Classic reward being cancelled by Qantas!

[hayley2022]

Hi,
I’m after some help if possible trying to stop Qantas from cancelling a classic reward seat I booked 8 weeks ago,
- On 1 May 2022 I book a return trip from Toronto to Gatwick using classic reward booking for 8th to 12th June
- I called Qantas today for a minor query but whilst on the call the agent noticed a problem in how they had set up the booking on their end
- long story but they are now saying the return flight I have book on 12th June is going to be cancelled and they will only be able to offer me the same seat days later

as you can image to be told a week out from getting on the plane they’re basically backing out of the deal to give me this flight is a nightmare!

does anyone have any experience in similar circumstances where QANTAS are cancelling the booking and aren‘t offering any suitable alternatives or compensation?

The actual flight is still running but Qantas don’t have anymore classic reward seats available so are basically saying tough if I want to get on this flight I need to pay for it myself and forget the fact as far as I‘m concerned I already have a booking. The extra cost to book myself is $1000

thanks

 

[Fil-Ski]

Same thing here

Basically every time they make even the slightest change they need to reissue your ticket

I had many changes but didn’t know that you need a new ticket issued every change

I basically lost 9 out of 10 seats on my awards flight. Qantas couldn’t and didn’t do anything to fix it

In the end I booked another awards flight but going the long way the alternative was not going at all

Now the cough fight with the insurance will be fun to try claim the extra costs and points

 

[jase05]

Hi,
I’m after some help if possible trying to stop Qantas from cancelling a classic reward seat I booked 8 weeks ago,
- On 1 May 2022 I book a return trip from Toronto to Gatwick using classic reward booking for 8th to 12th June
- I called Qantas today for a minor query but whilst on the call the agent noticed a problem in how they had set up the booking on their end
- long story but they are now saying the return flight I have book on 12th June is going to be cancelled and they will only be able to offer me the same seat days later

as you can image to be told a week out from getting on the plane they’re basically backing out of the deal to give me this flight is a nightmare!

does anyone have any experience in similar circumstances where QANTAS are cancelling the booking and aren‘t offering any suitable alternatives or compensation?

The actual flight is still running but Qantas don’t have anymore classic reward seats available so are basically saying tough if I want to get on this flight I need to pay for it myself and forget the fact as far as I‘m concerned I already have a booking. The extra cost to book myself is $1000

thanks

I’d be interested to know how or why QF are cancelling these flights when they are obviously on partner airlines. Has QF stated that it is a fault at their end or has the partner airline cancelled the flight and it’s out of QF’s control?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi,
I’m after some help if possible trying to stop Qantas from cancelling a classic reward seat I booked 8 weeks ago,
- On 1 May 2022 I book a return trip from Toronto to Gatwick using classic reward booking for 8th to 12th June
- I called Qantas today for a minor query but whilst on the call the agent noticed a problem in how they had set up the booking on their end
- long story but they are now saying the return flight I have book on 12th June is going to be cancelled and they will only be able to offer me the same seat days later

as you can image to be told a week out from getting on the plane they’re basically backing out of the deal to give me this flight is a nightmare!

does anyone have any experience in similar circumstances where QANTAS are cancelling the booking and aren‘t offering any suitable alternatives or compensation?

The actual flight is still running but Qantas don’t have anymore classic reward seats available so are basically saying tough if I want to get on this flight I need to pay for it myself and forget the fact as far as I‘m concerned I already have a booking. The extra cost to book myself is $1000

thanks

Hi and welcome to AFF.

Unfortunately you are not alone… there are lots of similar threads here on AFF about mistakes being made by overseas call centres and seats being lost.

If you had been flying Qantas metal (qantas operated aircraft) they can create an award seat for you… they simply change a cash seat to the right booking class for an award, and put you in there.

If your flight is on a partner airline, they cannot do that. They actually have to pay for the replacement seat. And of course they won’t want to do that.

However… if Qantas has made a mistake… even with a with a partner airline… it is still up to qantas to fix it for you. You have rights under australian consumer law, even though this is a flight between toronto and the uk.

Nite that is is different to when a partner airline cancels their flight… then qantas doesn’t have the same obligation to you.

Unfortunately the overseas call centres aren’t very good - or even understanding - of what you might want to request. The only way around it is to persevere.

I would call them back… indicate this is a qantas error. They need to fix it.

 

[Cityblue]

I’d be interested to know how or why QF are cancelling these flights when they are obviously on partner airlines. Has QF stated that it is a fault at their end or has the partner airline cancelled the flight and it’s out of QF’s control?

It’s something do with how Qantas set up the booking, the flight is still operating but the ticket was set up on the Qantas system as a commercial ticket even though the ticket issued to me was a classic reward - all Qantas’s doing. And of course now just a week out from departure there’s no classic reward seats left

Post automatically merged: Jun 5, 2022

Same thing here

Basically every time they make even the slightest change they need to reissue your ticket

I had many changes but didn’t know that you need a new ticket issued every change

I basically lost 9 out of 10 seats on my awards flight. Qantas couldn’t and didn’t do anything to fix it

In the end I booked another awards flight but going the long way the alternative was not going at all

Now the cough fight with the insurance will be fun to try claim the extra costs and points

Post automatically merged: Jun 5, 2022

Same thing here

Basically every time they make even the slightest change they need to reissue your ticket

I had many changes but didn’t know that you need a new ticket issued every change

I basically lost 9 out of 10 seats on my awards flight. Qantas couldn’t and didn’t do anything to fix it

In the end I booked another awards flight but going the long way the alternative was not going at all

Now the cough fight with the insurance will be fun to try claim the extra costs and points

Sorry you’re suffering the same fate, i didn’t realize how little protection / guarantee you get with classic reward bookings until now

 

[jase05]

Interesting. Being that it appears to be QF stuff up then absolutely they should be doing everything possible to fix it at no further cost to yourself however this doesn’t always happen as you will see from literally a mountain of reports on here and other social media

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF @hayley2022 and sorry about the circumstances. As others have said, this is happening a lot and the Qantas call centers are bad.

But, honestly, unless its toally unable to be taken by you, if they are offering a seat a few days later, I'd grab it.

 

[Fil-Ski]

Since it’s such short notice Qantas now won’t even put you on a paid seat if they think they will sell it to someone else or extort more money from another passenger

They refer it to the yield management team and you need to wait

 

[pangwen]

As a bit of a wild card, as they have only just informed you of the cancellation/delay and the flight is only 7 days away, do the compensation provisions of EU261 (or the UK post-brexit equivalent) apply?

AFAIK, the rules used to kick in if you were informed of a cancellation/delay less than 14 days from your flight.

 

[serfty]

AFAIK, the rules used to kick in if you were informed of a cancellation/delay less than 14 days from your flight.

I think it needs to have been ticketed though ... I suspect it had not been (081-).

Looking at Toronto / Gatwick I guess it is on a partner airline (e.g. BA, rather than Qantas).

 

[Cityblue]

So after speaking with 3 different people over 8hrs they have reinstated the flight, keep calling till you get the answer you want seems to be a good strategy!
thanks all for the input and hopefully there’s no more drama

 

[RooFlyer]

So after speaking with 3 different people over 8hrs they have reinstated the flight, keep calling till you get the answer you want seems to be a good strategy!
thanks all for the input and hopefully there’s no more drama

Excellent! Sorry to be a squib, but do you have an e-ticket, with the 081- prefix that serfty mentioned?

 

[Port Power]

Hi,
I’m after some help if possible trying to stop Qantas from cancelling a classic reward seat I booked 8 weeks ago,
- On 1 May 2022 I book a return trip from Toronto to Gatwick using classic reward booking for 8th to 12th June
- I called Qantas today for a minor query but whilst on the call the agent noticed a problem in how they had set up the booking on their end
- long story but they are now saying the return flight I have book on 12th June is going to be cancelled and they will only be able to offer me the same seat days later

as you can image to be told a week out from getting on the plane they’re basically backing out of the deal to give me this flight is a nightmare!

does anyone have any experience in similar circumstances where QANTAS are cancelling the booking and aren‘t offering any suitable alternatives or compensation?

The actual flight is still running but Qantas don’t have anymore classic reward seats available so are basically saying tough if I want to get on this flight I need to pay for it myself and forget the fact as far as I‘m concerned I already have a booking. The extra cost to book myself is $1000

thanks

It would be interesting to hear how things went with your flights. Did the original return classic reward flight eventuate?

 

[Cityblue]

It would be interesting to hear how things went with your flights. Did the original return classic reward flight eventuate?

After 3 separate calls they eventually called the 3rd party operator (WestJet) who reinstated the flight so it was resolved within 8hrs of the initial call, best takeaway from whole situation was keep calling till you get someone who can help, the mixed messages from 3 separate phone calls was crazy

 

[TomYagher]

As a data point, I had a similar kind of situation with a QF classic reward booked on Sri Lankan. UL ended up changing a connection so I arrived into Colombo after I was meant to depart. Called Qantas who said they can’t do anything as no more reward seats left. Called Sri Lankan office in Colombo who said call your travel agent. I told them I had, but because Sri Lankan had cancelled the flight Qantas were unable secure any seat in the same fare family. Two minutes later the operator fixed everything.

So it seems acting as your own travel agent can work, of course not guaranteed though.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

As a data point, I had a similar kind of situation with a QF classic reward booked on Sri Lankan. UL ended up changing a connection so I arrived into Colombo after I was meant to depart. Called Qantas who said they can’t do anything as no more reward seats left. Called Sri Lankan office in Colombo who said call your travel agent. I told them I had, but because Sri Lankan had cancelled the flight Qantas were unable secure any seat in the same fare family. Two minutes later the operator fixed everything.

So it seems acting as your own travel agent can work, of course not guaranteed though.

Yeah… of *course* other airlines can - and do - handle each other’s bookings. They do it with IRROPS and schedule changes and adding new flights when old ones get cancelled.

Some airlines will go out of their way to help. Others won’t.

When QF cancelled their SFO flight on me, issued by a partner airline, I asked QF if they could protect me on another flight than the one already assigned. They said ‘we can’t do that’ [add a new flight into the booking and then I get the partner to ticket].

I said ‘can’t, or your policy is not to?’ I got yelled at by by agent in Cape Town (which I now see others have similarly reported in other threads).

Other airline like CX have no issue doing it.

 

[drron]

And an old story but the one RTW J award through QFF came a cropper in Paris. The French had a General strike so our CDG-JFK on AA was cancelled. Went to the airport early and not only did AA put us on their MIA flight with a connection to LGA but when the agent said OMG I worried. QF have cancelled the rest of your ticket as you didn't take the JFK flight. But then no worries we will reissue it on an AA ticket.
So QF pull your socks up.

 

[love_the_life]

Mine weren't Classic Award flights cancelled - paid J CBR-BNE-CBR - first message for CBR-BNE leg - 'we've had to make some changes' followed by another email 5 mins later with the same text for the second leg. Righto, let me check - Yeah nup - J became Y on both. Guess it's part of the cancelling of flights mentioned in the media this week. Flying later but still in J (not so much for me but for my travelling companion). Do they not check pax class? Guessing not.

 

[RooFlyer]

Mine weren't Classic Award flights cancelled - paid J CBR-BNE-CBR - first message for CBR-BNE leg - 'we've had to make some changes' followed by another email 5 mins later with the same text for the second leg. Righto, let me check - Yeah nup - J became Y on both. Guess it's part of the cancelling of flights mentioned in the media this week. Flying later but still in J (not so much for me but for my travelling companion). Do they not check pax class? Guessing not.

Which airline did you say you were travelling on?

 

[bazzam]

Just had the South African call centre cancel my business classic reward to. Had a sector by another carrier reschedule which would have mean we missed our flight from HK back to Sydney (the rescheduled flight landed after the connection would have already left). Called to ask them to reschedule the connecting flight which was done, but they cancelled the sector with the other airline. Spent 8 hours so far and they are doing an investigating. Fiji is blaming the South African call centre but no one can fix this!

They are doing an investigation now but I'm not confident I'll hear anything back... Any suggestions on who else to contact?