QF Award Search Baffles Me

[drsmithy]

Why on earth does a search for a Business Class award redemption on the QF web site continually show availability with i included - you guys know what I mean - search for J MNL-MEL and it shows availability - but with MNL-SYD sector in Y? I just cannot believe this of for the life of me understand why QF would do this.

Happens searching for paid fares as well.

I have come quite close to accidentally paying for Y when I searched for and wanted Y+.

 

[Doggy]

I was having this exact conversation with my partner yesterday actually! I noticed it when I was searching for J availability to GRU. I was so shocked and pleasantly surprised at the results -- the I was the i.

It's pretty ridiculous. We were speculating how likely Qantas would be to refund without penalty, any award redemptions booked due to being mislead this way.

 

[cove]

Cruiser I am thinking of using those US Dividend miles on J flights inside Australia on QF for the family as well as in First Class inside the US and Canada.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Cruiser I am thinking of using those US Dividend miles on J flights inside Australia on QF for the family as well as in First Class inside the US and Canada.

Yes cove I can burn some LAS-JFK/JFK-LAX in Sept - would be so much easier if could book one ways.

 

[cove]

Yes that was the problem for my two sons with Brazil and back to the US where they did not know their exact departure dates.

 

[Danger]

I, too, am baffled.

Using the multi-city tool I can select PER-xHKG-SIN on CX. It prices and I get all the way through to the payment page until I get an error message. Several times this has happened. So I called Qantas and asked for some assistance.

The QF agent I spoke with went through the booking I was chasing and go to the same point I did and hit the same error. He investigated further and then determined that cx would not allow those two flights to be booked on the one itinerary. I could either book them separately (at a much higher cost) or travel on a JQ connecting flight from HKG to SIN (also, incidentally, at higher cost). When I asked him he assured me that it wouldn't be possible to book it as an award with any oneworld carrier.

But, bombshell, that's not true. After finishing the call I got straight on the phone to AA who booked exactly what I want, the very same itinerary QF assured me wasn't possible to booked.

Is this a problem with QF's booking system or an example of CX being nice to carriers other than QF? Is there any way around it?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I, too, am baffled.

Using the multi-city tool I can select PER-xHKG-SIN on CX. It prices and I get all the way through to the payment page until I get an error message. Several times this has happened. So I called Qantas and asked for some assistance.

The QF agent I spoke with went through the booking I was chasing and go to the same point I did and hit the same error. He investigated further and then determined that cx would not allow those two flights to be booked on the one itinerary. I could either book them separately (at a much higher cost) or travel on a JQ connecting flight from HKG to SIN (also, incidentally, at higher cost). When I asked him he assured me that it wouldn't be possible to book it as an award with any oneworld carrier.

But, bombshell, that's not true. After finishing the call I got straight on the phone to AA who booked exactly what I want, the very same itinerary QF assured me wasn't possible to booked.

Is this a problem with QF's booking system or an example of CX being nice to carriers other than QF? Is there any way around it?

I had a similar issue a while ago trying to book a multi city award on CX through QF. Once the combination of flights hit the mileage limit, the system rejected the itinerary (shorter flight combos, leaving from other cities, were fine).

I suspected if they think you are trying to get 'too much value' from the award, they don't like booking it!

In your case you could have done the two flights in the 42K/78K range (for Y/J) but adding the segments would have cost 55K/103K.

 

[Limewood]

Its easy to make the mistake, thinking your getting J and you getY.

The other annoying thing wish they would show all seat types without having to select them then get another page.

 

[neon_crossing]

Why on earth does a search for a Business Class award redemption on the QF web site continually show availability with i included - you guys know what I mean - search for J MNL-MEL and it shows availability - but with MNL-SYD sector in Y? I just cannot believe this of for the life of me understand why QF would do this.

It's a continued disgrace. For a professional airline it is pretty much baffling. How can we bring this to their attention en masse to show that there are a lot of people out there that this frustrates the hell out of?

 

[Isochronous]

The lack of certain airlines and routes airline is also a disgrace. If BA can manage it, QF should too.

 

[Princess Fiona]

The lack of certain airlines and routes airline is also a disgrace. If BA can manage it, QF should too.

AA can't manage it either. The telephone booking system is usually ok though in both cases.

 

[Danger]

I, too, am baffled.

Using the multi-city tool I can select PER-xHKG-SIN on CX. It prices and I get all the way through to the payment page until I get an error message. Several times this has happened. So I called Qantas and asked for some assistance.

The QF agent I spoke with went through the booking I was chasing and go to the same point I did and hit the same error. He investigated further and then determined that cx would not allow those two flights to be booked on the one itinerary. I could either book them separately (at a much higher cost) or travel on a JQ connecting flight from HKG to SIN (also, incidentally, at higher cost). When I asked him he assured me that it wouldn't be possible to book it as an award with any oneworld carrier.

But, bombshell, that's not true. After finishing the call I got straight on the phone to AA who booked exactly what I want, the very same itinerary QF assured me wasn't possible to booked.

Is this a problem with QF's booking system or an example of CX being nice to carriers other than QF? Is there any way around it?

I won. It was far more difficult then it should have been, but I won.

I got CX to acknowledge in writing that QF's insistence that it was CX's rules prohibiting me making the booking, not their rules, was not true. CX had no such restrictions in place; it was a QF issue.

After a supervisor agreed to receive the correspondence by email the supervisor phoned me the following day saying she'd worked with CX to try to overcome the issue. Although she wasn't confident it was going to work, she took my credit card details for the taxes and said she'd monitor it over the weekend. Today, it ticketed. The supervisor called a short time ago to say it took a lot of effort and, politely, to not expect that it would happen again. The supervisor was great and I thanked her for her ongoing efforts. I've also just sent an email through to QF to highlight her efforts.

Sadly, I don't expect it will happen again and I also suspect that the CX agent who provided confirmation in writing will be in hot water for helping me out and highlighting QF's misinformation. I made a point of telling the supervisor that it's very difficult to be a Qantas FF living in Perth when you only give me JQ options, then when I do actually get a CX award that your own booking engine gives me you say I can't book it.

Disappointing but also a good story about how a QF supervisor was happy to go to the extra mile.