Flight delayed, missed connection and abandoned by Qantas

[Franky]

Who do you call when standing outside the lounge after incorrectly being denied entry?

I guess you could ask the agent to call their Supervisor, but would they have one handy?

 

[motef]

In this case you would've held a 081 ticket number for all 3 flights ie. same ticket. A cancellation within 72 hours of departure, otherwise known as an 'involuntary' change is considered within the operating carrier's control and the operating carrier of the delayed flight is responsible for rebooking you to your destination. That could've been in various forms depending on when the delay or cancellation happened:

Examples:

1. Rebooking you Sydney to Athens and bypassing Brisbane altogether
2. Rebooking you from Brisbane to Athens

If a cancellation or time change happens > 72 hours out, otherwise known as a schedule change, then the responsible party is the ticketing carrier and if it was booked via an agent, then the agent is responsible.

So on this case Qantas is responsible

 

[zig]

I'm appalled by the way in which QF has treated the OP. This mismanagement, along with others recently posted has made me not want to set foot on a QF flight again.
I can't offer any advice to the OP, but am outraged on their behalf.
Time for AJ to go, and for all of us to vote with our feet and walk away from QF.

 

[encryptededdy]

Which is absolutely NOT their policy. I had a flight cancelled a few weeks ago - I could select ANY flight that day regardless of the fare. I didn't even need to speak to an agent - the website offered the change automatically.

Unsure why this happened to OP.

I agree. However, OP states they tried to change flights and were declined. I'm not surprised though, because I've personally experienced this back in April. The website wouldn't let me change it (I assume the website doesn't present the option when the changed flight is just one connecting flight of a multi-flight itinerary), and the agent told me the flights I wanted to change to didn't have award space. Luckily this was back when the 1300 number in the other thread connected you to Hobart, and upon hanging up and calling the 1300 number, a Hobart agent happily modified my booking for me.

Unfortunately if you're not WP it's difficult to get Hobart or Auckland these days, so I can totally see OP having the trouble they had. I would also not be surprised if the website didn't offer the standard change option due to a combination of it being an award ticket (although I've had it work for award tickets in the past), and it being just one leg of a larger international journey.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Couple of points on the insurance issue… most important is to not book any alternative flights unless you have contacted the insurer’s claims line and sought advice. They may or may not cover a replacement flight depending on the policy, but if they do, they will almost certainly want to look at options and work with you on a replacement. For example looking at a last-minute one way fare for this Thursday from SYD to LHR, Thai business class is $5700, Qantas and Emirates is $10600. Insurance may decide Thai Airways is ok for you!

As for insurance and points, again it depends on the policy, but many will calculate the value of your lost points against a standard revenue fare. So at today’s prices, if you ‘lost’ 126000 QFFF points on a one way ticket to london, they’d use a relevant Qantas business class fare to calculate the cost of the points, and your claim.

 

[JohnK]

Doesn't help if Qantas moves your flight to have a 95 minute connection and refuses to change it, like what happened to OP.

Totally understand but as I said earlier I would have booked the flight I wanted although that may mean having issues with original award ticket as I would have been a no show on that ticket.

I'm also stunned regarding travel insurance. What's the point of travel insurance if it does not cover cost of misconnects such as other flights and hotel accommodation.

I suspect Qantas is going to get itself in trouble shortly. You can't keep treating customers this way. This is not how you expect a premium business to operate.

 

[encryptededdy]

although that may mean having issues with original award ticket as I would have been a no show on that ticket.

Yeah, this is problematic. Given it's an award ticket, in theory you should be able to tell Qantas about your intent to not take the first sector and it should be fine (no point re-pricing since removing the leg won't make it more expensive, unlike a hidden city ticketed revenue fare etc.), but in practice I wonder if you could actually reach someone on the phone who can do that for you, if you're not a platinum or above.

I'm also stunned regarding travel insurance. What's the point of travel insurance if it does not cover cost of misconnects such as other flights and hotel accommodation.

I suppose in their defence if the airline is supposed to cover misconnects...

I haven't read many policies but I guess it could also be to not cover people if they book seperate tickets then get themselves in trouble?

 

[ChrisMars]

What happened to the special-rotating phone number qantas used to handover at the airport? Is it still being used?
If OP and other pax had access to it, they would have had a chance to talk to a competent agent.

 

[TomVexille]

I very much doubt that feature is only made available to elites - that should be available to all pax.

You've got to know the rules so you can hold the airline to them - it's the low status members who usually get screwed because they don't know any better.

Yet here we are running up against a similar issue. There's multiple flights we want to move to that have 3+ U seats available but every agent insists that they can only see 2. It also can't be done on the website

HUCA.

Not helpful if not WP or above as the overseas call centres apparently don't have the ability to do much

 

[BD1959]

Re Travel Insurance (not) covering the cost of a replacement flight, I currently have two separate policies in play.

1. RACV Domestic - nothing for missed connections
2. Qantas Travel Insurance International, missed connections for special events (only) - $2500 limit per passenger.

#2. Would not cover the cost of a J BNE-ATH last minute booking, if it even qualifies under special events. Besides, as discussed above, as this was on the one ticket QF should be sorting this mess out.

Regards,

BD

 

[Jacques Vert]

Couple of points on the insurance issue… most important is to not book any alternative flights unless you have contacted the insurer’s claims line and sought advice. They may or may not cover a replacement flight depending on the policy, but if they do, they will almost certainly want to look at options and work with you on a replacement. For example looking at a last-minute one way fare for this Thursday from SYD to LHR, Thai business class is $5700, Qantas and Emirates is $10600. Insurance may decide Thai Airways is ok for you!

I agree that you should not book alternative flights yourself in this situation; instead talk to the insurance company and let them make the decision (and get it in writing/email if possible). Many policies specifically state that you need to contact them and get their agreement before spending $. Never pre-empt the decision or they may not pay (and I have seen real examples of this).

As far as the cost of the alternative, last minute flights, the insurance company is unlikely to pay the amounts you have quoted IME. They would have contract arrangements/prices with the airlines that results in them paying far less than Joe Public, even for last minute bookings. This is one reason why the insurance company may refuse to pay: why would they reimburse a policy holder $5,700 for a flight they could have booked for, perhaps, $4,000.

 

[MJHoops]

Yeah, this is problematic. Given it's an award ticket, in theory you should be able to tell Qantas about your intent to not take the first sector and it should be fine (no point re-pricing since removing the leg won't make it more expensive, unlike a hidden city ticketed revenue fare etc.), but in practice I wonder if you could actually reach someone on the phone who can do that for you, if you're not a platinum or above.


I suppose in their defence if the airline is supposed to cover misconnects...

I haven't read many policies but I guess it could also be to not cover people if they book seperate tickets then get themselves in trouble?

What if you paid for an earlier domestic flight yourself due to QF incompetence

While at the first airport for that earlier flight, you could check in for the 19:35 flight and get boarding passes for the onward connections on Qatar without checking baggage at that point (so it doesn’t get offloaded when you no show)

Then go to Qatar check in at the second airport with a boarding pass and check bags in?

I have no idea if this would work just some creative thinking with the benefit of hindsight…

 

[encryptededdy]

What if you paid for an earlier domestic flight yourself due to QF incompetence

While at the first airport for that earlier flight, you could check in for the 19:35 flight and get boarding passes for the onward connections on Qatar without checking baggage at that point (so it doesn’t get offloaded when you no show)

Then go to Qatar check in at the second airport with a boarding pass and check bags in?

I have no idea if this would work just some creative thinking with the benefit of hindsight…

I think the no-show would still trigger any return flights to be cancelled? I actually have no idea what happens. Would the no-show invalidate your QR boarding pass that you already have in-hand? Probably.

What if Qantas does actually re-book you due to your late domestic flight, thereby causing you to lose your seat on the QR flight you intended to take?

Either way, I think this is too high risk.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I think the no-show would still trigger any return flights to be cancelled? I actually have no idea what happens. Would the no-show invalidate your QR boarding pass that you already have in-hand? Probably.

What if Qantas does actually re-book you due to your late domestic flight, thereby causing you to lose your seat on the QR flight you intended to take?

Either way, I think this is too high risk.

Agree… it could trigger a no-show.,

Agree also on the possibility that even if the airline rebooks you, it need to be done properly, by properly trained agents. This is where airport ticketing is so important… it’s their bread and butter to handle reticketing in cases of IRROPS.

There have been - albeit rare - reports where even fully competent agents make mistakes… rebooking a passenger to travel immediately but not correctly reissuing the rest of the ticket (essentially triggering a ‘no show’). It always pays to contact the airline after an IRROPS flight to check the remainder of the ticket is still valid.

 

[Kiwi_Flyer]

Which is absolutely NOT their policy. I had a flight cancelled a few weeks ago - I could select ANY flight that day regardless of the fare. I didn't even need to speak to an agent - the website offered the change automatically.

Unsure why this happened to OP.

That's not always the case. I've had QF imposed changes and the only online/app option offered was to accept the change. Try to get something else required a call.

 

[Choosethedrew]

I had a terrible experience with QF when QF9 PER - LHR was cancelled at short notice. I too was midway through an itinerary as I had just flown from SYD. Luckily, at that stage, there was still a desk at PER to deal with. They were simply dying to get me to take a refund and wash their hands of me, obviously I wasn’t going to let them do that.

They flatly refused to rebook onto SQ which would have got us home around the same time as booked. They then (initially) refused to rebook onto QR, and basically just wanted us to swallow the CX auto rebook option. After hours and hours, they eventually relented and put us on QR. The whole experience was a nightmare and pretty adversarial, I had to refer to the OneWorld website several times, lots of calls to and fro, I really felt the agents had zero latitude.

Afterwards I submitted a complaint and - I kid you not - they declined the taxi I had to fork out for (those days they were included in the fare) saying that they had incurred large expense paying for another business class ticket at the last minute! That it was the bare minimum had escaped them completely.

I love QF lounges and in the air but my god what a shady company when it comes to IRROPS, honestly I felt FR handled it slicker and kinder when I had a cancellation with them.

Probably none of the above is going to help the OP as their experience sounds far worse and I am very sorry they were put through that

 

[TomVexille]

That's not always the case. I've had QF imposed changes and the only online/app option offered was to accept the change. Try to get something else required a call.

Or when they move you by half an hour, it just auto re-issues the ticket, no acceptance required, then they do it again. Call centre is unable to help due to incompetence/inability/not empowered take your pick. QF management really have a huge amount of contempt for their customers.

 

[justinbrett]

That's not always the case. I've had QF imposed changes and the only online/app option offered was to accept the change. Try to get something else required a call.

<72 or >72 hours out? There is a difference (as per what @madrooster described above - schedule change vs disruption)

 

[NM]

Couple of points on the insurance issue… most important is to not book any alternative flights unless you have contacted the insurer’s claims line and sought advice. They may or may not cover a replacement flight depending on the policy, but if they do, they will almost certainly want to look at options and work with you on a replacement. For example looking at a last-minute one way fare for this Thursday from SYD to LHR, Thai business class is $5700, Qantas and Emirates is $10600. Insurance may decide Thai Airways is ok for you!

As for insurance and points, again it depends on the policy, but many will calculate the value of your lost points against a standard revenue fare. So at today’s prices, if you ‘lost’ 126000 QFFF points on a one way ticket to london, they’d use a relevant Qantas business class fare to calculate the cost of the points, and your claim.

But if QF has refunded the 126000 QFF points, then insurance may say you have received a refund so not paying for alternate flights, which would be a very disappointing outcome for someone who had planned to travel.

 

[Melburnian1]

Given that flights generally have 'no shows' (historically estimated at about five per cent of booked passengers), unless there were many others 'ahead of the OP' in a 'queue', surely QFd could have offered the OP an earlier domestic flight to BNE than the one on which he travelled and which ran late.