Change Return Award to One-Way

[hb13]

Hi All,

My mum has an award booking return flight (MEL-KUL-MEL) using QF points. She wants to cancel the return leg (KUL-MEL) - is this possible to do and get a refund of half the points back?

 

[Scr77]

If changed before the end of the year, you will get half the points back and there should be no change fee. You will have to call for this. The problem you have is that unless you have the status to speak to Hobart or Auckland, there‘s a good chance they’ll stuff it up and cancel the lot.

is there availability to book just the leg you want and then cancel the original booking?

 

[aikman]

yes, as long she hasn't flown the first leg yet

 

[Scr77]

yes, as long she hasn't flown the first leg yet

Very true. No refunds once first flight is taken.

 

[hb13]

Ah perfect - her flight is in a few days time. Thanks for the answers all.

 

[hb13]

UPDATE: So my biggest nightmare has occurred - which shows the complete lack of competence by overseas Qantas call-centre staff.

We called to ask for the return leg to be cancelled and the agent said this would not be a problem - she told us my mum would get 75k points back and $90 in taxes. She also said that the ticket would be re-issued within 24 hours.

The agent, who was based in South Africa, seemed very competent and we thought everything was taken care of.

24 hours later, my mum checked her app and the whole flight had been cancelled. There wasn't even the MEL-KUL leg appearing. No emails had come through either. We called Qantas and, lo and behold, the agent had cancelled the whole booking and she hadn't left any notes. When speaking to the new agent at Qantas, he apologised and said he would have to get a manager to listen to the call and see what happened because at the moment its 'her words against my mum's words'. There are no award seats left on the flight and only a few revenue seats.

What are our possible options here? The agent we spoke to most recently promised he would 'do his best' to fix the issue and find my mum a resolution - but this frankly means nothing to me. Needless to say I'm furious because this is absolutely ridiculous.

Another fear of mine is they say they listened to the call and lie and protect their agent (after all, it is only them that has access to the recording of the call). Secondly, even if they admit it was an error - what if they don't fix it?

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Yikes! How many points were returned to the account was it just half (i.e. 75K points + $90 in taxes and fees)? If so, I'd take a screenshot of that since that's evidence enough that the agent intended to cancel out the return leg.

In terms of possible options, I'd wait and see what Qantas does. If the flight was with MH, I have some doubts that they can magically make that award appear. On the other hand, they could certainly open up award availability to SIN on QF and award availability to KUL on JQ. If for some reason they are unwilling to honour their commitment, I'd book the ticket anyway and take them to small claims court of a tribunal since this represents breach of contract. In either forum I suspect QF would be obligated to share the recording they have of that call. And if they were to "lose" the recording an adverse inference could be made against QF.

-RooFlyer88

 

[hb13]

Yikes! How many points were returned to the account was it just half (i.e. 75K points + $90 in taxes and fees)? If so, I'd take a screenshot of that since that's evidence enough that the agent intended to cancel out the return leg.

In terms of possible options, I'd wait and see what Qantas does. If the flight was with MH, I have some doubts that they can magically make that award appear. On the other hand, they could certainly open up award availability to SIN on QF and award availability to KUL on JQ. If for some reason they are unwilling to honour their commitment, I'd book the ticket anyway and take them to small claims court of a tribunal since this represents breach of contract. In either forum I suspect QF would be obligated to share the recording they have of that call. And if they were to "lose" the recording an adverse inference could be made against QF.

-RooFlyer88

Ah thanks for the advice! Because I would definitely consider going to a small claims court. Actually another friend of mine did say in a court of law they would have to provide that recording.

Qantas promised to call my mum back tomorrow - and I've said to her that she needs to record that call - of course, she needs to be crystal clear about letting the agent know she is recording the call.

Regarding the points, nothing has shown up yet on my mum's FF account - I assume that takes days/weeks.

I'm just so over the absolute s***show QF has been of late - and this basically ruins my mum's whole trip before it even started if not fixed.

When will Qantas finally fix this mess that has been going on for way too long????

 

[Scr77]

…..there‘s a good chance they’ll stuff it up and cancel the lot.

I‘m sorry that my comment came true. I would call back and say “I‘ve had legal advice and my lawyer requires you to provide a copy of the recording”. I‘ve used this angle with incompetent travel insurance agent before and it seemed to escalate the problem quickly. Make sure you have the day and exact time you called.

 

[ChrisMars]

What I am writing is probably not going to help, but in case... as OP mentioned the flight was in a couple of days, so assuming it was less than 72h when the cancellation occurred, wouldn't this be considered an IROPS, providing much more flexibility to Qantas to find and book a seat on partner airlines, without having to consider award inventory. That is, once Qantas admit it was not a voluntary cancellation from OP's mum.

Again, not sure it helps, but if it was less than 72h, I would probably mention that in future conversations with Qantas, to try and put more pressure. In case it's a genuine sympathetic Qantas agent mum's OP has to deal with, this could also give more ammunition to find and get approved a solution

Anyway good luck. Travel really su**s those days.

 

[hb13]

A bit of an update so far - as I suspected, the 'new' Qantas agent we dealt with after the stuff up happened, who had promised to call today, as expected, didn't call - neither did anyone else.

We called and were able to be put on with a supervisor, who after a very long hold told us she listened to the call and admitted that it was a QF error. The supervisor then told us it wasn't actually the agent's fault but rather it was a glitch in system. She then said QF needs to contact MH to get a seat released, and this can't be done till Monday. She also promised to call on Monday, which leaves me really worried because the flight is scheduled for Tuesday night MEL time. She said, not surprisingly she'll 'do her best' - but clearly this means nothing.

I checked and the cancellation occurred about 80 hours, just outside the 72 hours. And by this I mean my mother's call to QF to cancel the return leg occurred at T-80, I can't be sure exactly when the actions of cancelling the ticket occurred.

It is now only 48 hrs away that this flight is supposed to happen - and we have once again been promised to get a call from the supervisor to spoke to on the latest call Monday morning - it is getting extremely worrying as to what will happen.

 

[Scr77]

I'm sorry that I don't have any great advice. In hindsight, I would have suggested that you forfeit the return points just to have kept the outbound flight. Other than hoping that the new agent is less useless than all the other non-Hobart/Auckland agents, have you tried sending dozens (I'm not joking) of emails to Stephane Tully?

If the trip to KUL is important, I'd be looking at booking elsewhere. As I've said on other threads, Qantas will stuff you around no end and then leave you stranded.

 

[hb13]

I'm sorry that I don't have any great advice. In hindsight, I would have suggested that you forfeit the return points just to have kept the outbound flight. Other that hoping that the new agent is less useless than all the other non-Hobart/Auckland agents, have you tried sending dozens (I'm not joking) of emails to Stephane Tully?

If the trip to KUL is important, I'd be looking at booking elsewhere. As, I've said on other threads, Qantas will stuff you around no end and then leave you stranded.

Actually that is what I had said to my mum initially - let's just forget about the return points because there is a chance QF will stuff this up. I'm literally furious at how this is played out.

I hadn't considered emailing Stephanie Tully - does anyone have her email? Because I'll do anything at this stage.

 

[Scr77]

Check out this thread. The email is in there and hopefully accurate.

Ticketed Qatar Flights Disappeared

I booked rewards flights back in July, Adelaide to Paris and returning Edinburgh to Adelaide (both via Mel) with the return in business. The points were debited, paid the taxes and received the tickets via email. Bookings have been showing in Qantas app, selected seats etc. I've just logged in...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I'm sorry that I don't have any great advice. In hindsight, I would have suggested that you forfeit the return points just to have kept the outbound flight. Other than hoping that the new agent is less useless than all the other non-Hobart/Auckland agents, have you tried sending dozens (I'm not joking) of emails to Stephane Tully?

Why should we reward Qantas for their incompetence? It shouldn't be unreasonable to expect that you can change your bookings without the agent mucking up the whole thing. Indeed, with many airlines these changes could be made entirely online without the need to be on hold enabling the traveller to verify everything before making a change. Over the past 2 years due to you know what, I've made dozens of calls to Air Canada to change award bookings I've made with them. Each and every time the agent understood what I was asking and would even send out the updated itinerary before the call was ended.

Things need to change. It's not enough for Uncle Alan to give us an apology video, a couple of points and a voucher to shut us up. These shortcomings in customer service need to be addressed.

-RooFlyer88

 

[offshore171]

Hi All,

My mum has an award booking return flight (MEL-KUL-MEL) using QF points. She wants to cancel the return leg (KUL-MEL) - is this possible to do and get a refund of half the points back?

Don’t mess with it…

UPDATE: So my biggest nightmare has occurred

Yikes!

24 hours later, my mum checked her app and the whole flight had been cancelled.

And there it is.

which shows the complete lack of competence by overseas Qantas call-centre staff.

Yes, it certainly does.

It’s at the point where if you have a confirmed awards booking, you shouldn’t attempt to make any voluntary changes unless it’s a matter of life and death.

It shouldn’t be this way, but the incompetence makes it so.

 

[encryptededdy]

Not super relevant, but I wonder if the agent did remove the correct leg, but it didn't re-ticket in time causing the other leg to drop off as well? I'm not sure how strict MH are with re-ticketing.

 

[sevenfourtyseven]

That really sucks. I had a similar conversation with the South African call centre on Saturday night in relation to removing a sector from an award booking (after JAL shifted our original flight and the second sector departed before the first!).

Anyways, the consult (after speaking to supervisors) did manage to remove the sector in question and so far everything seems in tact. However - no eticket has been re-issued yet, though everything shows up as confirmed currently...

 

[jpp42]

However - no ticket has been re-issued, though everything shows up as confirmed currently...

That is a yellow flag. Since it's now been at least 36 hours, I would be calling them back and asking for the ticketing status. Ask them to contact ticketing on the phone while you wait. JAL will cancel your itinerary if it's not re-ticketed within their deadline.

 

[Guvner]

yes, as long she hasn't flown the first leg yet

This may be a technicality, but exactly when does "travel commence"? After check-in, upon boarding, once the aircraft is moving?
There's no definition that I can see on the website.

Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions | Qantas

These Terms and Conditions form the basis of Qantas Frequent Flyer, to protect both Members and the Qantas Group.

www.qantas.com

14.7.4 Subject to this clause 14.7, the following changes are permitted to a Classic Flight Reward after ticketing and prior to commencement of any travel and will incur a Change Fee (see the Fee Schedule) per passenger:

(a) change to flight number;
(b) change to date of travel;
(c) change to class of travel;
(d) change to any Segment routing or airline;
(e) change to name (only for Flights with a Qantas (QF) flight number on the ticket that are operated by Qantas); and
(f) request to cancel ticket and re-credit Qantas Points. Please note that only Qantas Points that would not have expired will be re-credited.

14.9.3 Once any travel has commenced on a Classic Flight Reward, the Reward is considered used, even if the remaining travel is not completed. Qantas Points will not be re-credited to the Member's account for unused ticket coupons.