Made any travel mistakes lately?

[amaroo]

Well I feel better now amaroo! I'm wondering what happens during the Cairns stopover.......does everyone stay on board or do we deplane? Anyway, looking forward to trying CX J class for the first time

Reading this post by OBB http://www.australianfrequentflyer....avel-mistakes-lately-50449-8.html#post1170677 I think we've made a minor not a major.

Looks like we'll enjoy a 40 min stopover, and get to enjoy another pre-takeoff champers

 

[YNWA]

Reading this post by OBB http://www.australianfrequentflyer....avel-mistakes-lately-50449-8.html#post1170677 I think we've made a minor not a major.

Looks like we'll enjoy a 40 min stopover, and get to enjoy another pre-takeoff champers

Excellent! Return leg is SQ via Singapore with a stop over holiday thrown in for good measure, so I've avoided the "major" mistake.

 

[bPeteb]

Over the last couple of weeks I've had some emails from hotels.com about a booking we have in Ubud for the of this month. First email maybe two weeks ago was 'Here's some info about Ubud for your upcoming stay'. Then mid last week another telling me I'd now stayed enough to earn free night. Thought it was an odd email but nothing twigged. On Friday was an email asking me for a review with an offer of a 10% discount if I post it some time in the near future. Still nothing.

Then this morning a statement of my account with history of stays. You know where this is going.

There on my account is a stay at The Kayon Resort on January 25 for two nights. How ridiculous me thinks. So I pull up the email and with horror read the dates - In Jan 25, out Jan 27. Groan. Pre-paid, no refund.

At least we didn't turn up at the hotel three weeks on Wednesday looking for our room because I tried to rebook, and they're full

 

[JessicaTam]

At least you got a free night. Hmmm

 

[JohnK]

Not quite a travel mistake but more circumstances changing.

Booked a QF HKG-SYD business class award where I asked for seat to be released for late July 2015. A month or so later realised there was a clash with another event so re-arranged the trip so the return was early August 2015. Some sort of change fee not sure if I paid the assisted booking fee again.

Now realise there is another clash and I do not want to go that time of the year. Looking at early December 2015 return for another trip. No business class available. Looks like another asssisted booking fee coming up trying to release the seat.

At the same time my SQ business award BNE-SIN-CNX which is the first part of the trip was able to be changed online for free. And I checked again and there is availability late November 2015 and again this change will be for free.

Lesson to be learned is don't book award flights unless you are certain of dates.

 

[rogerkambah]

Not quite a travel mistake but more circumstances changing.

Booked a QF HKG-SYD business class award where I asked for seat to be released for late July 2015. A month or so later realised there was a clash with another event so re-arranged the trip so the return was early August 2015. Some sort of change fee not sure if I paid the assisted booking fee again.

Now realise there is another clash and I do not want to go that time of the year. Looking at early December 2015 return for another trip. No business class available. Looks like another asssisted booking fee coming up trying to release the seat.

At the same time my SQ business award BNE-SIN-CNX which is the first part of the trip was able to be changed online for free. And I checked again and there is availability late November 2015 and again this change will be for free.

Lesson to be learned is don't book award flights unless you are certain of dates.

This was another big ++ with JASAs (what are they I hear people ask).

 

[Awesom Andy]

Lesson to be learned is don't book award flights unless you are certain of dates.

I would say, don't book QF award flights unless you are certain of dates. SQ seems to have a much better oiled machine in operation.

 

[Warks]

Building up over a quarter of a million Velocity points and not having been able to use a single one so far. No availability ever on any flight I've been after. Must do better.


Also waiting way too long to pay for things for the USA trip this year - costing us 20% more with the $A dive.

 

[andye]

Trying to be too clever by allocating outbound SCs to one programme and inbound to another. Distracted by a visa issue at inbound check-in and didn't make sure BP had the QF number on it-missed out on QF SG as a result

 

[boomy]

I would say, don't book QF award flights unless you are certain of dates. SQ seems to have a much better oiled machine in operation.

Another reason why AA miles are better then QF points for OW bookings.

 

[JohnK]

I would say, don't book QF award flights unless you are certain of dates. SQ seems to have a much better oiled machine in operation.

I guess that's right. Qantas has inherited a lot of the traits of Jetstar in its operations. Charge, charge and charge more.

 

[Quickstatus]

Not quite a travel mistake but more circumstances changing.

Booked a QF HKG-SYD business class award where I asked for seat to be released for late July 2015. A month or so later realised there was a clash with another event so re-arranged the trip so the return was early August 2015. Some sort of change fee not sure if I paid the assisted booking fee again.

Now realise there is another clash and I do not want to go that time of the year. Looking at early December 2015 return for another trip. No business class available. Looks like another asssisted booking fee coming up trying to release the seat.

At the same time my SQ business award BNE-SIN-CNX which is the first part of the trip was able to be changed online for free. And I checked again and there is availability late November 2015 and again this change will be for free.

Lesson to be learned is don't book award flights unless you are certain of dates.

However the award seats just don't sit around waiting for you to lock in dates especially those premium ones on premium dates to premium destinations.

 

[docjames]

Building up over a quarter of a million Velocity points and not having been able to use a single one so far. No availability ever on any flight I've been after. Must do better.

Care to provide more detail? Int / Dom? How far in advance of travel?

I've always found VA east to get seats (Dom) including school holidays.

 

[Warks]

Care to provide more detail? Int / Dom? How far in advance of travel?

I've always found VA east to get seats (Dom) including school holidays.

Not domestic but INT to NZ 10 months in advance and 6 months in advance another time. INT domestic (USA) DL flights 9 months out.

Looking at Japan in the future - wonder what chance I have.

Agree DOM is pretty easy when I've checked. QF also but at least I've been able to get NZ flights with QF. Might be due to VA having very few true flights to NZ and relying on Air NZ which doesn't help?

 

[rogerkambah]

Building up over a quarter of a million Velocity points and not having been able to use a single one so far. No availability ever on any flight I've been after. Must do better.

If you want to go O/S have a look at SQ availability, and if you see something, transfer points to SQ - you'll lose some though.

 

[Warks]

If you want to go O/S have a look at SQ availability, and if you see something, transfer points to SQ - you'll lose some though.

Thanks. That could come in handy.

Can you transfer to Delta? I can't find that out anywhere. Too late now but good to know.

 

[williamsf1]

Not domestic but INT to NZ 10 months in advance and 6 months in advance another time. INT domestic (USA) DL flights 9 months out.

Looking at Japan in the future - wonder what chance I have.

Agree DOM is pretty easy when I've checked. QF also but at least I've been able to get NZ flights with QF. Might be due to VA having very few true flights to NZ and relying on Air NZ which doesn't help?

I think you will find some big improvements with availability on all the airlines/ routes above. You can find SQ, DL and VA online now to book.

As others have mentioned, you can also transfer your VA points to SQ and open up all the STAR options

 

[boomy]

We left Rotorua to Auckland airport 4 hours before our scheduled flight arriving (so we thought) 90 minutes before departure. All went according to plan until we hit a massive traffic jam 30km from the airport. Apparently a major accident and the highway was closed. While we sat in the non-moving traffic our stress levels were building up and the missus already started searching for hotels in AKL... After what seemed like forever, we started to move slowly until we finally reached the airport. We still had to refuel the car and return keys before rushing to check-in only to find it was already closed as we arrived 40 min before departure
We talked to one of the EK staff who took us to the manager in duty. The lovely lady immediately started to type on her computer and said EK always try to provide the best service to QF platinum members with a cheeky smile She then unblocked the flight and checked-in our luggage. By the time we arrived to the gate boarding almost finished.
What started as a relaxing day turned out to be very stressful due to my poor time management and some bad luck. It was finally time to relax again with a few glasses of Dom champagne followed by some rare Hennessy cognac, the perfect stress relief medicine

 

[QF WP]

Ouch, hard when you're not a local but status has its benefits boomy .

There are times that flying does come in handy. I've had the same issue driving back from ROT (to AKL) in ~2005 with some clients (senior execs in a multinational). We had the same issue on the road, but close to ROT - a head on with resultant multi-car pile up (from the radio report, fatalities involves so ambos, police and firies all in attendance). The driver of our car was an AKL-local, so he drove back to ROT and I helped on the way back (using their laptop) to book 3 of us on flights. We all had QF connections in AKL (two of them to MEL & SYD, me to BNE). The driver was going back to the Rydges (where their Conference was held) and book himself in for another night (better for him to get some work done for that day).

 

[boomy]

Ouch, hard when you're not a local but status has its benefits boomy .

I think it may be EK strategy to lure QF elites by providing better service then QF. Just to give you an idea, last year I was 5 minutes late to check in for PER-BNE flight (traveling with guest from overseas with luggage). Was told be QF "sorry, nothing we can do, you will have to pay the fare difference and go on the next flight" so we had to wait 6 hours (!) in the lounge and take the red eye to BNE.
Now compare the treatment I got from QF as P1 to the treatment I got from EK as WP (they don't recognise P1 status) and you'll see why some people who used to be loyal to QF are switching to EK.