QANTAS online booking

[reynoldsno1]

Recently booked an international flight for mrsr1 on Qantas - was using a friend's laptop and wrote the booking reference down on a scrap of paper that was then promptly lost. No matter, email receipt and eticket will follow....except it didn't. Nothing.

The airline 'helpdesk' will not help - no booking reference, and they will not even talk to me. I asked them what I should do - find the number they said. But, but .... we cannot/will not help due to privacy laws. :ugh:

The only solution I can think of is to go to the ticketing desk at the airport with passport, credit card used to pay and proof of residential address and place ourselves at the mercy of the staff there (not Australian).

Anyone else have any suggestions?

[TightSlot]

Has the transaction cleared through your credit card account yet?

[apaddyinuk]

Just turn up for the flight with the required ID and you will be fine!

[raffele]

Just turn up for the flight with the required ID and you will be fine!

True, but that's not much use if he wants to check in online, or book meals...

It also brings a problem that typically immigration ask you to carry a copy of your itinerary as proof you will leave the country. Not usually checked, but if they ask for it I don't think 'well, the airline didn't email me it and I lost the booking reference so I couldn't retrieve it myself and when I rang up CS they wouldn't help me...' will suffice.

As TightSlot asks - has the payment been processed? If it hasn't, then the booking won't be in the system.

Why Qantas CS won't help, given the verification of a few facts I don't know. Perhaps asking to speak to a supervisor?

[Avman]

If you received no e-mail confirmation, I'm inclined to think that you may have inadvertantly given an erroneous e-mail address. Can happen to the best of us. As long as you're sure that your booking was confirmed when you made it, you won't have a problem when you check-in. Then ask the check-in counter to print your itinerary.

[Hartington]

The IATA E-Ticket resolutions provide for a number of ways to retrieve a ticket. From memory these include the ticket number (doh!), passport number, frequent flyer number and, perhaps crucially in your case, the card number used as payment so you could simply call, quote your card number and get them to retrieve the ticket (which would lead to the reservation). Now, I accept that getting past the Qantas mentality is a part of the issue here so bear with me....

The other way is to retrieve the booking (again doh!). Before everyone got hung up on references (more accurately in my view "record locators") it was possible to retrieve using flight number/date of departure/board point/name. IT STILL IS POSSIBLE.

So phone reservations (not customer services). Ask to change your booking and when they ask for the reference say I don't have it but give them the flight details as above (I'm booked on QF1 on 1st February from Sydney, my name is Reynolds). Say you want to change the departure for a day later and ask the cost. When they quote it say "on 2nd thoughts that's too much" and then make sure they give you the record locator so you can then go via the web interface.

The key here is to be confident and simply state your requirements. Don't say you've lost anything, just say you don't have it with you.

[Scumbag O'Riley]

These customer dis-service desks are rubbish nowadays. Absolute rubbish and it's not only airlines that are rubbish, though they do tend to be rather good at it.

Anyway, there is a reasonably good chance that your PNR was passed to your credit card company as part of the settlement process. So you could try them.

I suppose the nuclear option is to charge it back on the basis that the airline has taken your money but will not tell you why.

[reynoldsno1]

Thanks very much for the advice - I have confirmation of the cc charge, and I also posted a calm & collected, just-the-facts message on the Qantas feedback system.

An email with a duplicate copy of the e-ticket and receipt suddenly appeared late last night....

I did speak to a supervisor on my last call, but she was the least helpful of them all. She just repeated the mantra that it was illegal for her to give any details, and that her purpose in life was to make sure all the staff do the same, and that there was nothing 'they' could do...

My friend who made the same booking for his missus at the same time had the same problem (no email), but saved the page with the booking reference.

My concern is that they hide behind all this 'privacy' regulation, but it seems that the system as a whole is pretty unreliable. Ho hum....

[TheProf]

The "privacy" thing isn't just QF, it's all over Oz, especially with government of any kind - federal, state or local. The simplest transaction generally requires 2 forms of identity and if you don't have it then tough. It gives bureaucrats, both public and private, the perfect
excuse for doing absolutely nothing and making the "customer's" life generally difficult. End of rant.

[reallyoldfart]

Good luck with trying on-line check-in etc- recently did SY -BKK - LHR - HKK - Sy and tried to check-in online for every sector and got the message that this service was not available- absolutely useless.

As for booking with Qantas, you'll be sorry. Their cabin staff were the worst I have ever seen - uncaring, not helpful, and clearly just wanting their self-loading freight to be just that - had to ask for everything including a drink, and the request was met with a "your a pain in the ar?e" attitude. All this in their so-called premuim economy.

[Avman]

Recently did FRA-SIN-BNE-SYD//BNE-SIN-FRA with QF. Cabin crew excellent. This was in C class however!

[ozineurope]

Yep and my son did SY-SIN-FRA-SIN-PER-SY with QF getting home yesterday and was impressed with the service on all legs (economy). On the way home he had a J class FF upgrade SIN-PER and when the CC found out he was given J meals and service between FRA and SIN whilst in economy.

AND he booked, paid and checked in on line the whole way.

[peuce]

A bit late now, I know, but what I do with every online booking is....

Print the confirmation page to pdf ... using a free program, like "pdfcreator".
Then, when, and if, the email receipt arrives, I just delete the pdf.

[reynoldsno1]

E-ticket just arrived after 2 weeks.....