Goodbye Qantas

[Quickstatus]

Gosh, folks, what hostility. Let me be clear - I am talking about making business sense. Qantas has previously exercised greater flexibility in adhering to its own rules (and it is dishonest of the organisation to tell a customer that it is bound by its rules, as we all know). Now, it is choosing not to exercise that flexibility. In a situation where it could do so, without loss. If it had never done so, that is one thing - we customers would know not to expect flexibility. But it has in the past, and chooses not to now. I know what I would do in business, in those circumstances.

Thats my point. discretionary flexibility shown in the past leads to you expecting the same in the future.

Flying Mermaid makes a salient point for all of us. In the end best fare of day is not such a bad thing after all. I have tried on occasion to not use the lounges and have found the non lounge experience enlightening!.

 

[Conrad_S]

A frustrating situation I bet. Even the plush surroundings of the Canberra lounge don't compensate for waiting around when you can see an alternative. As an aside those Dash 8 flights to and from Canberra tend to have WP+s one up in those first 10-12 rows (probably on flex tickets) so I bet there is not the pressure to sell every seat to make the economics of the flight work.
I tend to buy the cheapest ticket these days (for domestic flights) with a bit each way on the timing. On the rare occasions I can't make it I just buy another ticket. Works out cheaper for me.

 

[opusman]

I am aware of all that. The point is - for the sake of blind adherence to its rule, with 30 odd seats free on the flight in question, Qantas has elected to put $110 before ongoing business from a (previously) loyal customer. My point - this does not make good business sense.

That's one way to look at it.

The other way is that it's you who have elected to put $110 before continuing your relationship with an airline you have presumably enjoyed flying with for many years, whereas Qantas was just enforcing their terms & conditions equally and without discrimination.

 

[Quickstatus]

That's one way to look at it.

The other way is that it's you who have elected to put $110 before continuing your relationship with an airline you have presumably enjoyed flying with for many years, whereas Qantas was just enforcing their terms & conditions equally and without discrimination.

Not unusual,

Aff is littered with "never agains" over a smaller disputed amount or amount in kind.

Unfortunately the vast majority of travellers are Price takers

 

[under the radar]

no probs When people make statements on public forums, they gotta expect differing responses

 

[drewbles]

On heavily trafficked routes, such as the triangle and SYD-CBR and vv, would it not simply be easier to buy a ticket on the way to the airport? That way you're getting lowest fare (rather than buying what turns out to be an inflexible flexi, and worst case, you're buying a flexi in that situation) and do not need to worry about change fees or discretionary agents doing fly ahead.

Surely that would solve this issue and probably save you cash too.

 

[JohnK]

Sorry to read of your experience.

I buy a cheap red e-deal and I can change it to any flight before the day of travel for change fee of $88 + any difference in airfare.

You buy an expensive flexible airfare and you can change it on the day of travel but still pay a change fee and any difference in airfare? Makes no sense. Poor customer service.

Qantas loses me sometimes. They have created a new super duper frequent flyer status tier and have taken a lot of benefits away from Platinum for this new super duper status tier. One of the unpublished benefits of that super duper status tier is fly ahead. This should be provided to all Platinums regardless of airfare purchased.

But just note as I keep saying the grass may look greener on the other side but when you get over there you find greeness of the grass was an illusion....

 

[opusman]

You buy an expensive flexible airfare and you can change it on the day of travel but still pay a change fee and any difference in airfare? Makes no sense.

There was no change fee.

 

[JohnK]

There was no change fee.

I believe there is a change fee on some flexible airfares?

 

[opusman]

I believe there is a change fee on some flexible airfares?

Fare Guide: Australia Domestic

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Domestically VA is no saint itself either.
And we all know how cough TT and JQ are/can be.
Though, internationally, yes, SQ can do it better, esp considering that there are SQ flights PER - SIN wide bodied plane several times a day, and from MEL/SYD - SIN also several times a day.
Daily ADL - SIN too.
If VA could do it better dom I would fly them all the time.
QF does have its downsides, but at the moment not too great for me to give all my flights to VA.

 

[boomy]

Considering how expensive Dom Flex fares usually are (compared to Red-e-deal) I think QF should offer same-day FlyAhead option as part of those fares, regardless of pax FF tier.

 

[Quickstatus]

Sorry to read of your experience.

I buy a cheap red e-deal and I can change it to any flight before the day of travel for change fee of $88 + any difference in airfare.

You buy an expensive flexible airfare and you can change it on the day of travel but still pay a change fee and any difference in airfare? Makes no sense. Poor customer service.

Qantas loses me sometimes. They have created a new super duper frequent flyer status tier and have taken a lot of benefits away from Platinum for this new super duper status tier. One of the unpublished benefits of that super duper status tier is fly ahead. This should be provided to all Platinums regardless of airfare purchased.

But just note as I keep saying the grass may look greener on the other side but when you get over there you find greeness of the grass was an illusion....

Flex fares= diff in fare only no change fee (just to dot the "i"). Otherwise yes

The suggestion of buying a flexible fare at the last moment makes sense however there are times when the predicted departure time of an advance purchase is correct In which case I win if I advance purchase.

Is $110 worth my time and blood pressure for a flight 30 min or 1 hour ahead?. Generally not.

I have done a fly ahead with that plane going tech and delaying me behind the original flight too. Ah that's the interesting part about travel - the many different permutations in how its going to pan out.

 

[moa999]

Considering how expensive Dom Flex fares usually are (compared to Red-e-deal) I think QF should offer same-day FlyAhead option as part of those fares, regardless of pax FF tier.

But it's a false economy for the airline.

Eg. My example earlier of booking a flex fare $200 cheaper and then switching to the peak/more expensive flights.

VA restricted fly ahead to same bucket (and have enforced it) after they discovered a number of Plat members where consistently booking the cheapest last flight of the day, then flying earlier.

It's all about the customer attitude.
Get moved once - oh great Qantas saw my loyalty and saved me $110, but I know they mightn't do it always
Get charged - I'm off. Qantas never rewards loyalty. I'm sick of them enforcing the conditions I agreed to

 

[Quickstatus]

The gist of this is:

Get moved once = Expect to be moved everytime. If not Im taking my business elsewhere.

 

[Moody]

Ah yes ... the Qantas Flexible Fare Fallacy. You've been well and truly "effed".

Then you come to this Frequent Flyer Forum and expect a different result? I think it is a good move to take your optimism to VA - much more likely to be rewarded there!

 

[Moopere]

I've long ago given up buying so called 'flex' fares as over the years they have morphed into not much more than an expensive deep discount fare. I rarely need to change flight timings, but when I do and if there's no other way forward, I just burn the 'super saver deep discount' fare and buy a new deep discount fare. The savings over time, of never having to buy flexi, is quite massive and eye opening.

The OP has done all that could be reasonably expected to get the most flexible ticket that was presented to him - in the old days this would have been enough to actually get some flexibility. But no, what is one actually receiving? The potential saving of $88 change fee and thats pretty much it. $751 SYD-CBR (return?), I'm completely guessing that a deep discount return ticket might have cost 300-400??

 

[dajop]

The OP has done all that could be reasonably expected to get the most flexible ticket that was presented to him - in the old days this would have been enough to actually get some flexibility.

Yes, back in the day (when I used to fly domestically in Australia - 2008 or earlier), certainly if you purchased a K class (flexi-saver) or higher fare you got a degree of flexibility once you were at the airport with moving flights, regardless of fare class availability. That was when QF had a virtual monopoly on the corporate market. Competition seems to have stopped this.

 

[Anna]

A lot of people are being totally unfair to the OP, IMO. This isn't about DYKWIA. This is about not getting what you thought you were buying, after you'd paid the highest possible price to get it.

OP, can I suggest you try a VA flight before you write such a 'burn your bridges' letter to QF. VA pretend to compete with QF but they are not as good, in many ways. I doubt you're going to be happy with VA compared to QF unless 'fly ahead' is the sole criterion you're going to use to judge them by.

I'd also suggest that you might get further with QF if you write to them to say "I bought the most expensive flex flight I could buy for the specific purpose of being able to change it on the day if I needed to for no further fee, but your systems didn't allow me to achieve that and didn't tell me I wouldn't necessarily be able to achieve that. Therefore I feel ripped off and you need to fix your systems so that they are clearer".

I'm sure AJ has a file full of letters like your draft, and you'll probably only get an even more infuriating generic reply that says 'sorry we didn't meet your expectations on this occasion and we look forward to seeing you on board again soon'.

I don't think saying 'goodbye QF' has much impact when what you really mean is 'goodbye QF - except for my existing bookings - and except for my stash of QFF points - and except for my LTG'.

 

[Quickstatus]

A lot of people are being totally unfair to the OP, IMO. This isn't about DYKWIA. This is about not getting what you thought you were buying, after you'd paid the highest possible price to get it.



I'd also suggest that you might get further with QF if you write to them to say "I bought the most expensive flex flight I could buy for the specific purpose of being able to change it on the day if I needed to for no further fee, but your systems didn't allow me to achieve that and didn't tell me I wouldn't necessarily be able to achieve that. Therefore I feel ripped off and you need to fix your systems so that they are clearer".

Except Anna, the OP did not buy the most expensive flex ticket. He bought the Flex ticket as it was priced on the day of purchase and it was a discounted flex ticket with the same conditions as the most expensive ticket. The extra he was charged was the difference between the price he paid and the price of the the most expensive flex ticket. If he did buy the fully priced most expensive ticket then there will be no extra charges.

If he did not change his flight then he effectively pocketed $110. However he wanted to change so Qantas charged him the difference. I dont see the problem with this. The point he makes that Qantas should provide some discretionary flexibility in enforcing its conditions to loyal customers is not unreasonable, except for the fact that he said the company has applied this flexibility before and therefore it should provide the discretion again - its become an expectation. That I dont agree with.

Its like getting an upgrade. Once you get a free upgrade, should you expect an upgrade every time you fly?. No of course not. Here there is no published fly ahead benefit for Platinum. Its happened before but why does he think it should happen everytime.