Cancelling QF flights due to border closures

[Seat0B]

Yes under either the fly flexible policy you mentioned above, or because QF made a major change to your original plans. No need to wait.

 

[Daver6]

Apologies in advance for piggybacking on this thread - I have a SYD -> PER on Aug 27 which Qantas changed to Aug 28, but of course this makes no difference as we can't enter WA either way. Booking was made on points.

After reading everything ITT and QF's T&Cs, it appears that because QF made the change, I should be able to get a full points refund and - critically - not get hit with the 6000 (points) cancellation fee. Would this assessment be correct, or should I just keep waiting for the highly likely event that the 27th Aug SYD->PER flight will be cancelled as well?

Given you booked with points, those flights are cancelable without the 6k penalty. Also, given QF cancelled you're entitled to a full refund with no penalty.

 

[Saltywings]

Thanks both. I think I was overthinking, where a 'mere' one day change isn't really a 'cancellation' per se but just a 'change'. Got caught up in the terminology.

 

[Ken1]

Technically it is not a cancel so it doesn't meet the refund criteria. However one could argue perhaps 0815 is too early to get to the airport (or whatever) and that this involuntary (important word to use) schedule change is unacceptable and no other options exist (you could raise border closures I guess if you like, but this is a schedule change QF has made). it would be worth making the call to at least ask if they would consider a refund in these circumstances. I would expect pushback but maybe not a lot. You never know your luck with a sympathetic agent. Be aware though that by the letter of the T&C a schedule change doesn't strictly meet the criteria. Good luck.

I was going to wait until a few days before the flight date of 20 August to call QF to cancel my booking in case our flight is cancelled by QF. I didn't "Accept" when I received the flight change notification a couple of weeks ago with the time change from 0935 to 0815 but in the last couple of days I received more notifications, by text message, from the QF app and by email, so I called QF at 11pm last night since QF840 seems to be flying most days so seems unlikely to be cancelled.

I was expecting to have a long wait time but was surprised when after entering my details the call was answered straight away. I said that I need to cancel the booking and asked for a refund, and it was offered straight away. I then mentioned the time change and that due to border closures we can't go, but it seems like I was being given the refund whatever I had said. She asked me to hold for a couple of minutes while she processed the cancellation and then came back telling me that I will receive an email confirmation of the cancellation in 24 to 48 hours and that I should receive the refund in 6 to 8 weeks. Much easier than I expected. Thanks everyone for the advice here since I first posted about it.