Originally Posted by
Off.Grid
I ended up giving up on Qantas trying to sort out the ex-CAI using QR, after 3+ days of multiple QF people scratching their heads and 'logging an issue' with QR. I did find out a bit of info that was a tad concerning during this process, QF agents regularly in the background use the Oneworld online booking engine for itinerary validation if they run into a booking issue themselves. This is concerning as we are all aware how buggy the online engine is - I'm sure other airline agents would be doing the same.
As my travel needs are quite soon I was able to get online a working DONE4 ex-CAI for $8800 AUD (10 flights, I'll fill out the rest later). First sector CAI-LHR-CPH on BA. Surcharges were actually ok (LHR transit only). What I did find interesting is that QF was the ticketing airline for the DONE4, not BA. My receipt clearly stated Qantas was the ticketing airline (which I'm actually ok with in this instance, there are some good QF agents, though rare now).
That's ridiculous if the online tool still ticketed on QF with your first flights on BA. One more data point supporting to never use that site for booking again. I think the only way that site will ever be useful again is if it starts allowing the customer to chose the ticketing carrier from a list of valid carriers on their itinerary.
You may find yourself hating life until this ticket is completed, especially since you've making it more complex by planning to fill in remaining flights later. No one at a QF call center is going to know how to do that based on my own terrible experiences with them. Your best best as I learned very late into mine is use their social media team. Twitter DM or Facebook Messenger. It's slow, at times several days, but they do know the correct people to reach out to within QF to get things done. Just watch out, they tried to charge me $125 for a date change with no other changes to airline or airports. Had to remind them that's a free change and quoted them the fare rules from EF. Finally it got done with no charge. I expect that if you attempt the call center for any of these adds (or changes if needed) you're going to be met with the same incompetence you already experienced with them trying to buy your ticket.