OzEire
Established Member
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2013
- Posts
- 1,367
Bit of an odd story from my recent trip CBR-LHR in J. Long story, sorry but I thought that the detail would be interesting to some.
I am based in Australia so I checked and price compared a range of airlines business class fares, ending up with BA as the cheapest with a reasonably direct route (not some 39 hour odyssey through Guanzhou or Helsinki). Since a range of AFF members belong to the local programmes here, for interest QF were $4,000 more expensive - woah ! and VA were about $1,500 more (than BA).
On the day of my travel I was getting ready to head to the airport for my short QF codeshare sector CBR-SYD to connect with the BA flight out of SYD when I received an SMS advising that my flight had been cancelled and to call QF, which I promptly did. I had allowed 2 hrs transit in SYD but there was no later CBR-SYD flight which would allow me to connect with the BA flight - :shock:.
Luckily I was almost packed and I asked the CSR if I could take an earlier flight if I legged it to CBR (I live about 15 mins away). She advised that the flight left in about 25 mins so I had better hurry (errr, YOU cancelled the flight !). I quickly zipped up the suitcase (actually forgot my phone charger -doh! rookie mistake) and nudged the speed limits all the way. Turns out that that flight was delayed so I actually left CBR around the original time anyway and no other dramas getting to London.
Fast forward a few days and I can see that my meetings were going to finish a day early, so I log-in to the BA web portal to check how much it will cost to change flights, if I could save on the hotel bill and get back earlier this would be worth a minor change fee. But the web portal keeps giving errors, referring me to call the hotline, so I call up the BA customer service line on my local UK pre-paid mobile to find out what is going on. The message goes "we are experiencing high call volumes, please refer to the website. CLICK!" and hangs up. Same deal for 3 attempts over about a 2 hour period. Amazing customer service.
Next day I finally get through to the CSR after being on hold for about 15 mins and ask to change the flight - the CSR says "this is a Qantas ticket you should call them". My response was that I booked and paid on the BA site, Qantas' only involvement was providing codeshare sectors CBR-SYD and reverse, but both have BA flight numbers. Lots of tapping of keyboard in the background but silence then, "can I put you on hold ?" and does so without waiting for a response... then I kid you not, 20 mins later I'm furious because I have now been on the phone for about 40 mins (glad it wasn't my roaming phone). The rep returns to say that in their system this booking is on QF ticketstock and I need to deal with Qantas. Then I remember the cancelled / rebooked CBR-SYD first sector of my journey and mention this to the BA rep. She says that it was possible that QF have reissued the ticket on their own stock. Odd that this was for the whole booking not just the CBR leg.
So I call Qantas on the UK local number and speak with a lovely kiwi lady who confirms it is indeed a QF ticket that all of the BA flights LHR-SYD are fully booked anyway (which would have been nice for the BA rep to have mentioned that !!!!). As a QFF I don't mind flying on the red roo, it would prob be preferable to BA, so I ask that since it now seems I am in possession of a QF ticket could I take a different route back, I don't mind which aircraft I'm on or how I get there, in fact I'm totally flexible - what are the options ? Kiwi Maria thinks this should be fine and tries a few variations while I wait on the line. After a while she comes back and says that she will need to talk to ticketing to get me a cost to change, could she ring me back ? Sure, no problem here is my local UK number.
Day of meetings passes, no call. So I ring back and get a helpful Kiwi gent (why is the whole QF UK call centre staffed by Kiwis, or is it based in NZ ?). He says that he can see the conversation I had with Maria and that she had noted down some flight options but had been unable to contact me on my Australian mobile, apparently she had tried 5 times. So I mention that as I am seeking to fly from LHR to Australia they ought to have tried to call my UK number, particularly as I had updated it during that call. CSR reads back a UK number on his screen and sure enough there is a record of it against the booking, as the primary contact number. Ok, no harm no foul I'm speaking with QF now so lets get rebooking ! CSR says it would be 88 pounds to change flights, I thought great thats less than a night at the hotel and therefore saves money overall. I said "great lets lock that in", and start fishing out the credit card.
But as a final check I ask him to read out the new details which all goes really well until he finishes with "...all in Premium Economy." Um, what ? This is a business class booking. He asks me if I wouldn't mind going on hold so he could check (actually asks, and waits for an ok). About a minute into the hold my pre-paid phone runs out of credit (a mighty effort after all of the BA hold time and calls to the BA line which just cut off). I assume that he will ring back and continue my day. Later that evening I realize that I never heard back from QF and tried to call again but it was outside call centre hours.
Next day I get an opportunity to have another meeting which would not have been possible if I had changed my flights to a day earlier, it is an opportunity not to be missed so I'm glad that things turned out the way they had.
The morning of my original flights home I check online again at BA.com (oddly I could still check my booking there) to see if any better seats had appeared. First thing I noticed was that the flight details had all turned RED and now had CANCELLED in big letters across them. Oh oh. Straight on the phone to BA because the QF call centre had not opened. Don't know why I bothered, lots of hold time and then "you need to speak with QF" but at least I found out that the cancel reason was due to a "no show" for last night's flight. What now ? I think you will find my flight is tonight, I have my itinerary here in front of me. Go speak with Qantas.
So when the QF line opens I call them once again. The rep is helpful (it takes 30 mins) but ultimately says that they while they are able to reverse the "no show" there is now no seats available on my original flights. They can get alternate flights on BA (not QF on other routings, except in Y) but cannot allocate a seat, BA will need to do that, so with some hesitation I agree to call BA back. Not surprisingly after being on hold for some time the BA rep says I need to speak with Qantas, and wont budge when I tell them that Qantas said to call BA.
Hoping that my now recharged pre-paid will hold out I call Qantas again and start to launch into what I think will be along spiel to explain everything that has happened... the lovely kiwi (Lauren I think) cuts me off and says that she has read the notes on my booking and will refer me to a supervisor straight away to save me any further trouble. The supervisor agrees that it is not acceptable for me to continue going back and forth with BA and agrees to ring BA on my behalf, but that it could take a while - could she call me back. Double checking that I would be on my UK mobile I agree.
Following an excellent meeting (glad I stayed), I check my email to find no less than 5 emails from QF with "confirmed" tickets on my original BA flight. Not sure who they bumped between those two calls but I suspect BA agreed to OP UP one of their high tier flyers to F.
So all ended well enough, bit of frustration with the call centre process and bewildered at how QF took over the BA ticket (I almost said on one of the call "how could QF hijack a paid BA ticket" but caught myself before using that particular term with airline staff and having alarm bells going off somewhere in the NSA's Prism system (hmm, wonder if this post will now).
Oh well, another funny experience travelling. And for what its worth, BA J-class was nothing to write home about.
I am based in Australia so I checked and price compared a range of airlines business class fares, ending up with BA as the cheapest with a reasonably direct route (not some 39 hour odyssey through Guanzhou or Helsinki). Since a range of AFF members belong to the local programmes here, for interest QF were $4,000 more expensive - woah ! and VA were about $1,500 more (than BA).
On the day of my travel I was getting ready to head to the airport for my short QF codeshare sector CBR-SYD to connect with the BA flight out of SYD when I received an SMS advising that my flight had been cancelled and to call QF, which I promptly did. I had allowed 2 hrs transit in SYD but there was no later CBR-SYD flight which would allow me to connect with the BA flight - :shock:.
Luckily I was almost packed and I asked the CSR if I could take an earlier flight if I legged it to CBR (I live about 15 mins away). She advised that the flight left in about 25 mins so I had better hurry (errr, YOU cancelled the flight !). I quickly zipped up the suitcase (actually forgot my phone charger -doh! rookie mistake) and nudged the speed limits all the way. Turns out that that flight was delayed so I actually left CBR around the original time anyway and no other dramas getting to London.
Fast forward a few days and I can see that my meetings were going to finish a day early, so I log-in to the BA web portal to check how much it will cost to change flights, if I could save on the hotel bill and get back earlier this would be worth a minor change fee. But the web portal keeps giving errors, referring me to call the hotline, so I call up the BA customer service line on my local UK pre-paid mobile to find out what is going on. The message goes "we are experiencing high call volumes, please refer to the website. CLICK!" and hangs up. Same deal for 3 attempts over about a 2 hour period. Amazing customer service.
Next day I finally get through to the CSR after being on hold for about 15 mins and ask to change the flight - the CSR says "this is a Qantas ticket you should call them". My response was that I booked and paid on the BA site, Qantas' only involvement was providing codeshare sectors CBR-SYD and reverse, but both have BA flight numbers. Lots of tapping of keyboard in the background but silence then, "can I put you on hold ?" and does so without waiting for a response... then I kid you not, 20 mins later I'm furious because I have now been on the phone for about 40 mins (glad it wasn't my roaming phone). The rep returns to say that in their system this booking is on QF ticketstock and I need to deal with Qantas. Then I remember the cancelled / rebooked CBR-SYD first sector of my journey and mention this to the BA rep. She says that it was possible that QF have reissued the ticket on their own stock. Odd that this was for the whole booking not just the CBR leg.
So I call Qantas on the UK local number and speak with a lovely kiwi lady who confirms it is indeed a QF ticket that all of the BA flights LHR-SYD are fully booked anyway (which would have been nice for the BA rep to have mentioned that !!!!). As a QFF I don't mind flying on the red roo, it would prob be preferable to BA, so I ask that since it now seems I am in possession of a QF ticket could I take a different route back, I don't mind which aircraft I'm on or how I get there, in fact I'm totally flexible - what are the options ? Kiwi Maria thinks this should be fine and tries a few variations while I wait on the line. After a while she comes back and says that she will need to talk to ticketing to get me a cost to change, could she ring me back ? Sure, no problem here is my local UK number.
Day of meetings passes, no call. So I ring back and get a helpful Kiwi gent (why is the whole QF UK call centre staffed by Kiwis, or is it based in NZ ?). He says that he can see the conversation I had with Maria and that she had noted down some flight options but had been unable to contact me on my Australian mobile, apparently she had tried 5 times. So I mention that as I am seeking to fly from LHR to Australia they ought to have tried to call my UK number, particularly as I had updated it during that call. CSR reads back a UK number on his screen and sure enough there is a record of it against the booking, as the primary contact number. Ok, no harm no foul I'm speaking with QF now so lets get rebooking ! CSR says it would be 88 pounds to change flights, I thought great thats less than a night at the hotel and therefore saves money overall. I said "great lets lock that in", and start fishing out the credit card.
But as a final check I ask him to read out the new details which all goes really well until he finishes with "...all in Premium Economy." Um, what ? This is a business class booking. He asks me if I wouldn't mind going on hold so he could check (actually asks, and waits for an ok). About a minute into the hold my pre-paid phone runs out of credit (a mighty effort after all of the BA hold time and calls to the BA line which just cut off). I assume that he will ring back and continue my day. Later that evening I realize that I never heard back from QF and tried to call again but it was outside call centre hours.
Next day I get an opportunity to have another meeting which would not have been possible if I had changed my flights to a day earlier, it is an opportunity not to be missed so I'm glad that things turned out the way they had.
The morning of my original flights home I check online again at BA.com (oddly I could still check my booking there) to see if any better seats had appeared. First thing I noticed was that the flight details had all turned RED and now had CANCELLED in big letters across them. Oh oh. Straight on the phone to BA because the QF call centre had not opened. Don't know why I bothered, lots of hold time and then "you need to speak with QF" but at least I found out that the cancel reason was due to a "no show" for last night's flight. What now ? I think you will find my flight is tonight, I have my itinerary here in front of me. Go speak with Qantas.
So when the QF line opens I call them once again. The rep is helpful (it takes 30 mins) but ultimately says that they while they are able to reverse the "no show" there is now no seats available on my original flights. They can get alternate flights on BA (not QF on other routings, except in Y) but cannot allocate a seat, BA will need to do that, so with some hesitation I agree to call BA back. Not surprisingly after being on hold for some time the BA rep says I need to speak with Qantas, and wont budge when I tell them that Qantas said to call BA.
Hoping that my now recharged pre-paid will hold out I call Qantas again and start to launch into what I think will be along spiel to explain everything that has happened... the lovely kiwi (Lauren I think) cuts me off and says that she has read the notes on my booking and will refer me to a supervisor straight away to save me any further trouble. The supervisor agrees that it is not acceptable for me to continue going back and forth with BA and agrees to ring BA on my behalf, but that it could take a while - could she call me back. Double checking that I would be on my UK mobile I agree.
Following an excellent meeting (glad I stayed), I check my email to find no less than 5 emails from QF with "confirmed" tickets on my original BA flight. Not sure who they bumped between those two calls but I suspect BA agreed to OP UP one of their high tier flyers to F.
So all ended well enough, bit of frustration with the call centre process and bewildered at how QF took over the BA ticket (I almost said on one of the call "how could QF hijack a paid BA ticket" but caught myself before using that particular term with airline staff and having alarm bells going off somewhere in the NSA's Prism system (hmm, wonder if this post will now).
Oh well, another funny experience travelling. And for what its worth, BA J-class was nothing to write home about.
