Qantas has changed

[NB52]

I have been a Frequent Flyer for 17 years, always flying Qantas, maybe 2 to 3 times each month the good "old" service is not there anymore
I relied on Qantas to avoid hassles and I find myself like if I was speaking to a different airline, they cancelled my international flight and gave me a flight which would not allow me to connect to my next flight, their response is there is nothing they can do and suggested for me to take it with the other airline or get my travel insurance to cover for the changes if I miss my connection, I could not believe it -this is not the same Qantas I used to know -they caused the problem- I booked my flight with few months ahead of time.
They have lost me, maybe we don't really mean anything to their business, are they too big that losing one customer is just nothing they should be concerned about.
that's a shame,

 

[Austman]

they cancelled my international flight and gave me a flight which would not allow me to connect to my next flight, their response is there is nothing they can do and suggested for me to take it with the other airline or get my travel insurance to cover for the changes if I miss my connection, I could not believe it -this is not the same Qantas I used to know -they caused the problem- I booked my flight with few months ahead of time.

Sorry to hear this. But it's quite common. Were your flights not on the one itinerary? If not, you can be left on your own. And it's not just Qantas that take this attitude. I've got it from other major airlines too. And travel insurance support is not guaranteed. Mine said 'no' under these circumstances.

I feel that some industry regulation is needed, because unless you allow say, one day between connections on separate bookings or book on a single intineray (which might not even be possible), there is not much you can do in these situations.

 

[anat0l]

Welcome NB52

Unfortunately if your booking is not on the one ticket, the airline is not obligated to accommodate you with respect to miscellaneous flights that may be affected by the flight change. The view is that the airline has a contract to carry you to your destination in accordance with the ticket issued to you (which you have agreed by confirming to take it and having paid for it). What you do after the airline discharges its carriage obligation in that regard cannot be their responsibility.

Unfortunately the 'contract' is mostly restricted to simply carrying you from A to B and has little if anything to do with the timing of your carriage, the aircraft carrying you etc. (There are no clear guidelines on what is the exact terms of non-negotiable enforceable contract required by an airline when you buy a ticket from them).

This is very common across airlines across the industry now. Accommodating you (e.g. the airline negotiating with the other airline, or giving you another free change) is mostly discretionary and very select. I've had and seen similar problems not just on QF but on a range of different airlines.

As for introducing regulation to accommodate these kinds of changes, I'd like to see how it can be done. It's a good idea in principle, but is far from simple to achieve, especially to insure against those who may book flights etc. way too tight and thus make a mockery of the system. I guess airlines are also scared because it may shift something like ensuring the attendance at a significant event and move that financial obligation away from travel insurance companies and onto airlines.

The EU provides regulations for compensation if an airline reschedules or reroutes you (actually it's related to cancellations, but I wonder if you could twist it for schedule changes), however it only applies if the airline makes the change within certain time frames. For example, if an airline gives you at least two weeks notice (i.e. before departure), no compensation is payable. Even if an airline informs you of a change within two weeks of departure, as long as you depart within 1 hour of original time and arrive within 2 hours of original time, no compensation is payable. As we know, sometimes even an hour can make all the difference in connections.

Perhaps you might be able to ask the other airline what they can do to help you.

 

[mannej]

NB52, as others have suggested, a bit of further information may be required to form a view point on this.
Were the flights booked on separate tickets? If so, then that response would not be limited to just Qantas.
You may have to read your travel insurance to see whether or not this is covered.

I guess if your flights were booked on separate tickets, that is the risk you run.

 

[Austman]

As for introducing regulation to accommodate these kinds of changes, I'd like to see how it can be done. It's a good idea in principle, but is far from simple to achieve, especially to insure against those who may book flights etc. way too tight and thus make a mockery of the system.

I agree it would be hard. But the airlines seem to just say take it up with your travel insurance. That might be acceptable if these types of missed connection matters were covered as standard by travel insurance companies. But they are not. Perhaps the regulation needed is in the travel insurance industry?

Anyway I've been in your situation NB52 (it was SQ to QF) and the airline that changed their schedule (SQ) did offer to re-book their flight without charge to any other available flight. They also offered a refund of their flight but only according to the original refund conditions which meant I would receive virtually nothing. This is perhaps where regulation could be introduced also - that the rescheduling carrier must offer alternative dates or a non-penalised refund based on a fair pro-rata ticket residual value without any cancellation or refund penalties.

So I took a flight one day earlier and paid for overnight accommodation at my connection point (SIN). QF would not change without a fee, but why should they? They after all were not making any schedule changes. Travel insurance said this situation was not covered. And the two flights had a single amadeus booking reference but were in fact two separate tickets.

It's really not a great part of the travel industry.

 

[NB52]

Thank you for the feedback. I don't mind paying twice for a service which I have done for many years, however, if the service is not there why am I going to remain with the same company I ask myself, if other airlines can do the same or maybe better -I don't know.
The way I see it Qantas is not worth my money anymore.
the regulators can force major companies to act a certain way, customer service doesn't need regulation - the way I see it anyway

 

[ozmille]

Mrs OzMille has a J ticket booked to Brussels in a couple of months. On the one ticket she is going BA10 to BKK, then QF1 to LHR and another BA to BRU.
Now last week she gets an email titled there has been a time change on your flight. She skims through it and says ah well it is just a time change on the QF1 flight to London. A couple of days later she tells me about the email and I go into her QF FF account and see that QF1 has been rebooked to the next day :shock: So the flights are now showing as BA10 to BKK on a Tuesday then BA to BRU on the Wednesday and QF1 on the Thursday.
I called QF to get it sorted and they said ah there is not much we can do as Mrs OzMille at SG is not a premium pax but they put her on the waitlist to have the whole itinerary brought forward one day and just fly QF1 all the way to London. They said call back in 48 hours to see if it has come though. When I called back at 48 hours nothing had happened but at 72 hours it got sorted.

I know it is her fault of not going to check her booking when she received the email but in my opinion it is not good customer service of rebooking the QF flight and leaving all the other flights as they were.

Lucky I checked!

 

[NB52]

Re: Qantas has changed for the BAD

Dear Ozmille,
I booked my international flight in November 2010 to leave Sydney in June 2011, I still have few more months of anxiety - caused by QANTAS. It happened that I was checking for new flights to Perth for March (this month) when I noticed the cancellation/change of my international flight and I contacted Qantas when they told me there was nothing they could do about it....... of course there is always something that can be done, they just don't care about their customers, don't want to take their time to look into it. I will tell everyone I know about the terrible service Qantas is offering, they have to know.

 

[ReLoad]

It certainly is an interesting one, but im going to flip it on its head - but, I certainly am not making excuses for the flying roo.

Sometimes things happen beyond everyone's control, what if for example, Qantas had a fleet issue, like with the A380's and they had to make a change? what if the plane your going to be on suddenly has flown too many hours and needs a service? what if, what if....

The point I'm making, is that should Qantas be responsible for the effects of your onward journey when the know nothing about it nor have any agreements with the onward carrier?

Personally I think Qantas would be best to say, sorry about that, here's a refund if they cannot accommodate your request at all.

I am assuming that by your post you have connecting flights? is there a reason why your not interlining all the way with QF? (I'm not going to have a go about that, as i often do it too to partake in SC runs and the like, but just curious).
I know when i absolutey 100% have to be in a certain place at a certain time, I wont take any risks and pay the premium to do so.

Cheers

ReLoad

 

[Austman]

Re: Qantas has changed for the BAD

Dear Ozmille,
I booked my international flight in November 2010 to leave Sydney in June 2011, I still have few more months of anxiety - caused by QANTAS. It happened that I was checking for new flights to Perth for March (this month) when I noticed the cancellation/change of my international flight and I contacted Qantas when they told me there was nothing they could do about it....... of course there is always something that can be done, they just don't care about their customers, don't want to take their time to look into it. I will tell everyone I know about the terrible service Qantas is offering, they have to know.

And while I agree that you are in an unfair situation, you might know it's certainly not just Qantas that do this.

Booking separate flights for a journey months in advance very much increases the chances of the miss-connect.

Have you done this before and have you been treated differently by other airlines when the miss-connect happened?

 

[moa999]

Re: Qantas has changed for the BAD

If they have changed your flight they should give you an opportunity to shift to an earlier rather than later flight (even if it is a day earlier)

 

[JohnK]

Welcome to AFF NB52!

I agree with your concerns but unfortunately cannot see anything happening to regulate the industry anytime soon.

The airlines have everything their way and we are silly enough to enter into a one sided contract.

 

[NB52]

they have not tried to do anything, I asked them what are you offering? they just said there is nothing they can do about it and suggested for me to ask the travel insurance to cover for it - which I find it rude and can not cover for this anyway - or they said I should ask the other airline - silly me I did try -who caused the problem ? Qantas.

 

[drron]

Unfortunately it is often who you talk to.I got great service at MEL recently when a late QF flight caused me to miss my JQ connection to MCY.Now QF officially didn't have to do anything as it was a separate ticket but I got switched to a QF BNE flight at no cost.
The woman in front of me had missed her QF connection to SIN.She was then transferring to SQ-the agent rang SQ and had her SQ flight changed-again didn't have to.The woman though complained that the new time was unsuitable!
So maybe talk to someone else-you never know might be a better result.or get your post count up and PM one of our QF reps.

 

[ozmille]

It certainly is an interesting one, but im going to flip it on its head - but, I certainly am not making excuses for the flying roo.

Sometimes things happen beyond everyone's control, what if for example, Qantas had a fleet issue, like with the A380's and they had to make a change? what if the plane your going to be on suddenly has flown too many hours and needs a service? what if, what if....

The point I'm making, is that should Qantas be responsible for the effects of your onward journey when the know nothing about it nor have any agreements with the onward carrier?

Personally I think Qantas would be best to say, sorry about that, here's a refund if they cannot accommodate your request at all.

ReLoad

I completely agree, I have been in the Travel Industry in different forms for nearly 10 years but Mrs Ozmille's booking is the first time I have seen something like that. And all flights here were on the same ticket...

 

[NB52]

Unfortunately it is often who you talk to.I got great service at MEL recently when a late QF flight caused me to miss my JQ connection to MCY.Now QF officially didn't have to do anything as it was a separate ticket but I got switched to a QF BNE flight at no cost.
The woman in front of me had missed her QF connection to SIN.She was then transferring to SQ-the agent rang SQ and had her SQ flight changed-again didn't have to.The woman though complained that the new time was unsuitable!
So maybe talk to someone else-you never know might be a better result.or get your post count up and PM one of our QF reps.

Thank you drron, I am trying that but, it seems to go in circles, all what they say is there is nothing they can do about it, I don't know maybe they have hired people from Jetstar-they just Don't want to do anything they are only looking at what is in fornt of them - no customer service at all, I don't know why they call their Dpt. Customer Care, it is very disappointing. I still have until June to get stressed out even more,would I choose to fly Qantas for my regular weekly flights? which I have done for 17 years.....I doubt it
thank you for taking the time to reply

 

[doctork]

And all flights here were on the same ticket...

Now here's a worry. I have, I admit, booked a plane shuffle SYD-SIN, SIN-LHR in June (all on same PNR, QF flight numbers although first leg BA operated). Have SCs in mind, but also want to get to LHR on the early-arriving A380 from MEL.

I thought that being all on one PNR with all-QF numbers, that, if rescheduled, then QF still has to get me to LHR (in fact, all the way to MAN!). Personally, I'm happy to wear an overnight stay expense at Crowne Plaza Changi airport if I need to, but if Qantas do the same to me as to MrsMille, then the rules are they need to put me on the later flight or the next days flight, surely?

 

[lovestotravel]

they have not tried to do anything, I asked them what are you offering? they just said there is nothing they can do about it and suggested for me to ask the travel insurance to cover for it - which I find it rude and can not cover for this anyway - or they said I should ask the other airline - silly me I did try -who caused the problem ? Qantas.

So were the flights on the same ticket or not ?

If not then Qantas is doing what any other airline would do

End of story

 

[serfty]

I have been a Frequent Flyer for 17 years, always flying Qantas, maybe 2 to 3 times each month the good "old" service is not there anymore ...

Do you still fly that much and do you have any elite status though Qantas Frequent flyer?

I occasionally find myself in similar situations. Normally you have to agree to the change, whether on-line or by speaking with a customer service. (I hope you did not book through a TA; if this is the case the service you are receiving through them is quite poor.)

In these situations I firstly research available alternative options for flights that I can deal with

Only then do I call to discuss the change with Customer Service. I then provide my achievable solution to the situation and I have had 100% results with this.

 

[ReLoad]

Do you still fly that much and do you have any elite status though Qantas Frequent flyer?

What a great point, and i'm sure many people would agree, if you have a status they will help, or at least try to help.

Couple of cases in point: Have some whY flights to ORD booked for June with the whole tribe, as they are ASA awards the only flight from LAX to ORD was with UA (through QF) then of course that flight gets rescheduled with too short a connection time in LAX, QF send me an e-mail, get onto the WP helpdesk, they rebook me on a QF codeshare to fly later, The lady said that normally they would stick me on a UA later on in the day, but as a WP she sorted me out. in the end I am very happy.

Likewise, last flight out of SYD and the plane missed curfew on a Friday night, QF was telling most Pax that next flight was lunchtime the next day, but as a WP they put me on the 6am.

I think its perhaps the greatest benefit of being a high ranked FF, they really do look after you when it goes pear shaped, and to be honest thats when i need them the most. (in saying that, given QF's pricing structure, I am paying for it, but very happy to do so)