Long wait for refund for cancelled reward flights Qantas - a common experience?

[MPP2768]

Hi All,

Just reviewing out travel plans to Europe booked for May , I have booked my Europe tickets using Qantas points all booked under classic reward flights . There are 3 different booking reference nos. as i booked them as the classic award tickets became available as below
Leg 1 Mel-Sin- Mel
Leg 2 Singapore-Doha- Vienna
Leg 3 Paris-Dubai-Singapore
I understand cancellation charges are 6000 points per passenger , does this mean i will be charged 6000X3 points per passenger or juts 6000 points per passenger for all 3 cancellations.
Can we pay cash instead of points for the cancellations? does anyone know how much do 6000 points translate to in terms of AUD

Thanks

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Has anyone managed to cancel a classic rewards booking and had the full points refunded? It seems Classic rewards are subject to cancellation fees (ie points) whereas paid fares can get a full credit. It seems odd as points are effectively the same as credit held to be spent on Qantas anyhow.

QF's policy for reward bookings is a full refund, no canx fee, at least for involuntary cancellations. One of my awards was refunded in full. The other was auto-cancelled by QF and that went from a point-to-point holding PNR to now 'redeem voucher' (which of course takes you nowhere). Dunno what's happening with the 'redeem voucher'.

 

[Monya Meow Meow]

Has anyone managed to cancel a classic rewards booking and had the full points refunded? It seems Classic rewards are subject to cancellation fees (ie points) whereas paid fares can get a full credit. It seems odd as points are effectively the same as credit held to be spent on Qantas anyhow.

Cancelled in March for both trips in April, full refund of reward points and taxes paid (minus CC fee).

 

[bPeteb]

It's now a month since I cancelled the points flight of our two to SA. Webpage advised 8-10 days. No points, no ccard refund. I'm going to call today and see where it is.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Has anyone managed to cancel a classic rewards booking and had the full points refunded? It seems Classic rewards are subject to cancellation fees (ie points) whereas paid fares can get a full credit. It seems odd as points are effectively the same as credit held to be spent on Qantas anyhow.

Qantas has cancelled several of my classic reward bookings and the full points have been refunded.

 

[bPeteb]

Ok... only three minutes between dialling and call being picked up by Helen in NZ. Helen could see that I'd requested refund on April 20. Despite submitting request inside window of 6000 waiver I was asked if I was aware it would be charged. I said nope, that should be waived. Then gave me points and refund amounts and that didn't include cc fee. I said nope, that's to be refunded as well.

Helen was really nice and I told her that I didn't envy her job. Lots of typing and Helen came back and said both amounts to be refunded in full but would still take another six to eight weeks.

We're not booking anything any time soon but it irks me that QF, and every other company, can so easily hang on to our money when they can take it so quickly. QF has over $5k of ours that I'd like back. I'll be back on the phone on June 8, the date given to me by Helen for when it can be pushed through.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Bindibuys, my curiosity has the better of me!
Please give some background on this one?

QF's policy for reward bookings is a full refund, no canx fee, at least for involuntary cancellations. One of my awards was refunded in full. The other was auto-cancelled by QF and that went from a point-to-point holding PNR to now 'redeem voucher' (which of course takes you nowhere). Dunno what's happening with the 'redeem voucher'.

Cancelled in March for both trips in April, full refund of reward points and taxes paid (minus CC fee).

Qantas has cancelled several of my classic reward bookings and the full points have been refunded.

All instances where QF has cancelled flights. My Reward booking in August is with CX and EK flights not with QF. QF's policy seems to be geared at QF operated flights. There's no indication if CX or EK are likely to cancel these flights at the present time.

If these were paid flights I could get a voucher to the full value, but if cancel myself (the event I was going to has been cancelled due to COVID) I lose the 6k points.

 

[Dr Ralph]

All instances where QF has cancelled flights. My Reward booking in August is with CX and EK flights not with QF. QF's policy seems to be geared at QF operated flights. There's no indication if CX or EK are likely to cancel these flights at the present time.

If these were paid flights I could get a voucher to the full value, but if cancel myself (the event I was going to has been cancelled due to COVID) I lose the 6k points.

One of my flights was with China Eastern. It was for June. I called to cancel.

I think it likely that if you cancel and your booking is in August that you will be subject to the points penalty. Even if you could argue the toss and get the points back at a later stage.

I have multiple bookings for August. I'm not proactively cancelling them. I'd prefer to use them, but realise it likely that I wont be able to travel because of government restrictions. But I'll be waiting for Qantas to cancel those bookings lest I be subject to the penalty.

 

[SeatBackForward]

One of my flights was with China Eastern. I called to cancel.

Their call centre waived the cancellation fees? I didn't want to call them yet as I don't see my circumstances as particularly urgent, and my flights are in August, so still more than two months away.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Their call centre waived the cancellation fees? I didn't want to call them yet as I don't see my circumstances as particularly urgent, and my flights are in August, so still more than two months away.

Yes.

 

[SeatBackForward]

One of my flights was with China Eastern. It was for June. I called to cancel.

I think it likely that if you cancel and your booking is in August that you will be subject to the points penalty. Even if you could argue the toss and get the points back at a later stage.

I have multiple bookings for August. I'm not proactively cancelling them. I'd prefer to use them, but realise it likely that I wont be able to travel because of government restrictions. But I'll be waiting for Qantas to cancel those bookings lest I be subject to the penalty.

That is my preference also, but my concern is that as the first flight is with CX, they -CX- may not cancel the flight itself..and i'll inevitably have to cancel voluntarily.

 

[Joe Lighty]

So I cancelled a JQ flight on 23rd March that was booked using Qantas FF points. My understanding is I should get the points (all of them, NOT with a charge of 6000 points/person) refunded and the ticketing fees (around $600).
I haven't seen any refund of points or money yet - and if I call Qantas, the initial recorded voice suggests that no one on the phone can assist with refunds anyway. I haven't yet persevered to wait for someone to talk to.
My questions are:
- How are other people's refunds going? Should I expect to have been refunded by now?
- If so, how do people suggest I follow this up?

As an aside, the whole concept of refund processing is obviously a hot topic at the moment, given the situation. In this day and age of computer-ised, "modern" banking, why are so many companies "struggling" to process these refunds?
My cynical mind suggests they hang onto your money for as long as possible, because:
- they keep the funds in their account earning interest
- some customers will no doubt "forget" and not chase up refunds after a lengthy period
Given that a purchase results in the funds being extracted from your bank account (effectively) immediately, what's a fair time for a refund to be processed? If we say it takes one day for the funds to be extracted from a customer's bank account, then I would suggest 4 times that for a refund? Eg 4 business days?
I find it hard to comprehend that Qantas (and other airlines) are STILL busy processing refunds - they certainly won't be busy dealing with new bookings!??
I guess this will qualify as my first rant...
Rant over...

 

[SydneySwan]

So I cancelled a JQ flight on 23rd March that was booked using Qantas FF points. My understanding is I should get the points (all of them, NOT with a charge of 6000 points/person) refunded and the ticketing fees (around $600).
I haven't seen any refund of points or money yet - and if I call Qantas, the initial recorded voice suggests that no one on the phone can assist with refunds anyway. I haven't yet persevered to wait for someone to talk to.
My questions are:
- How are other people's refunds going? Should I expect to have been refunded by now?
- If so, how do people suggest I follow this up?

As an aside, the whole concept of refund processing is obviously a hot topic at the moment, given the situation. In this day and age of computer-ised, "modern" banking, why are so many companies "struggling" to process these refunds?
My cynical mind suggests they hang onto your money for as long as possible, because:
- they keep the funds in their account earning interest
- some customers will no doubt "forget" and not chase up refunds after a lengthy period
Given that a purchase results in the funds being extracted from your bank account (effectively) immediately, what's a fair time for a refund to be processed? If we say it takes one day for the funds to be extracted from a customer's bank account, then I would suggest 4 times that for a refund? Eg 4 business days?
I find it hard to comprehend that Qantas (and other airlines) are STILL busy processing refunds - they certainly won't be busy dealing with new bookings!??
I guess this will qualify as my first rant...
Rant over...

I have worked on a lot of payment systems as a programmer. In my experience receipts are auto-authorised but payments (refunds) require manual authorisation. It is usually possible to setup rules to auto-authorise payments but I would expect that currently Qantas and others have switched all of these to manual authorisation. I would also doubt that staff have been increased in these departments so generating an enormous amount of additional work. This of course would slow down the process of issuing refunds quite dramatically.

 

[avinashm]

My experience with Qantas Refunds has been great. Flight cancelled in April took about a month to refund points and taxed.

Another flight that's been cancelled in June got refunded back to my credit card last week.

Likewise, AirBNB has also been great with refunds.

My only issue is with Cebu Pacific Airlines who still haven't refunded my money after 2 months.

 

[SydneySwan]

My only issue is with Cebu Pacific Airlines who still haven't refunded my money after 2 months.

A colleague had similar issue getting a refund from CP back in March just before full lockdown in the Philippines. His company has an office in Makati so he got the local manager (who reported to him in Sydney) to visit the CP office in Makati. I understand it took several hours and he only emerged with some sort of credit note (fares were non-refundable).

 

[Aus ATC]

I have a J award booking BNE-SFO in August - the flight is not currently available for revenue bookings, but has not yet been cancelled. I tried to cancel my booking today but the agent would still have charged the 6000 point cancellation fee (OK - policy is free cancellations up till 31/7 at the moment). We agreed I would just have to wait for QF to eventually cancel the flight - not a big deal (just wait another month or so). As an aside I got through to the agent in less than a minute!! (Premium line for a humble SG)

 

[serfty]

I was further surprised yesterday to see the unrefunded award booking show as an "off line point" on MMB, weirdly dated a year after I cancelled the booking.

This was unexpected for a redemption booking, so I called. It was answered reasonably quickly and had an affable conversation with a relaxed agent.

Basically I was told that I should call after six weeks from cancellation date as it was only after 42 days that they could escalate such issues.

No rush at this stage so I'll wait another fortnight.

So I waited another fortnight and called Wednesday - now told to wait 60 days and call back after two months (from April 5). Things aren't pressing so I decided what is another two week.

This morning I checked my QFF account and the points are there, no fee as well. No sign of the $+++ but I'll watch carefully.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sorry if I have missed this... but should a cancelled award flight (QF not operating flight in July) disappear entirely from the 'my bookings page'?

I went from point-to-point PNR, to 'redeem voucher' to now... well... nothing! The only record is an email sent to me a few weeks ago saying 'we have to make changes'.

Just wanted to know if that was the normal process.

 

[deejo77]

Sorry if I have missed this... but should a cancelled award flight (QF not operating flight in July) disappear entirely from the 'my bookings page'?

I went from point-to-point PNR, to 'redeem voucher' to now... well... nothing! The only record is an email sent to me a few weeks ago saying 'we have to make changes'.

Just wanted to know if that was the normal process.

yes mine has disappeared - no sign of points or dollars - can’t remember when I actually canceled as no email ect. Will give it until mid June before chasing it up

 

[Hvr]

I got a phone call from QF today doing the refund for my flight in June, points from SIN-MEL. Cash component 8-10 weeks.

I didn't call them at all.

 

[serfty]

Cash component 8-10 weeks

Did you cancel earlier or did they just call you out of the blue?

As I posted, yesterday the points showed up but no $+++ as yet.

As per the advice earlier this week, I will call back in a couple of weeks if no $+++ back in account.

now told to wait 60 days and call back after two months (from April 5).