QFF Platinum requesting release of extra Classic Reward seats?

[Growing Older]

It's now less than a month until Mrs and Miss GO fly off and I thought that I would give this WP super-power another crack to take them higher than Y+. EF was showing A8 and I9 on QF11 SYD-LAX for 3rd July.

I got through quickly but not to HBA. No worries; if the computer says no today, I can deal with the rejection and just call back in a week or so.

My first agent was very nice and pleasant and had a clue about what I wanted to do. I told her that there was an existing CR booking held in Y+ but that I wanted to request release of F or J, which would replace Y+ if granted. She took down Mrs and Miss GO's QFF numbers but not the existing PNR. First mistake right there.

Good news! The droid (her words) had approved 2 x J one-way seats on QF11 at I9; nothing back on the F despite the A8 (higher than the last time I tried this). OK, that's still a big win so close to school holidays. Let's get it booked and sorted and Dad can be the bearer of even better news. Then she told me that I didn't have enough QFF points to proceed with the booking and asked how I would pay for it. I said that we have an existing CR booking in Y+ which will cover most of the points and I do have enough QFF to cover the change fees and points difference. Uh, yes, but that CR booking is on a different PNR to the one that the droid just approved. Hmmm, would the droid approve a request from the existing PNR? She sent it off and computer said NO (unsurprisingly).

How do we deal with this? She put me on hold, spoke with both the FF and reservations teams, but came up blank. She had no way to convert my new PNR back to the old one, without cancelling the first CR booking. QF would waive the change/cancellation fee in this instance. OK, what's involved here, I ask. You cancel it, points come back immediately, you use those points plus existing QFF balance to pay for the J seats and re-book on the spot.... right???

No, Sir. We can cancel right now and the points *should* return within 24 hours but she could not guarantee it. QF will hold the new J CR booking for 72 hours from time of booking (so, Monday night on the King's Birthday holiday). My blood went cold - how many ways could this go wrong? Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory! I replied that this was too big a risk and I needed a guarantee that everything could be done instantaneously if we followed the cancel/re-book path. She couldn't give me that assurance, so I had to let it go (but did ask for the new PNR that would expire worthless within 72 hours).

A few frantic calls to family members to try and rustle up some QFF points failed miserably. I couldn't raise the 100k+ points before Monday without buying them using Top-up (no thanks!). So I sat there, furious with myself for a few hours and thought what would everyone on AFF tell me to do now? HUACA - of course!

So, I called again, thinking that if it wasn't an Australian or NZ accent at the other end of the line, I would just HUACA until 7pm. Lady Luck smiled on me and I think it was sent through to HBA - I got an Aussie voice at the end of the line, in a room where other Aussies were also talking to clients. I explained the mess that I had created and my second agent was brilliant about it. She sent the request again to the droid first off - it still said no. Not to be perturbed, she said that she could fix this with a couple of quick calls, which she did. HBA has the power to "mesh these bookings" (her words). She managed to transfer my newly-released J seats onto my existing CR PNR, cancelling the Y+ and re-applying the QFF points immediately to pay for the J seats... and also waiving the change fees (because that was in the notes from my first agent). An hour later, the tickets were reissued as J and I recovered from zero to hero!

OMG, the stress! My lesson learned? Next time, start with the current PNR and do not get distracted by the chit-chat!

Upshot for this thread was the release of 2 x U one-way CR on QF11 SYD-LAX 3rd July 2025.

 

[Captain Halliday]

HBA has the power to "mesh these bookings" (her words). She managed to transfer my newly-released J seats onto my existing CR PNR,

If this was actually what happened, and I’m not doubting you, it’s a potentially interesting development.

Thanks for sharing.

Would be interest to hear confirmation from others that this can actually be done. Via PM if required.

 

[serfty]

If this was actually what happened, and I’m not doubting you, it’s a potentially interesting development.

Thanks for sharing.

Would be interest to hear confirmation from others that this can actually be done. Via PM if required.

Consider a PNR as a manilla folder into which sheets (tickets) can be placed, updated or removed.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Consider a PNR as a manilla folder into which sheets (tickets) can be placed, updated or removed.

Agree for adding new flights.

But @Growing Older has described merging two PNRs which I thought was not possible.

If it is possible, then I have a bunch of PNRs that I’d like to merge into a PNR that was created at a very specific point in time.

 

[serfty]

But @Growing Older has described merging two PNRs which I thought was not possible.

Indeed that is not possible. It was not what my simile was about.

 

[Growing Older]

Agree for adding new flights.

But @Growing Older has described merging two PNRs which I thought was not possible.

If it is possible, then I have a bunch of PNRs that I’d like to merge into a PNR that was created at a very specific point in time.

I must confess that I do not know exactly what she did. This was all resolved whilst I was on hold.

There were definitely 2 PNRs before I called - the original CR booking and the new one created when the droid approved the WP release. Both with 6 alpha-numeric characters as is typical for QF. Once the "meshing" had occurred, only the original PNR remained, with Y+ replaced by J.

Now, both were single, one-way fares, same QF metal, just different classes (Y+ in original; J in new one). No other legs were attached to them beyond SYD-LAX. My activity statement shows 2 cancellations, restitution of Y+ points, then payment of J points but all against the original PNR. The second agent did what the first agent could not, but whilst retaining the original PNR. That was my last question to her - what booking reference should we use now? Answer: the one you've always had.