QFF Adding flights after booking.

[HarryTheFlyer]

Good morning fellow AFF's!

A bit of a long story, so strap in!

My partner and I have recently booked a bunch of Classic Flight Rewards following the presumed opening of borders. For a bit of background, we live in Brisbane, so the reward redemptions out of QLD are a bit hit and miss considering the threat of future border closures.

Last week we booked two separate trips on QF75/76 for March of next year in J. The QF website didn't allow us to tack on the BNE>SYD hop, but after a quick call to the contact centre, an agent was able to add on the BNE>SYD (QF537 and QF512 in J) hop without any extra points, and only a few dollars difference in taxes. We did notice that the agent had to 'cancel' the QF75/76 leg and re issue the tickets as the points got refunded and then re-deducted from our account. No issues for us, was a great outcome!

We tried to do the same thing this week with a trip on QF11 in F.
Again, the QF website didn't allow us to tack on the BNE>SYD hop. We booked the tickets and then called the contact centre. (As a side note - we were quite chuffed with this trip as we got a redemption value of around 5.9c per point!)
Different story this time when calling the contact centre.
After two separate attempts we were told there was no availability on any flight that could get us to Sydney. Our preferred flight is QF501 to give us enough time to transit, otherwise we'd be happy to take a flight the evening before and stay near the airport.
Expert Flyer is showing plenty of award upgrade availability in both J and Y. U5 and X9 availability is showing, and that availability is reflected when you do a search on the Qantas website.
On the third attempt, the agent was able to get us on QF501 but in Y, not in J. Again, a few extra taxes, but no additional points. We noted that this time, the points were not refunded to us and then deducted again unlike our QF75/76 booking.
While this trip still falls within the 8400 miles/162,800 points redemption requirement, and QF's website is showing J availability, does anyone know why we aren't able to get put in J for that initial leg?

I'm 100% not complaining as I get to spend 14 hours in Qantas F, but after the initial Canada booking being so easy to add in the extra leg in J, does anyone know why the agents had difficulty in adding in the extra leg to the F booking? Would it be because linking a F booking to a new J/Y booking is tricky?

Has anyone else had the same issues? How have you gotten around this in the past?
What are your thoughts?

Cheers,
Dan.

 

[dylarr]

When you are checking U availability for QF501 on EF, are you checking this as a standalone sector (i.e. BNE-SYD) or as a part of a married sector (BNE-LAX, via SYD)? The availability may differ between both scenarios meaning it may be possible to book U as a standalone sector (more costly) but not when it is married with QF11.

If you go to EF and search BNE-LAX with a connecting point of SYD, and both QF501/QF11 show U availability, QF should be able to move you across so you are in J for your domestic sector.

 

[HarryTheFlyer]

Hey Dylarr,

So when I search on EF as a married sector, it shows up as no U availability, but when done separately there's availability.
BUT! Now I've just done another multi city search on the Qantas Website and it's showing available seats for QF501 (in J) and QF11 (in F).

I've attached screenshots from both searches.

Thoughts?

 

[dylarr]

OK that's strange!

If you've got enough points, you could create a new booking for that itinerary through the QF website and then cancel your original booking under the Flexible Classic Flight Rewards policy for a full refund of points + taxes (if you do this, do not cancel your original booking until you have secured seats on a new booking first - and note it can take a few days to weeks to get the points back, and around 6 weeks for the taxes).

If that won't work for you, you'll need to speak to QF to have them change your booking. You might need to advise them that their website is showing availability if they can't see it immediately on their end.