Article: Why Keep Booking with Airlines that Screw You Over?

[AFF Editor]

Why Keep Booking with Airlines that Screw You Over? is an article written by AFF editorial staff:

Why Keep Booking with Airlines that Screw You Over?

Over the past few years, the same complaints about airlines have appeared time and time again. Some of the most common ones have been airlines making it

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can discuss this topic or leave a comment below.

 

[TAK]

Gulf Air - refund 3 months
Qantas 2 hrs on phone ( was worth it as I was told that the online cancellation I had recently made required a call to get a $ refund - wtf?)
Finnair (Yesterday). 1 hr 10m ( and that’s after an email apology for the service) for ticket change ( on going issues trying to get seat allocation as OW emerald
Emirates owes me an A class flight - never a word from them and nothing showing in my profile
BA call required for refund - cannot do it on line ( voucher only) but the money was back in 24 hrs
Avianca omg where do you start and have you seen the now booking options? Once my points are gone never again - so much of my life I will never get back

 

[IH8Qantas]

Lack of Legroom for tall people is my biggest grip. It is not a matter of comfort when your knees are jammed into the back of the seat in front, even if the person in front has not even reclined their seat.. It becomes painful.

And of course you then read about the exercises you are supposed to do to stop deep vein thromboses , which is impossible. And these days if you want a seat with enough legroom so it is not painful and damaging to you knees, airlines like Qantas now make you pay for the privilege.
I have even been assaulted after a Qantas flight when the person in front tried to recline their seat and my knees went into their back, which they took offense at.

The worse was when I had a temporary disability after a knee reconstruction. I could not travel in a exit row as I was not mobile enough. I contacted Qantas to ask is there was a way I could guarantee a seat with legroom as it was impossible for me to use a normal economy seat as economy seats are jammed so close together (I had a medical certificate from my surgeon about it). Qantas response was they could not guarantee an alternative seat with legroom unless I paid for a full business class fair. So Qantas was discriminating against me because of the disability I had.

I don;t care if seats are close together as long as they are designed so that long legged people can actually stretch there legs under the seat in front without pain or risk of injury.

If airlines want to save costs get rid of the cabin service etc.. I can live without all that rubbish as long as I have a seat that is not painful to travel in.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Covid has been a challenge for everyone, including airlines. I'm not one to hold a grudge, but I also take a practical approach to issues that become systemic.

In my case, I've actively booked away from my usual carrier, Qantas, because their "Fly Flexible" policy is more marketing than substance. Setting aside the basic policy restrictions (after all, at least you can know in advance that you can only change the date of a flight, rather than route), after being burned twice on a "fare difference" that was far more than the cost of purchasing a new ticket outright due to the even finer print forcing you to remain in the same fare code, I've simply moved over to Virgin knowing I can cancel tickets to the travel bank or reschedule at lowest advertised prices.

That and countless hours on hold to the Qantas call centre that became necessary due to basic system glitches for things that should have been possible to do online but proved too much for both the system and even call centre staff on the few occasions I could reach them within an hour even with status.

I saw this made a 7/30 story yesterday; about time.

 

[bam71]

Lack of Legroom for tall people is my biggest grip. It is not a matter of comfort when your knees are jammed into the back of the seat in front, even if the person in front has not even reclined their seat.. It becomes painful.

And of course you then read about the exercises you are supposed to do to stop deep vein thromboses , which is impossible. And these days if you want a seat with enough legroom so it is not painful and damaging to you knees, airlines like Qantas now make you pay for the privilege.
I have even been assaulted after a Qantas flight when the person in front tried to recline their seat and my knees went into their back, which they took offense at.

The worse was when I had a temporary disability after a knee reconstruction. I could not travel in a exit row as I was not mobile enough. I contacted Qantas to ask is there was a way I could guarantee a seat with legroom as it was impossible for me to use a normal economy seat as economy seats are jammed so close together (I had a medical certificate from my surgeon about it). Qantas response was they could not guarantee an alternative seat with legroom unless I paid for a full business class fair. So Qantas was discriminating against me because of the disability I had.

I don;t care if seats are close together as long as they are designed so that long legged people can actually stretch there legs under the seat in front without pain or risk of injury.

If airlines want to save costs get rid of the cabin service etc.. I can live without all that rubbish as long as I have a seat that is not painful to travel in.

I used to get this all the time working at QF. I'd make the analogy that you can't walk into Harvey Norman with $250 and expect them to give you a huge 60" TV valued at $2000 because your eyesight is bad and they're "discriminating" against you. Economy seat are all basically the same. Extra leg room = business class if you don't qualify for an exit row.

 

[Happy Dude]

So Qantas was discriminating against me because of the disability I had.

No, they weren't.

 

[Guvner]

You can always sit closer to the smaller TV.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

You can always buy a business class seat too, if you prefer more room.

 

[siri]

I had to book a another business class ticket to london via Vancouver for my daughter with 10 month baby since idiot at South African call centre canceled daughters return ticket from Sydney after she came from London. After complaining Qantas they put back the ticket but we ask for refund since she was already in London via Vancouver which was a another nightmare which was due to qantas bag check in error at Sydney since qantas checked 3 bags direct to london via transit and one bag to clear at Vancouver and asked to clear customs which i asked daughter, not to do and get qantas agent to clear the mess and escort her to transit and ask qantas to get a baggage porter since they made the mistake. Fortunately they comply but i do not think we will ever book a qantas flight even though iam life gold on qantas.
To add to insult, qantas do not refund on web but have to call the call centre which took more than 2 hrs to request for refund, which take another 2-4 weeks and worst case i will charge back on my credit card to teach these morons a lesson.

 

[Guvner]

You can always buy a business class seat too, if you prefer more room.

off topic.. but there's hundreds (thousands?) of Intra EU SH routes where that is not possible. Many domestic Aus flights as well.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

off topic.. but there's hundreds (thousands?) of Intra EU SH routes where that is not possible. Many domestic Aus flights as well.

That's correct, and still it does not amount to legal "discrimination."

 

[Guvner]

That's correct, and still it does not amount to legal "discrimination."

I haven't used or implied that term.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I haven't used or implied that term.

No, you didn't; the original poster on the issue did.

I think airlines are screwing people over in many ways, some more indifferently than others, but I'm not convinced "I want a bigger seat for free" is one of those ways.

 

[stm1sydney]

Yeah, it's always puzzled me why people stick with Qantas when there are better alternatives.

 

[aikman]

I think habits play a part in this issue and sticking to what is familiar. Change can be daunting for some.

 

[jase05]

QF cops a lot for it’s call centres on here and rightfully so but try dealing with WY. They have a great product and IMO one of the best J products going but geez their customer service is absolutely woeful if you need to make a change or cancellation.
I’ve only been a lowly QF Gold for a few years now as I started weaning myself away from them domestically (I pretty much ditched QFi years ago) and I’ve gone one step further now and have joined BAEC so this QF status extension will most likely be the last time I hold QF status.
Sick of being punished for using other so called OW partners. Absolute joke that I earn more SC’s on a SYD-AKL hop across the ditch than on QR SYD-DOH. And don’t get me started on that beyond pathetic MH earn to/from Australia

 

[Kiwi_Flyer]

Limited options.

Hard to travel any distance in NZ without flying. Most routes the only option is NZ. JQ serves a handful of routes. No real other options.

Trans-Tasman also mostly limited to 3 airlines NZ, QF and JQ. Not all fly each route.

 

[Matt_01]

What a timely article, it was only this morning that a QF booking made made through AMEX almost 2 years ago has finally been cancelled for a full refund. Without going into all the detail this was a booking to NZ for late 2020, I had continued to change it free of charge hoping that the trip may eventuate. Late last year I decided that I would no longer change the booking and hope it would be cancelled as according to FR24 the flight has not operated since Aug 21 and NZ is closed. My frustration was not about being able to contact QF (access to the VIP team) it was more around the internal QF processes, the flight that I was scheduled to fly on is no longer available to book, a QF agent had approved the fare to be cancelled and refunded in full, added in appropriate notes and provided AMEX with the authority to refund number. AMEX have confirmed they can see these details in the booking and advised on more than one occasion the refusal to refund in full was coming from from another part of QF that provides support to travel agents and other booking agents which is apparently a separate entity but still owned by QF. This part of QF was refusing refund was based on the flight is still scheduled to operate and after speaking with another QF agent was advised that this was correct. I struggle with the idea that one part of QF approves the cancelation and provides an authority to refund and another part of QF seemingly ignores this. Another QF agent also advised that it is highly likely that the flight would be cancelled but would only be done either a day or so before or on the day of the flight so they can delay issuing refunds. That been said I can see that the flights are no longer in my QFF account and now will just wait the 8 weeks for the money to be returned.

I have continued to book with QF and VA over the past 2 years but mostly using classic rewards and although I know the QF wording around cancelling classic rewards flights was confusing and or misleading I had no issue with that. Cancelling classic rewards can be done online and knew that when cancelling this type of booking the taxes and carrier charges will always be refunded, even pre covid classic rewards could not be put into credit.

 

[eastwest101]

"If you have a choice" is the key phrase in that article, domestically, unfortunately, while it is good that people do have Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin, Rex and others to choose from, it is sometimes the case that only one of them has the network and frequency to sensibly get you from one place to another, on the same day without making it an epic 20+ hour journey.

Internationally - obviously a very limited number of services have decreased people's choices but that will probably correct itself quicker than the reduction in capacity and frequency that the domestic market has suffered when international borders fully reopen.

 

[BCons]

Why do we keep flying with airlines that muck us around ?

Out of habit, familiarity, for status/recognition, forgetfulness, and for the inconvenience of change.. But that loyalty is changing, just like it did with banks.

For the last 5 years or so ppl hv stopped putting all thr business in one bank. The reasons are many, but the practice of flipping c/card balances to new cards is one example, branch closures another. In my case, the bank stopped offering accts that I wanted, so I took my biz elsewhere.

Perhaps if you are usually scratching around for points flts or upgrades from economy, then you rely on FF status with one airline to access those benefits, but if you regularly fly up near the pointy end mostly on your own $$ then you know with time and experience what to expect from the ticket you pay for. There hv been only a few times that status with an airline has made things better than I wud otherwise expect. Op Ups with CX was one (when they had F to Aust, no longer) and plenty of times when it hasnt (BA seating a pair of QF plats downstairs in the middle, facing backwds, nxt to galley on 747 in J, or BA seating wife QF gold downstairs and me QF plat upstairs on same PNR is another).

None of this excuses the call centre/refund mess of late, but such irritations are likely to only accelerate the move for usually loyal pax to forget the re-qualification and shop around more. Current irregular airlines scheds are contributing - we are about to try EK to Europe for the first time in yonks - not because they were cheaper but because (preferred) SQ scheds to Aust wud hv meant an overnight hotel in Mel or Syd on return, or a 7 hr wait in Sing.

The EK/QF points might be useful sometime and the loss of PPS credits will hurt, but getting there and back without delay is what we prefer.