Warning - QF award booking departing Thailand

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Jeffrey O'Neill

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I mad a booking for next March BKK - SYD and sort of ignored the screen that popped up near the end saying I'd need to go into some travel agent office in BKK to provide my credit card. Had seen this other times I made a booking and when calling up QF was told I didn't need to worry about it.

With the current life miles offer I decided to give TG F a go on the way home. Was wondering why the QF online system wouldn't let me cancel the flight. Called up QF - amazingly no wait time - and was told that the flight hadn't been ticketed yet as I hadn't presented my credit card details. Wouldn't have been fund if I'd rocked up March next year without a flight.

Only good thing is I wont lose 5K points since the booking was completed, and I get to fly F and cross it off my bucket list.

Now I'm starting to get a bit better understanding of my a Thai friend who was just over visiting was grumbling about his booking with QF - he's had to drive into BKK to show them his CC to complete the booking.
 
There are a number of places overseas that have a similar limitation, such as Manila etc.
 
The requirements for the Philippines seems to vary from airline to airline as I've had no trouble booking and paying online for Air Asia and Cebu Pacific flights originating in Manila, but when I last booked a QF flight out of Manila about 18 months ago I had to use a door-to-door money remittance service to hand over cash for the taxes at a ticketing agent in Makati. Having said that, the Cebu Pacific terms and conditions say that upon check-in you will be asked to show the credit card which was used for the booking, but I've never been asked in the dozen or so times I flown with them in recent years.
 
Yes .. even if you book the ticket using 100% points ie no credit card involved you still must show up at the MNL office within 3 working days. All that achieves is that it makes it impossible to book a one way ticket or a return ticket if you live anywhere else in the country other than the capital city, or in another country.

The real reasons seem very obscure or senseless.
 
I think "impossible" is an overstatement as it only costs $10 to get a guy to go to the Manila office and pay the taxes for you and you'll probably get a slightly better foreign exchange rate for the cash remittance compared to what the credit card companies tend to offer. As for the reasons, I think it relates to a narrow interpretation of "airline ticket" in Philippines legislation which hasn't really really moved-on to the realities of a ticketless environment. Mitigation of credit card fraud is also another plausible reason.
 
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Thanks for your points.

The conditions say that I must show up with my passport and credit card. There seems to be no option to send "a guy" and in any case I I don't have "a guy" in Manila i would trust with $10, let alone $700 . so I will rephrase: "Impossible for me"

But my point was that even when it was a $0 , 100% points ticket I still had to show a credit card - but which card?

how can there be a credit card fraud when no card is being used .... "Only in the Philippines!" as they say on the tourism posters..
 
Gary there are plenty of commercial money remittance business in Australia, most of which are properly regulated and licensed, that offer door-to-door services in the Philippines for around $10. Google "Philippines money remittance site:.au" and you'll see dozens of them. The one I've been using for almost 20 years doesn't come up until the second page, but I don't think I'm allowed to post their name here - happy to PM it.
 
Well thanks - I hadn't thought of that remittance services

But its not about paying $10 - or any money - they want to sight, in person (from expreience)
1. My Face in person . so they can witness me sign something and verify signature
2. My passport - they want excessive ID
3 My credit card


However the exact wording that comes up before you can even see the available flights is:

Important Information
After you have completed your booking you will need to visit our office below within two working days for credit card and signature verification. Your ticket will be issued once your credit card has been sighted.
Manila Office
HT&T Travel Philippines#, 10th Floor Salustiana D Ty Towers, 104 Paseo de Roxas, Legaspi Village, Makati City
Open hours: 8.30am-5pm Mon to Fri
Phone: +63 2 812 0607
# Qantas representative
 
Well thanks - I hadn't thought of that remittance services

But its not about paying $10 - or any money - they want to sight, in person (from expreience)
1. My Face in person . so they can witness me sign something and verify signature
2. My passport - they want excessive ID
3 My credit card


However the exact wording that comes up before you can even see the available flights is:

Important Information
After you have completed your booking you will need to visit our office below within two working days for credit card and signature verification. Your ticket will be issued once your credit card has been sighted.
Manila Office
HT&T Travel Philippines#, 10th Floor Salustiana D Ty Towers, 104 Paseo de Roxas, Legaspi Village, Makati City
Open hours: 8.30am-5pm Mon to Fri
Phone: +63 2 812 0607
# Qantas representative

Have you spoken with Qantas or searched these forums for workarounds? There have been reports of success in the past.
 
I mad a booking for next March BKK - SYD and sort of ignored the screen that popped up near the end saying I'd need to go into some travel agent office in BKK to provide my credit card. Had seen this other times I made a booking and when calling up QF was told I didn't need to worry about it.

With the current life miles offer I decided to give TG F a go on the way home. Was wondering why the QF online system wouldn't let me cancel the flight. Called up QF - amazingly no wait time - and was told that the flight hadn't been ticketed yet as I hadn't presented my credit card details. Wouldn't have been fund if I'd rocked up March next year without a flight.

Only good thing is I wont lose 5K points since the booking was completed, and I get to fly F and cross it off my bucket list.

Now I'm starting to get a bit better understanding of my a Thai friend who was just over visiting was grumbling about his booking with QF - he's had to drive into BKK to show them his CC to complete the booking.


Its really not that hard, you can book it online, and call to verify to the aus office. I do this all the time, they simply convert the taxes and fees in to AUD and issue the ticket. it clearly says you have to visit them in 2 working days for it to be ticketed so it would be foolish not to at least call and sort it out!
 
HT&T are the same people I dealt with previously. I rang them in advance and they were quite happy to have someone turn up at their office in Makati with cash for the taxes and they then issued an "e-ticket" which they scanned and emailed to me. From memory it looked like it had been printed out on an old dot-matrix printer. The itinerary was then live under "My Bookings" when I logged into my Qantas portal.
 
HT&T are the same people I dealt with previously. I rang them in advance and they were quite happy to have someone turn up at their office in Makati with cash for the taxes and they then issued an "e-ticket" which they scanned and emailed to me. From memory it looked like it had been printed out on an old dot-matrix printer. The itinerary was then live under "My Bookings" when I logged into my Qantas portal.


what woudl be your advice if this was a frequent flyer points ticket? ie taxes pre paid with points?
 
I wouldn't contemplate using points to pay taxes as the "exchange rate" used (~$0.83 per point) is well above my benchmark points valuation, but I think I'd get on the phone to HT&T and see what they think. Having said that, I thought the "Points + Pay" option was only available for trips originating in Australia but I could be wrong.
 
this problem has been around for years and i had asked the official company representative for Qantas here on AFF to come up with a solution suitable for anyone wanting to depart not just from Thailand, but other destinations such as China.

Qantas has sometimes said it is a 'regulatory requirement' that you front up at the office. But as i pointed out, this would be very unfortunate as Qantas is the only airline in the world subject to this regulatory requirement.

From what I can work out, it appears Qantas has general sales agents in some countries such as Thailand and China - and those agents don't have an on-line banking merchant capable of processing credit cards on-line.

So you have to go to the office.

you can process the booking via the Australian call centre. but the call centre often wants to slug you the assisted booking fee.

Whatever the arguments put forward by Qantas, there seems to be equally simple solutions to work around and remove additional costs to us, the passenger. But so far Qantas has not advised more generally (at least that I am aware of) that they are willing to help struggling passengers.

Potential solutions could include a blanket waiver of call centre assistance fees for these situations.
 
this problem has been around for years and i had asked the official company representative for Qantas here on AFF to come up with a solution suitable for anyone wanting to depart not just from Thailand, but other destinations such as China.

Qantas has sometimes said it is a 'regulatory requirement' that you front up at the office. But as i pointed out, this would be very unfortunate as Qantas is the only airline in the world subject to this regulatory requirement.

From what I can work out, it appears Qantas has general sales agents in some countries such as Thailand and China - and those agents don't have an on-line banking merchant capable of processing credit cards on-line.

So you have to go to the office.

you can process the booking via the Australian call centre. but the call centre often wants to slug you the assisted booking fee.

Whatever the arguments put forward by Qantas, there seems to be equally simple solutions to work around and remove additional costs to us, the passenger. But so far Qantas has not advised more generally (at least that I am aware of) that they are willing to help struggling passengers.

Potential solutions could include a blanket waiver of call centre assistance fees for these situations.
Cash is King. Everyone accepts cash and for a fairly insignificant fee one can get cash delivered to pretty much everywhere in Asia. When you factor in inferior exchange rates, credit card surcharges and other fees your probably way ahead anyway.
 
The best work around getting an award booking on QF BKK-SYD is to check the QF website.If you find an award less than 330 days out from your departure then go to your Aadvantage account and book it.No problems with CCs and less surcharges.Win Win.
 
The amount of times these threads bob up with the Asian origin booking problems is amazing. It is just a ludicrous situation. Qantas should come out and say why they can't do it when every other airline can (even their own one in Jetstar!). My thoughts are it is a legacy of the physical agents they use in these countries rather than running their own ops. Just crazy though, their shouldn't need to be 'work arounds' they should be trying everything they can to make it as easy as possible to buy a ticket on their airline. It would probably be one of their cheaper 'fixes'.
 
The best work around getting an award booking on QF BKK-SYD is to check the QF website.If you find an award less than 330 days out from your departure then go to your Aadvantage account and book it.No problems with CCs and less surcharges.Win Win.

True, though not of much use for those without any AA points
 
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