Hi I’m trying to add a segment to a an existing business class RTW Qantas ticket (Sydney - Tokyo - Melbourne (or Brisbane) which will cap out my points at the 318K. Called the call centre 3 times, been cut off twice, third time they said there are no seats available even though I can see flights to Tokyo on the Qantas multi city website. When I raised this with the call centre they said there are two types of points seats available - for new bookings & existing bookings. The ones on the website are for new bookings so do not show up on their system for adding to existing bookings. I booked a flight via the website hoping I could some how link it to my existing ticket as availability on the website keeps disappearing. But was told I can’t do this either.
Questions for the community:
Are there two different seat types - new & existing?
Can I buy a seat on the website and then link it to an existing RTW booking?
Is availability on the website an indication of availability that the call centres can see or are there two different systems as every time I call they say they can’t see the flights on the website?
Am I wasting my time as Sydney - Tokyo - Melbourne (Brisbane) is a difficult route to get seats on and I should just buy them through the website and forget the RTW booking?
I’m flexible with dates so do I just have to keep calling the call centre every day to see what’s available.
Any advise / guidance would be appreciated. Don’t want to waste 300k points on a trip if I can some how add it to my RTW ticket. Thanks.
As far as I understand, there are no different (new or existing) reward space.
I don’t believe you can. Happy for others to disagree.
There are differences but this is usually due to what we call ‘phantom’ availability. i.e. website says there is space but there isn’t actual space. Some would suggest confirming availability via other Oneworld airline searches (used to be American Airlines or British Airways, not very sure now as my knowledge on this is a bit rusty now due to lack of travel). e.g. if you are searching for a Japan Airlines flight, you want to use another Oneworld airline (not Japan Airlines) to confirm that other alliance airlines could see the award space.
In my opinion, that route is not the ‘worst’ route for award availability. However, it depends on what dates and how many passengers you are looking for. e.g. if you are after 3 seats in peak season, that might be a bit of a tall task.
I’d confirm with other oneworld searches and keep calling. I suspect you got an incompetent agent that gave you incorrect info about the different type of reward seats.
Also it’s for 2 people and I’m flexible with travel dates but have been asking for May / June 2023 & checking the Qantas website which shows JAL availability.
Just a quick question, what’s your Qantas Frequent Flyer Status? Qantas will let you search up to approx. 12 months in advance, but if you’re bronze/silver status, you can only generally book long-haul premium cabin flights 297/323 days in advance. JAL releases their award availability about 360 days in advance, but if you’re using Qantas points, then you have to adhere to the Qantas rules, although they may pick up the JAL award availability.
Hi, I’m Platinum and using Qantas points. I can see the JAL flights on the Qantas website but the call centre can’t see them when I try to add them to my existing RTW ticket.
Qantas status will only help for seeing Qantas metal/aircraft award seats earlier than red/silver members. As far as I know, this advantage does not exist for partner airline award space.
Being a platinum member, I’d push for more help from Qantas. Ask to speak with a supervisor if you get a similar response or can’t get far.