Qantas flight cancellation, costs incurred

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks for reading my post, Scarlett. Yes, I have called the car rental desk and explained the problem to seek alternative solutions. Their solution was simply the one that the system spat out .. .. ie change the return location at the much higher cost. They declined to apply any other solutions that would lower the cost unfortunately.

On your point about 'factoring in' the rental car return location, we figured we had done so. We were wrong as follows:

- Our ORIGINAL rental car booking was pick up in MCY (Easter Thurs) and return to BRI (Easter Tues). We had to pay extra for that one-way hire.

- After Qantas screwed us over they ended up offering to fly us MCY-SYD-CHC (instead of BRI-CHC).

- In the call with Qantas (after they had looked at other awful alternatives, such as get to CHC after midnight) .. .. we made the decision to accept MCY-SYD-CHC. We had figured that by moving from a one-way rental to a "return to base" rental for the car .. .. we'd at least not incur the one-way fee.

'- Turns out we were wrong. Even *after* removing that one-way rental and returning to point of origination (at MCY) the car rental cost has still gone up by more than $350. This is probably because the car was booked months ago at the same time as we booked the Qantas flights. I believe the car rental costs increase a lot as you get closer to the date.

I think its kinda reasonable that we'd factor in the extra rental cost to our decision on a best endeavours basis. We used our best endeaviours. We haven't wasted money. We haven't tried to get something that's unreasonable. We're not looking to get something for nothing.

All we want is to be treated fairly. 'Turns out that new Qantas isn't doing that. There's a new emperor but new Qantas is just as bad as old Qantas on some fronts.

It's very unreasonable that Qantas should change their flights to make more money and then be dismissive of the customers who incur the extra cost. In other industries, that would be considered outrageous.

Not even the world’s toughest passenger rights scheme - EU261 - will compensate you for this circumstance.

Most people in your situation will be faced with a trade-off. Incur $350 or have to manage a late arrival or early departure.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sorry, but no airline will pay out money for incidentals like Car Hire for a change that is months in advance. Also, your assumption of Qantas changing their flights to 'make more money' is based on your opinion only, without any facts.

Re first sentence… TBH we don’t actually know.

It’s almost certain they won’t pay out voluntarily. But there may be legal channels open to the OP. All it would take is one test case - which may already exist, I don’t know - which equates a cancellation with a delay, and these sorts of incidentals may be recoverable.

 

[TheInsider]

Re first sentence… TBH we don’t actually know.

It’s almost certain they won’t pay out voluntarily. But there may be legal channels open to the OP. All it would take is one test case - which may already exist, I don’t know - which equates a cancellation with a delay, and these sorts of incidentals may be recoverable.

Let's be realistic here, we do know that QF nor any other airline, will pay out for a change of destination to car hire, when they had an option to go out of their original port for a flight that was changed months in advance. The OP can take it to some kind of court if they wish, but being realistic, highly likely won't be in the OPs favour.

OP already stated that the excess on their travel insurance policy was too much, so doubtful they will pay the application fees to whatever small claims court they decide to use.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Let's be realistic here, we do know that QF nor any other airline, will pay out for a change of destination to car hire, when they had an option to go out of their original port for a flight that was changed months in advance. The OP can take it to some kind of court if they wish, but being realistic, highly likely won't be in the OPs favour.

OP already stated that the excess on their travel insurance policy was too much, so doubtful they will pay the application fees to whatever small claims court they decide to use.

Agree. I’m just wary of the blanket statement. These costs might actually be recoverable under Montreal. It’s $350 this time, but it could easily be $5000+ for a non-ref package though say Luxury Escapes. And not everyone buys TI at the time of buying tickets,

 

[Scarlett]

I struggle to understand how a hire car company increases the price when a one-way fee is removed from the equation.

If possible I’d be getting a second opinion on that. A MCY to MCY booking should be cheaper. If not, I’d be cancelling that booking and looking at other alternatives.

 

[markis10]

I would rebook your hire car, just get smart about it:

1. Book off airport so you are not paying the 22-50% premium location fee
2. Drop off at pickup point.

A Quick Look at Sixt Marcoola which is a 5 minute walk from the airport rental booths Apr 17-22 sees options from $418




Whoops, forgot the auto club discount $356 for rental, the Atto 3 has 450km range and you get free charging so no fuel costs.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I struggle to understand how a hire car company increases the price when a one-way fee is removed from the equation.

If possible I’d be getting a second opinion on that. A MCY to MCY booking should be cheaper. If not, I’d be cancelling that booking and looking at other alternatives.

I booked a car for $40 a day. The week before travel the cheapest car was $110 a day. By the time they recalculate the new rental and apply the current rates it could easily exceed the one way charge.

 

[ellen10]

My son had flights on Friday afternoon from Sydney to Port Lincoln, via Adelaide, with his girlfriend. They had boarding passes for both flights
They arrived in Adelaide to find that the Port Lincoln flight had been cancelled.

They tried to get on a REX flight leaving that night, but missed out on seats, totally booked. They had a shark dive booked for the next day and now would not arrive in time. They were offered a refund of the Port Lincoln leg. Unfortunately Qantas also cancelled his return flight to Sydney.

Not only did they miss out on their shark dive and accommodation. But then he had to ring Qantas about his cancelled return flight to Sydney. He spent 1.5 hours on the phone to Qantas waiting to speak to someone with a diminishing phone battery that finally gave out.

They then had to try and find somewhere to stay in Adelaide (it is Adelaide Fringe Festival) and get a late night dinner at 10pm. All at extra expense.

He tried phoning Qantas again after midnight and finally got through after 1 hour on hold. To make matters he could not get on his original booked flight home (which his partner was on, they booked separately). He got a later flight and had to pay more.

Now they have to deal with their Shark dive and Port Lincoln costs and try and get some sort of refund or credit.

Hmm, wonder why the original Port Lincoln was cancelled at late notice.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Dint understand how it could have cost more for the later flight? That is a cost which should totally be covered by a qantas. In fact the entire ticket could be grounds for a refund, given QF could not complete the service.

I’d try and find out why the Port Lincoln flight was cancelled. If it was anything within the airline’s control then I’d say the fair compensation is the total price of all flights.

This could take a bit of time to resolve, but I’d be confident that the outcome should be a full refund under ACL. In the end, the product sold was not fit for purpose, which was to get you to port lincoln.

 

[elanshin]

Hi .. thanks for the reply. They originally offered a BNE to SYD flight but it was extremely early: around 6.00am or 6.30am. As we are in Noosa for the long weekend (we live in SYD), it meant we'd have to get up at 3.00am or 4.00am, drive to Brisbane and get the flight from BRI to SYD to CHC. We declined that as it made much more sense to go from MCY.

I believe there is also a 7am option out of BNE that can connect onto the same SYD - CHC flight that Qantas sells. It makes for a tighter connection at SYD (1h 40 - which is very doable). Whilst its still super early, that extra half or hour plus needing less time for domestic flights might make it a potential option although if you have already accepted, you'd need them to act on "good will" now.

Other option for BNE departure is a flight from BNE to AKL (8:40am) connecting onto a Jetstar NZ Domestic to CHC arriving at around 5:20pm.

I'm sort of in the opposite boat, now looking for different return journeys home from CHC as they cancelled the afternoon services for all but SYD.

 

[eastwest101]

I struggle to understand how a hire car company increases the price when a one-way fee is removed from the equation.

If possible I’d be getting a second opinion on that. A MCY to MCY booking should be cheaper. If not, I’d be cancelling that booking and looking at other alternatives.

I think the info missing here is that the OP already has flights from SYD-BNE and has a hire car booked from BNE airport and was booked to return that hire car to BNE airport, but they have since changed their flights and have now booked MCY-SYD-CHC so they would be hiring a car at BNE airport and returning it to MCY airport - hence the fee for returning a hire car to a different point of hire. Sounds like they booked the hire car early and got a very good deal so cancelling the existing hire car booking and trying to book a new hire car over the easter weekend is going to be much more expensive.

In hindsight they probably should have moved the trip from BNE-CHC to a day earlier/later and adjusted their hire car booking, or bitten the bullet and accepted the Qantas offer of the early morning BNE-SYD-CHC routing or come up with some other routing that would have worked for them, obviously something not arriving in CHC at midnight and then having a 2hr drive after that is reasonable.

I wonder if in this situation - if the OP had travel insurance, and could prove the change in itinerary resulted in the oneway hire car surcharge, if they would be successful in making a claim or not? I guess it would depend on the policy.

 

[elanshin]

I think the info missing here is that the OP already has flights from SYD-BNE and has a hire car booked from BNE airport and was booked to return that hire car to BNE airport, but they have since changed their flights and have now booked MCY-SYD-CHC so they would be hiring a car at BNE airport and returning it to MCY airport - hence the fee for returning a hire car to a different point of hire. Sounds like they booked the hire car early and got a very good deal so cancelling the existing hire car booking and trying to book a new hire car over the easter weekend is going to be much more expensive.

In hindsight they probably should have moved the trip from BNE-CHC to a day earlier/later and adjusted their hire car booking, or bitten the bullet and accepted the Qantas offer of the early morning BNE-SYD-CHC routing or come up with some other routing that would have worked for them, obviously something not arriving in CHC at midnight and then having a 2hr drive after that is reasonable.

I wonder if in this situation - if the OP had travel insurance, and could prove the change in itinerary resulted in the oneway hire car surcharge, if they would be successful in making a claim or not? I guess it would depend on the policy.

@vaccav also following on from this. Perhaps it might be possible to instead look to fly SYD to MCY initially and start the car rental and drop off there ?(unless there's something you need to do in the BNE vicinity or the timing is terrible).

 

[markis10]

Our ORIGINAL rental car booking was pick up in MCY (Easter Thurs) and return to BRI (Easter Tues). We had to pay extra for that one-way hire.

I think the info missing here is that the OP already has flights from SYD-BNE and has a hire car booked from BNE airport and was booked to return that hire car to BNE airport,

Nope, see above, fly into MCY fly out BNE was the original plan, now MCY in and out, and as I posted easy to rebook at far less costs as a result, so in some ways the OP is saving money if they follow a few basic tips that see the so called extra costs being higher than the new rental, and as a big bonus no 2 hour Bruce Highway journey to Brisbane.

 

[justinbrett]

Personally I don’t think you have a hope in hell of getting the $350 from anyone.

It’s not a loss. It’s a change to a booking that you are electing to make instead of driving down early. You don’t have to spend the $350. All of your options are open, and QF has been accomodating by offering a flight from MCY instead of BNE which they didn’t have to. And if you’re not happy, you could cancel your flights and get a refund.

 

[vaccav]

I struggle to understand how a hire car company increases the price when a one-way fee is removed from the equation.

If possible I’d be getting a second opinion on that. A MCY to MCY booking should be cheaper. If not, I’d be cancelling that booking and looking at other alternatives.

Hi Scarlett. I couldn't believe it was more but it turned out to be correct. I first encountered it when seeking to change the booking via "manage my booking". Because that was so high:
- I called the rental car co at the desk at MCY and they confirmed it
- I tried booking a similar car with other rental companies and their online prices were no cheaper, unfortunately

I think the issue is that it is the Easter long weekend and the original rental car booking was some months ago. These firms, I think, increase the prices as you get closer to the date and as availability reduces.

 

[vaccav]

@vaccav also following on from this. Perhaps it might be possible to instead look to fly SYD to MCY initially and start the car rental and drop off there ?(unless there's something you need to do in the BNE vicinity or the timing is terrible).

Thanks elanshin for reading my post and looking into this. I think my original posts might not have been clear enough as we are indeed flying SYD to MCY initially and renting from there.

To help clarify with a few details:
- we live in Sydney
- we're going to Noosa after work on the Thurs night and flying SYD to MCY.
- on the Tues three of us are going to CHC (and then back to SYD after a few days). 1 of us is flying back from MCY to SYD to go back to work.
- So we booked a rental car that was picked up from MCY and dropped off at BRI.
- All was good with that plan.

- Several months later, QF came along and cancelled the BRI to CHC flight.
- They offered really coughpy alternatives like flying out of BRI in the early evening, getting to CHC after midnight (just before a 2 hour drive towards Timaru). Giving us a flight that arrives the next day was pretty poor.
- After some very poor interactions, we ended up taking an alternative that was MCY-SYD-CHC for the group of 3 family members. We figured that any change to the car rental couldn't be that much as we were removing the one-way drop off.

Turns out we were incorrect: the increase to the rental cost was a whopping $350. That's $350 more in rental charges, even tho' we no longer have a one-way drop off and instead have a 'return to base' at MCY where the car was picked up.

 

[vaccav]

Personally I don’t think you have a hope in hell of getting the $350 from anyone.

It’s not a loss. It’s a change to a booking that you are electing to make instead of driving down early. You don’t have to spend the $350. All of your options are open, and QF has been accomodating by offering a flight from MCY instead of BNE which they didn’t have to. And if you’re not happy, you could cancel your flights and get a refund.

Thanks for reading my post Justin. I think we disagree.

- We didn't elect to change the booking. QF changed the booking when they cancelled the flight. They probably did it for commercial reasons. They're doing it quite a lot .. .. the number of SYD / MEL flights that get cancelled each week is significant.

- We are indeed choosing to not drive down early .. .. but that's because to get to BRI for at even a 7.00am flight we'd want to arrive at (say) 6.00am given we are travelling with kids. By the time we do the drive from Noosa (1 hr 40 with no buffer?) we're leaving at 4.20am and getting up at 3.30am or 3.45am. Doing that with kids isn't our idea of a holiday.

- This isn't happening because (using your phrase) we are electing not to drive down early. It's happening because Qantas cancelled the flight.

You are right that we could indeed cancel the flights. However, that puts us in a worse position, we'd have to fly with another airline and pay even higher prices for Easter-week flights. So I think the option you put forward does not work.

All of this is happening because Qantas has *still* got an enormous cancellation rate. They cancel flights (sometimes for commercial reasons) and they don't suffer the costs. The passengers, like us in this case, suffers the cost.