TLDR: do not give up, no matter what they tell you, especially when it is clearly bs. Do not accept involuntary changes that do not suit. HUACA. The call centres are getting faster, but not better.
In March 2023, as part of the DSC offer, I booked paid discount business flights CBR-BNE-HND-MEL-CBR for Mr Seat 0A and myself for January- February 2024. A friend of ours will travel with us, let’s call her Ms Teacher, and she booked at the same time for the same flights on a separate booking. This wasn’t my first choice of routing as I’d prefer to go via SYD in both directions, but the discounted flights were all snapped up before I managed to book, so we took the day flight out of BNE instead. Tickets issued and all good.
As we would drive at HND too late to do our usual bus transfer to the mountains to ski, we booked into the new and lovely Haneda Airport Villa Fontaine hotel for arrival night 22 Jan and our bus for morning of 23 Jan. We had occasion to stay in this hotel in Jan 2023 when our transfer was cancelled due to the massive snow dump, so I was quite happy about this.
Last night, we all got an email telling us that our flights had changed and to either accept the changes or call a special number provided to reschedule.
The changes saw us arrive in BNE on our connecting flight at 1010 to connect to QF61 departing at …. 0920. Plus it is now going to Narita, not Haneda, which is a bit like buying a ticket to SYD and being taken to NTL or to BNE and being taken to OOL. Did not really suit the arrangements I already made. Then the return flight QF 80 was changed to depart from NRT not HND and they cautiously allowed us only 8.5 hrs to make our domestic connection between MEL and CBR
. The wait plus domestic flight was as long as the international leg! So clearly the changes were not suitable.
I looks up alternatives on the QF web site and selected my preferred replacement flights, which were QF 1442 CBR to SYD arriving 1705 nd then QF 25 SYD to HND departing 2145 allowing a leisurely transfer and some F lounge time. I checked and if I wanted to purchase these flights, the QF web site was happy to sell them to me. Found similarly suitable return flights from HND.
And that is where the trouble began….
Called the provided number at 2pm today and was answered promptly- less than 3 minutes - by someone who sounded like they were in South Africa. First up, she warned me that my changes would incur the change fee. After explaining that the changes were involuntary ie initiated by QF, and that I would not pay anything, she agreed that was the case. With trepidation, I pointed out that I did not want to change my booking reference because of the DSC attached (which will see me retain WP status for another year). She said she would do her best, but if I made “major changes” it would probably re-issue. We talked this over for a few minutes and then she seemed to understand that the flights were to be changed for free, not cancelled and re booked. Then I asked for the flights I wanted. Lots of keyboard noises and was told that there were no seats on QF 1442. This seemed preposterous as that flight is a Dash-8 service between CBR and SYD at 4pm on a Tuesday 8 months from now
. She offered me a choice of a flight that departed CBR at 0940 to connect to QF25 at 2145 - a leisurely 12 hr wait, or a flight that arrived into SYD at 2005 for a 2145 international departure, which is too close for comfort for me - flights get cancelled or collapsed at CBR A LOT, and the bus tax is flaky later at night etc etc. I said no to both and insisted on QF1442, with QF1446 as Plan B. Ultimately after lots of waiting, she told me that neither of those flights was available, they would not show on her system and were therefore “phantom availability”. I kept on insisting that the flights were available as I could see them on the web site, so said no and on it went. I asked her to escalate to someone with different system access. She said she already had. I asked her to try again. She said she would, nd put me on a long hold agin, and after 40 mins on hold, the call was disconnected. Arghhhhhh.
So now I called the Platinum help line at just after 3pm today and was answered within 1 min by thank God, Hobart. The charming consultant quickly understood my issues, booked the flights I requested, thanked me for having my preferences worked out and alternatives, and said my ticket would be emailed very soon. TOTALLY AMZING. Then I said, how can we short circuit this problem for Ms Teacher, who is travelling with us on separate ticket, is Gold only and a relative newbie. We settled on Mr Seat 0A calling her on his phone, putting both on speaker and having her authorise me to change her flights to match ours. He then did that and we all had our new tickets in our email boxes within the hour.
