Am I getting this right..JASA question

[Gatty]

hey guys
I've never booked using my points before, let alone a JASA; so just a quick question.

I go to Qantas, select Award Bookings, do a search and select "Qantas & Jetstar Any Seat Award"

I tried BNE - SYD, selected Business and found it to be approximetely 42k points return.

Will I recieve SC's (which is what I'm after) for this fare?

Thanks and sorry if this is a stupid question (one that I'm sure you are sick of answering).

 

[notzac]

Will I recieve SC's (which is what I'm after) for this fare?

Any Seat Awards are treated as a revenue fare for points/status earn -- so yes, you'll get the SCs.

 

[TheInsider]

It's only the Classic Awards where you don't get points/SC's

 

[missafternoondelight]

A word of warning though, ASAs are awesome, but be *really* sure about what you select before you book. I booked PER-SYD-CNS / CNS-MEL-PER for a tidy 320 SC earn. Cost me 72,000 points, awesome. Was going to then combine with a StarClass fare CNS-NRT for 240 SC return, taking the whole thing to 560 SCs. Great. Meanwhile, the Japan earthquake happened, which made my boyfriend nervous, as we were staying in Tokyo. He wanted to cancel, so I rang Qantas to see if I could get a points refund, pay a cancellation fee, whatever. I was informed that using points for an ASA amounts to converting the points to cash to buy the fare, and they cannot be converted back to points. Instead they offered me $787 - pretty lame for J class return flights. I don't think it's even possible to get J return flights MEL-SYD for that.

Moral of the story - make sure you are firm on the dates/destination etc. before booking as you can't get the points back. I have heard of WPs and SGs getting their points back - but as a NB, I wasn't so lucky. No matter though, as we've planned a week in Port Douglas instead, and Jetstar gave us a refund for the StarClass legs, which were paid in cash. No way am I giving up those SCs!

 

[Gatty]

thanks for the replies guys

 

[cove]

If the number of points for a JASA is ridiculous then don't take it.

 

[straitman]

A word of warning though, ASAs are awesome, but be *really* sure about what you select before you book. I booked PER-SYD-CNS / CNS-MEL-PER for a tidy 320 SC earn. Cost me 72,000 points, awesome. Was going to then combine with a StarClass fare CNS-NRT for 240 SC return, taking the whole thing to 560 SCs. Great. Meanwhile, the Japan earthquake happened, which made my boyfriend nervous, as we were staying in Tokyo. He wanted to cancel, so I rang Qantas to see if I could get a points refund, pay a cancellation fee, whatever. I was informed that using points for an ASA amounts to converting the points to cash to buy the fare, and they cannot be converted back to points. Instead they offered me $787 - pretty lame for J class return flights. I don't think it's even possible to get J return flights MEL-SYD for that.

Moral of the story - make sure you are firm on the dates/destination etc. before booking as you can't get the points back. I have heard of WPs and SGs getting their points back - but as a NB, I wasn't so lucky. No matter though, as we've planned a week in Port Douglas instead, and Jetstar gave us a refund for the StarClass legs, which were paid in cash. No way am I giving up those SCs!

The information you were given is not correct. ASAs get a full points refund and without any cancellation fees.
I have cancelled JASA flights, by phone, on a number of occasions and got all the points back. IF you try and do it online it converts to a rather poor $ value.




Sent from my iPhone using AFF Mobile

 

[cove]

Yes the points are not forfeited out of a JASA that gets cancelled by you.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

It seems QF gives you cash back for ASA points at around 1c per point.

Now, if you can earn points at under 1c/point..... there is an opportunity for big spenders...

 

[thewinchester]

The information you were given is not correct. ASAs get a full points refund and without any cancellation fees.
I have cancelled JASA flights, by phone, on a number of occasions and got all the points back. IF you try and do it online it converts to a rather poor $ value.

Confirming straitman is correct, from QF's webpage (currently offline, retreived from Google Cache, version dated 3 APR 2011):

Refundable Fares

If the fare conditions permit, Qantas & Jetstar Any Seat Award bookings may be refunded subject to these conditions:

Bookings made at qantas.com or otherwise (except bookings made at jetstar.com):

• If the Member requests a refund before travel has commenced and the money paid (if any) to obtain the Any Seat Award is greater than or equal to the applicable cancellation fee as specified in the fare conditions, then the difference between the two will be refunded to the original form of payment. The points redeemed will be re-credited to the applicable Member's account in full.
• If the Member requests a refund before travel has commenced and the money paid (if any) to obtain the Any Seat Award is less than the applicable cancellation fee as specified in the fare conditions, or the request is made after travel has commenced, then a proportion of the money and points originally used to obtain the Any Seat Award will be refunded to the applicable Member. The refund proportion will be the difference between the original ticket value (or remaining ticket value if the itinerary is partially flown) as allocated by Qantas and the applicable cancellation fee, as a proportion of the original ticket value.

Bookings made at jetstar.com:

• If the Member requests a refund before any travel has commenced, and the booking is fully refundable, and the money paid (if any) to obtain the Any Seat Award is greater than or equal to the applicable cancellation (or refund) fee as specified in the fare conditions, then the difference between the two will be refunded to the original form of payment. The points redeemed will be re-credited to the applicable Member's account in full.
• If the above does not apply and any part of the fare is refundable then any applicable cancellation (or refund) fee must be paid with money as specified in the fare conditions and once paid the refund of the Any Seat Award will be made by re-crediting only the unused refundable portion of points redeemed to the Member's account and refunding only the unused refundable portion of money paid to the Member's Accepted Payment Card.

Members cannot receive a refund of more points than originally redeemed or more money than originally paid.

Alternatively, if the fare conditions permit, the residual commercial ticket value may be stored as a credit voucher and used only for further travel on Qantas flights within 12 months from the original booking creation date (this does not apply to Qantas & Jetstar Any Seat Awards on Jetstar flights).

As for trippin_the_rift's comments, these are incorrect. The only cash component refunded per the above T&C's is the cash amount (if any) spent for the purchase of the award less any cancellation or other acceptible fees.

It seems QF gives you cash back for ASA points at around 1c per point.

Now, if you can earn points at under 1c/point..... there is an opportunity for big spenders...

 

[missafternoondelight]

The information you were given is not correct. ASAs get a full points refund and without any cancellation fees.
I have cancelled JASA flights, by phone, on a number of occasions and got all the points back. IF you try and do it online it converts to a rather poor $ value.




Sent from my iPhone using AFF Mobile

Oh, really? Thanks very much for this information.. this is something Qantas need to clarify with their contact centre staff, as the staff member I spoke to was quite adamant. Thank you, next time I'll argue!

 

[anat0l]

ASAs are meant to be treated like regular tickets with the regular fare conditions except for some specialised handling.

This means that a JASA booked as a (Full) Business would have no cancellation penalty, just like a regular full J fare bought with cash. However, some JASAs - especially on international - and FASAs are Saver fares (e.g. Business Saver or First Saver) do have cancellation fees (for example, a Business Saver may have a cancellation fee of $300).

From re-reading thewinchester's reposting... it would seem that if you paid an amount in cash which exceeds or equals the cancellation fee, then you would get all your points back plus whatever cash is left after deducting the cancellation fee (first paragraph, first clause). In the case of a domestic JASA which is usually booked into a full Business class, the cancellation fee is $0, so you would be expected to get your points and everything else back, even if you had paid the JASA in full points.

Things get messier if you book a YASA in anything but Fully Flexible or other Saver fares. In several cases, the first paragaph's second clause will apply since unless you are booking a fairly high bucket fare and you configure it so you pay a suitably high amount of cash as well as points, the cancellation fee will exceed what you paid in cash (if anything). Now how do QF do the accounting on how many points to give back to you if they need to filch more than just the cash component you paid. As well, does the clause imply that if it comes to it, do they take all the money then your points, or they somehow proportionally take some of both so you will always end up with some cash and some points refunded.

And what happens to a YASA booked as a Red e-Deal where the second clause applies? Normal Red e-Deals cannot be refunded; the value is stored as a voucher. Would you just get your points back minus the $50 cancellation fee (i.e. take the cash component first then whatever points)?

Having called QF before about ASAs, they (the Premium operator) can't tell me (because they don't know) how the QF machine works out what to do in case of the second clause.


In many cases, it's better not to have to cancel in the first place!

 

[missafternoondelight]

Thanks again!
My fares are full J, so it was wrong information.
Great to know in the future. Though I agree, always best to avoid cancellation. Not least because it's better to be going than not going.

 

[medhead]

As for trippin_the_rift's comments, these are incorrect. The only cash component refunded per the above T&C's is the cash amount (if any) spent for the purchase of the award less any cancellation or other acceptible fees.

Except that those comments were correct in so far as that Qantas will always try to convert the points refund to cash, as evidenced by the OP. There have been a number of cases reported here of people calling to refund a JASA and been offered a cash payment, despite what the rules say.

Oh, really? Thanks very much for this information.. this is something Qantas need to clarify with their contact centre staff, as the staff member I spoke to was quite adamant. Thank you, next time I'll argue!

I really don't know what the issue is with Qantas, but they seem determined to convert JASA refunds to cash as the first option. I'm not sure if this a lack of training or maybe there is something else at play. Anyway, I say no more on that point, just that it really pays to double check the rules before calling Qantas.

 

[QF WP]

Gatty, don't worry, I've never booked a JASA before but now I'm looking.

markis10's post here shows there is a Points + pay option - is that only for International, as I can't re-create that screen view for a domestic booking?

P.S. Rang markis10 and found out what I wasn't doing