Free flight (for grounding) - is there availability for the flights you want?

[Febs]

I'm not by any means looking a gifthorse in the mouth here (go back and see my posts about how I think this is a very generous offer from QF ), but I'm finding it a bit tricky to find flights...

The e-mail I got says:

You can book in economy, any return direct flight within Australia, or any return direct flight between Australia and New Zealand on us, for travel commencing from 14 December 2011.

Key word there being "any". The e-mail goes on to say "subject to availability", which you could take to mean availability of an Economy seat.

Yet all the flights I've tried are coming back with:

There is no direct Qantas flight between these cities. Find out which flights operate direct from your city using our interactive route map and reselect your destination.

When I do that, I can see there are flights on the dates I want, and there is availability on Qantas-operated flights (in some cases full-flex, but still economy availability).

Has anyone had any luck? I can understand if the offer is only for flights where discount Y seats are available, but the e-mail doesn't say that, it simply says "economy, any return direct flight".

Cheers,
- Febs.

PS: I am trying to book at a busy time, and notice there isn't a lot of discount Y available. A few months out seems to produce more availability.

 

[thewinchester]

What dates have you tried to book thusfar where you were told no inventory was available?

Also, are these tickets coded into fare buckets other than Y, N, O or P which might be causing the inventory issue?

 

[medhead]

Looking at the error message that starts with words to the effect:

there are no direct flights

Are there direct qantas flights on the route?


Sent from my iPhone using Aust Freq Fly app so please excuse the lack of links.

 

[richie9x]

After a bit of searching it looks like for domestic fares you need at least some availability in the S fare bucket, to be able to get a free flight. I think S is the highest red edeal fare bucket. So if there are red edeal fares available you should be able to redeem the free flight voucher.

For trans-tasman it seems that you need at least availability in L or M fare buckets to redeem the free flight. Which use to be super saver fare but now think they map to red edeals. This might mean there will be more availability on trans-tasman flights.

So it looks like the free flights book into fare buckets used by red edeal fares. At peak periods there won't be much availability of the free flight redemption.

 

[Febs]

What dates have you tried to book thusfar where you were told no inventory was available?

Also, are these tickets coded into fare buckets other than Y, N, O or P which might be causing the inventory issue?

Between Christmas and New Year (granted, busy times). Yes I suspect the issue is the free flight requires a discount Y seat to be available, but the e-mail implies otherwise.

Are there direct qantas flights on the route?

Yes that's kinda the point I was trying to make. The error message is not right.

For example, SYD-CHC-SYD dep 27/12 return 30/12. The "no direct flights on that route" error message is given, but there are direct Qantas (not JQ) flights on that day and there is economy availability (but as I mentioned - full-flex only). February dates on this route are available, so it seems availability is based on discount Y, although this is at odds with what the e-mail says.

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[simongr]

Just out of interest was the flight disrupted a business related flight to MEL?

I am having a bit of a crisis of conscience at the moment regarding what should be done with the free flight. One of my guys was disrupted flying MEL-SYD. He didnt have to sleep in the airport - just changed his hotel dates and came up a day later. The question I am struggling with is whether a bad boss should be saying "well given the free flight was for disruption to your business travel and it was actually business that was disrupted shouldnt the free flight be used to offset costs of business travel?"

 

[Febs]

I am having a bit of a crisis of conscience at the moment regarding what should be done with the free flight. One of my guys was disrupted flying MEL-SYD. He didnt have to sleep in the airport - just changed his hotel dates and came up a day later. The question I am struggling with is whether a bad boss should be saying "well given the free flight was for disruption to your business travel and it was actually business that was disrupted shouldnt the free flight be used to offset costs of business travel?"

It's a valid consideration, I agree. Hard call to make though. In my situation it was a business flight, but business wasn't disrupted as I caught a VA flight at the same time, and have been reimbursed the difference.

You could put it in the same bucket as QFF points - i.e. they're earned for business travel, do they belong to the employer to offset future travel? (Though my take on that one is a firm no - business travel inconveniences families and there needs to be a level of reward).

I guess you could make the argument that whilst business was disrupted, his personal life may have been too (i.e. family/friends he wasn't able to see), and so the flight can be a token of goodwill to offset that...

Let us know which way you choose. I can see arguments for both.

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[simongr]

I had already made the decision not to push it - the hit to morale and goodwill would cost a lot more than a $450 flight - though if budgets were tighter I would think about it.

 

[Mal]

The question I am struggling with is whether a bad boss should be saying "well given the free flight was for disruption to your business travel and it was actually business that was disrupted shouldnt the free flight be used to offset costs of business travel?"

If the staffer was given compo for an in-flight incident, would you let them keep it?
What do you think about earning points on work travel?
Is it worth caring about a ~$300 piece of compo from Qantas.

 

[thewinchester]

I am having a bit of a crisis of conscience at the moment regarding what should be done with the free flight. One of my guys was disrupted flying MEL-SYD. He didnt have to sleep in the airport - just changed his hotel dates and came up a day later. The question I am struggling with is whether a bad boss should be saying "well given the free flight was for disruption to your business travel and it was actually business that was disrupted shouldnt the free flight be used to offset costs of business travel?"

One possible thing to consider is what if any disruption did this cause to his planning, or family/domestic obligations? While not across the specifics of your scenario beyond what's posted, if disruption was caused in these areas then he did suffer some disruption.

Your way of looking at it is entirely valid, but conversely you could also consider it a reward exercise. Seriously, how often can a company give a staff member something that'll be of value to them, and hasn't cost them a dime? Very rarely I suspect.

Be the nice boss for once, let the guy have a freebie, and hopefully he remembers that next time you ask him to undertake something unpleasant



----
Sent using my Roman era abacus.

 

[simongr]

If the staffer was given compo for an in-flight incident, would you let them keep it?
What do you think about earning points on work travel?
Is it worth caring about a ~$300 piece of compo from Qantas.

Actually I have used in flight disruption vouchers for company travel and a free meal voucher for a company meal ($150 at the Harbour Kitchen in Sydney).

I agree it is not worth caring about. If I had 10 people disrupted though I would be thinking about it. However as we have trips to AKL planned next year it isn't $300 and could be more like $800...

One possible thing to consider is what if any disruption did this cause to his planning, or family/domestic obligations? While not across the specifics of your scenario beyond what's posted, if disruption was caused in these areas then he did suffer some disruption.

Your way of looking at it is entirely valid, but conversely you could also consider it a reward exercise. Seriously, how often can a company give a staff member something that'll be of value to them, and hasn't cost them a dime? Very rarely I suspect.

Be the nice boss for once, let the guy have a freebie, and hopefully he remembers that next time you ask him to undertake something unpleasant

I wont even mention it.

 

[Fantic125]

Just out of interest was the flight disrupted a business related flight to MEL?

I am having a bit of a crisis of conscience at the moment regarding what should be done with the free flight. One of my guys was disrupted flying MEL-SYD. He didnt have to sleep in the airport - just changed his hotel dates and came up a day later. The question I am struggling with is whether a bad boss should be saying "well given the free flight was for disruption to your business travel and it was actually business that was disrupted shouldnt the free flight be used to offset costs of business travel?"

There was a couple of us at the company that I work for that were impacted by the grounding of the QF fleet. We were meant to be flying out for business purposes from ADL-SYD at 07:00 the morning after the grounding, so our flights were canceled, as were our connecting flights to HKG & BLR. Luckily I was able to do some searching online Sunday morning and purchase tickets the same morning on SQ departing ADL-SIN-BLR a few hours later than the QF flight, so technically you could say that we weren't 'inconvenienced'.
Our company is "giving" us the flight on the basis that it was the individual person that was inconvenienced (not the business in this instance) by the uncertainty caused by the grounding and having to stuff around making alternate travel arrangements.

My point is, even though your guy was traveling for business and just had to change his hotel dates and come up a day later, it was still an inconvenience for him as well as for the company.
I think you would create better goodwill within your organisation by letting him have the free flight (which if you look at your total annual travel costs would most probably be 2/10th's of bugger all) rather than appear as a cold, uncaring b**stard of a boss who couldn't give a stuff about his employees.

That's just my opinion of course.

 

[Travel Guru]

How are you booking the free flights? The email I received told me I could book it from 30th November for flights from 14 Dec.

TG

 

[MrHyde]

I had 5 people affected by the grounding and we lost one day's revenue on those 5 people. I had also considered whether to request the 5 affected to use those free flights for business purposes and in the end decided to just let it go. Most of our business travel is paid for by the end customer. Our own company paid travel is quite rare and in cases where it does exist, it is unlikely to be any of these 5 who would be required to do that travel.

The guys had enough disruption and stress trying to arrange alternative travel, so let them enjoy a free trip somewhere... maybe this will force them to take some days off that I keep having to remind them about.

 

[medhead]

Yes that's kinda the point I was trying to make. The error message is not right.

Cheers,
- Febs.

I'm a bit slow, missed that without the route being mentioned, sorry

 

[medhead]

I had already made the decision not to push it - the hit to morale and goodwill would cost a lot more than a $450 flight - though if budgets were tighter I would think about it.

I've pondered this question since I read about the government demanding their employees free flights. I think I've decided that the free flight is an ex-gratia payment of sorts. The compensation has been paid for cancelled flights and flights booked at late notice. For me this ex-gratia flight makes up for my half day of leave taken. In your case I can see that you wouldn't have made up for any lost time by your team. As you say taking employees flight is not a good look. So my conclusion is if you have a significant loss than you could try claiming direct to qantas, since there is a gap related to your loss in the compensation that has been offered.

 

[Febs]

How are you booking the free flights? The email I received told me I could book it from 30th November for flights from 14 Dec.

TG

The voucher reference (for those who have received it) works through the regular "Gift Voucher" booking page on qantas.com

I'm a bit slow, missed that without the route being mentioned, sorry

No worries, all good.

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[RSD]

I see to be having the same problem as the OP at the moment - can book an outbound leg but can't get a return within my available date range, or else vice versa.

The way it's going I'm going to be struggling to use this offer any time soon.

 

[RSD]

Just to get some clarification on this as I'm getting conflicting answers from QF. Is the offer a return flight from one point on the QF Australian network to another or is it a return flight for any one sector - ie can I do Perth to Devonport via Melbourne & return (there is no direct flight) or is it only going to get me Perth - Melbourne return?

 

[Febs]

Pretty sure direct flights only.

Ended up booking SYD-PER-SYD. Couldn't get a return flight on the day we wanted, so coming back on NYE...hope the flight's not delayed! Really don't want to spend NYE mid-air!