I had actually used FB Messenger initially to try and get my desired changes made but got the standard "To ensure you get the best assistance with changing your booking, you will need to give us a call on 13 13 13 (within Australia)" response.

I think the clue here is to state that you've had a bad outcome from calling up and can they rescue the situation. They probably looked at my booking and saw for themselves how things had been messed up after which they were only to happy to help.

To add salt to the wound, the call centre charged me 7000 points per passenger for the changed despite my protests that this fee doesn't apply to business class bookings. Fortunately the social media team fixed this up in no time.

 

[atulhumane]

Had a very similar experience recently with what I believe was the Manila call centre. I wanted to make changes to my business OWA and after the call the Qantas app showed every thing was ok. However a few hours later and 3 flights - completely unrelated to my requested changes and not MH flights- were gone!
I immediately got onto FB Messenger - explaining that my itinerary had effectvely been ruined through no action of mine - and fairly quickly got a response followed by everything being fixed up.

There really is no substitute for the social media team - excepy maybe the unreachable Hobart team.

I had actually used FB Messenger initially to try and get my desired changes made but got the standard "To ensure you get the best assistance with changing your booking, you will need to give us a call on 13 13 13 (within Australia)" response.

I think the clue here is to state that you've had a bad outcome from calling up and can they rescue the situation. They probably looked at my booking and saw for themselves how things had been messed up after which they were only to happy to help.

To add salt to the wound, the call centre charged me 7000 points per passenger for the changed despite my protests that this fee doesn't apply to business class bookings. Fortunately the social media team fixed this up in no time.

That's great to know. So just fb page of Qantas and say send message?

 

[adenda]

That's great to know. So just fb page of Qantas and say send message?

Yes. Can also use Twitter/X or Instagram apparently

 

[atulhumane]

Yes. Can also use Twitter/X or Instagram apparently

Sent message on fb, Insta and x.... No response yet. How long it take untill someone respond to your chat

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sent message on fb, Insta and x.... No response yet. How long it take untill someone respond to your chat

You sent a message about the CX ‘on request’? Or another matter?

 

[atulhumane]

You sent a message about the CX ‘on request’? Or another matter?

About CX flight which has requested status.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

About CX flight which has requested status.

Cathay auto cancelled the seats because they were temporarily unticketed while you made your changes.

Once the seats have gone, Qantas needs to request cathay to manually reinstate the seats… turn revenue seats into award seats and include them as part of your ticket.

Qantas cannot do this… only Cathay can.

The request has gone to cathay, and they will turn it around as quickly as they can… 24-72 hours (it’s not just your ticket that cathay will be dealing with, it will be any other tickets issued from all of its partners that may have also go auto-cancelled… so it can take them some time).

 

[atulhumane]

Cathay auto cancelled the seats because they were temporarily unticketed while you made your changes.

Once the seats have gone, Qantas needs to request cathay to manually reinstate the seats… turn revenue seats into award seats and include them as part of your ticket.

Qantas cannot do this… only Cathay can.

The request has gone to cathay, and they will turn it around as quickly as they can… 24-72 hours (it’s not just your ticket that cathay will be dealing with, it will be any other tickets issued from all of its partners that may have also go auto-cancelled… so it can take them some time).

Appreciate all your support and Thanks for explaining it. I am a newbie and just worried as it's my first OWA ticket.... Will wait

 

[DC3]

Question is whether I am able to only book the first 3 or 4 legs of my trip, and then continue the booking later when I decide on the remaining legs, or when suitable legs become available?
If this is possible, does one pay for the surcharges and taxes for the legs booked to date, and when I continue and complete the final legs, will the points cap out at 318,000 points?

Yes, yes and yes, as long as you keep within the OWA rules.

And welcome to posting on AFF.

 

[DC3]

Any idea how Qantas allowed to book this itenary

Sometimes best to just let sleeping dogs lie.

Also, maybe keep this to yourself.

 

[DC3]

Has anyone come across Qantas saying that some classic reward seats are only for new bookings and not for changes or additions to present One World Classic Rewards bookings?

You don’t get out much, do you?

 

[DC3]

I see the change requested but some how 3 other flights which I didn't request the change are not there in the itenary any more.

That was a huge red flag. Call Centre incompetence.