dogsrock

Am trying to book LHR to MEL, setting off on 18th October. Flying in Y.

I start the multiple destinations process and whichever combination of LHR/DXB and DXB/MEL I choose I get this

Sorry, seat availability has changed. If you require assistance with completing a booking, please contact your local Emirates office.

As it is unlikely that all seats are booked at this stage I am guessing this is a website issue...these do seem to occur frequently when booking the LHR to OZ routes.

Does anyone know a quick way of reporting this which doesn't feature premium rate phone calls?

Thank you.

dogsrock

Just an update.

I used the contact us facility on the website and I got a reply with an hour. It is an issue with the type of booking I was trying to make. I can book LHR-BNE-HVB but cannot book LHR-MEL-HVB..I have to include BNE.

I might now have to ask why I can book LHR-BNE-HVB and return.......but if my outward is via MEL as above there are NO return flights available HVB-BNE for my return despite them being available for the other routing..same dates. I guess these are still post QF glitches.

Whatever, I am impressed with the response.

dogsrock

Continuing this fascinating conversation with myself!

Oh dear, and it was going so well but now........!!!

Like an idiot, I asked the question about why one leg of the return (HVB-BNE) was unavailable if my outbound featured MEL. However if I avoided MEL on the outbound ie flew non stop to BNE from DXB, then the HVB-BNE return leg is showing as available and I get quoted a price.

They say it is because I cannot book to HVB on the same ticket. Hmmmmmmm!!

I have just pointed out that I actually booked and flew to and fro HVB (LHR-BNE-HVB-HVB-BNE-LHR) with all flights on the same booking reference/ticket in May and June.

Not surprisingly, I await the response with considerable interest.

weasel07

I often talk to myself. It's the only way to have an intelligent conversation!

sfozrhfco

And ironically, answering your own question is likely to give you a more accurate response than one from an EK customer service person.

edy4eva

I don't think the issue is with the website though it's not impeccable.
The issue is with the routing you're trying to get. See I searched on EF for through fares LHR-HVB on EK and could not find any. Searching for DXB-HVB came with plenty but even those have the following routings (haven't checked for exclusions):
I also looked up the routings for EK fares HVB-LHR:
You're getting the error because there are no published fares that could be used to price the routing you're after. Neither routings (DXB-HVB, and HVB-LHR) feature MEL in the transfer points.
Also QF only operates BNE-HVB.

Hope this helps.

pomkiwi

I do think that the issue may be at least partly down to the website. When costing up a LHR - OZ -NZ trip I ntermittently get the error message quoted by the OP. It never comes up on a simple LHR-SYD rtn but will do so on occasions when multiple destintions are selected - even as simple as LHR-SYD-CHC-SYD-LHR.

I tend to go away and do something else, come back an hour or two later and ten the site plays nicely for a while

ft101

Agreed - seen this error message on many occasions on comparatively simple routings.

dogsrock

Thank you for your effort. However I still think it is the website, I have often found the "no seats available" when looking at flights back from BNE to LHR, despite them being available.

In this particular case, I can book and get a price for LHR-MEL-BNE-HVB as the outbound (EK international flights and QF domestic) returning from BNE to LHR. The only leg I cannot book is the 35 minute hop from HVB to BNE where I am getting "seats unavailable".

This is wrong, as I said earlier, because seats are available on all legs if I simply do LHR-BNE-HVB and return.

So having MEL in my booking cannot be the problem as I can book the routing (without the HVB-BNE leg).

Customer services, bless them, is still telling me that I cannot book to Hervey Bay with EK....despite me having done it and travelled in May/June. Oh dear!

edy4eva

Could it be that they pulled out the fares you used to price your current tickets? EF doesn't pull up any LHR-HVB fares on EK.

dogsrock

sorry edy4eva.....I am not too sure what you mean. And I have no experience of how up-to-date Expert Flyer is on such matters

I have never flown via MEL to HVB before so whatever the EK site produces is new to me.

It is ever so easy to book the route I want via Qantas and I assumed in this post link-up era it would be with EK too.

And QF is about £400 cheaper than the EK quote and QF gives me the required HVB to BNE leg too.

But then there are lounge access and tier points to consider too. And I thought this would be easy. WRONG.