Change flights fee question

[Mal]

I think I know the answer to this, but want confirmation.

I have a booking that I want to change the date on. Converted to $A, there is approx $139 change fee.

All good.

However - the fare has dropped by a few hundred $ since I booked it. Selecting the new flights shows me the assessed change cost as:

Current Price: $1303.00
Previous Price: $1866.00
Change Fee: $139.00
Amount Due = -$283.00
(Note they may be out by a few $ as I've converted the forex amount back to $A).

Any attempt to go further returns an error.

If I phoned up and got them to change it, what should the change cost? Is it $139 + any assistance fee?

Am thinking of just cancelling and rebooking the ticket anyway, as the cost to cancel is the same as to change ($139) and I'll save a few more $ as well. The ticket can't be cancelled online though, which is frustrating.

Do I call the Qantas office who issued the ticket, or should Australia be able to deal with it?

 

[Dave Noble]

Has the foreign currency price dropped a lot or is it that the exchange rates have improved a lot? If the latter it is possible that the refund may not be as much as expected since the refund will be of the foreign currency amount

I would call the office that sold the ticket and see what they say. What do the fare rules actually state regarding refunds?

Dave

 

[Mal]

Has the foreign currency price dropped a lot or is it that the exchange rates have improved a lot? If the latter it is possible that the refund may not be as much as expected since the refund will be of the foreign currency amount

I would call the office that sold the ticket and see what they say. What do the fare rules actually state regarding refunds?

Dave

The currency concerned has depreciated against the $A - but the fare has also dropped quite a bit in local currency.

The rules for refund states:
# Before departure (Not applicable to Qantas Any Seat Awards):

* Cancellations permitted at ~$A140 per person, subject to a local service fee.

(I've Xe'd the cancellation rate)

 

[Dave Noble]

The currency concerned has depreciated against the $A - but the fare has also dropped quite a bit in local currency.

The rules for refund states:
# Before departure (Not applicable to Qantas Any Seat Awards):

* Cancellations permitted at ~$A140 per person, subject to a local service fee.

(I've Xe'd the cancellation rate)

The refund will be the original currency amount converted to AUD when it hits your card ( so there may be currency fees ) and may take a few weeks to arrive. As long as ok with that ,
then easy to cancel and just book at the new price

If you do the new booking at the same time, they may be able to use the value as credit towards the new ticket and just refund the remainder ( which would reduce the exchange fee ) but , I suspect that you would be hit up for a telephone service fee if they do do that

Dave

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

This happened to me earlier this year, with the change fee included, the fare difference drove the total to a negative number. I called QF, sat on hold (thank god for speakerphones) and 45 mins later received my fare difference on my credit card. They did want to charge me a 'telephone' based change fee, I told them no thanks, their website has a bug. The wait on the phone was for their IT staff to run a series of transaction to test the issue (must be slow IT staff, its not a complicated transaction) and verify the bug.

Call QF, tell them to process the change manually and don't pay any additional fees except the change fee.

 

[Mal]

This happened to me earlier this year, with the change fee included, the fare difference drove the total to a negative number. I called QF, sat on hold (thank god for speakerphones) and 45 mins later received my fare difference on my credit card.

So you were refunded the difference? That's not too bad.

In the end I cancelled and rebooked my itin. There will be 3 sets of currency conversion fees in total (circa $165 in total for the original booking, the refund and rebooking), but realised that would probably be the easiest and quickest way.