indomie

Here's an interesting one - wondering if anyone has run into a similar situation.

I credit to Qatar & found out after booking my flight in Economy Lite that I'd get no Qpoints/miles on the booking code. (Sidenote - why does CX not share the booking code until after you pay for your flight??? Very inconvenient).

When I saw the issue, I tried around 10-15 times over a week's time to change my booking from Lite to Flex. Every time I got an error somewhere along the process. I was finally able to complete my booking tonight (or so I thought). I paid with Allipay, got confirmation in Aliipay, was sent back to the CX website, and..... ERROR (I unfortunately didn't quite catch it - possibly that one segment had no Flex tix available, but not 100% sure).

Called CX immediately (after confirming in my email and the website that I didn't have a Flex ticket). The first agent kept trying to get me to pay to upgrade. After she finally understood that I had already paid, she said that I should pay again & my initial payment would be refunded within 24 hours. That sounded troubling to me, but before I had a chance to ask more questions she disconnected my call. The second agent was very friendly, went through everything, but said she'd need 24 hours to review & get back to me.

A. Has anyone had a similar issue? Seems very bizarre to me.
B. Am I likely just going to get rejected & refunded? If so, I'll call back tomorrow before I hear back & book it over the phone... I really would like the Qpoints for these flights.

ernestnywang

FYI, changing the ticket from Light to Essential or Flex will not make it eligible for QR miles, if the booking class remains the same. On the other hand, you can earn QR miles with a Light fare as long as the booking class is V class or above, per https://www.qatarairways.com/en/Priv...AYPACIFIC.html. You need to change to a higher booking class, not a higher fare within the same booking class.

Cambo

Maybe, just ask to get the whole canceled and redo? Withholding the booking class, before you paid, is a case of misleading the customer.

indomie

Yes - thanks. That's a good point. I called in last week about changing it to Essential. The outbound trip had an eligible booking class but the return didn't. Changing to Flex made it eligible both ways.

indomie

If I do it by phone (at least in my experience calling about simply upgrading the fare type) the amount quoted by the agents was far higher than I was seeing online. Like 2-3x higher.

As for misleading the consumer, for whatever reason they simply don't show the booking class. In the future, I'll either have to limit my flying on CX or call in EVERY time to find out what the booking classes are. I like flying them, but the lack of booking class pre-purchase is really inconvenient. Not to mention this particular experience I'm having...

indomie

So (in case this comes up for someone in the future) I did receive a call back & they will be refunding my purchase back to Alipay within 24 hours.

I did also ask her to pass on a message that it would be very helpful to OneWorld partners if Cathay Pacific would share the booking class prior to purchasing the tickets as I see now that any future economy tickets will necessitate a call to Customer Service & time wasted for them and me.

brunos

It is indeed very annoying that CX does not share the booking bucket before booking.
All Light, essential or flex, are issued in the same booking class at the time of booking, so moving from light to flex won't change the fare bucket.
To get a fare bucket that credit to QR you need to call and might need to pay a much more expensive fare.

ernestnywang

If you use https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search and see a matching fare, you know the booking class.