siri said:
This ticket is NOT cancelled...All I asked was to add Tokyo and Qantas cancelled it and re issued it. BTW, this is business class published fare..so it is not a cut price ticket.
That may be true, but what were the fare rules for the originally purchased fare? Just because its a published business class fare does not mean the fare rules permit such route modifications. It may well be full refundable, but not be able to have the fare paid used towards a different ticket.
Many point-to-point one-way or return fares do not have provision in the rules for ticket re-issue. So the only option is for the ticket to be cancelled, refunded and a new ticket issued.
It seems that the fully refundable tickets must be refunded and there is generally no penalty to do so. This is the case with fares such as JRT or JOW.
QF Fare Rules for JRT said:
NO PENALTIES. NORMAL REFUND PROCEDURES APPLY
So no comment about being able to use as credit towards a fare of equal or higher value.
Some restricted fare types (such as NLPXB) do not permit refunds, but do allow:
QF Fare Rules for NLPXB said:
NOTE - AT ANY TIME THIS FARE MAY BE USED AS CREDIT TOWARD PAYMENT OF ANY FARE OF EQUAL OR HIGHER VALUE ASSESSED FROM POINT OF ORIGIN PROVIDED THE CONDITIONS OF THE NEW FARE HAVE BEEN MET. A FEE OF AUD100.00 APPLIES AT THE TIME OF EXCHANGE. IF THE UPGRADED TICKET IS SUBSEQUENTLY CANCELLED THE ORIGINAL REFUND PENALTY WILL BE RETAINED BY THE AIRLINE.
As much as it would be nice to have them apply the JRT fare paid as credit towards another ticket, they are in fact applying the fare rules as they are published. So we would need a change to the fare rules to have it applied differently.
I am not saying I like QF's policy (I have been caught twice with large value tickets to be cancelled and a new ticket purchased), but I can't complain when they are correctly applying the published fare rules for the fare I have purchased.
If you need the ability to re-issue a ticket using a different routing without the need to cancel, refund and re-purchase, then make sure you purchase a fare type that includes that provision.