The Dreaded "Your Booking has Changed" Email

[Scash]

I have a QF reward booking for July 2023:-

05/07/23 BNE - HKG CX156 J Arrive 07:30 with 8 hour transit
05/07/23 HKG - BKK CX701 J Arrive 18:00 with 16 hour transit
06/07/23 BKK - CDG AF J

Have just received an email from Qantas advising that the AF flight has now been changed to depart 07/07/23, meaning a 40 hour transit in BKK, and asking me to accept the changes on line (which I haven't done as yet).

I also received an email from AF advising of the change, with the option to select another flight free of charge, via change my booking on the AF site. The flights offered by AF are:-

BNE - SIN AF9672 (operated by Qantas) arrive 16:50 with 5 hour transit
SIN - CDG AF257

There are various departure dates offered, including my original date of 05/07/23, but it doesn't state if these are in J. The flights offered by AF are preferable, but I am hesitant to accept as I don't know what this will do from the QF end, and I don't want to lose my booking as we all know how hard it is to find suitable reward flights.

Has anyone had experience with this, and know if I accept the AF offer via the AF site, will it be ticketed and what happens to my QF Reward booking (ie will changes flow through to QF).

Thanks in advance.

 

[ozflier]

I had a similar experience with a QFF booking LHR-HKG-BNE. ( not OWA but issues relevant to this thread)
The KLM flight was put back 8 hours so i would misconnect at HKG.
I did not have the option of accepting-it was just done!
Being Platinum, I rang QFF expecting Hobart and sadly got an agent in Capetown.
About the worst agent I have ever had ( her english, both comprehension and speach, was pretty poor - I was told that QFF had no responsibility for changes to KLM flights ( fair enough) and that any changes to the HKG-BNE flight times should be done by KLM (!)and I would have pay for any fees associated with those changes.
I had found later connecting flights HKG-SYD-BNE which did the job fine . Of course the agent could not see them - I asked her to look at my account and look at the booking page and it was there in black, red and white - but no she could not book them!! I'll bet she did not realise that the KLM flight did not arrive til departure day+ 1 - nothing would make her change her mind - absolutely totally useless . I understand better now how bad is the "service" that non QFF elites regularly receive!
I argued politely for a few minutes but gave up and said not to worry about it .
I rang 131313 again and, believe it or not , got Capetown again but the most amazing agent - told her the story and my suggestion -she found the flights ,rebooked , no charges and all done in five minutes, thanked her profusely ,hung up, looked at my email and the ticketing had already been done.
Talk about "Tale of Two Cities" when it comes to Qantas service offerings.

 

[ChrisMars]

I had a similar experience with a QFF booking LHR-HKG-BNE. ( not OWA but issues relevant to this thread)
The KLM flight was put back 8 hours so i would misconnect at HKG.
I did not have the option of accepting-it was just done!
Being Platinum, I rang QFF expecting Hobart and sadly got an agent in Capetown.
About the worst agent I have ever had ( her english, both comprehension and speach, was pretty poor - I was told that QFF had no responsibility for changes to KLM flights ( fair enough) and that any changes to the HKG-BNE flight times should be done by KLM (!)and I would have pay for any fees associated with those changes.
I had found later connecting flights HKG-SYD-BNE which did the job fine . Of course the agent could not see them - I asked her to look at my account and look at the booking page and it was there in black, red and white - but no she could not book them!! I'll bet she did not realise that the KLM flight did not arrive til departure day+ 1 - nothing would make her change her mind - absolutely totally useless . I understand better now how bad is the "service" that non QFF elites regularly receive!
I argued politely for a few minutes but gave up and said not to worry about it .
I rang 131313 again and, believe it or not , got Capetown again but the most amazing agent - told her the story and my suggestion -she found the flights ,rebooked , no charges and all done in five minutes, thanked her profusely ,hung up, looked at my email and the ticketing had already been done.
Talk about "Tale of Two Cities" when it comes to Qantas service offerings.

I am wondering if we should start to compile a list of agent's name we can trust got the proper training.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I am wondering if we should start to compile a list of agent's name we can trust got the proper training.

Not a good idea, as you take the chance when you call, as to who you get.
Its not a 100% chance that when you call, you get that particular knowledgeable one you were aiming for.
For privacy, who knows, they might also use pseydonyms, and not their real names, so when you ask for a certain person, they might say, we are not able to do that due to privacy reasons, ((thank you for contacting QFF, my name is Mary...)) etc, how do you trace that Mary from the outsourced call centre in NAN/MNL/CPT... staff in AKL/HBA.
Unless you are also given a alphanumeric code for the contacting agent when you call.
As for OP, I know its not the ideal, but if all 3 flights are still in J, and you have nothing, (dare I say), to do in Paris except a holiday, and its all still in J, despite that 40 hrs transit in BKK, accept and keep it.
Not ideal of course.
The AF offer is nice, but you could wreck your coming back to Aust flight, if they (AF) start doing things about changing bookings via QF.
Don't play with fire.
Best to just deal with the main airline, ie, QF.
We all know of the horror stories of changing even just the most basic things, via the non FF points burn flight operator, in this case AF vs QF.
Go with the QF changes.

 

[GDale]

It's technically possible, but as noted above may be risky given agent incompetence right now. How it should technically work is AF opens up positive space on the alternate flights, confirms your seat and update the record locator, at which point you can call QF to just reticket the flights (or wait for QF to prompt, which sometimes happens and sometimes doesn't). On occasion, because it is AF creating the positive space, you sometimes get rebooked into revenue J buckets and that's a bonus. The challenging part of this is just getting QF to reticket correctly really, but that's a material challenge right now

 

[Stargazer]

It's technically possible, but as noted above may be risky given agent incompetence right now. How it should technically work is AF opens up positive space on the alternate flights, confirms your seat and update the record locator, at which point you can call QF to just reticket the flights (or wait for QF to prompt, which sometimes happens and sometimes doesn't). On occasion, because it is AF creating the positive space, you sometimes get rebooked into revenue J buckets and that's a bonus. The challenging part of this is just getting QF to reticket correctly really, but that's a material challenge right now

Can you please explain from a newbies perspective how this operates. If the passenger accepts the changed bookings on air france, why isn’t this actioned by Air France. new tickets issued. Why do you need to call QF to reticket the flights. Scash prefers the france flights but is concerned that if one of these is accepted doesn’t know what this will do from the qantas end. Do all route changes need to be referred to Qantas for reticketing on QF award bookings.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

AF still has to deal with QF as QF is the one that has to approve the change, as they are the ones with your data, and your points.
AF is acting as agent, for QF, who is the main business, to put it like that, that you will be dealing with for the trip.
If you had AF points, then dealing totally with AF would be ok.
If you approve the AF side, they would still have to liaise with QF.
AF on its own, will not be able to complete the whole procedure, QF has to in the end, pay AF for the ticket, via points or via $.

 

[adenda]

Just got a dreaded "Your Booking has Changed" email myself yesterday - not for the first time - for a cancelled flight on our round the world OWA next May so thought I'd share my experience.
In summary:

1. Qantas website didn't provide option to accept the change so called up. Got SA call centre, they advised change had been accepted at their end and ticketing would take 24-48 hours. Tried in vain to convince agent to call ticketing to get re-issue prioritised. Was told could only be done if travel was imminent
2. Checked email for new tickets this morning - approximately 20 hours since previous call - nothing
3. Called up again this morning - SA call centre. Explained my concern about losing booked flights on partner airlines (our flights out of Australia are on QR). Was given stock response about 24-48 hours and can't call ticketing unless travel is imminent.
4. Decided to call again straight away - SA again. Went through the full security checks and explained my concern. Agent acknowledged the concern and called ticketing without hesitation.
5. Had to hold whilst the agent was herself in a phone queue to ticketing department for about 20 minutes. She came back periodically to advise she was still waiting.
6. Eventually came back on line to advise itinerary had been reticketed. She even patiently waited on the line whilst I waited for the confirmation email to arrive and for me to check all flights were unchanged. All good - what a relief!!
7. So the lesson - which is often repeated on this forum - is HUACA without hesitation! It's remarkable what a variance in pro-activeness you can experience.
8. To be fair, the first 2 agents I spoke to didn't display any incompetence, just weren't prepared to make ay extra effort to address my concern. Whereas last agent was a model of helpfulness.

I've now got into the habit of checking my booking - both on QF and CheckMyTrip websites - almost daily. God help anyone who isn't across all this - could well imagine a scenario where poor newbie travellers arrive at the airport to be advised they have no booking.

 

[madrooster]

Has anyone had experience with this, and know if I accept the AF offer via the AF site, will it be ticketed and what happens to my QF Reward booking (ie will changes flow through to QF).

AF's site shouldn't even be offering these options. If you were to accept on AF's site, it will rebook the flights into commercial space and cancel your CX segments but then fail at reissuing the ticket because the ticket is not on AF ticket stock.

QF will not reissue the ticket into commercial space when it's a schedule change and you will have lost your CX segments so you will be in a bind.

 

[Stargazer]

are you saying that if offered new flights in exchange for a cancelled flight you cannot accept on the other carriers website but need to contact Qantas to have the flights reissued. If not followed then other sectors booked as part of a points redemption ( in this case Cathay flights)) could be cancelled.

 

[Scash]

As for OP, I know its not the ideal, but if all 3 flights are still in J, and you have nothing, (dare I say), to do in Paris except a holiday, and its all still in J, despite that 40 hrs transit in BKK, accept and keep it.
Not ideal of course.
The AF offer is nice, but you could wreck your coming back to Aust flight, if they (AF) start doing things about changing bookings via QF.

Thanks @AustraliaPoochie. The trip is leisure and I am recently retired so have plenty of time There could be worse things than having 40 hours in Bangkok and too be honest 40 hours is better than the original 16 as it gives you time to leave the airport and explore.

 

[Scash]

Well today is my lucky day! Despite the sage advice given I decided to roll the dice and changed my booking via the AF website. However it then displayed a message saying that I couldn't do this on line. Despite getting this message the new flights appeared in MMB on Qantas (and the old flights had disappeared). The new flights were also showing on the RJ site and Expert Flyer, but there was no etcicket number . So I then rang QF and was answered after just on 15 mins by Herman, who I think was in SA. I explained that my booking had been changed but I had not received new etickets. He asked had I accepted the changes, to which I replied yes (I didn't say that I did this on the AF site). He then put me on hold to investigate. I was on hold for some time and Herman came back to apologise and say he is still looking in to it.

After a further wait Herman came back and said there was an issue with the first leg BNE - SIN being codeshare (AF9672), and this wasn't allowed under award bookings (I didn't really understand the reason). He then said he will go back and see what he could do. After a further wait Herman came back and said all fixed with the BNE - SIN flight changed to QF51 (exactly same flight as AF9672) and that I will receive new ticket in 24 to 48 hours. About 10 minutes later my new etickets turned up!! All up I was on the phone for just on an hour.

I now have a much better itinerary, with almost 6 hours in SIN to enjoy the various OW lounges (looking forward to the QR lounge). And to top it off I was refunded about 40k in QFF points and $450 (flights were for 2 pax). The ticketing gods were smiling on me today and I couldn't have had a better experience. I think I will go out and buy a lotto ticket

 

[Scash]

On occasion, because it is AF creating the positive space, you sometimes get rebooked into revenue J buckets and that's a bonus. The challenging part of this is just getting QF to reticket correctly really, but that's a material challenge right now

Thanks @GDale . That's pretty much what happened I think. New flights show on MMB and also show that I will earn status credits. Also see my recent post re ticketing of new flights.

 

[Stargazer]

are you saying that if offered new flights in exchange for a cancelled flight you cannot accept on the other carriers website but need to contact Qantas to have the flights reissued. If not followed then other sectors booked as part of a points redemption ( in this case Cathay flights)) could be cancelled.

Congrats Scash on a fine outcome. Could I just seek clarity on my post. Most of your replies going over my head as I just don’t have the background to follow on. Desperately trying to absorb this information. Eg what is MMB

 

[DAC1]

I now have a much better itinerary, with almost 6 hours in SIN to enjoy the various OW lounges (looking forward to the QR lounge). And to top it off I was refunded about 40k in QFF points and $450 (flights were for 2 pax). The ticketing gods were smiling on me today and I couldn't have had a better experience. I think I will go out and buy a lotto ticket

This is a great outcome, glad to hear it.

FYI, if you are flying out of SIN to CDG on an AF flight number, I do not expect you’ll get access to the OW lounges.

 

[Scash]

Congrats Scash on a fine outcome. Could I just seek clarity on my post. Most of your replies going over my head as I just don’t have the background to follow on. Desperately trying to absorb this information. Eg what is MMB

Hi @Stargazer. MMB is Manage my Booking on the Qantas site. Others with more knowledge than me will be able to explain things better about the ticketing issue, but my understanding from what I've read today is that by accepting changes on the Air France site, instead of Qantas, it put my entire booking at risk as Qantas may not have accepted the changes, and then my entire booking would be cancelled. What Air France was offering was completely different flights, however Qantas were only changing the departure day of one of my existing flights. I just think I was lucky today

 

[Scash]

This is a great outcome, glad to hear it.

FYI, if you are flying out of SIN to CDG on an AF flight number, I do not expect you’ll get access to the OW lounges.

Damn...I think you are correct . I just automatically assumed they were part of OW.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Anytime you get a schedule change, before reacting (and look I get it emotions run high whenever airlines cancel your booking or make changes that substantially alter what you plan) ask yourself in a perfect world, if money wasn't an option what flights would you truly want to be on? Cancellations and significant schedule changes give us a rare opportunity to book the flights we really wanted at the airlines expense. If I was you (and I'm not you by the way), my preferences would be BNE to SIN via CDG as AF suggested which if as you say is all in J would be indeed an ideal routing all things considered. Secondly, if I couldn't get that, and if the layovers were really long, I would try pushing QF to book me on their service to Europe (i.e. FCO/LHR) connecting onwards with BA/AF/AZ since QF has been known to open up J seats when their members are stuck with an unworkable itinerary. At the end of the day though, every schedule change should always be getting you a better trip than what you originally booked.

-RooFlyer88

 

[RichardMEL]

AF still has to deal with QF as QF is the one that has to approve the change, as they are the ones with your data, and your points.
AF is acting as agent, for QF, who is the main business, to put it like that, that you will be dealing with for the trip.
If you had AF points, then dealing totally with AF would be ok.
If you approve the AF side, they would still have to liaise with QF.
AF on its own, will not be able to complete the whole procedure, QF has to in the end, pay AF for the ticket, via points or via $.

Disagree somewhat.

QF is acting as an agent for AF in this instance.. as the ticketing agency. As far as AF is concerned QF is the "travel agent" who has issued the ticket (likely on 081 stock). AF in this case is the operating carrier providing the inventory(in this case, award inventory) for sale.

Now that said, it's actually great that the AF issued change has worked. I would have expected the usual type of message to deal with whomever issued the ticket (in this case, QF). Though it's also interesting AF's system was proactive and offered the alternatives - which is actually really neat.

I would note that it does appear that AF use Amadeus too, and that could well be a factor for same platform changes.

Let's hope this holds. It's unusual for sure, but seems to have worked ou in the customer's favour... and that's gotta be a red flag surely?!

 

[serfty]

Damn...I think you are correct . I just automatically assumed they were part of OW.

Being in J on AF I believe you at least have access to the Dnata lounge.