Can you book a business class fare then cancel later at no cost?

[paultiffen]

Hi,

I received this offer in the mail and my plan currently is to try to get to QFF gold. It's $30 if you buy a flight on your AMEX card. I was thinking of booking a fully flexible for work but noticed that business had no cancel fee. Could you book it way in advance pay the 4.50 CC fee then cancel? Anyone have experience cancelling business class fares?

Thanks,
Paul

 

[markis10]

A refund would no doubt trigger a reversal of the credit. Not sure what QFF gold has to do with it though???

 

[Fruitcake]

Hi,

I received this offer in the mail and my plan currently is to try to get to QFF gold. It's $30 if you buy a flight on your AMEX card. I was thinking of booking a fully flexible for work but noticed that business had no cancel fee. Could you book it way in advance pay the 4.50 CC fee then cancel? Anyone have experience cancelling business class fares?

Thanks,
Paul

Yes, all VA business fares are fully refundable, minus the credit card fee. However I'd be carefully checking the contents of the paragraph referenced by the caret (^). VA is famous for sloppy terms and conditions but I'd be surprised if Amex legal people hadn't thought of this one.

In any case, this doesn't seem too helpful with respect to your goal of QF Gold?

 

[paultiffen]

But at worst I'd just lose the credit card fee right and would get points on the card too. Might give it a go

 

[TonyHancock]

But at worst I'd just lose the credit card fee right and would get points on the card too. Might give it a go

The credit card points should be reversed. Also as other have asked, how will this help your quest for QF Gold?

 

[samh004]

Not sure it's worth the trouble for $30. Someone else had an offer from EDR for pet insurance to get a $50 wish card, and that seemed like a lot of effort.

 

[Fruitcake]

The credit card points should be reversed. Also as other have asked, how will this help your quest to QF Gold?

Book one hundred DJ J fares, 'earn' $30 apiece on the Amex promotion, refund them all minus $4.50, and use the 100 * (30 - 4.5) = $2,550 to book QF fares?

Then having your account closed, being permanently blacklisted by Amex, and having to pay back the $2,550? Priceless!

 

[TonyHancock]

Book one hundred DJ J fares, 'earn' $30 apiece on the Amex promotion, refund them all minus $4.50, and use the 100 * (30 - 4.5) = $2,550 to book QF fares?

Then having your account closed, being permanently blacklisted by Amex, and having to pay back the $2,550? Priceless!

Bugger! Let me get on to it!!!!

 

[paultiffen]

I think that it's one per person however you could maybe do that with flights if you cashed out the points and cancelled your AMEX. Would probably kick you out of the program if you did a big lot of it though. Would be interesting to see how they would go about chasing you up for points rather than $$$

This was more of a theoretical question. Good to know if they ran promo business fares that you could cancel though. An example would be if they had the 200 dollar business fares again and you didn't know when you were travelling. Book a whole lot, use pay later then cancel the ones you don't need without paying the fare difference.

 

[Fruitcake]

This was more of a theoretical question. Good to know if they ran promo business fares that you could cancel though. An example would be if they had the 200 dollar business fares again and you didn't know when you were travelling. Book a whole lot, use pay later then cancel the ones you don't need without paying the fare difference.

That's correct. I don't know if it's by choice or by a limitation of their systems but I have not seen VA offer a restricted domestic business class fare. So when the $200 seats pop up you can definitely book them speculatively and cancel later. At least, that's what the fare rules on my $200 J fares say - I've not tried to cancel one yet. However I'm sure that someone on here has.

 

[markis10]

Book one hundred DJ J fares, 'earn' $30 apiece on the Amex promotion, refund them all minus $4.50, and use the 100 * (30 - 4.5) = $2,550 to book QF fares?

Then having your account closed, being permanently blacklisted by Amex, and having to pay back the $2,550? Priceless!

Pity it's only one $30 credit per statement as per the terms and conditions.