Future of QF27/28 travel post covid

[Pramos]

So as we start to look at overseas travel again, options between Australia and South America are barely existent compared to where we left off before covid.

-Qantas SCL-SYD direct (QF27/28) not scheduled
-LATAM no longer in oneworld
-LATAM SCL-MEL direct not scheduled
-LATAM SCL-SYD still via AKL
-LATAM QF codeshare doesn't seem bookable via QF website - but is listed on EF
-AKL restricts transit pax to a small area - no airline lounges, restaurants, showers etc. Not great on the return flight.

With all that said, Chile has a vaccination rate of 73% double jabbed (entire population - so well above 90% 16+), and only getting less than 300 daily cases despite a population similar to Australia (around 19 million). Surely a perfect bubble candidate.

Is this an oversight of Qantas?

Perhaps LATAM can fly SCL-SYD direct?

We bought our tickets to Chile in October last year. We weee offered direct flights on QF27 for April 6 2022. We got them on sale. With 3 weeks to go Qantas said they cancelled our flights so offered our money back. We had to buy new flights with AA through LA and Dallas at a much higher price. Our money will take 3 months to be returned. That’s disgusting. However they will be able to take my money immediately if I buy a flight. SMH.

 

[Sylvana]

We bought our tickets to Chile in October last year. We weee offered direct flights on QF27 for April 6 2022. We got them on sale. With 3 weeks to go Qantas said they cancelled our flights so offered our money back. We had to buy new flights with AA through LA and Dallas at a much higher price. Our money will take 3 months to be returned. That’s disgusting. However they will be able to take my money immediately if I buy a flight. SMH.

That's exactly what happened to me, I was due to flight direct to scl on the 6/4 and yes, 3 weeks before they cancelled with no explanation. Flight centre applied for my refund and told me it will take 12 weeks, why? how hard it is to find my money and give it back...
I am not even sure if we will get it or they will offer just credit...good one Qantas!

 

[Lynda2475]

If they cancelled the flight you are eleigible for a full refund, they can only insist on a credit where you cancel the flight.

 

[baarg]

I saw Qantas is selling tickets to Santiago or Bs As with Latam now. Did Qantas not offer these? They were not available when Qantas cancelled my trip, but they are now. I know this because I noticed that Latam does not offer flights from Bne, only Syd or Akl, but Qantas does as the flight from Bne to Syd is with them and the rest of the flights with Latam. I wish I could trust Qantas the way I used to to get the tickets from them but find it risky to book directly with Latam and a separate flight either to Syd or Akl with another airline. If Qantas was as reliable as it used to be, you knew that if something went wrong, the issue would have been fixed quickly and easily. I read too many stories of too many people having problems with their flights or borders and being stuck in places. It's still a risky time to fly, unfortunately.

 

[baarg]

@Sylvana and anyone who has been following this thread. I received my refund today BUT I believe this only happened because I moved Heaven and Earth to get it: contacting everyone and anyone, joining groups, finding information. But especially after contacting Stephanie Tully Qantas' Group Chief Customer Officer. I came across Stephanie Tully's email address and thought I'd email her since I had nothing to lose.
I didn't think my sending her an email would have a positive outcome, but within two hours, on Friday evening, I had 4 missed calls, voice messages and 3 emails. Plus a few courtesy calls Sunday morning, since I hadn't spoken to anyone on Friday and (I guess) they wanted to ensure I got the messages. Stephanie's email may have been overwhelmed by messages (or changed) since, not sure, I may have been one of the first ones to do this, but I have little doubt that the only reason I received my refund was because I contacted Stephanie directly.

 

[Sylvana]

I am so glad you have your refund, I can see you didn't leave anything to luck. I am not sure if I may be able to find the way of doing it. So you reckons that this lady already change her email address? Well I can understand that. Gosh , I may try to find a way of finding her.
Happy for you, now good luck getting a flight with any airline, I have been looking and it's no much there for a while.
Thank you for sharing the good news with us.

 

[baarg]

I'll DM you the email.
Same here with finding flights. LATAM has the monopoly. Flights only depart from Sydney or AKL and are expensive. Also read terrible stories from people queening for hours to check in, to not even boarding the plane! It seems Latam's systems were not working and caused insane delays. Apparently they overbooked tickets (common for airlines to do so, but as you can imagine being the only airline and after more than 2 years, of course everyone would show up!). I would love to fly asap, but I think things need to settle a bit, perhaps in a few months, with regular flights Latam will be more trustworthy... I hope.

 

[Sylvana]

Oh my.. it seems like a nightmare .I noticed the fares are in usd and lot more expensive. I am willing to pay a bit more, but I would like the certainty of been able to go on the day without to much hassle..All the best

 

[Sylvana]

Anybody knows, if Qantas has your money for 2 years as a credit....When finally they refund your money, would they give you exactly the same amount or it should have some interest earned during those 2 years... I was refunded same amount... I thought it should have a couple of dollars on top

 

[justinbrett]

Anybody knows, if Qantas has your money for 2 years as a credit....When finally they refund your money, would they give you exactly the same amount or it should have some interest earned during those 2 years... I was refunded same amount... I thought it should have a couple of dollars on top

Cash rate is 0.1% and has been for the duration, so Qantas has probably done about as good as most banks have. In some cases, better.

 

[baarg]

Sorry for the long post.

Resuscitating this thread! Please delete and/or advise if I should ask this elsewhere or point me to the correct thread!

So Latam restarted their flights to SA on 29/03. These first flights were an absolute mess and on top of that, Latam has a terrible reputation so I waited for things to settle...also considering the odyssey Qantas put me through to reconnect with my money after they cancelled my flights, I was (am) understandably hesitant. But I came across really good business class tickets on Latam's website from Bne to Buenos Aires at around AUD3900 (quoted USD2700). I never flew Business so this was exciting. Their economy flights weren't much cheaper than this at around AUD3000. I decided to call Latam and ask them a few things, I told them about these tickets, and the representative couldn't see these prices and told me that sometimes the website has deals that they don't see so suggested to book and *just in case the website shows an error* to do a screenshot. This should have raised a red flag!
I decided to book. I selected our seats, filled out the form with our names and entered my credit card number....And just when I thought, cool!......... The website came up with an error, something about my credit card not working. Did it again, same issue! Called Latam, explained, sent the screenshot with the selection and cost as per the website. They raised a case and Latam calls me later and was told that the prices on the website were not up to date and that they were being updated. WTF? There was no way to get around her (she was not competent), and received the same lame response in an email.
Issue is I am back to square 1 because I don't want to fly with Latam which are the quickest option!
Above on this thread, there was advice in relation to the best route to SA which at the time (February), was Bne/Dallas/Buenos Aires. I also looked at LA/MIA with (ugh) Qantas and AA. These are so long but seem to be reliable as these flights do appear to operate. Any other routes via Europe? Bne London or Rome for example? and then direct to Bs As? At least if I can stop in Europe and have a holiday? I have a few FF points too.
I downloaded Expert Flyer and I don't think I am using it right, ha ha...e.g. I looked at flights from end of year, as I heard that Qantas may fly to SA but cannot find any QF27s, there are QF28s though but they all look 0ed out. Same with all the flights that I look at in EF! All 0 out with all airlines.
Am I doing something wrong? Any advice from anyone who knows of these routes, has intel on Qantas resuming this route? Anyone who's flown recently?

Thanks for reading!

 

[justinbrett]

Sorry for the long post.

Resuscitating this thread! Please delete and/or advise if I should ask this elsewhere or point me to the correct thread!

So Latam restarted their flights to SA on 29/03. These first flights were an absolute mess and on top of that, Latam has a terrible reputation so I waited for things to settle...also considering the odyssey Qantas put me through to reconnect with my money after they cancelled my flights, I was (am) understandably hesitant. But I came across really good business class tickets on Latam's website from Bne to Buenos Aires at around AUD3900 (quoted USD2700). I never flew Business so this was exciting. Their economy flights weren't much cheaper than this at around AUD3000. I decided to call Latam and ask them a few things, I told them about these tickets, and the representative couldn't see these prices and told me that sometimes the website has deals that they don't see so suggested to book and *just in case the website shows an error* to do a screenshot. This should have raised a red flag!
I decided to book. I selected our seats, filled out the form with our names and entered my credit card number....And just when I thought, cool!......... The website came up with an error, something about my credit card not working. Did it again, same issue! Called Latam, explained, sent the screenshot with the selection and cost as per the website. They raised a case and Latam calls me later and was told that the prices on the website were not up to date and that they were being updated. WTF? There was no way to get around her (she was not competent), and received the same lame response in an email.
Issue is I am back to square 1 because I don't want to fly with Latam which are the quickest option!
Above on this thread, there was advice in relation to the best route to SA which at the time (February), was Bne/Dallas/Buenos Aires. I also looked at LA/MIA with (ugh) Qantas and AA. These are so long but seem to be reliable as these flights do appear to operate. Any other routes via Europe? Bne London or Rome for example? and then direct to Bs As? At least if I can stop in Europe and have a holiday? I have a few FF points too.
I downloaded Expert Flyer and I don't think I am using it right, ha ha...e.g. I looked at flights from end of year, as I heard that Qantas may fly to SA but cannot find any QF27s, there are QF28s though but they all look 0ed out. Same with all the flights that I look at in EF! All 0 out with all airlines.
Am I doing something wrong? Any advice from anyone who knows of these routes, has intel on Qantas resuming this route? Anyone who's flown recently?

Thanks for reading!

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I noticed flying yesterday that in the QF magazine, on the route map, SYD-SCL and AKL-SCL had dotted code-shared lines - where as other routes, which are still waiting on reopening (such as Japan) had solid red lines.

LATAM leaving oneworld might have reduced the motivation for QF to serve the route directly. They moved from EZE to SCL to better link up with LAN Chile, if I recall correctly. But then again, NZ departed the market permanently as well. Perhaps LATAM is playing hard ball with QF with connections in order to monopolise the long haul routes? QF can't make SCL work without connections.

I have flown LATAM to SCL via AKL (QF to AKL) and I actually thought they were fine. I would be OK flying them if I had a QF code - it's not worth the detour to the US.

 

[baarg]

I noticed flying yesterday that in the QF magazine, on the route map, SYD-SCL and AKL-SCL had dotted code-shared lines - where as other routes, which are still waiting on reopening (such as Japan) had solid red lines.

LATAM leaving oneworld might have reduced the motivation for QF to serve the route directly. They moved from EZE to SCL to better link up with LAN Chile, if I recall correctly. But then again, NZ departed the market permanently as well. Perhaps LATAM is playing hard ball with QF with connections in order to monopolise the long haul routes? QF can't make SCL work without connections.

I have flown LATAM to SCL via AKL (QF to AKL) and I actually thought they were fine. I would be OK flying

I am so hesitant to fly with them. Plus their website is cr4p cos I couldn't make my credit card work twice and then read in forums and FB pages that this is a common issue with international credit cards. It doesn't inspire confidence! But thanks for the info. Something to take into account!

 

[justinbrett]

I am so hesitant to fly with them. Plus their website is cr4p cos I couldn't make my credit card work twice and then read in forums and FB pages that this is a common issue with international credit cards. It doesn't inspire confidence! But thanks for the info. Something to take into account!

You could book through a travel agent or even Expedia

 

[baarg]

You could book through a travel agent or even Expedia

Prices quoted are different! It's all a bit dodgey!

 

[justinbrett]

Prices quoted are different! It's all a bit dodgey!

Probably locals discount.

 

[Mattg]

@baarg I would talk to a competent Australian travel agent who has experience with South American bookings.

At least when booking with a good travel agent (not an OTA), they'll have to sort out the mess if LATAM stuffs you around.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

QF website is now showing QF27 as available from November onwards

 

[Lynda2475]

Any other routes via Europe? Bne London or Rome for example? and then direct to Bs As? At least if I can stop in Europe and have a holiday?

If going via Europe Iberia fly direct MAD-EZE or BCN-EZE (as does Vueling their LCC). Most other EU airlines seem to go via GRU. Qatar will route you BNE - DOH - MAD - EZE.

If not wanting to fly LATAM then via US should be quickest.

 

[justinbrett]

QF website is now showing QF27 as available from November onwards

That's a relief, I was starting to worry that QF would never return to SCL.

I've got no problems flying LATAM but now there's virtually no recognition of QF status, I'll stick to QF where possible.