Qantas Raising Domestic Change & Cancellation Fees

Qantas Boeing 737-800s at Brisbane Airport — Qantas will raise its change and cancellation fees next month. Photo: Matt Graham.

Update: Qantas has delayed these fee increases for an indefinite period.

Qantas will increase its fees to change or cancel a domestic flight on 9 October 2024.

Currently, when you book an Economy Red e-Deal ticket with Qantas, there is a $99 penalty to change the date or time of the flight, in addition to any fare difference. There’s also a $99 fee to cancel an Economy Flex ticket for a refund, or to change the name on the ticket.

The Qantas website shows most of these change and cancellation fees at the time of booking:

Qantas SYD-OOL Economy fare inclusions — The current inclusions with Qantas’ domestic Economy fare types as of September 2024. Screenshot from the Qantas website.

New Qantas domestic change and cancellation fees

From 9 October 2024, all of the fees mentioned above will increase to $119, including GST. On tickets with a point of sale outside of Australia, the fee will be $108.18 as GST is excluded on these bookings.

From the same date, Qantas is also increasing the change fee, name change fee and cancellation fee on domestic Premium Economy Saver bookings from $99 to $119. (Qantas offers Premium Economy on QF5/6 and QF33/34 between Sydney and Perth.)

There are no changes to other fare conditions, nor to fees on Business Class fares.

Domestic Qantas tickets issued before 9 October 2024 will still attract the current, lower change and cancellation penalties. However, if a ticket purchased before 9 October is changed after this date, any subsequent changes will result in the higher $119 fee.

Qantas last increased change and cancellation fees on domestic tickets in March 2017.

Upcoming changes to Virgin Australia domestic fares

Virgin Australia is reportedly planning a major overhaul of its own domestic airfare structure, which could also go live on 9 October 2024. Those changes could include a significant reduction in the cost of Economy Flex airfares.

Leave a comment or discuss this topic on the AFF forum

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.

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eminere Sep 13, 2024 #1

Direct link to the FAQ document from Qantas: Changes to Qantas fees

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FlyingKangaroo Sep 13, 2024 #2

Really a shame when you compare it to the States, where even the bottom-barrel low cost carriers have done away with them. Not surprising, of course.

Reply 2 Likes

CaptJCool Sep 13, 2024 #3

Well at least they have worked out that whe. You ask passengers to self-service, you don’t need to charge them for their own labour ….

Reply 1 Like

FlyingKangaroo Sep 13, 2024 #4

Given it's almost impossible to make even basic flight changes via QF's IT, I suppose that's a fair point: it costs them money to force people to call in and painfully talk their reps how to do something we can't do ourselves, so I suppose we're on the hook for that cost. 🙃

It took me over an hour and a half last week to change two Y-class redemptions to J-class on the same flight. Just painfully difficult.

Reply 8 Likes

CMA222 Sep 13, 2024 #5

The new CEO says that QF is "changing for the better" ! I think she meant "changing the fees because it is better for QF" to charge more to move my bundle of rights from one aspiration but not guaranteed fight to another aspirational but not guaranteed flight.

Reply 9 Likes

Lynda2475 Sep 13, 2024 #6

Changes due to QF cancelling or materially changing time of flight will still be free. It's only change of mind changes.

SYD Sep 13, 2024 #7

Have you tried for a revenue ticket? Pretty straightforward.

That would be a different change regime anyway but I’ve been able to change reward bookings online. Obviously, subject to reward seat availability.

Wouldn’t changing from X to U be a cancel and rebook anyway?

No idea what the deal is for CR+ changes and not about to find out anytime soon!

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FlyingKangaroo Sep 13, 2024 #8

Have you tried for a revenue ticket? Pretty straightforward.

That would be a different change regime anyway but I’ve been able to change reward bookings online. Obviously, subject to reward seat availability.

Wouldn’t changing from X to U be a cancel and rebook anyway?

No idea what the deal is for CR+ changes and not about to find out anytime soon!

It can be pretty straightforward for revenue tickets, if: 1) the flight hasn't been previously changed (as I've had several instances where schedule changes have randomly resulted in that option subsequently greyed out); and 2) you're only trying to change the date. If I recall, it was possible to change origin or destination in the past, but bizarrely around Covid this disappeared and has never returned.

In this case, once again only the day could be changed, which was fine, except (and perhaps it was because I was looking on the same day and there is only one flight between SYD-JNB) the change tool gave me a nondescript error when selecting the same day. I had to call in, and it was treated as a change, not a cancel and rebook.

Qantas' IT is woeful, and I don't think that's a hyperbolic or controversial statement. The US carriers are the gold standard in my opinion when it comes to self-serve options, but QF is definitely towards bottom of the list of the many carriers I fly regularly.