Award booking issues on FB website

Old Jul 10, 2008, 10:18 am
  #166  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Paris, France
Programs: Flying Blue Platinum
Posts: 198
Originally Posted by bodory
As posted in another thread, there is a new award booking engine.

However, could someone explain the following issue I face when I try to book a one way AF award CDG-JNB. Taxes & surcharges are :
- for classic miles Tempo (35,000) : 163 EUR
- for open miles Affaires (110,000) : 199 EUR
- for classic miles Premiere (70,000) : 163 EUR

Why are taxes & surcharges higher when choosing open miles?
i don't know for your travel, but i have tried some trips and it depends on the compagny: you can go to NYC with AF and more than 200 and come back on CO and have only 80 .
leonleonb is offline  
Old Jul 17, 2008, 2:30 pm
  #167  
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 5
AMS error selective award booking engine?

Ok, I'm moving this from another thread, because its about trouble with booking FB award tickets, and that should be picked up here.
[As I am however new to this forum, I'm not sure whether what I'm doing is permitted. Throw my topic out if I'm mistaken].
Somewhere I read that AF/KLM are operating a new award booking engine.
It doesn't work yet as it should. Someone at the FB helpdesk told me that the IT guys had problems more than two weeks now. I find that unbelievable. I am trying for five days now to book an award ticket from either MSP, or DTW, or EWR to AMS, , and the system always returns a technical problem notification - either straight away, or in a later stage of the process.
I don't know whether booking is really possible, but I found out that selecting a ticket from A to B works fine, as long as your destination is not AMS.
The engine is - in other words - AMS error selective.
I called the FB desk, they said no availability, but I suspect that they use (part of) the same system.
Anyone having the same (frustrating) experience?
willemw is offline  
Old Jul 18, 2008, 12:11 pm
  #168  
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 950
Originally Posted by leonleonb
i don't know for your travel, but i have tried some trips and it depends on the compagny: you can go to NYC with AF and more than 200 and come back on CO and have only 80 .
all i can say is that in business you have to pay something like 40 EUR becase of the Chirac tax...and "only" something like 4 EUR in tempo
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Old Jul 19, 2008, 1:14 pm
  #169  
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: NL
Programs: FB M&M AA Amex HH SPG and others
Posts: 1,929
Originally Posted by willemw
Ok, I'm moving this from another thread, because its about trouble with booking FB award tickets, and that should be picked up here.
[As I am however new to this forum, I'm not sure whether what I'm doing is permitted. Throw my topic out if I'm mistaken].
Somewhere I read that AF/KLM are operating a new award booking engine.
It doesn't work yet as it should. Someone at the FB helpdesk told me that the IT guys had problems more than two weeks now. I find that unbelievable. I am trying for five days now to book an award ticket from either MSP, or DTW, or EWR to AMS, , and the system always returns a technical problem notification - either straight away, or in a later stage of the process.
I don't know whether booking is really possible, but I found out that selecting a ticket from A to B works fine, as long as your destination is not AMS.
The engine is - in other words - AMS error selective.
I called the FB desk, they said no availability, but I suspect that they use (part of) the same system.
Anyone having the same (frustrating) experience?
I tried to look for an award FROM AMS, without any luck. I wasn't even able to find availibility between AMS-CDG (okay, I will NEVER use miles for such trip, but it should be available)

According to KVS there was plenty availibilty for the different locations, but the KLM website had another opinion....

EDITED:

The problem seems to be solved now, I can see the availibilty. When it works, like now, it is quite an improvement!

Last edited by Brobbel; Jul 20, 2008 at 2:27 am
Brobbel is offline  
Old Jul 24, 2008, 6:40 pm
  #170  
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 69
I'm having a problem with booking award on website: After it shows the flight available and mileage required, I select the flights, but then get an error message "For technical reasons, we are currently unable to respond to your request. We apologise for the inconvenience."

What does this mean?
travelbug007 is offline  
Old Jul 28, 2008, 12:13 am
  #171  
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 2
Same for me !

Also mileage required changed (x2 !!) at the end of the search !!!
elsergio is offline  
Old Jul 29, 2008, 3:12 am
  #172  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Oslo, Norway
Programs: Star Alliance Gold, Skyteam E+, Bonvoy Titanium, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,030
The stupid availability calendar is useless! Tried to book a one-way award ticket in business from OSL to MCT on Dec 26th. The calendar shows availability on this very day: classic award - 30000 miles.

But when I am about to confirm my ticket I keep getting the same error meesage: "We are unable to complete your booking for technical reasons. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again later.".

Just got off the phone with FB callcenter and as she searched for the flight she told me that the only thing available was a flex award - 60000 miles. This is annoying! Why have an availability calendar when it's so misleading. She said they had problems with the search engine. I tried several dates with her, but the same problem on every possible date. The so called availability calendar show things that's not available. They should call it The Non-availability Calendar!!!

I am not going to waste 60000 miles and 200 EUR in taxes on this trip. I will travel in economy on Turkish Airlines for 300 EUR, LOL!
skrosvik is online now  
Old Aug 1, 2008, 9:42 am
  #173  
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Programs: FlyingBlue Platinum, PriorityClub-Gold, Hilton-Gold, Hyatt-Gold
Posts: 5
Thumbs down

I tried the same thing.. Booking AMS-DEN: plenty availability both economy and (non-open-miles) business. However:
-IF I select business-class I get the "technical problem" notification
-if I select economy seats: no problem

Called FB helpdesk:
"Operator: You don't really think that there's any business-class awards seats available??"... What??? This the typical KLM arrogance.
"You can get double-price open-miles tickets". No way I'm going to do that
Me: "Could you check a different departure date?" Helpdesk: "Sir, it is very busy and I cannot check all dates for every customer".. <sigh>

I should book a paid business-class ticket using non-KLM airlines ;-) I give up.

PS. interesting thing I found. Flying to US with stopover in Houston: 89 tax, with a stopover almost anywhere else: 229 tax!
DJF3 is offline  
Old Aug 3, 2008, 9:10 am
  #174  
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Los Angeles
Programs: United MM- Marriott Titanium - Air France/KLM Flying Blue Platinum
Posts: 4,835
Originally Posted by DJF3
Helpdesk: "Sir, it is very busy and I cannot check all dates for every customer".. <sigh>
Unbelievable !!!
couscous is offline  
Old Aug 9, 2008, 9:31 am
  #175  
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: AMS
Programs: A number, but no status no more
Posts: 3,049
Hi all,

Just went through an hour of exploring, and I can confirm that the issues still exist, whenever you try any booking involving Amsterdam.

Of course, when I called, the agent saw less availability than me online.

Finally solved my problem by booking flights through CDG (and even managed to snag myself a return in F).

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer
GenevaFlyer is offline  
Old Aug 19, 2008, 12:24 pm
  #176  
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Programs: Flying Blue PT
Posts: 3
This week I had the same problem of reaching a 'technical' fault message just before confirming a Flying Blue award booking. It took four separate phonecalls over three days to get exactly the bookings I had tried online in the first place.
kalamity is offline  
Old Aug 19, 2008, 12:28 pm
  #177  
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Programs: Flying Blue PT
Posts: 3
The solution seemed to be for the FB operator to split the tickets into one-way fares
kalamity is offline  
Old Aug 22, 2008, 11:09 am
  #178  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Derbyshire, UK
Programs: FB Platinum
Posts: 520
technical problems.....

Hi
Trying to book some internal Chinese flights via the award booking engine. Every time I get the "technical problems" message, maybe tried 20 times

But when I try a dummy booking, such as MAN-PVG, I get through no problem. Is the issue the interface with China Southern?

There are also several Chinese destinations that China Southern fly to that aren't available to be chosen

Looks like I will have to call FB to try to do this. Does anyone have the most failsafe way to do this?

Thanks for any input

nickyboy
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Old Oct 17, 2008, 12:17 pm
  #179  
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: LHR/BHX
Programs: UA Gold
Posts: 85
Web site WELL out of date

Went on to the award booking tool today for SFO-HNL-SFO next May. Compared to previous visits this was initially a gratifying experience, with business class flights showing from NW for my itinerary - BUT..

it allowed me to select flights, but when hitting Next to Trip Overview an error message (in French) appeared

I called FB (at GBP 0.103 per minute!!), and a REALLY NICE French lady helped me. She cracked up at my accent when reading the error message! There was no bus class availability outbound and only flex bus availabilty inbound. I booked eco both ways (she said they were the last 2 seats) and at least got my flights, but she said the award availability was sometimes a LITTLE out of date!! I read - a LOT out of date!

Anyway, I saved a load of miles and got my flights, but bus class would have been better FB plus - I got my flights to Hawaii. FB minus - the web availability was fictional !

PS - Taxes - 4.26 Euros - for BOTH of us!!! USA ROCKS! )

Last edited by bwilson831; Oct 17, 2008 at 12:24 pm Reason: PS
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Old Oct 17, 2008, 12:37 pm
  #180  
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: LHR/BHX
Programs: UA Gold
Posts: 85
Originally Posted by nickyboy
Hi
Trying to book some internal Chinese flights via the award booking engine. Every time I get the "technical problems" message, maybe tried 20 times
nickyboy
See my previous post. It seems that award availability is not keeping up with ACTUAL availability, particularly on partner airlines who are booking their own FF's at the same time.

If my conclusion is correct, the last step in the booking process hits a brick wall as the availability shown on the award booking system is no longer available. As in my case, calling FB MAY help (in booking alternatives), but, for your intended itinerary, "when its gone, its gone"

My tip - if you get the techincal error message, pick up the phone. If it IS a technical problem, the nice French lady will sort it. If its not, as described in my case, you just MIGHT get the last two seats in alternative class

Last edited by bwilson831; Oct 17, 2008 at 12:53 pm Reason: Tip
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