Altering full flexi fares

[cwliew]

I had a flightbooked through a travel agent, fully flexible economy fare, which was darwin - melbourne, through adelaide fter a 1.5hr stop.
I decided to leave a day early, to spend a night in adelaide, and rang the qantas helpline. They said thatbecause it was booked through a travel agent, they were not able to help me alter the booking.
OK, so they advised that I just turn up at the airport a day early.

I turned up at the airport a day early and said, I have a fully flexible fare, can I just take the darwin to adelaide flight a day early.

The person at the ticket counter said that I would have to pay extra. OK, that's fine, I am happy to pay any difference in the ticketting.

She comes up with a price of 344 dollars!

Now, I understand that point that if you book darwin to adelaide flight it i more expensive than booking a darwin to melbourn flight which has a stopover in adelaide, but seriously - its a fully flexible fare, and aren't theyt the ones that can be changed easily? Without huge fees?

On top of that, I forgot to bring my voucher than qantas gave me

And THEN I got drug tested at the entry gate

AND THEN they said that there wereno uprad seats to business class available.

ARGH!

What a bad day...

Is this experience re: changing the ticketting correct? Should I have just changed the entire booking to "pretend" like I was going to go from darwin to melbourne a day early, and then when I got to adelaide, changed my adelaide - melbourne ticket? Might have worked out cheaper...

 

[SnowYeti]

What fare class was yours? Obviously not Y ?

Sorry to hear you had a bad day ..

Also, the drug testing. For the last 12 months, I've just not looked. At the corner of my eye when getting bags, I'll see if they are busy, if not, I'll dordle and wait a bit till they are busy with someone.

I love how when I do get "randomly picked" they give me an asian card with all the terms and conditions in chinese or japanese. I always reply "So what am I supposed to with it? I only read english" ... LOL ..........

I must look asian :shock:

 

[oz_mark]

Perhaps it was because you went from having a transit in Adelaide to having a one night stopover in Adelaide. That is you went from being charged a through fare (DRW-ADL-MEL) to be charged two one ways (DRW-ADL and ADL-MEL).

 

[ejb]

Hi,

I doubt you were drug tested. I do believe that the testing is only for explosives although the machine they use can be set to drug test.

I asked at PER one trip and they informed me they were only after explosives.

ejb

 

[samh004]

I asked at PER one trip and they informed me they were only after explosives.

Bugger! I'm all out of them.

 

[Lucky_man]

I think the biggest lesson to be learnt is not to book simple domestic flights through a TA. Generally it limits what you know about the booking and complicates any changes. However not using the TA will not help these issues -

....

I forgot to bring my voucher than qantas gave me

And THEN I got drug tested at the entry gate

AND THEN they said that there wereno uprad seats to business class available.

 

[chrizzz14]

... Should I have just changed the entire booking to "pretend" like I was going to go from darwin to melbourne a day early, and then when I got to adelaide, changed my adelaide - melbourne ticket? Might have worked out cheaper...

after being told you had to pay 340 odd bucks i would have just changed the entire itinerary to the day you wanted to fly - and then either tried to change it in Adelaide - or just booked a new fair ADL-MEL would have only been 120 odd bucks for a Y flight.


oooh and as for those stupid explosive 'mall-cops' on the occasion they do stop me - i splatter out a bit of Russian or italian (depending on the mood im in) saying i cant read English!
Works too - he usually stands there confused - then says sorry never mind!