Qantas changed my classic reward seat from business to economy

[beeroob]

Hi all,

Not even sure where to start here, I’m still shocked and upset myself!

I’m heading to London for my nans memorial later this year, the memorial date was changed to slightly before my original business class classic reward QF1 ticket was due to fly out, so I found another available business class seat also on QF1 two weeks before. However, because I didn’t have enough points to rebuy a new ticket I called Qantas to help change to that seat/date.

After quite sometime spent on the phone the Qantas lady said she couldn’t see it on her systems but could see it on the Qantas website and said she would get it booked and get back to me. I clarified that I only wanted the business seat on QF1 on the new specified date which she acknowledged. She never got back to me and later I looked on my Qantas app and saw flight change to the date I wanted but in economy class!! I’m so devastated I booked this ticket so far in advance and was looking forward to my first time in business class. I also have not received any refund of points or taxes.

I have called back and no one has been able to help, they have just been saying ‘sorry we cant do anything’ ‘send customer care an email’ and nothing helpful! The one person who seemed helpful said he would reach out to his manager and put in a request to move the ticket back up to business class but still nothing. I have also sent emails out to any Qantas email I could find and reached out on social media - does anyone else have any advice? Hoping to get this sorted as soon as possible Thanks in advance

 

[JohnK]

Sorry to hear @beeroob.

There are so many threads here with same issue. From what we've read it's not a good idea to change rewards as the clueless offshore staff cancel the booking.

You have to keep calling. Your issue may be fixed quick or even take weeks or months to fix. Need to somehow get through to Hobart call centre but that's easier said than done.

Good luck.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Oh my goodness. I am so sorry this has happened to you!!!
There are numerous posts on here about people who have experienced similar absolutely abysmal service since the offshore call centres are helping with rebooking awards.

I don’t know when your flight is but you should send an email to Olivia Wirth and Stephanie Tully.
QF has completely dropped the ball here and they need to fix this for you.

I think there is another name of someone in customer care that was mentioned in one of the other threads about losing Award seats. I’ll try to find it.

Absolutely appalling stories right now left right and centre.
It’s actually making me question my loyalty to QF and I’m a rusted on customer from way back.

 

[beeroob]

Sorry to hear @beeroob.

There are so many threads here with same issue. From what we've read it's not a good idea to change rewards as the clueless offshore staff cancel the booking.

You have to keep calling. Your issue may be fixed quick or even take weeks or months to fix. Need to somehow get through to Hobart call centre but that's easier said than done.

Good luck.

Thanks for your reply John, I used to have such ease with Qantas and wow I miss their live chat! Didn't know this would happen otherwise I would've gotten my brother to lend me some points

Post automatically merged: Jul 8, 2022

Oh my goodness. I am so sorry this has happened to you!!!
There are numerous posts on here about people who have experienced similar absolutely abysmal service since the offshore call centres are helping with rebooking awards.

I don’t know when your flight is but you should send an email to Olivia Wirth and Stephanie Tully.
QF has completely dropped the ball here and they need to fix this for you.

I think there is another name of someone in customer care that was mentioned in one of the other threads about losing Award seats. I’ll try to find it.

Absolutely appalling stories right now left right and centre.
It’s actually making me question my loyalty to QF and I’m a rusted on customer from way back.

Thank you Fiona! I have tried both of there emails, fingers crossed something comes back through. I used to love Qantas but so many interactions I've had with them recently has been painful and cost me time and money

 

[Matt_01]

Absolutely appalling stories right now left right and centre.
It’s actually making me question my loyalty to QF and I’m a rusted on customer from way back.

I tend to agree, all our international travel for this year is with the likes of EK and SQ, my domestic travel has been minimal with QF and the pendulum is swinging back towards VA. With reintroduction of SQ reward bookings, points transfer and the partnership with QR and UA I am just thinking.......

 

[Franky]

I tend to agree, all our international travel for this year is with the likes of EK and SQ, my domestic travel has been minimal with QF and the pendulum is swinging back towards VA. With reintroduction of SQ reward bookings, points transfer and the partnership with QR and UA I am just thinking.......

Just do it…

 

[beeroob]

I tend to agree, all our international travel for this year is with the likes of EK and SQ, my domestic travel has been minimal with QF and the pendulum is swinging back towards VA. With reintroduction of SQ reward bookings, points transfer and the partnership with QR and UA I am just thinking.......

I dont blame you.If I could transfer my QF points to SQ I would

 

[Matt_01]

Just do it…

It will probably happen but there is no need to rush.

OT, prior to Covid I retained QF P1,VA WP and SQ *G year on year, in early 2020 as I retained P1 through to mid 2021 QF were getting the flick and more effort was to be put into SQ to get to PPS or Solitaire and drop P1, then things changed. With all the extensions, minimum flight requirements I am no worse off than I was 2 years ago. During Covid when the airlines were offering status matches, out of curiosity I threw my hat into the ring for those I came across. As at today I have the same status as pre Covid and then a few more, the current status list reads QF P1, VA WP, SQ *G, QR WP, NZ *G, QH first, AZ Executive Club, there maybe 1 or 2 more.

At the moment I leaning back towards VA and SQ. Pre covid VA put in place new agreements with AC and NH, during/post Covid UA then QR, the SQ partnership seems to back in full swing and it would not surprise me if there is a shake up in *A program. QR and QF are not the best of friends and QF jumped into bed with NZ and to the best of my knowledge no ME3 carrier that is a member of *A so I wonder what the future holds.

 

[Anna]

It’s actually making me question my loyalty to QF and I’m a rusted on customer from way back.

Agree. I used to be happy to pay a bit more for QF because most of its service used to be a bit better than others and I had more confidence that I would be treated better in irrops than on a cheaper airline. Now all I see is QF has become an LCC in terms of pretty much all aspects of its service, but still wants to charge like it was still a full service airline.

The incompetent call centres are a real deal breaker for me.

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF @beeroob . So sad to hear of the experience that brings you here. As others have said, its all too common these days with Qantas.

To clarify the call centres: There is, in increasing level of competence: Cape Town, Fiji, Auckland, Hobart (you can usually tell by the accent). Hobart is usually only available to Qantas Platinums and above. If you get Cape Town, best thing to do is 'HUCA' - Hang Up and Call Again, hoping to get one of the others next time - it may take a few calls! Never believe any 'promises made by Cape Town and mostly not from Fiji (although there are some OK ones there). NEVER believe a promise that they will 'call back'.

Before you call again, you need to write yourself a sript - keep it short, to the point, and exactly what you want and be firm but polite. Try to be flexible and see if there are award J flights on the alternatives. Search on AFF (top right) the names @Princess Fiona gave here and you should get their e-mails. Send them an e-mail, again, politely and concisely telling them what has happened, your lack of success in resolution and what you would like.

Also as Princess Fiona and Matt_01 have said, many of us here are thinking of, or have largely bailed on Qantas, at least internationally. I am certainly no longer a 'Roo Flyer' if I can help it.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Agree. I used to be happy to pay a bit more for QF because most of its service used to be a bit better than others and I had more confidence that I would be treated better in irrops than on a cheaper airline. Now all I see is QF has become an LCC in terms of pretty much all aspects of its service, but still wants to charge like it was still a full service airline.

The incompetent call centres are a real deal breaker for me.

But that was always the thing.... Cathay and Singapore were often a thousand dollars or more cheaper than Qantas, and in IRROPS both those carriers had four or five times daily services out of both Melbourne and Sydney... compared to Qantas' one service. And both those former carriers had guaranteed flatbeds compared to Qantas with angled beds on the A330 or droopy beds on the A380.

On paper Qantas seems to defy the laws of competition... until you consider double status credits and salt and pepper squid!

 

[beeroob]

Welcome to AFF @beeroob . So sad to hear of the experience that brings you here. As others have said, its all too common these days with Qantas.

To clarify the call centres: There is, in increasing level of competence: Cape Town, Fiji, Auckland, Hobart (you can usually tell by the accent). Hobart is usually only available to Qantas Platinums and above. If you get Cape Town, best thing to do is 'HUCA' - Hang Up and Call Again, hoping to get one of the others next time - it may take a few calls! Never believe any 'promises made by Cape Town and mostly not from Fiji (although there are some OK ones there). NEVER believe a promise that they will 'call back'.

Before you call again, you need to write yourself a sript - keep it short, to the point, and exactly what you want and be firm but polite. Try to be flexible and see if there are award J flights on the alternatives. Search on AFF (top right) the names @Princess Fiona gave here and you should get their e-mails. Send them an e-mail, again, politely and concisely telling them what has happened, your lack of success in resolution and what you would like.

Also as Princess Fiona and Matt_01 have said, many of us here are thinking of, or have largely bailed on Qantas, at least internationally. I am certainly no longer a 'Roo Flyer' if I can help it.

Thanks for your reply Roo Flyer,
I searched how high up Stephanie and Olivia are - do people often get replies from them?
Yeah I don’t believe they ever will call back lol. Also do you just ask where they’re from when they answer or just assume? Thx!

 

[serfty]

On paper Qantas seems to defy the laws of competition... until you consider double status credits and salt and pepper squid!

You forgot Chairman's Lounge.

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks for your reply Roo Flyer,
I searched how high up Stephanie and Olivia are - do people often get replies from them?
Yeah I don’t believe they ever will call back lol. Also do you just ask where they’re from when they answer or just assume? Thx!

They are unlikely to attend their 'public' e-mails themselves, but staff would do it. There are reports here of positive action after contacing Stephanie Tully at least.

ID call centres by accent. Not perfect, but largely useful. Although as someone pointed out, pity the poor South African who works in the Hobart call centre

 

[beeroob]

Update - I just got a call from Qantas. Not sure if it’s the promised ‘call back’ from Qantas or if it was because of my email to Stephanie/ Olivia but they said all they could do is give me a refund

 

[VPS]

Update - I just got a call from Qantas. Not sure if it’s the promised ‘call back’ from Qantas or if it was because of my email to Stephanie/ Olivia but they said all they could do is give me a refund

That is just totally unacceptable

 

[Pushka]

Update - I just got a call from Qantas. Not sure if it’s the promised ‘call back’ from Qantas or if it was because of my email to Stephanie/ Olivia but they said all they could do is give me a refund

As if that is in any way acceptable. They are treating their customers like dirt.

 

[beeroob]

They said to just keep checking the website to find other seats aka we’re not gonna help, do it yourself..

 

[Doctore1003]

That’s appalling. What date do you want to fly?

 

[Tmcsyd]

So sorry this is happening to you Beeroob!! This happened to me too similarly. I ended up emailing almost every email I could find, calling a million times, posting on all social medias and finally one day someone helpful called me