booking discount economy then paying for an updgrade to a sale fare

[heycam]

Hello!

I need to travel to Taipei in May, and I would like to take advantage of the J sale fares that just came out. I'm thinking that if I fly MEL-HKG-TPE, I could fly in J for the MEL-HKG segment at least. Now, my work will only pay for Y, and I'd like to be able to upgrade it myself by paying the difference. Is this possible? The economy flights I'm currently looking at booking are:

QF 29 MEL-HKG in V
BR 827 HKG-TPE in U

then

CI 919 TPE-HKG in L
QF 30 HKG-MEL in V

Can I then ring up and upgrade to use the $3798 return MEL-HKG business sale fare?

Thanks for any advice!

Cameron

 

[drewbles]

I guess only your employer can answer that.

I know most people who do things like you're suggesting do it as such:

a) get a quote on the fare for a Y trip
b) get your travel approved as per your corporate travel policy
c) book the business class fare, and pay for it yourself
d) provide both the business class tax invoice, and a quote for the economy travel on the same flights to your employer
e) get re-imbursed for the Y fare via an expense claim with d)

Or something similar to that. I know that's how I do it in my job where it's Y only too.

If you book the deep-discount Y, you'd need to check the rules. It's quite possible you cannot re-issue the fare into J, and there may be no cancellation/refund. Check the fare rules and if so, you'd almost certainly have to cough up a few hundred dollars as a change fee.

 

[heycam]

My employer likely wouldn't approve the business fare even if I were going to reimburse the equivalent economy fare that I would be allowed to book, unfortunately. Otherwise that would make it easier, yeah. I guess my question is "do the fare rules for the flights I quoted allow this change/upgrade".

 

[drewbles]

My employer likely wouldn't approve the business fare even if I were going to reimburse the equivalent economy fare that I would be allowed to book, unfortunately. Otherwise that would make it easier, yeah. I guess my question is "do the fare rules for the flights I quoted allow this change/upgrade".

Read the terms and conditions when booking

What i'm saying is have the employer approve the Y fare, with a quote, then, book the J fare and pay for it yourself. Submit the expense claim with the Y quote and the J tax invoice, clearly stating all you want re-imbursed is the Y portion. Then, you're just left out of pocket for the difference between Y and J, and your employer has paid for Y. Then you do not need to worry about change fees (Which as mentioned, can be very substantial on sale fares if they are permitted at all).

I don't know of any employer that would have a problem with that as they're not out of pocket and you're confirming, monetarily wise, to their policy.

Of course if you're with an employer that uses a corporate travel agent with strict rules, then you're up the creek unfortunately.

 

[drewbles]

I had a quick look at the sale fare MEL-HKG (which I'm assuming is the one you're looking at) and it has:

This fare may be used as credit towards the payment of any higher fare from the point of origin, provided the new fare conditions are met. A reissue fee of A$100 per person applies. If the new fare is cancelled the original fare cancellation conditions will apply. This credit must be used within 12 months of the original tickets date of issue.

So you'd book it and then have it re-issued, which would be $100 plus any change fees. That's the Y sale T&C's which you'd have to comply with.

If you're allowed to book flexi Y fares, then it's a different story.

The full QF T&C's for the Y fare for this sale can be found at http://www.qantas.com.au/regions/am...ilable for sale until: &saleEndDate=19 Mar 13

 

[heycam]

Of course if you're with an employer that uses a corporate travel agent with strict rules, then you're up the creek unfortunately.

Yes, that's exactly the issue.

 

[heycam]

So you'd book it and then have it re-issued, which would be $100 plus any change fees. That's the Y sale T&C's which you'd have to comply with.

Thanks for looking at that for me. $100 change fee isn't to bad. I guess I'll give it a go and see what happens!

 

[Austman]

Don't forget too that, if the trip is for work, you can claim the upgrade costs as a tax deduction.

 

[heycam]

Good point Austman!

 

[heycam]

So as it happened I didn't get a change to try this while the global sale was on. But I did just try now with the Asia sale, and failed. When I rang Qantas, they told me that since the ticket was booked through a travel agent, they weren't able to change the booking. Oh well...

 

[JohnK]

Have you tried contacting the corporate travel agent to see if they can upgrade your ticket?

 

[heycam]

They probably can, but I think it would result in notification emails and would need someone to approve the change.