d00t

Long story short, doing AA plat challenge on QF flights (syd-lax-bne)

a) Travel agent entered my QF number incorrectly into the booking (Even though I called to confirm it was entered correctly) and therefore my preferred seating was not allocated.

b) At check in the checkin agent+lounge agents advised flight was totally full and I would have to settle for a row far further back than I've ever been (70) They advised me my QF (gold) number was enterred into my return flights correctly and that I should encounter no further issues. On my next transit I checked again (calling AA, QF, looking @ AA.com AND verifying with SYD J lounge people) -QF phucked it up again.

c) Onboard, entertainment system didnt work - and it was only my seat - considerring almost every seat was taken I didn't have much choice but to cop it. Decided to sleep the entire flight instead...

d) lax-bne flight, turns out the innitial agent didnt enter it correctly, same thing happened again - assigned a horrible seat and changing it is harder than wresting a bull. I discovered this after the AA checkin agent (LAS) made a big fuss about me not being able to use the first class checkin.

In total 5 agents (1 manager onboard a/c) + travel agent didn't seem to be able to enter the correct FF#.

Surely this seems like a far greater problem than just QF or AA but who would it be best to send the complaints to? I'm not after a generic response.

Dave Noble

The key issue that I see is that you had your Qantas Gold number in the booking

I always advise not to play FF number roulette because of these issues. If the flights have credited to QF, then you may be out of luck unless you can convince QF to reverse the earnings and then get AA to credit

It isn't QF or AAs fault that your agent added it

I do not see that you have a valid complaint that you were given a seat near the back; it was a seat in your booked cabin

If you phone customer relations , you may be able to complain about the non functioning IFE

Dave

NM

ok, lets see if I understand the situation correctly:
As you were doing a Platinum Challenge you must have been booked on the AA flight number and not the QF flight number for each of the flights. Is that correct?
So you asked your travel agent to enter your QF FF number into the booking in order to obtain preferred seating allocation. As a QF Gold FF member, you should have been pre-allocated a reasonable seat. Were you pre-allocated a seat? If so, what seat? The seat should have visible to you through one of the on-line booking enquiry services (e.g. www.checkmytrip.com or virtuallythere.com). Did you check any of these to see if your had been pre-allocated a decent seat? When you called Qantas to confirm the FF number was in correctly, did you also ask what seat you had been pre-allocated?

So did you not realise you did not have a pre-allocated seat until you arrived at the airport?

If t was your travel agent that entered the number incorrectly, then any complaints will need to be posed to your travel agent.
If you were undertaking the AA Platinum Challenge, at what point did you have your QF FF number replaced by your AAdvantage number? Was this done at check-in for the first flight? If so, then I would assume that from that point onwards the remaining sectors will also have been associated with your non-status AAdvantage account and no longer your QF FF membership.

If you have asked to have your QF FF number changed to your AA number as required for the AA Plat Challenge, then nobody has screwed up. The process has completed as you have asked, and your QF number has been removed in order for your AA number to be recorded.

So I don't see any valid complain here.
We all know that this happens way too often on QF flights. Did you complain to the cabin crew so that they recorded the fault in their log books? If so, a complaint to QF Customer Relations may result in some form of compensation for the equipment failure.
That would be because you asked them to change the FF details to your AA account so that you could do the AA Platinum Challenge. No blame due to AA or QF for that one.
Are you sure? Which FF details are printed on the boarding passes? And to which FF account did the flights post?

Since you have not mentioned that the flights did not post to AA and hence failed to complete the platinum challenge, I can only assume that you were successful in completing the challenge as planned. If that is the case, then I would suggest that the agents did in fact enter your AA details correctly and that will result in your QF details being removed (as only one can be valid in the booking at a time).
I would suggest you have contributed to the problem by trying to change FF programs along the way without really understanding the implications of making the changes.

So my non-generic response is that the only valid complaint I can see is for the non functioning IFE and that complaint should be directed to Qantas Customer Relations.

DownUnderFlyer

I am with Dave Noble and NM on this one. I don't get what the problem is other than a TA entering the wrong FF number.
It is a very risky game anyway to change FFP shortly before departure so I hope it worked for you. Did the Platinum Challenge work?

d00t

Sorry I wasn't very clear...

I'm aware of the roulette game of changing FF#'s once boarding has commenced so always did it before that.

Each time I went to change FF numbers (30-60min before departure) they changed the numbers ok, and I always requested a new boarding pass to see that the change was updated correctly. It gets interesting because I specifically asked for only that segment to be changed and for my other flights on that itinerary to keep my QF#. Each time they said my QF# was in the booking for the other flights and only the current one would be affected.

My guess is the AA flight# on QF , combined with the mixing of AA and QF FF's somehow confused them and they entered them incorrectly.

On my return legs, no FF at all was in the booking.

Got Plat ok but a lot of screwing around :S

d00t

Also I noticed something intersting. My AA status was showing as Ruby (only on the boarding pass) when I clearly had no AA status.

Dave Noble

Well, your method was just asking for problems imo

The safe sensible method is just not to put a QF number in the booking at all and ensure that the AA number is in correctly

The less safe method is to put QF number in and do seat selection. Then phone and ask for QF number to be removed ; check on checkmytrip that it has been removed and then phone and add AA number. After this , leave well alone

Doing single sector changes has no benefit and is just asking for problems which is what occurred

Dave

NM

Agree completely. This is just asking for problems and adds no value once seat selection has already been done. I am not at all surprised this approach caused problems.

simongr

I am guessing you didn't get points posted to QF and AA?

It took me 7 months to get my points credited to AA and I even gave up and let some credit to QF after I played the same game you did.

What I find annoying is when you ask for a number to not be put in the booking but use points to upgrade QF insist on putting in your QF number.

Ah the games we play...

shillard

Dude, I struggle to find much sympathy. You really worked hard to make it difficult for yourself - playing with numbers like that, you may as well change your name to Markov Chaney.