Qantas Promises to Fix Ongoing Reward Flight Ticketing Failures

[FenderQF]

I think you should email Marcus Svensson , I've had success with getting call backs from someone a few times after emailing him, recently it took 3 working days for someone to call after a flight dropped off after QF failed to reticket on time after a minor time change. You should also send another email to rewards escalations politley asking for a response, they reticketed a booking for me a few hours after I emailed them again after 10 days.

Thanks for the response, unfortunately I have emailed him and it didn’t prompt a response I don’t think. I followed up multiple times (nicely) to the rewards escalations team. Got a response yesterday that they’ve requested the Qatar tickets. It’s not looking promising I would think. My next mission will more than likely be trying to get Qantas to fly me and my wife (this is our honeymoon) from Doha to Sydney flying J whilst only having wifi and no calling ability. Disappointed we booked two nights in Doha too just to get the Qsuites home via BNE.

 

[SYD]

I haven’t trawled through the entire thread but has the issue of missing DOB and cancelled bookings been flagged previously?

I‘ve recently made a couple of CR bookings for international flights and in both occasions I wasn’t prompted for DOB during the booking process but on going to the APIS link, there’s a banner alerting you that DOB is mandatory for the flight to be ticketed.

Today booked BA LHR-LIS. No prompt for DOB but went straight to APIS and entered DOB. eTicket arrived minutes later.

The other day, JQ cancelled a CR booking within hours because, I believe DOB was missing. Fortunately i noticed and had entire itinerary reinstated. Went into APIS and entered DOB and eTicket arrived minutes later.

 

[RichardMEL]

I haven’t trawled through the entire thread but has the issue of missing DOB and cancelled bookings been flagged previously?

I‘ve recently made a couple of CR bookings for international flights and in both occasions I wasn’t prompted for DOB during the booking process but on going to the APIS link, there’s a banner alerting you that DOB is mandatory for the flight to be ticketed.

Today booked BA LHR-LIS. No prompt for DOB but went straight to APIS and entered DOB. eTicket arrived minutes later.

The other day, JQ cancelled a CR booking within hours because, I believe DOB was missing. Fortunately i noticed and had entire itinerary reinstated. Went into APIS and entered DOB and eTicket arrived minutes later.

Was the JQ flight involving the USA (HNL?)

anyway this situation is not really related t the issues of this thread, as they related to ticketing issues caused by QF. This situation, as described, is not a problem with any system but ticketing policies.

We've addressed APIS (specifically in relation to the USA - which is why I asked about HNL above) in other threads recently and QF definitely requires the info for those US flights (and DOB is a mandated field for "secure flight information"). Other locations do not require this kind of thing until check in (via passport info) such as your LHR-LIS example.

Even if the JQ flight you mention wasn't involving HNL, it could be JQ's own ticketing policy to have such information (I hardly ever fly them so can' remember the last time I booked anything with them).

At any rate, some carriers, such as QF, and one presumes JQ too, do enforce these rwquirements for certain situations and destinations and won't ticket without them. JQ seems to have been aggressive to cancel within a few hours, but I guess that's their ticketing policy. QF definitely gives longer to get that done if required.

Anyway these are issues not related to this thread imo.

 

[SYD]

Was the JQ flight involving the USA (HNL?)

No, DPS-PER (part of a SYD-CGK/DPS return CR).

Anyway these are issues not related to this thread imo.

This whole thread is about reward flights not ticketing. If it’s as simple as entering DOB, then doesn’t that avoid the heartache?

Ignore that if you wish.

When I spoke to the agent to reinstate the above booking, I mentioned that the system was expecting DOB, she said that’s not required. The computer seemed to disagree…

I will continue to advise peeps to ensure DOB is entered ASAP if making international Classic Flight Rewards.

 

[RichardMEL]

No, DPS-PER (part of a SYD-CGK/DPS return CR).

This whole thread is about reward flights not ticketing. If it’s as simple as entering DOB, then doesn’t that avoid the heartache?

Ignore that if you wish.

When I spoke to the agent to reinstate the above booking, I mentioned that the system was expecting DOB, she said that’s not required. The computer seemed to disagree…

I will continue to advise peeps to ensure DOB is entered ASAP if making international Classic Flight Rewards.

let me clarify why I suggest this situation is not related to the main point of this thread.

While yes, the bookings had been cancelled by the airline, this was due to a lack of required information being provided. I agree that in most cases DOB (and in fact APIS itself) isn't strictly required before say 72 hours before flight (again, this has recently been discussed at some length elsewhere but I couldn't find the thread). The difference here though is that a) this would happen with paid bookings as much as CR due to the stipulation by the system and b) this is not a ticketing issue being caused by QF's failure to ticket or reticket partner rewards following changes or other things (I suppose one can consider JQ a partner reward, but it's still not the result of a change). I may be splitting hairs a bit, but I do not think this is a situation that the team setup to handle these specific ticketing issues would look at.

In essence, not ticketing due to missing APIS is not a glitch or bug per se, but a specific requirement imposed by QF for some flights (why it would be ex-Indonesia to AU I have nfi, but that may be something Indonesia requires - or QF think they do. I don't know. At any rate, while it may seem like I'm splitting hairs, this isn't a situation akin to, for example, QR or CX cancelling sectors due to QF missing a ticketing deadline. Very different if it does seem to be the same result. I mean, if the DOB was put in, the booking wouldn't have been cancelled and thus is something within the customer's control (but seems the notification of these rwquirements is lacking to just cancel without any kind of heads up - as I wrote, QF has in the past sent me an email that I wouldn't get ticketed without it completed and the booking would be cancelled at some point if it wasn't).


I absolutely agree - put n APIS ASAP if/where required. Certainly in the past QF have notified by email of incomplete APIS and it holding up ticketing. I am unsure about the JQ situation - but if booked as a CR, then that's come through QF so I'm not entirely sure of the situation there tbh. And APIS should be filled in for ANY booking - paid or CR.

I was actually thinking when I started reading the situation wondering if a DOB was not put in for a future booking involving an infant who was not yet born so there was no DOB to enter - and that would be an interesting situation as an aside (I was thinking securing reward seats for say 12 months time for a bub due within the next month or two as example). I digress though on a tangent.

THE JQ one puzzles me tbh and potentially worthy of its own thread, but I don't think it's quite relevant to THIS specific thread that's all.

 

[SYD]

let me clarify why I suggest this situation is not related to the main point of this thread.

While yes, the bookings had been cancelled by the airline, this was due to a lack of required information being provided. I agree that in most cases DOB (and in fact APIS itself) isn't strictly required before say 72 hours before flight (again, this has recently been discussed at some length elsewhere but I couldn't find the thread). The difference here though is that a) this would happen with paid bookings as much as CR due to the stipulation by the system and b) this is not a ticketing issue being caused by QF's failure to ticket or reticket partner rewards following changes or other things (I suppose one can consider JQ a partner reward, but it's still not the result of a change). I may be splitting hairs a bit, but I do not think this is a situation that the team setup to handle these specific ticketing issues would look at.

In essence, not ticketing due to missing APIS is not a glitch or bug per se, but a specific requirement imposed by QF for some flights (why it would be ex-Indonesia to AU I have nfi, but that may be something Indonesia requires - or QF think they do. I don't know. At any rate, while it may seem like I'm splitting hairs, this isn't a situation akin to, for example, QR or CX cancelling sectors due to QF missing a ticketing deadline. Very different if it does seem to be the same result. I mean, if the DOB was put in, the booking wouldn't have been cancelled and thus is something within the customer's control (but seems the notification of these rwquirements is lacking to just cancel without any kind of heads up - as I wrote, QF has in the past sent me an email that I wouldn't get ticketed without it completed and the booking would be cancelled at some point if it wasn't).


I absolutely agree - put n APIS ASAP if/where required. Certainly in the past QF have notified by email of incomplete APIS and it holding up ticketing. I am unsure about the JQ situation - but if booked as a CR, then that's come through QF so I'm not entirely sure of the situation there tbh. And APIS should be filled in for ANY booking - paid or CR.

I was actually thinking when I started reading the situation wondering if a DOB was not put in for a future booking involving an infant who was not yet born so there was no DOB to enter - and that would be an interesting situation as an aside (I was thinking securing reward seats for say 12 months time for a bub due within the next month or two as example). I digress though on a tangent.

THE JQ one puzzles me tbh and potentially worthy of its own thread, but I don't think it's quite relevant to THIS specific thread that's all.

TBH, I believe you‘re overlooking the apparent and maybe random QF IT glitch (not specific to JQ or Indonesia). In less than a couple of weeks, I’ve booked multiple paid and points international flights.

SYD-YVR/YUL return paid fare. At the time of booking DOB was required and it was ticketed immediately.

Classic reward on AA domestic flight. DOB not required but being domestic, probably not required (ticketed immediately).

SYD-SIN (return) Classic Flight Reward - min APIS requested and ticketed immediately.

SYD-CGK//DPS-PER-SYD - APIS not required and booking cancelled. Reinstated but APIS not requested. Went to APIS and warned that DOB required before ticketing. Manually entered APIS and ticketed immediately.

Today, LHR-LIS (BA) - points and CC charged but APIS not required at time of booking. Went to APIS and warned that DOB was required before ticketing. Entered APIS and ticketed immediately.

I would not be surprised if an awful lot of people have booked classic rewards and have not been asked to enter the min APIS to enable ticketing and they’ve been none the wiser until the booking was cancelled - even then not knowing why.

I believe the min APIS requirement for ticketing is real. QF booking engine not asking for it appears to be a glitch and I’ve raised a complaint on the website functionality.

 

[hanrahs]

So is the email actually working for people? Third time on this booking that we have had flights dropped by Qantas... been on the phone (mostly on hold) all day, so far the first person I talked to said they think they can fix it but after being on hold for an hour call was disconnected. Only other person I have been able to talk to tried to tell me the only option was to cancel the flight and issue a refund - losing all 13 other legs - it is the final 2 legs coming home that were dropped. I just want Hobart to answer the phone for once. We leave in a couple weeks and have had probably 30-40 flight changes with half of those requiring reticketing between the two of us.

update, the flights that were lost were CDG - HKG - PER
I never heard back from the email, many many phone calls later and little progress I finally got an email saying the CDG - HKG was cancelled and the HKG -PER was ticketed but on a different day. More Qantas calls and no progress so I decided to call Cathay Pacific, not sure if I just got really lucky or what but the person I talked to there did something and said a flight would be available for us, CDG-HKG was ticketed by Qantas a couple hours later - also on the wrong day but it matched the HKG-PER so looks like we will be in Paris for a bit longer... not going to try and change it, I feel like it can only cause more issues.

 

[RichardMEL]

TBH, I believe you‘re overlooking the apparent and maybe random QF IT glitch (not specific to JQ or Indonesia). In less than a couple of weeks, I’ve booked multiple paid and points international flights.

SYD-YVR/YUL return paid fare. At the time of booking DOB was required and it was ticketed immediately.

Classic reward on AA domestic flight. DOB not required but being domestic, probably not required (ticketed immediately).

SYD-SIN (return) Classic Flight Reward - min APIS requested and ticketed immediately.

SYD-CGK//DPS-PER-SYD - APIS not required and booking cancelled. Reinstated but APIS not requested. Went to APIS and warned that DOB required before ticketing. Manually entered APIS and ticketed immediately.

Today, LHR-LIS (BA) - points and CC charged but APIS not required at time of booking. Went to APIS and warned that DOB was required before ticketing. Entered APIS and ticketed immediately.

I would not be surprised if an awful lot of people have booked classic rewards and have not been asked to enter the min APIS to enable ticketing and they’ve been none the wiser until the booking was cancelled - even then not knowing why.

I believe the min APIS requirement for ticketing is real. QF booking engine not asking for it appears to be a glitch and I’ve raised a complaint on the website functionality.

I see your point.

I'm not so sure it's a "glitch" per se (I know - wild claim given there are so many! LOL).

I agree the Indonesia trip being cancelled leaves me puzzled - I've no explanation for that.

My only thought is that some locations DO require minimum APIS requirements and won't ticket without them - in which case that's not a glitch, but a policy - either QF's or a foreign government (as discussed in other thread, the USA requirement for minimum APIS info seems to only apply to within 72 hours of travel., but QF seems to want to enforce it at time in booking - which seems odd to me which is why I use the word "policy" above). I've read over the CBP fact sheets regarding APIS and secure flight information requirements for USA bookings which is where I get this assertion from.

However, even if there is a glitch (perhaps relating to QF ticketing reward flights on JQ operated services) it's still a different situation to the main problems going on in particular with this thread - but yes - definitely closely related.

Anyway it's good the flight was reinstated quickly enough - I guess being cancelled within hours is "helpful" in the extent that it wasn't disappearing unexpectedly some days later due to the ticketing TTL issue with no obvious notification (I don't recall if you noticed the booking was cancelled, or received notification?)

anyway I guess this has got to the point of splitting hairs to a degree, and I'm not trying to harp on it I agree the APIS booking requirement that is sometimes enforced by QF does seem a little odd in application.

 

[SYD]

TBH, I believe you‘re overlooking the apparent and maybe random QF IT glitch (not specific to JQ or Indonesia). In less than a couple of weeks, I’ve booked multiple paid and points international flights.
....

SYD-CGK (QF)//DPS-PER-SYD (JQ/QF) - APIS not required and booking cancelled. Reinstated but APIS not requested. Went to APIS and warned that DOB required before ticketing. Manually entered APIS and ticketed immediately.

Today, LHR-LIS (BA) - points and CC charged but APIS not required at time of booking. Went to APIS and warned that DOB was required before ticketing. Entered APIS and ticketed immediately.

....
I believe the min APIS requirement for ticketing is real. QF booking engine not asking for it appears to be a glitch and I’ve raised a complaint on the website functionality.

So I just received a call back from the customer support team. She seemed surprised that the two bookings above hadn't prompted for DoB at time of booking (or perhaps it was the requirement for DoB to enable ticketing?) anyway, she was going to escalate the issue to IT to investigate.

This is probably one of several issue with ticketing some classic rewards but presumably unrelated to schedule changes and lost seats due to delays in re ticketing - unless there's a DoB check holding up ticket re-issue..?

For the time being, I'd still recommend peeps manually enter DoB in APIS immediately after booking a Classic Reward - if not prompted at time of booking (probably also check for revenue bookings). Passport and other stuff can go in later.

 

[Mr H]

So I just received a call back from the customer support team. She seemed surprised that the two bookings above hadn't prompted for DoB at time of booking (or perhaps it was the requirement for DoB to enable ticketing?) anyway, she was going to escalate the issue to IT to investigate.

This is probably one of several issue with ticketing some classic rewards but presumably unrelated to schedule changes and lost seats due to delays in re ticketing - unless there's a DoB check holding up ticket re-issue..?

For the time being, I'd still recommend peeps manually enter DoB in APIS immediately after booking a Classic Reward - if not prompted at time of booking (probably also check for revenue bookings). Passport and other stuff can go in later.

The problem is that if there is a reason why a ticket cannot be processed, nobody tells you so it can be fixed. Maybe is is a payment issue, maybe it is a name or passport details, or DoB or some other problem. But since the ticketing team won't speak to anyone and just put the stalled ticket on pause, you will never know.

 

[SYD]

The problem is that if there is a reason why a ticket cannot be processed, nobody tells you so it can be fixed. Maybe is is a payment issue, maybe it is a name or passport details, or DoB or some other problem. But since the ticketing team won't speak to anyone and just put the stalled ticket on pause, you will never know.

Hence the self-help advice to mitigate the chances of a booking going pear shaped.

In the scenario where points are deducted and CC charged but e-Ticket hasn't turned up, check APIS and enter DoB - especially if the banner is telling you "Date of Birth is required for ticketing". (or what ever the exact wording is - I should have taken a screen shot!).

 

[Lynda2475]

For the time being, I'd still recommend peeps manually enter DoB in APIS immediately after booking a Classic Reward - if not prompted at time of booking (probably also check for revenue bookings). Passport and other stuff can go in later.

I've got into the habit of clicking on APIS as soon as I make a booking now, whether needed or not. Usually, I find my DOB is already there, I assume from my QF profile.

 

[SYD]

I've got into the habit of clicking on APIS as soon as I make a booking now, whether needed or not. Usually, I find my DOB is already there, I assume from my QF profile.

I'm sure I put DoB in there once upon a time but I don't see it anymore. Nor seating preferences (Window/Aisle etc). Can't remember what else used to be there or maybe I'm looking in the wrong section.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure we used to get prompted to enter DoB if required when adding PAX details during the booking process.

 

[Lynda2475]

Anyway, I'm pretty sure we used to get prompted to enter DoB if required when adding PAX details during the booking process.

I think that used to happen if booking for more than one passenger, but as I just usually book for myself internationally I dont think Im prompted anywhere except APIS.

 

[RichardMEL]

There is the general statement in the orange box in MNB about completing APIS for relevant bookings, but there's no indication that it's mandatory for whichever booking types it is for QF - and this is not clear.

As i've written before, years ago.. maybe 8 or 10, I'd made a booking to the US and I'd not done APIS. Several hours post making the booking I got an email saying I needed to fill it in before the booking would be ticketed - it was very explicit and that if it wasn't the booking would auto cancel. Now I'd just forgotten, and when I went and put it in the eticket followed shortly after. The system more or less worked.

Now, why the form didn't enforce this when booking is beyond me. If it's a required field for QF to ticket for some bookings (to the USA for example) then prompt for it at time of booking! I absolutely agree.

More broadly though, if a booking fails to ticket due to a problem with a CC, or tax or something, they tend to fall into the manual queue rather than prompting the user, or sending any kind of notification - and this is frustrating on many levels.

It does seem that with the APIS issue at the very least, this is a UI issue that should be enforced at the booking stage for ALL required items for ticketing (be it APIS, or anything else) so that's a fail in the workflow design - but not something that's changed in years.

 

[Shanye2233]

I was looking for some help. I use my QFF last October to book a family of 7 Syd-hnd on JAL. Yesterday I logged into my qantas account and noticed the flight was greyed out. I rang qantas and they told me JAL cancelled my flight. I rang Japan airlines and they told me to call qantas.

Qantas only is offering a refund as there isn't any other classic awards for 7 pax for the entire month of April. Im travelling with 5 kids and booked paid for toy store hotels and Disneyland entry among other things. Im really lost and can't believe they are allowed to do this and simply walk away. Please help if you can .

Thank you

 

[Captain Halliday]

I was looking for some help. I use my QFF last October to book a family of 7 Syd-hnd on JAL. Yesterday I logged into my qantas account and noticed the flight was greyed out. I rang qantas and they told me JAL cancelled my flight. I rang Japan airlines and they told me to call qantas.

Qantas only is offering a refund as there isn't any other classic awards for 7 pax for the entire month of April. Im travelling with 5 kids and booked paid for toy store hotels and Disneyland entry among other things. Im really lost and can't believe they are allowed to do this and simply walk away. Please help if you can .

Thank you

QF fly SYD-HND so they should be able to accommodate you.

Whether they will or not is a different matter.

But as an initial approach, I’d HUCA and try for a different agent who might get you a different outcome.

 

[Shanye2233]

I have asked to be changed and have been told there is no classic reward seat available. The only option they are offering me is a refund and I have rang them a number of times over the past two days.

 

[Mr H]

I have asked to be changed and have been told there is no classic reward seat available. The only option they are offering me is a refund and I have rang them a number of times over the past two days.

Have you tried emailing [email protected] and asked specifically to be accommodated on a Qantas flight? This is QF's problem to sort out.

 

[Shanye2233]

I have sent the email to them and I will wait for their response. I have also called the HBA line and spoke to a agent who said they have sent a email to Japan airlines to re-issue the tickets and should be done some time next week. Fingers crossed.