No small cities in Award booking

[Bluesky]

I am planning to fly from San Franciso to Grand Rapids.

I have checked Qantas website and there's no "Grand Rapids" there. Is there any way to book it by using another classic award website? If no, then I have to make a call and then pay for the service fee.... that's crazy lol Grrr

[m0hamed]

Why the cross post with only the carrier's name changed? No small international cities in Award booking

[og]

Sounds like a phone job and try to argue for an exemption of operator fees. This is not a unique situation.

[Dave Noble]

Originally Posted by og

Sounds like a phone job and try to argue for an exemption of operator fees. This is not a unique situation.

But do not be surprised if no exemption is given for the booking fee

[Mwenenzi]

Have you checked possible routes / carriers ?
http://www.grr.org/DestCarry.php

[Kremmen]

Yes, this aspect of the QF web site sucks. It's not just small cities. SEA used to be missing. They seem to add cities/routes at random. Why they don't allow a free text input that validates properly is beyond me.

An international example: If your departure city is HKG and want to fly to KUL, it says "There are no cities matching your request". The only city it allows you to fly KUL to/from is BKK. ... And then it's via HKG anyhow on CX! How demented is that?!?!

(They will have to fix this particular mess if/when they add MH to award bookings. The current BKK-only limitation is stupid, but will become much worse then.)

[Dave Noble]

I wouldn't rely on them "fixing" anything; the limited aspects of this are deliberate by Qantas and not an accident

[og]

Originally Posted by Dave Noble

I wouldn't rely on them "fixing" anything; the limited aspects of this are deliberate by Qantas and not an accident

Evidence?

[Dave Noble]

Originally Posted by og

Evidence?

I cannot provide evidence buy from conversations I had with the person in charge of FF programme at the time it was indicated to me that it was not an accident that the limitation on search existed. Up to you whether you want to take this as enough to have belief in it

[Bluesky]

ok thanks guys.

[Kremmen]

Originally Posted by Dave Noble

I cannot provide evidence buy from conversations I had with the person in charge of FF programme at the time it was indicated to me that it was not an accident that the limitation on search existed.

Did you get any impression as to why? I can't think of any reason why BKK would be the only destination from KUL, given that no OW carrier even flies that route direct. Is it to screw over some of their partners?

(It's also plain annoying and counter-intuitive to have cities "found" for some searches and not others. Yet another customer-hostile Qantas management decision.)

[serfty]

Originally Posted by og

Evidence?

Not sure about specific evidence, but to me, doing this "on purpose" is the only rational explanation for such a restriction.

I have concluded Qantas believe they increase revenue by doing so.¹

In some cases browser specific utilities can be used to get around the issue.

¹ (A bit like the lack of transparency in booking fare class buckets.)

[Dave Noble]

The other thing to me that suggests it is deliberate is that it is surely more work to manage a drop down list than just to allow an airport code to be typed it

The happy clappy picklist may work fine for most people, but severely limits those with more esoteric requests

[m0hamed]

But has anyone had the waiving of the award assistance fee denied?

CAI and JED were never listed (they now are) but I was always able to avoid the fee by stating that the award could not be booked online.

[3544quebec]

And there is always the old classic of not being able to originate an award search from any point in South America to which can be added that with the upcoming World's Leading Airline Alliance, Dubai is not on the dropdown list for origins for award bookings