QFF Platinum requesting release of extra Classic award seats?

[BriarFlyer]

Tina did good, at her job and at hiding that 'murican accent.

 

[lurker]

FWIW, I recently got off a call with an agent, who told me that they recently were told that Platinum members only get the droid requests going forward, and manual review is now limited for CL and P1 members (and also an edge case of "SSU Platinum Member", whatever that means, but I assume it's something to do with comercially important people). Apparently this has been the case for a couple of months, which is sad for me, as it's the only reason I keep maintaining Platinum on Qantas instead of falling back to LTG.

I realise that manual review has been an unpublished benefit for a while, but it seems as though that is being tightened up. So long, Qantas Platinum. It's been fun.

Anyway, some more droid data points.

17JAN SYD-JNB I5 — declined
23JAN SYD-JNB I9 — declined

 

[Brettmcg]

FWIW, I recently got off a call with an agent, who told me that they recently were told that Platinum members only get the droid requests going forward, and manual review is now limited for CL and P1 members (and also an edge case of "SSU Platinum Member", whatever that means, but I assume it's something to do with comercially important people). Apparently this has been the case for a couple of months, which is sad for me, as it's the only reason I keep maintaining Platinum on Qantas instead of falling back to LTG.

I realise that manual review has been an unpublished benefit for a while, but it seems as though that is being tightened up. So long, Qantas Platinum. It's been fun.

Anyway, some more droid data points.

17JAN SYD-JNB I5 — declined
23JAN SYD-JNB I9 — declined

Ever since I have been P1 (which is about six years now) I was of the understanding that analyst/human review was only available to P1/CL.

I have never heard of a WP being able to access that benefit.

 

[MrJetset]

FWIW, I recently got off a call with an agent, who told me that they recently were told that Platinum members only get the droid requests going forward, and manual review is now limited for CL and P1 members (and also an edge case of "SSU Platinum Member", whatever that means, but I assume it's something to do with comercially important people). Apparently this has been the case for a couple of months, which is sad for me, as it's the only reason I keep maintaining Platinum on Qantas instead of falling back to LTG.

I realise that manual review has been an unpublished benefit for a while, but it seems as though that is being tightened up. So long, Qantas Platinum. It's been fun.

Anyway, some more droid data points.

17JAN SYD-JNB I5 — declined
23JAN SYD-JNB I9 — declined

It has been this way for years…

 

[lurker]

I have never heard of a WP being able to access that benefit.

I've successfully used it twice this year already as a lowly WP. Droid said no, went to manual review, and got 2 F seats released on QF11. This was the first time I'd run into this restriction and didn't see anything covering the change in the last few pages. Apologies if this is old news to most of you, but wanted to share my experience for others.

 

[encryptededdy]

I've successfully used it twice this year already as a lowly WP

This is quite interesting since nobody else has managed it. Maybe you're secretly SSU , or perhaps some agents break the rules?

Apparently this has been the case for a couple of months

Did the agent say this, or is this your assumption? That's somewhat interesting if the agent explicitly said this, as I suppose that implies that indeed WPs could get manual reviews as recent as a few months ago.

 

[lurker]

This is quite interesting since nobody else has managed it. Maybe you're secretly SSU , or perhaps some agents break the rules?

I'd imagine it's the latter (not necessarily breaking the rules, but perhaps being unaware of them). I've had other experiences this year that line up with that, including agents accidentally booking award tickets into revenue classes (which don't get ticketed of course, but you need to notice the error and call and get them to change it). IMO seems like it's a training/inconsistency issue rather than anything else, and the controls rely on the agent doing the correct thing.

Did the agent say this, or is this your assumption?

Agent said it directly. They had been forwarding requests for WP and P1, but then got a message back a few months ago saying that it wasn't permitted anymore, and to stop forwarding requests for WP.

 

[levelnine]

17JAN SYD-JNB I5 — declined
23JAN SYD-JNB I9 — declined

It was posted up thread that Qantas have blackout dates for release of award seats that cover most of the summer school holidays. It looks like at least your first flight is within the stated blackout date (and your second might be too — these blackout dates are not public). In which case, you were probably never going to get these released on those dates, even if you were a CL/P1 and it was sent for manual review.

 

[MrJetset]

I've successfully used it twice this year already as a lowly WP. Droid said no, went to manual review, and got 2 F seats released on QF11. This was the first time I'd run into this restriction and didn't see anything covering the change in the last few pages. Apologies if this is old news to most of you, but wanted to share my experience for others.

While I believe what you were told, I think what actually happened here the agent had to send for a review to another team (not rev management).

Fiji's method of award seat release requests I have outlined upthread. I believe they cannot get an immediate answer as they do not have access to the droid, rather it is likely passed onto HBA agents. This is why you HUACA until you get HBA on the phone.

The method of setting up a revenue class booking to get an award is not the correct process and even HBA agents say they do not understand why Fiji do this. If anything it should be Fictitious Point to Fictitious Point.

 

[justinbrett]

FWIW, I recently got off a call with an agent, who told me that they recently were told that Platinum members only get the droid requests going forward, and manual review is now limited for CL and P1 members (and also an edge case of "SSU Platinum Member", whatever that means, but I assume it's something to do with comercially important people). Apparently this has been the case for a couple of months, which is sad for me, as it's the only reason I keep maintaining Platinum on Qantas instead of falling back to LTG.

I realise that manual review has been an unpublished benefit for a while, but it seems as though that is being tightened up. So long, Qantas Platinum. It's been fun.

Anyway, some more droid data points.

17JAN SYD-JNB I5 — declined
23JAN SYD-JNB I9 — declined

Looking ahead there doesn't seem to be much/any availability on SYD-JNB, even in Sep 23.

Probably a downside to QF having a monopoly on AU-SA flights now.

 

[lurker]

While I believe what you were told, I think what actually happened here the agent had to send for a review to another team (not rev management).

Totally plausible — it all felt and looked the same to me as the old yield management process (getting a verbal "no" from the droid over the phone, asking for it to be forwarded, seeing the booking in MMB as "requested", getting an answer 24-48 hours later). Who knows what is really happening behind the scenes!

 

[Kangol]

Totally plausible — it all felt and looked the same to me as the old yield management process (getting a verbal "no" from the droid over the phone, asking for it to be forwarded, seeing the booking in MMB as "requested", getting an answer 24-48 hours later). Who knows what is really happening behind the scenes!

Sometimes the initial "no" (ie rejection) is mistaken for "no answer right now" (ie answer unavailable, neither an acceptance nor a rejection).

 

[MrJetset]

Sometimes the initial "no" (ie rejection) is mistaken for "no answer right now" (ie answer unavailable, neither an acceptance nor a rejection).

I had this with an AKL agent last weekend who set up everything and said "No response."

I simply waited for Mon 11AM and called until I got HBA.

 

[liamg]

Requested:

• 3 Aug 2023 QF29 J - rejected
• 4 Aug 2023 QF29 J - rejected
• 5 Aug 2023 QF29 J - success

I had asked (the Auckland call centre) last week for 4 Aug and got an email saying it was unsuccessful.

Spoke to Hobart who put in additional dates but the system locked up because apparently Auckland hadn't done it correctly. Once she corrected it 5 Aug came back successful.

 

[Kangol]

QF2 in F at ~11 months out, request approved instantly. 1 pax. Ticket received in 10 minutes.

 

[Danger]

Requested:

• 3 Aug 2023 QF29 J - rejected
• 4 Aug 2023 QF29 J - rejected
• 5 Aug 2023 QF29 J - success

I had asked (the Auckland call centre) last week for 4 Aug and got an email saying it was unsuccessful.

Spoke to Hobart who put in additional dates but the system locked up because apparently Auckland hadn't done it correctly. Once she corrected it 5 Aug came back successful.

Do you know what was available in the I bucket on those dates?

QF2 in F at ~11 months out, request approved instantly. 1 pax. Ticket received in 10 minutes.

Do you know what was available in the A bucket on those dates?

 

[liamg]

Do you know what was available in the I bucket on those dates?

I9 for all of them. I assume it had something to do with days of the week then? No to Thursday, Friday. Yes to Saturday.

 

[Kangol]

Do you know what was available in the A bucket on those dates?

No, I don't have EF. Given it's so far out, chances are there would be a fair few A seats for sale.

 

[AirKat]

Had success with my request yesterday morning at 11am 353 days out

4 x J seats MEL - LAX Oct 23

Some years since I have done a request so might not be anything special but feeling like I have won lotto

 

[Ade]

I've successfully used it twice this year already as a lowly WP. Droid said no, went to manual review, and got 2 F seats released on QF11. This was the first time I'd run into this restriction and didn't see anything covering the change in the last few pages. Apologies if this is old news to most of you, but wanted to share my experience for others.

Echos my experience, although in Domestic - in 2021, early to mid 2022, I was able to request seats as WP that goes to manual review on more than 5 occasions. In 2 occasions, I was able to get 4*Y seats released in domestic.