How long did Qantas take to process your refund for cancelled flights?

[CaptJCool]

Brief story

called Plat line 131211

Wednesday late evening 11 August called to be told the flight credits which had been archived (and on a previous call re-instated) had been purged.

new ref numbers issued and verbally given to me

refund email 8.52pm 12 August

hit the account today 16 August with a 12/8 date. $444 refunded across 3 flight credits!

happy

 

[amot]

After 168 days (5 months & 2 weeks) since the refund email, I finally received the refund today!

 

[Pushka]

Just a data point as to how it can be done. With the Qantas announcement this week I decided to check further with some creative routing of our flights to Asia and UK next year. I had originally purchased MAS for aprund $12000 for 2 people in J. In the end I found some award seats on Qantas to fit the itinerary so cancelled the MAS paid flight. On Tuesday two days ago. The money has already been credited to my account. Two days!

 

[maccaisking]

I received a call/email today to confirm credit card details were still current for an outstanding refund owed to me from May. Of 2021.
When I rang back to confirm I was told a 6-8 week wait on the refund, but managed to get it done on the spot when I pointed out the date I had cancelled my flight. Great work Qantas on the 16 month turnaround!

 

[Lynda2475]

Cancelled two separate award flight bookings on Saturday, points and taxes were back in FF account and bank account respectively within 24hours.

 

[jaseb]

I'm looking for some advice if I may.

I have a fully cancelled (due to e-ticketing failures on Qantas' behalf) Rewards Itinerary of which I am waiting for a large number of points and taxes to be refunded.
The booking in question had a number of changes made to it during it's lifetime:

Original booking - 418400 points + $818 taxes charged
Change 1 (flights added) - 359000 points + $1147 taxes charged
Change 2 (flights removed) - 0 points charged + $550 taxes charged
Change 3 (flights added) - 0 points charged (due to not being ticketed properly) + $847 taxes charged
Change 4 (whole booking cancelled) - 0 points / taxes charged

This booking is now fully cancelled with no sectors having been flown.

One of the flights on the booking was MXP-DOH for August. Change 4 occured on 09/05 - after which time the booking in MMB showed an unconfirmed flight from MXP-DOH for that day, on the 09/05.. the day I canceled the whole booking - has anyone seen this before?

I am owed ~777k points & $3361 in taxes

It's now been almost 1 month since the final change (booking cancelation) went through, I'm yet to receive any points or taxes back. I'm worried if I call to chase a refund for this now totally defunct, canceled booking that they will somehow manage to cancel one of our alternative award bookings!

Is it worth following up yet, or should I wait patiently?

Well, 20 weeks later and still no points or taxes refunded. I phoned up on Friday to chase and was told the refunds were "complicated" to calculate on this booking (no wonder, every time we called up we lost seats or seats weren't ticketed so what was supposed to be a SINGLE change actually ended up being 4 or 5). Anyway, 2 hours on the phone to the FF call center and then Reservations and I'm told the points and taxes should be credited within 2 weeks. Not holding my breath.

 

[RAM]

Well, 20 weeks later and still no points or taxes refunded. I phoned up on Friday to chase and was told the refunds were "complicated" to calculate on this booking (no wonder, every time we called up we lost seats or seats weren't ticketed so what was supposed to be a SINGLE change actually ended up being 4 or 5). Anyway, 2 hours on the phone to the FF call center and then Reservations and I'm told the points and taxes should be credited within 2 weeks. Not holding my breath.

In fairness, when we had to change a booking (due to work backtracking on approved leave dates - 7 months after approval in mid-2016) the VA operator in early 2017 kept making mistakes and charging us various amounts (all appeared on the CC statement). Took following statement for them to be corrected though.

Point charges though got fixed within a few days - she kept charging a change fee which was not due. Luckily the VFF balance was large enough not to matter. Supervisor finally put her straight.

Given that was a booking over multiple VA partner airlines - it should not take Q more than 20 weeks to do the calculation IF they had adequate numbers of trained staff.

 

[jaseb]

In fairness, when we had to change a booking (due to work backtracking on approved leave dates - 7 months after approval in mid-2016) the VA operator in early 2017 kept making mistakes and charging us various amounts (all appeared on the CC statement). Took following statement for them to be corrected though.

Point charges though got fixed within a few days - she kept charging a change fee which was not due. Luckily the VFF balance was large enough not to matter. Supervisor finally put her straight.

Given that was a booking over multiple VA partner airlines - it should not take Q more than 20 weeks to do the calculation IF they had adequate numbers of trained staff.

I'm sure I could've called up before it got to anywhere near 20 weeks, but we were in Europe awaiting reward J flights home and didn't want to run the risk of them ruining another (separate) already ticketed reservation.

 

[RAM]

I'm sure I could've called up before it got to anywhere near 20 weeks, but we were in Europe awaiting reward J flights home and didn't want to run the risk of them ruining another (separate) already ticketed reservation.

Depends how many hours you wanted to sit on hold I suppose (until recently).

Sad situation that Q has deteriorated to such a degree that people now blame themselves for Q taking nearly five months to process a refund that other airlines still do in days without being followed up.

AJ sure does get value for money out of his PR department doesn't he?

 

[HSB44]

Hi, I had paid tix which I couldn't use, ended up requesting a flight credit from SA call centre.

Any suggestions how long I should give it before I start calling them? It's coming up to one week now with no confirmation email.

 

[dajop]

Here we go again. I cancelled an award flight earlier in the year, that took forever to refund. Looks like it's going to be the same again.

My partner cancelled award ticket yesterday evening. Within 4 hrs points were returned and cancellation email received indicating that credit card refund for surcharges would take 6-8 weeks.

Around the same time I cancelled an award ticket. Radio silence since, and no points returned to my account. Which means I will have to go through multiple calls with the call centre to organise a refund as I did last time.

I wonder if the difference in treatment was that mine was an ex-SIN flight (one way on QF 36), whilst his was an ex-Australia flight.

 

[jaseb]

I'm sure I could've called up before it got to anywhere near 20 weeks, but we were in Europe awaiting reward J flights home and didn't want to run the risk of them ruining another (separate) already ticketed reservation.

Points showed up over the weekend - email arrived this morning saying taxes have been returned to original form of payment. Doesn't state the dollar amount. I hope they get it right, there were so many changes to this booking I've lost track of how many dollars were outstanding.

 

[Fil-Ski]

Here we go again. I cancelled an award flight earlier in the year, that took forever to refund. Looks like it's going to be the same again.

My partner cancelled award ticket yesterday evening. Within 4 hrs points were returned and cancellation email received indicating that credit card refund for surcharges would take 6-8 weeks.

Around the same time I cancelled an award ticket. Radio silence since, and no points returned to my account. Which means I will have to go through multiple calls with the call centre to organise a refund as I did last time.

I wonder if the difference in treatment was that mine was an ex-SIN flight (one way on QF 36), whilst his was an ex-Australia flight.

Same issue here. I canceled an award flight and 8 weeks later and a few calls the points still havn’t been refunded

 

[jpp42]

I unfortunately made a mistake and booked my OWA flights for next year using a credit card I'm churning and need to cancel; I should have used a different card that I plan to keep long-term. What's everyone's experience if they cancel or change itineraries booked with a now-cancelled card? I assume it's going to involve calling, but can they handle it okay or is it a massive rigmarole?

 

[encryptededdy]

I unfortunately made a mistake and booked my OWA flights for next year using a credit card I'm churning and need to cancel; I should have used a different card that I plan to keep long-term. What's everyone's experience if they cancel or change itineraries booked with a now-cancelled card? I assume it's going to involve calling, but can they handle it okay or is it a massive rigmarole?

If the change results in more payment required, that's easy, you can just enter a new card (even online).

If it requires a refund, then it will be refunded to the original card. I would always just take this option then follow it up with the bank afterwards. In theory you can get Qantas to refund to a different card, but from other reports on here it's exceedingly difficult to get it done.

 

[ferntree]

Seems to me these are taking longer than ever. Had to cancel a reward flight (due to unacceptable schedule changes). Even earlier this year reward flight cancellations were seeing points refunded in days rather than weeks.

Now it's six weeks and waiting. Phoned called centre, told "It's in the queue." How much longer? "probably a few weeks" - obviously a total guess.

I just can't comprehend this, that after all this time Qantas are still nowhere near "match fit" in this regard. When I had to cancel a flight with Virgin a couple of weeks ago, the money was back in my travel bank before I even finished the phone call.

 

[encryptededdy]

Hmm. I had to cancel a reward flight mid-September and the refund was completed in a few business days. However, I had a seperate refund for something else that was also requested around the same time and has been stuck in the queue since, until I called a week ago and the Hobart agent was able to push it to the front of the queue for me.

It's possible Qantas have gone back to the super slow refund times, but I suppose it's also possible that your booking requires manual processing for one reason or another?

 

[offshore171]

Data point:

Awards flights cancelled 19 Aug
Fees and taxes refund received yesterday 24 Oct

Points were reinstated quite quickly, within a week or so from memory

 

[ferntree]

Thanks! When did you get your points refund?

 

[ferntree]

It's possible Qantas have gone back to the super slow refund times, but I suppose it's also possible that your booking requires manual processing for one reason or another?

Maybe because the outward leg was with Jetstar, return leg with Qantas (on same booking) ?