-
I have an award booking in business class with Qatar departing LHR at 8.05 23 December and arriving in MEL at 23.05 December 24 via DOH which I booked back in March.
I can now see award availability for that same route with the same departure flight from LHR but an earlier flight from DOH-MEL which would get us in at 18.25 (in time for some Christmas eve celebrations)
I’ve contacted Qatar airways via phone and chat, asking them to change my connection to the earlier one but they say that they can’t see availability, even though I can see availablity when I do an award search.
Has anyone experienced this or know if there’s a way around this. I’m hesitant to cancel my existing and rebook as I’ve read it can take a while to get the avios refunded and I could end up with no ticket 2 weeks out.
Where do you see availability, QR or BA sites? Can you see it elsewhere duch as AA? May be phantom availability or married segments issue.
I can see availability on QR site, nothing showing on BA but that was also the case when I booked in March.
I don’t think it’s a married segment issue as I’ve searched for availability for the entire route again (LHR-MEL).
Sometimes also it might show as available, but when you actually try to book it, it’s not possible. Have you tried going all the way to the payment stage?
If still available, do you have enough Avios to book the new route yourself? You can then cancel the other ticket. Of course, there are fees involved.
Call again, I’ve found big variations in competence and helpfulness of QR CSA just like every other airline. However, just be aware if you do switch and miss the connection you could then easily find yourself arriving late Christmas day or later. Sticking with what you have may be safer.
Sometimes also it might show as available, but when you actually try to book it, it’s not possible. Have you tried going all the way to the payment stage?
If still available, do you have enough Avios to book the new route yourself? You can then cancel the other ticket. Of course, there are fees involved.
I’m just under the required avios to proceed past the pricing page (you need 50%) so both those options are unavailable to me unfortunately
Call again, I’ve found big variations in competence and helpfulness of QR CSA just like every other airline.
Yeah I will do. I figure you just need to get the right agent
However, just be aware if you do switch and miss the connection you could then easily find yourself arriving late Christmas day or later. Sticking with what you have may be safer.
Good point! There’s still a 3 hour 10 min layover with the earlier connection which I know isn’t massive for long haul but I’d be hopeful. It’s not a huge deal by any means if we can’t get on the earlier one, I was more just surprised that it wasn’t as straightforward as I thought.
Is the availability you’re seeing the ‘Flexi’ flights where the Avios required is double? 180k instead of 90k? Had a quick look myself on QR and there indeed doesn’t seem to be any standard inventory, just the Flexi flights.
Is the availability you’re seeing the ‘Flexi’ flights where the Avios required is double? 180k instead of 90k? Had a quick look myself on QR and there indeed doesn’t seem to be any standard inventory, just the Flexi flights.
Yeah it is. The flights I have now were 180k avios per person + charges, so the availability I’m seeing is identical in price to what I paid originally.
If useful to know – I wanted to change the date of one leg of a LHR-AKL redemption, and although there was availability when I looked, the agents I contacted through the secure messaging function insisted they couldn’t see the availability which I could (which seems mad, but there you go). However, when I went through the live chat function (which only appears for me on mobile browser, not on the app or on desktop) the agent there sorted me out v efficiently.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
