SuiteFlight

Had a surreal conversation with the Qantas call centre a couple of weeks ago, that I thought might give a few FlyerTalks a laugh, as it was a real "Computer Says No" moment.

All started with an email from Qantas asking me to contact as special number (which, at least, got answered pretty much straight away - a first when dealing with the Qantas call centre) regarding my flight to JFK.

Was flying to JFK via LAX (firstly on the A380, then the 744) and back on QF93/QF11 (return QF18/QF94). Basically Qantas renamed QF18 to the more logical QF12, so I thought this was going to be pretty simple thing. I even ran a dummy booking before calling to first identify what was going on, and that this was a minor thing.

However I hit real speed bumps with that call centre. First call, even though I was emailed to contact Qantas, the girl dealing with it seemed to be very out of her depth, repeatedly putting me on hold, and ultimately told me to ring back in a week as "these changes are only proposed and have yet to be confirmed" yet the booking engine had already been updated and these changes were announced in a Qantas press release dated two weeks earlier (as I found via Google after that call).

So I called again after finding that press release, as the changes definately weren't proposed, they'd been formally announced and the booking engine reflected them.

The guy who answered this time didn't bring up any "proposed" status about the flight changes, confirmed that the changes had indeed been effected, but stated that despite QF12/QF94 being bookable on the Qantas website, that I was not allowed to have that flight combination as it was "under MCT". I tried that it was bookable as that on the website, I tried that as I was hand baggage only and that as he stated that it was only 5 mins below MCT to see reason (he stated "I can't allow you to do that as you'll cost Qantas a hotel room" - bit fanciful really), I tried begging, but he was not having a bar of it. The only thing he would offer was rebooking on the 744 JFK-SYD direct service which I was not interested in given I prefer the A380 for ultra long-haul legs, and I'm not a fan of transferring in SYD. He was really strong-arming me to either take the undesirable JFK-SYD or "stay a few more days" (I'm not sure how staying a few more days would make a difference given the booking engine showed availability in my cabin, on my original dates). He got a bit huffy at the end and said you'll just have to cancel then. So I got a full refund (not what I wanted, but didn't seem I had a valid choice to do anything else that was acceptable to me).

I'm still at a loss about why what seemed a pretty cosmetic change (really just a rebadging of one flight) turned into such a drama, other than it was a "computer says no" style moment. Guess all you can do is scratch your head, and shrug your shoulders

Dave Noble

If the new flight times were under the MCT, then a different flight combination is needed. If the flight times had not changed , then there would have been no issue

Whether it is 5 minutes or 30 minutes makes no difference

The call centre staff offered to rebook onto a valid connection

You preferred not to take that flight ad so , as entitled to do so, cancelled

The staff are not permitted to allow invalid connections

GriseldaPugh

Gotta love the computer!

QF is clearly selling the flight combination so it seems the message has not been updated. One would have thought that once the call centre staff had understood this they might have carried out further investigation before leading you down a route of cancellation.

Dave Noble

The MCT is 70 mins - if the connection time is at least 70 minutes , it should be allowed - if < 70 mins then can understand it not being allowed

SuiteFlight

Perhaps you missed it in my post Dave, but that flight combo was bookable on the Qantas website the day of that call, and has remained so ever since. Are you suggesting that Qantas are putting an invalid booking combo (due to MCT) in their booking engine? Clearly it's not under MCT, that was just an error on the part of the operator.

If that specific flight connection, for exactly the same dates, was not bookable via the Qantas website (which uses the same back end system that Qantas' call centre operators also use) then this would be a valid point (and I'd have no issue with it). However, that's not the case here, so your commentary is rather off the mark and ultimately unhelpful. I guess that just demonstrates that sometimes people quote rules that are irrevelant to the specific situation just to fob things off, when if they fully checked the circumstances they'd understand they've just made a mistaken assumption.

SuiteFlight

Thanks for understanding the nub of the issue here GriseldaPugh - it's this particular factor that made it so surreal.

"So I can't have my existing flights, but I can rebook the same from scratch?". I would have done so, but I bought my premium cabin seats during the Feb sale, and Qantas has since jacked up the price greatly since then. Rebooked with another carrier.

I have to add that MCT rules exist to ensure checked baggage is able to connect with the onward flight first and foremost. Qantas (at least in the past), and other carriers, have - any time someone has mentioned that the connection might be tight - always been happy when I assured that I was hand baggage only and that it was a same terminal transfer. In this case layover time was 70 minutes, and connecting flights both landed and departed at TBIT (the same terminal, thus no inter-terminal transfer required). Even Qantas' own booking system recognises that as a valid connection here, otherwise it wouldn't allow people to book this flight pair then and today. It's a furphy to even bring MCT into this, but even if the call centre guy personally though it was just too tight (rather than a breach of MCT rules as wrongly claimed) he should have been calmed by the fact that same terminal transfer with hand baggage only (and on the right side of MCT) is a total non-issue.

Truth time - this problem was caused by poor call centre operator skills (on both calls), the guy (and the girl before) got out of his depth and basically made stuff up. When probed on this, he just became pig-headed. Sad but true, and totally unnecessary.

I could be silly and become angry pointlessly about it, or I could just make an amusing anecdote about it which is what I've done here (anyone who has watched Little Britian knows that "Computer says no" isn't actually the computer saying no but the human operator using it as a thin excuse to cover indifference or pig-headedness). I think that's the better path, no?

Dave Noble

If the connection time is < 70 minutes then it isn't an error - if it is 70 mins or higher on the day in question, then there is an error

Given that the booking is cancelled , it is fairly moot though

SuiteFlight

As has been discussed here, it's the latter not the former, so that makes it an error unless you know some secret thing I don't here. It's not a hypothetical after all, and anyone can look up the details if they wish here on the flight timings to confirm.

Is my experience moot? That seems unfairly dismissive. I don't believe I've stated anywhere that I expect Qantas to reinstate the booking (that would be moot, but that's about it). I'd hope it's an experience that, if Qantas reviewed the call centre recordings, that they might use it as a learning experience [even though that's not the purpose or point of my FlyerTalk post here to be clear]. FlyerTalk is about sharing experiences and tips and advice, no? It seems pejorative to try and dismiss my experience here as either unreasonable on my part or to infer that it shouldn't have been shared in the first place, when both paths are misplaced by any reasonable analysis. Oh well, to each their own - I regret if my recount of this experience (which was intend to give others a wry laugh) has upset your beliefs (Qantas does make mistakes, which I think any reasonable person will admit).