change flight with qantas

[fortymilliondaggers]

Hi,

Booked a red-e-deal ticket for 2 travelling Qantas Canberra to Melbourne return. Now one of us wants to change their flight. Can't do this online without changing both flights. Called the call centre and asked for them to separate the itinerary since I thought this would be the solution. Apparently to change one flight would cost $75. The price for changing it online would have been $45 each. Now the flights on both itineraries can't be changed online. The guy on the phone couldn't tell me why this was. He agreed that if I had booked both itineraries separately, I would have been able to change them separately and online. Will call up again later when I have more time, but wanted to know if anybody here has any experience with this. It must breach so many consumer protection laws. I can't imagine because I booked 2 people together that there would be any terms in the contract which would make this OK.

ANy comments? Thoughts? Solutions? It's a cheap ticket and I will abandon it, but that seems like Qantas 1 Me 0.

 

[kpc]

QF need to separate the itineraries (which you can't do online) so they can make a change to one of the them. I presume the phone change fee is $74 as opposed to $45 if you did it yourself online...them's the breaks, I'm afraid. Sometimes I book two itineraries separately if there is an even a remote chance that one of the two has to cancel / change the itinerary.

 

[JohnK]

It does not make sense to me that you need to pay money to separate the itineraries. Perhaps they have this condition in place to cover situations where people purchase 2 for 1 deals or companion airfares and then want to change the dates.

I would prefer to make all my domestic bookings one-way flights, that way if I want to change/cancel the first flight in the booking I do not lose the whole return ticket, but Qantas charges $7.70 extra for each booking whereas with Virgin I can make one way bookings and only pay $3 extra per sector. If the airline won't provide flexibility on the cheaper airfares I will create my own flexiility....

 

[Evan]

<..> If the airline won't provide flexibility on the cheaper airfares I will create my own flexiility....

Which is why we are here and this is a great example of what somebody experienced like JohnK can teach. I do this as well, book 2 oneway fares instead of a return if i think it makes more sense.

Of course its always a case of getting stuck with something and thinking i should have.... well for next time anyway.

E

 

[fortymilliondaggers]

In the end I got over it, but have learnt from the experience. With BPay option, will be avoiding credit card fees.

 

[Ewing]

It does not make sense to me that you need to pay money to separate the itineraries. Perhaps they have this condition in place to cover situations where people purchase 2 for 1 deals or companion airfares and then want to change the dates

It certainly wasn't the case as recently as February - I had a CBR-SYD super saver booking with 2 PAX split over the phone.

It was done so that one could upgrade to business using points (there weren't 2 seats available at that stage). It ended up being a moot point anyway because a second seat opened up a few days later.