Newbie mistake with Qantas travel voucher!

[calgarychris]

So,

I thought I would be clever and use the "buy a travel voucher and avoid the cc fees" thing that I've read about on here. Of course, I managed to stuff it up, putting it in my name, Chris, rather than my full name. Soooo, an hour later on the phone they fixed that for me. So I guess I learnt my lesson. But I did have a couple of quick questions:

1. I bought the voucher thinking that I could use it to pay for a portion of a two person trip, however ended up have to go through the redeem portion of the website and therefore book two individual trips. Is there a way to use it as payment when booking travel for two people?
2. As a result of the above, I ended up essentially doing two separate transactions - I assume I could have avoided that if I'd bought a gift voucher for 2 pax from the start?
3. I bought the vouchers using my ANZ Amex black - would buying vouchers qualify as "Qantas spend" on credit cards?

Thanks all, the wait times for us lowly bronze callers is brutal, so perhaps I won't bother with vouchers in the future (or perhaps just not f&*^ them up!)

 

[opusman]

The name you put on the voucher is really irrelevant, since you can change it to anything you like when redeeming the voucher.

To answer your other questions:

1. The number of people on the booking must equal the number of people on the voucher. If you buy a voucher for 2 people you can redeem it for a booking for two people.
2. Yes
3. Yes

Vouchers are fine once you understand them, they let you avoid CC fees and at Xmas time usually come with bonus points. So they can be worthwhile, they're just quite complicated because frankly the Qantas IT systems that process them are incredibly basic and badly designed. So don't feel bad because you got it wrong - a lot of people do, and it's Qantas's fault, not yours

 

[reilic]

With regard to "number of people", is infant included? ie, if 2 adults + 1 infant (on lap), should I purchase voucher for 2, or for 3?

 

[opusman]

With regard to "number of people", is infant included? ie, if 2 adults + 1 infant (on lap), should I purchase voucher for 2, or for 3?

If it's an infant on your lap I would guess not since they don't need a seat, and you could add them to the booking once it's been made. But I don't know for sure so you may like to call QF to confirm.

 

[ozcos]

Have a question and this seems as good a thread as any.

I have a voucher for 2 people. If I book flights using a voucher (2 names on voucher), what would happen if for some reason one person needed to change their flight? (E.g. Delay by a day or so).

 

[ozbeachbabe]

With regard to "number of people", is infant included? ie, if 2 adults + 1 infant (on lap), should I purchase voucher for 2, or for 3?

If the booking was wholly domestic Australia then just purchase for 2 people as that is the number of seats you're purchasing. It's easy to just add an infant at the airport when flying on domestic flights only as there is no fare therefore no ticket required for the infant. Make sure you arrive in plenty of time to do that and don't bother checking in ahead of time because they'll need to uncheck you in in order to add the infant.

Alternatively (preferable) you could maybe use the Qantas chat facility or send them a private message on Facebook with your pnr number plus the infant details so this could be done ahead of time.

If it's an infant on your lap I would guess not since they don't need a seat, and you could add them to the booking once it's been made. But I don't know for sure so you may like to call QF to confirm.

If it was just a domestic booking then no need to put the infant name on the voucher as there is no seat booked and no fare payable.

Not 100% sure for international but I would think you could still put the name of the infant on the voucher for a booking of 2 adults and one infant if you are purchasing 2 seats not 3 as the infant still needs a ticket purchased as the airfare is 10% of the adult fare plus some of the taxes. I just don't know whether you only purchase the credit on the voucher for the number of pax who are occupying seats then just pay cash for the infant by adding them after the booking has been made for the adults.

Have a question and this seems as good a thread as any.

I have a voucher for 2 people. If I book flights using a voucher (2 names on voucher), what would happen if for some reason one person needed to change their flight? (E.g. Delay by a day or so).

Once the booking had been made for both pax using the voucher in both names the booking could be split to then enable the person to change their dates if required. This could always be done ahead of time just in case as it wouldn't matter if the change eventuated or not.

 

[JohnK]

With regard to "number of people", is infant included? ie, if 2 adults + 1 infant (on lap), should I purchase voucher for 2, or for 3?

I know this is old thread but for future reference you purchase a gift voucher for the number of adults travelling and then add the infant after making the booking. I have transferred a number of gift vouchers over to my wife and each of these has been used to make multiple bookings and I just call customer care and add our infant daughter to the booking.

Have a question and this seems as good a thread as any.

I have a voucher for 2 people. If I book flights using a voucher (2 names on voucher), what would happen if for some reason one person needed to change their flight? (E.g. Delay by a day or so).

Assuming you are booking a red-edeal or sale airfare then remember if you wanted to change dates there would be change fees involved.

 

[ozcos]

Thanks. Yes, understood re: change fee. There's a small chance this might happen so just want to be sure I'm not potentially throwing away the whole voucher if we need to split and not allowed to.

 

[samh004]

My mistake earlier this year with regard to vouchers was that I didn't notice that bookings must commence in Australia. As I live in Australia, I didn't know any different, but my parents live overseas. They are still using the vouchers, but now book Australia-HKG-Australia with their next return to Australia planned before the old one ends, instead of how they were booking travel before, which was one trip at a time.

It pays to understand the product you are buying before doing so, lesson learned, but solution found.

 

[redwoodw]

Apparently you can change the recipient but not the number of it.

 

[Fifa]

Apparently you can change the recipient but not the number of it.

Are you able to change the recipient name after part of the voucher is used?

 

[Danger]

I understand multiple vouchers can't be combined to make one booking online. However, can it be done over the phone?

 

[Sdtravel]

I understand multiple vouchers can't be combined to make one booking online. However, can it be done over the phone?

I dont know if you can combine them. but in the back QF is able to link them together so that you can use either booking to checkin and do seating for both. Just takes a call and details of all bookings and pax.
Ive done it on a booking where we all arrived separately on different tickets but departed on the same flights. When checkin opened i did all via my booking but at no other time could you tell the bookings were linked.

 

[JohnK]

I understand multiple vouchers can't be combined to make one booking online. However, can it be done over the phone?

There are reports of mixed success. Generally the answer is no.

 

[Danger]

And is this the place to buy them?

Buy a Gift Voucher | Qantas

I'm confused by it asking for both "your details" and the recipient's but there's an option to enter the FF number for the former.

 

[oz_mark]

And is this the place to buy them?

Buy a Gift Voucher | Qantas

I'm confused by it asking for both "your details" and the recipient's but there's an option to enter the FF number for the former.

It is the correct place.

Sometimes they offer a bonus (such as 5 or 10 points per dollar) to the purchaser of the certificate - so they need that, sometimes.

As for the traveller, they probably assume in the general case that you don't know what it is. There is an opportunity to add the number during the booking process.