polarpacific

Hello

We are looking to use QF points on CX flights, one way YVR-HKG-CKG.

I understand that ultimate availability for this itinerary is controlled/released by CX and not QF, but there seems to be something strange with the QF award booking engine which I hope an expert here can explain.

If you select only YVR-HKG, there is lots of award availability in APR/MAY for both Y and J plus a few F.

If you select only HKG-CKG, there is lots of award availability in APR/MAY for both Y and J.

But if you select YVR-CKG (which naturally connects in HKG), there is hardly any availability -- just Y on a few dates.

How is this possible? If there are seats on the same connectable dates for both legs individually, how can there be no availability for the combined itinerary?

For example:

16MAY for YVR-HKG shows available F and Y on CX889 (0200-0610+1)
17MAY for HKG-CKG shows available J on KA840 (1350-1605)

But 16MAY for YVR-CKG shows nothing at all


I realise this example is slightly impure because of the mix of classes, but the other day I saw connectible dates which had J available for each leg separately (YVR-HKG and HKG-CKG) but nothing at all on that departure date for YVR-CKG.

[It would be nice if the QF tool could allow search by flight # rather than by itinerary/date, as some of the dates which appear to have availability for YVR-HKG are actually impractical/indirect routings via LHR.]


Also, for CKG = Chongqing -- the drop-down list of destinations on the QF website has a spelling error with CKG = Chonqing (missing 'g'), although subsequent screens for the flight selection do show the correct spelling for this city.

Thanks in advance for any clarification.

DownUnderFlyer

I think there is little we can clarify. The booking engine is known for having many issues and bugs. I guess calling QF and/or booking separate awards will be the best way for you.

AAExpDFW

I see this all the time. Even though I book typically with AA, if you tell the agent to look at "individual city segments" the award should come together.

Lazy agents will just look for YVR-CKG and they won't dig in. A good agent will build this manually for you looking at YVR-HKG and HKG-CKG separately.

Good luck!

Princess fiona

^ This, the QF Award booking engine is cactus for anything but the simplest A-B. Even then it will often throw in an "i" Footnote: Your extremely long haul flight will be in economy but we will still charge full F award points.
The telephone team is the way to go.

edy4eva

Do it as multi city and it should pull up. Otherwise give QF a call, there are anecdotes where QF waived the booking fee because of issues with the website. But don't hold your breath for it.

Awesom Andy

It's also possible for airlines to make individual segments available, but not for the whole trip. A quick call to QF should clarify the actual availability.

percysmith

Whole trip not available when individual segments not available - common occurence on Asia Miles/Marco Polo. We usually call up Asia Miles to redeem the required whole trip manually.

I've also noticed occurrences where whole trips are available when individual segements are not. For instance, SFO-HKG-HKT is available when HKG-HKT is not. Or TPE-HKG-YVR is available when HKG-YVR is not. It's like married segments exist in CX inventory. I'm not sure if QF/BA can access these redemption "married segments".

edy4eva

To add to your comments, I just remembered that KA/CX do have POS availability, so e.g. LAX-HKG-XMN ex-HKG you might find 2 seats but ex-LAX it would show 0 seats for HKG-XMN.

Globaliser

There are lots of reports on the BA board about similar problems, so this may actually be more of a CX (or CX communication) problem than either a BA problem or a QF problem. I've personally also seen what appeared to be a married segment problem when there was availability on both of the individual sectors that I wanted, but a through-routing only from a different starting airport, which needed a phone call to fix.

polarpacific

Thanks to everyone for their insights.

Will contact QF by phone as recommended.

The date we are actually looking for is a little further ahead in early June, so in any case we probably have to wait a couple weeks before CX releases award seats in that period.

In trying to be flexible about the routing (in case the relevant period just does not have any availability in J for YVR-HKG on CX), I am surprised that the QF booking engine does not offer any suggestions to go from Vancouver to mainland China via Tokyo on JAL (also OneWorld).

Indeed, selecting just YVR-HND shows nothing at all on JL and rather oddly offers flights on CX via HKG.

edy4eva

There isn't anything odd about that. Just QF being lazy about integrating with other airlines. QFF booking engine does not show award availability online for a number of OW -and indeed partner airlines: MH, JL, LA, S7, PX, LY, AY, AZ, FJ, US, NF, 9W, SA, MU, AS, and JJ.

edy4eva

Might have been easier to just list the ones that show online:
EK, QR, CX, KA, BA, RJ, AB, AA, EI, and the Jetstars (JQ/3K/GK/VF).

polarpacific

Hi

I've been monitoring both the CX and QF online award engines the past few weeks.

CX does appear to release some new availability for YVR-HKG as the days go by (about 1 month in advance), and QF seems to offer those seats about a day after they appear on CX.

Here is an interesting situation:

A few days ago, availability for a business seat for the YVR-HKG segment on 27MAY became available at CX for both CX889 (night flight) and CX837 (day flight).

The QF online system at that time only showed availability for a business award on CX837 and not for CX889.

When I called QF by telephone, they told me that they can only arrange an award using availability showing on the QF system. Fair enough, as it is possible that CX does not release all their award seats to QF.

The QF staff then offered me a premium economy seat on the same flight CX889 on 27MAY for the same number of points as required for a business seat for that route.

The curious thing is that the CX website did not show any availability for CX889 in premium economy.

I can understand when availability on CX metal is not necessarily available for QF points, but how is it possible for QF to have premium economy for a particular flight on CX metal available when CX itself does not have it available?

In this case, QF also wanted to charge the points for a business award for a premium economy seat. I obviously declined, but is this normal practice or something fishy?

Anyway, that single business seat for CX889 night flight on 27MAY which had been showing on CX website disappeared the next day, and now left only with CX837 day flight showing on both CX and QF systems.

This day flight doesn't quite work as well for us, because we need to connect to CKG and CX doesn't have a HKG-CKG flight in the late evening. The only late flight is HongKong Airlines, which would require collecting luggage and ultimately arriving around midnight in Chongqing. Plus, we would not have use of the CX departure lounge.

CX889 is better because we can catch a regional day flight on KA with luggage checked all the way through, enjoy the CX lounge, and arrive in CKG during daytime.

Anyway, still a few weeks to go, so will continue monitoring and calling QF whenever a useful option pops up.

Isochronous

AY has popped up on QF award engine for me. Air Berlin has too.

serfty

Airlines can vary fare bucket availability depending on several factors. This includes geographical location of purchase, specific agent of purchase (airline, TA) str.

Expert Flyer for example by default show USA POS, but this can be changed to a UK POS if desired.