Flight delayed, missed connection and abandoned by Qantas

[JohnK]

Trying to book revenue brisbane to doha on qantas.com gets the following error message:

To be fair they did say various European destinations.

 

[vetrade]

I have seen lots of issue pre-departure, is that a common things those days to be abandoned (itinary canceled with points refoudn) by Qantas once the award on a single ticket itinerary has started? Especially where Qantas could use it's own metal to negotiate an outcome?

The first leg of our OWA was MEL - SYD at Easter, then, after we had taken that flight, QR rescheduled a DOH - KUL flight at the end of our itinerary which left us with no available award connections back to MEL at the end of Sept. During calls trying to sort something out, 3 agents took the approach that since there was no award availability they would just refund us for the un-used portion of the trip - as if it would be a satisfactory outcome to just cancel a part-completed itinerary after 12 months of planning.

So, yes, this offer to refund does seem to be a "thing" for QF nowadays as a cure-all when finding a satisfactory solution becomes too difficult for them.

 

[papeto]

Hi All, thanks for all the messages of support. I can confirm it was two Qantas classic reward ticket in J ( Qsuites), the taxes and fees on those were $1.4 k for the two tickets and the economy seats to replace those was $6.6 k plus another $1k for flights in europe to get to Athens. So not insubstantial and not something your going to write off. Qantas treatment was the same to all pax on that flight, irrespective of what tickets they had booked. We chatted to the other pax on the flight in the morning and they were all treated the same. Actually one of the pax had booked directly with Qatar directly and she was also referred back to Qantas. None were re-booked by Qantas or further acccommodated.

We did speak to staff at the airport, but it appears all ticketing has been moved online (there is no sales desk at the airports apparantly) and there is not much they can do. They were helpful in getting a delay letter issued and also web adress to where I should complain / claim, so lets see how it goes. The general impression I got was that staff was emphatic, but there hands were tied by management. Also got the impression, they have been dealing with this a lot.

Its a real pity we dont have a passenger bill of rights as per the EU and Canada. Given the billions provided by government to the airline industry during COVID, the taxpayer should have the right to demand better service. We may have to get the pollies out of the chairmans lounge first though

 

[OATEK]

Once again there is confirmation that QF classic rewards on non-QF metal are a lottery.

 

[papeto]

The first leg of our OWA was MEL - SYD at Easter, then, after we had taken that flight, QR rescheduled a DOH - KUL flight at the end of our itinerary which left us with no available award connections back to MEL at the end of Sept. During calls trying to sort something out, 3 agents took the approach that since there was no award availability they would just refund us for the un-used portion of the trip - as if it would be a satisfactory outcome to just cancel a part-completed itinerary after 12 months of planning.

So, yes, this offer to refund does seem to be a "thing" for QF nowadays as a cure-all when finding a satisfactory solution becomes too difficult for them.

Vetrade, what was the outcome of your cancellation.

 

[offshore171]

Hi All, thanks for all the messages of support. I can confirm it was two Qantas classic reward ticket in J ( Qsuites),

When you say two tickets, was it one ticket SYD to BNE and a separate ticket for BNE to Doha?

Or was it all on the same ticket? (x2 PAX)

 

[vetrade]

Vetrade, what was the outcome of your cancellation.

Cancellation with a refund was not an option for us. I found award seats into PER or BNE but QF would not release either J or Y seats on their own flights to get us to MEL. That was where it all stalled and they gave up - a refund became their only solution.

So, I re-hashed the 5 flights at the back end of our itinerary, changed a stopover from BRU to FRA, changed some dates and managed to find J awards all the way through from PMI to MEL. Then I rang the call centre and walked the agent through what I wanted. After about 90 minutes she was able to locate all the flights (she did have to ask me about 4 times where PMI was) and the new itinerary got ticketed a day later.

I was fortunate that I wasn't hit with the disruption at the last minute, though.

 

[papeto]

When you say two tickets, was it one ticket SYD to BNE and a separate ticket for BNE to Doha?

Or was it all on the same ticket? (x2 PAX)

My apologies it was two of us travelling on one ticket. The ticket included all three sectors - Syd to Bne, Bne to Doha and Doha to Athens.

Post automatically merged: Jun 28, 2022

Cancellation with a refund was not an option for us. I found award seats into PER or BNE but QF would not release either J or Y seats on their own flights to get us to MEL. That was where it all stalled and they gave up - a refund became their only solution.

So, I re-hashed the 5 flights at the back end of our itinerary, changed a stopover from BRU to FRA, changed some dates and managed to find J awards all the way through from PMI to MEL. Then I rang the call centre and walked the agent through what I wanted. After about 90 minutes she was able to locate all the flights (she did have to ask me about 4 times where PMI was) and the new itinerary got ticketed a day later.

I was fortunate that I wasn't hit with the disruption at the last minute, though.

Wow that was a lucky find. Emirates used to release seats for awards shoryly before a flight if they weren’t booked, but with the school holidays there was nothing.

 

[vetrade]

My apologies it was two of us travelling on one ticket. The ticket included all three sectors - Syd to Bne, Bne to Doha and Doha to Athens.

Post automatically merged: Jun 28, 2022

Wow that was a lucky find. Emirates used to release seats for awards shoryly before a flight if they weren’t booked, but with the school holidays there was nothing.

Yes, luck did come into it, but I did spend about 8 - 10 hrs looking at virtually every combination of flights through multiple European and Asian cities.

 

[Vic]

To be fair they did say various European destinations.

I was just trying to force a route where QR was the only non-stop option, to test if qantas would sell a QR seat.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Something went very wrong here. If all on the one ticket and there’s a missed connection you should be protected on another flight to your destination… that’s the whole point of a single ticket. And it doesn’t require award availability. Airlines have agreements in place to handle these things.

Sounds like the call centres are ill-equipped to understand this. Of course a ticket desk at the airport would have sorted this out fairly quickly.

Qantas can’t have it both ways… they tell you if you have separate tickets ‘you’re on your own’. They can’t also absolve themselves if you then get a single ticket!

 

[aikman]

Since this can happen to anyone, with the benefit of hindsight, what could OP have done differently which could have resulted in a better outcome?

 

[sqrt()]

Since this can happen to anyone, with the benefit of hindsight, what could OP have done differently which could have resulted in a better outcome?

Booked QF metal to DOH.

 

[Daver6]

Assuming one had travel insurance. In this situation if the OP just booked a revenue J fare on the next QR flight out of BNE (and any others needed for the trip caused by these issues), would insurance be liable to pay out?

In my mind, this is precisely what travel insurance is for. However, I know if I was in that situation I would be hesitant to spend big money like that being unsure whether it would be paid out or not. Thoughts?

 

[justinbrett]

That's very odd, even on an award ticket, that they would leave you stranded mid journey. Maybe if they flew you home and then fully refunded the tickets - maybe - but to leave you there and make you pay for a flight home, that's not right at all.

You were absolutely within your rights to be booked on an earlier flight out of SYD when they cancelled yours - you do not need to have award availability. I would have opted for a downgrade rather than risk missing my connection.

90 minutes in SYD or BNE is just not long enough.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

Since this can happen to anyone, with the benefit of hindsight, what could OP have done differently which could have resulted in a better outcome?

Without status, I don't think OP would have been able to resolve the matter over the phone. Like others have said, it seems like QF staff aren't trained or capable in resolving such a matter often resorting to just refunding you.

I would have tried everything to get myself on an earlier flight rather than taking that 7pm flight from SYD. I also would have kicked up a fuss with QF and have my flights sorted out before heading to the hotel but I know that not everyone would be like that.

Assuming one had travel insurance. In this situation if the OP just booked a revenue J fare on the next QR flight out of BNE (and any others needed for the trip caused by these issues), would insurance be liable to pay out?

In my mind, this is precisely what travel insurance is for. However, I know if I was in that situation I would be hesitant to spend big money like that being unsure whether it would be paid out or not. Thoughts?

Most insurance would ask you to get as much as you can back from the airline. They would then deduct the cost of your points (no idea how) from your revenue J fare. Though this was 4 years ago.

 

[motef]

Booked QF metal to DOH.

There is no QF metal to DOH

 

[RichardMEL]

Since this can happen to anyone, with the benefit of hindsight, what could OP have done differently which could have resulted in a better outcome?

Great question. The lack of real service at the airport and directed to apparently il-informed, poorly trained or whatever agents resulted in a Cluster<youknowwwhat> that shouldn't have happened to two pax, let alone all of the others. and the customer has very little control.

I wonder if customers of significant status (I hate to pull this card as it sounds and is elitist) would have gotten better treatment because I bet you HBA would have handled it properly.

I absolutely agree with MELTraveller above - airlines have well formed policies and procedures in place for all of these kinds of situations. Indeed used to be (maybe still is?) oneworld had a specific office or staff at LAX (as example) to handle irrops and misconnects because.. well.. they could be common at times (ahem QF JFK-LAX anyone?). but pretty much all airlines cover this stuff and franjkly rebooking should have been handled in the back end.. and I reckon the original staff atairport wo provided the hotel etc saying you'll get a call pretty much expected this to be the process, and when it was not, calling res just made a mess 100x worse - but what could the customer do?

QF has pushed everything to phone and online as much as possible, and when the phone agents don't seem to handle this situation properly - and it's hardly uncommon to have misconnects - then that is a poor indictment on them

but leaves the customer up a brown creek with a paddle made of neil perry salad leaves...

so I don't think there is an answer

 

[encryptededdy]

Assuming one had travel insurance. In this situation if the OP just booked a revenue J fare on the next QR flight out of BNE (and any others needed for the trip caused by these issues), would insurance be liable to pay out?

In my mind, this is precisely what travel insurance is for. However, I know if I was in that situation I would be hesitant to spend big money like that being unsure whether it would be paid out or not. Thoughts?

I would be very hesitant since I'm not sure if insurance would make me whole if I replaced an award ticket with a revenue ticket (and if they didn't, then I would be out a lot of money since as you know a one-way ticket last minute can probably buy you at least one return ticket a few weeks out)

I can confirm it was two Qantas classic reward ticket in J ( Qsuites), the taxes and fees on those were $1.4 k for the two tickets and the economy seats to replace those was $6.6 k plus another $1k for flights in europe to get to Athens.

This is quite awful on Qantas' part. I've had issues with Qantas messing with flights in the past (I have a thread here where my friend's flights back to Berlin were cancelled with 1 day notice, and rebooked onto EK 2 days later), but at least in that instance I was able to call up, get a competent Hobart-based agent who was able to put him onto the next QR flight out the next day.

To be honest, just thinking about getting compensation out of Qantas for this is giving me a headache. I'm sure everyone in this forum can agree that in this instance Qantas was absolutely in the wrong.

I can totally imagine the stress when you already have hotels/activities booked in Europe, and you wouldn't have wanted to waste time arguing with Qantas any further to get them to reaccomodate you.

Actually one of the pax had booked directly with Qatar directly and she was also referred back to Qantas. None were re-booked by Qantas or further acccommodated.

This is quite odd. I know Qatar doesn't have good customer service on the ground either, but I would expect that they should rebook you after the missed connection.

 

[encryptededdy]

Its a real pity we dont have a passenger bill of rights as per the EU and Canada.

I absolutely agree with this, but I suppose the interesting thing here is I'm pretty sure what happened to you isn't even Qantas Policy. From past experience + experience of others in this forum Qantas Policy would and should have put you on whatever flight was available.

Also I'm pretty sure if you look up the OneWorld Disruption policy etc. you absolutely should've been rebooked.