"Duplicate booking" farce
 

Booked two seats J class CNS-SYD a few days ago.

Then the triple points offer was announced so...I cancelled the original booking and the refund went into the travel credit bank. The cancellation has clearly gone through the system since the PNR lists as cancelled on my online account and the cash has recorded into the travel credit wallet.

Then I attempted a new booking for the same day / time / flights...after completion of payment details the system refused the booking (see extract below).

So, I rang the customer care line and was about to make the booking through them, when I was advised the triple points deal can only be accessed by booking online.

Two days later the online booking interface still refuses the booking after multiple attempts, so it isn't a simple case of the databases catching up.

I'm left with a sizeable credit in the travel credit wallet....and the cost of the flights has gone up $80 each....GRRRR!!!

I can understand why you might want a system in place to avoid duplicate bookings, but surely, that only has value for a window of time after the initial booking....I can also understand that airline wmight want to make it hard for folk to rebook flights when a better price or offer becomes available...

(On the positive side the VA customer care staff did answer the phone within minutes which is excellent compared with my last two calls to QF at 45 and 56 minute waits as a LTG).


"Duplicate Booking


It appears that an identical booking exists in our system. Ensure the information entered is accurate or as an alternative please contact our Guest Contact Centre for further assistance."

UPDATE:

I have been able to outsmart the system by making a new booking for a differently timed flight on the same routing and then change that booking to the desired original flight! This work around would be a nuisance if change fees were incurred on some booking types...