Qantas incorrectly requiring PCR test. Any point seeking a refund?

[justinbrett]

Why can’t it be a legal obligation? People can be held liable for mistakes and errors.

Because it's just not. If a bouncer tells you that you can't come in with thongs on, and then you go buy shoes, and then a different bouncer says thongs are fine, that doesn't mean the bar has to pay for your shoes.

You could apply this logic to just about any situation in a range of industries.

That's why it's always best to know the rules and more importantly, provide evidence they can't argue with. Numerous times I've been denied lounge entry or tried to be charged for excess luggage that I've had to whip out my phone and show them the fine print.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Because it's just not. If a bouncer tells you that you can't come in with thongs on, and then you go buy shoes, and then a different bouncer says thongs are fine, that doesn't mean the bar has to pay for your shoes.

You could apply this logic to just about any situation in a range of industries.

That's why it's always best to know the rules and more importantly, provide evidence they can't argue with. Numerous times I've been denied lounge entry or tried to be charged for excess luggage that I've had to whip out my phone and show them the fine print.

I get where you’re coming from but this is a different circumstance to turning up to a pub for a casual night.

In the case of the Qantas flight the passenger has a contract with the airline allowing them to fly provided they meet all relevant conditions. In this case the agent has, in error, imposed an additional condition, which happens to come at a cost.

There are additional factors at play here too such as the cost of the ticket and the available time between checkin and departure, which could lead a passenger to getting the test for expediency if that’s what they’re told they must do.

 

[justinbrett]

I get where you’re coming from but this is a different circumstance to turning up to a pub for a casual night.

In the case of the Qantas flight the passenger has a contract with the airline allowing them to fly provided they meet all relevant conditions. In this case the agent has, in error, imposed an additional condition, which happens to come at a cost.

There are additional factors at play here too such as the cost of the ticket and the available time between checkin and departure, which could lead a passenger to getting the test for expediency if that’s what they’re told they must do.

I agree that if the pax didn't make the flight QF would definitely be liable from the costs incurred.

It's fortunate that the impact to the pax was minimal and the costs incurred were minor.

I think if you think every company is liable for every minor error their employees make, you're going to spend a lot of time and money in court and be sorely disappointed.

 

[clifford]

That’s quite different to a rogue employee giving bad advice and making you purchase an unnecessary service.

Isn't that exactly what appears to have happened?

I take it you are a fully qualified lawyer..

 

[justinbrett]

Isn't that exactly what appears to have happened?

I take it you are a fully qualified lawyer..

You can take what you want.

Yes, that is what happened (A rogue employee giving bad advice). That’s what I said. It’s very different to Qantas paying reasonable accomodation costs for being unable to transport you. The equivalent would be Qantas paying your costs if boarding was denied - which I have said all along they probably would.

Boarding wasn’t denied. Pax paid for a PCR test, got a PCR test, and benefited from a PCR test, even if this was unnecessary for travel.

 

[DC3]

Yes, that is what happened (A rogue employee giving bad advice).

Yeah. But how do we identify the rogue employee? I can’t pick them from the rest.

 

[RichardMEL]

Yeah. But how do we identify the rogue employee? I can’t pick them from the rest.

lol, but seriously the agent id should be added to the PNR as a check in record.

Heck those SAAbre boarding passes AA give actually print the id on the BP so I presume all airline systems do the same thing.
Of course an agent id associated with check in processing may not actually be the same person who gave the advice but still, there should be an audit trail of sorts.

I tend to agree that QF would not want to directly admit to the mistake per se. That then calls into question issues of negligence and liability and all of that and the whole thing is very hard to prove and messy. But no I don't even pretend to be a lawyer in my own shower. A "goodwill gesture" would probably be the most that could be reasonably expected here.

although I suppose one can make the argument based upon what if the agent messed up the other way and did not, for example, verify a required visa or passport validity requirement and whatnot for travel - in these cases where entry requirements are not met due to operating carrier not verifying properly they face fines (and potentially having to transport the pax back) - that's the flip side of this argument really isn't it.

The problem really is that as far as the UK/Ireland etc are concerned everything was fine and thus QF had met their requirements for travel in this situation. Pax was told to get a PCR test which they went to do though was not required - it becomes a problem of doing too much rather than too little.

QF aside is this potentially something travel insurance might cover in some way? I know most of them opt out of covid related things, but I wonder if that could be covered somehow?

 

[The Astronomer]

I think it is 100% clear that Qantas should pay compensation (and I agree that it should not be considered to be a 'refund') This should apply any time that they cause an unnecessary expense for a customer through their own action or error, even if it is considered 'good will' to do so. After all, if they cancel a flight, they offer a full refund. That is not an 'error' as such, but compensates the customer who has paid for something without receiving a benefit. This situation is the same: there is no benefit to the customer for having taken this $79 test. At the very least, good will should prevail here, and it's all part of the bigger picture of the customer knowing the rules but Qantas staff not knowing them.

 

[siri]

My wife flew to Ireland 2 weeks ago from Melbourne. At check in she was incorrectly informed she needed a PCR test. She tried to tell them this but they would not listen so she had to queue and pay for a PCR test.

While waiting for her result she pulled up the correct info and went back to the desk and the check in staff agreed their advice was incorrect and she could board without a PCR. She asked if they would refund the test ($79) and they said she would have to request a refund from customer service.

Having spent many hours recently calling Qantas for an upcoming award flight my question is is there much point in chasing this up and if so what is the best process?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Qantas Sydney Covid police (hired by Qantas or qantas crew) tried the similar fiasco with my daughter that was flying from Sydney to Heathrow via Vancouver on Business class ticket. . I intervened and told the staff your information is wrong and you are mixing landing passengers at Vancouver with transit passengers which only need transit visa which we have... She keep on saying they are the rules and when I threatened to cancel the flight and also requested a senior trained staff to intervened she just let us go.. All these information are in electronic domain and why do these staff ignore dynamic covid changes and qantas should have trained these people to listen to the passengers concerns.
It also surprise me that people on this site defending utterly stupid policy from qantas re. refund since it was initiated by qantas as a requirement as such qantas should pay the customer for the wrong information and the policy.
My take is qantas loss so many highly trained staff due to lack of care and we now got dad's army at qantas creating mischief.
They also lost my business and I have booked 2 business class tickets to Heathrow this summer with Japan Air. I doubt that, I will ever fly on qantas. My life gold with qantas is worthless .

 

[RichardMEL]

It also surprise me that people on this site defending utterly stupid policy from qantas re. refund since it was initiated by qantas as a requirement as such qantas should pay the customer for the wrong information and the policy.

Nobody is defending this that I could tell from the thread. It's more an issue of semantics of "compensation" vs "refund"

after all the PCR test fee was not paid to QF so there's nothing for them to "refund" per se, but there is absolutely argument for them to compensate for this.

The only issues apart from that is more one of actually proving this without documentation of the incident and any staff admitting liability(which they wouldn't) then it comes down to QF doing the right Customer Service thing (yeah I know, stop laughing ) and provide compensation for the amount paid.

Nobody is defending the action of the agent(s) in question sticking to incorrect or misinterpreted information - and that's not a policy, that is an error. The policy they are attempting to follow is to ensure all entry and transit requirements are met fo the journey. ie: That is not a stupid policy in and of itself - and this has been policy for decades - including things like ensuring passport has correct validity, visas for entry are correct and so on. The dynamic nature of covid rules of course is so volatile and ever changing but it doesn't make it a "stupid policy" - it means a few agents are making (probably honest and well intended) errors. After all if they got it wrong the other way and a pax was required to have a test or something during transit then that is bad for the pax, and also the transporting airline can be fined/liable.

Anyway perhaps you should re-read some of the comments with this in mind.

 

[jrb17a]

I'm not surprised. The check-in staff refused to check us in for a flight from Sydney to China, part of a RTW holiday, saying we needed a visa. I explained that we didn't. Qantas said we could do the Bne - Syd leg but we'd be on our own from then on; wouldn't transport us to the Int'l terminal. They told us to suspend our RTW flights! I told them & the lounge attendant to look up the relevant Aust & Chinese websites. They refused! We got a taxi from dom to int'l terminal. We had no problem getting on the China flight from Sydney. A few months later, Qantas admitted it was wrong.

Post automatically merged: Mar 3, 2022

I'm not surprised. The check-in staff refused to check us in for a flight from Sydney to China, part of a RTW holiday, saying we needed a visa. I explained that we didn't. Qantas said we could do the Bne - Syd leg but we'd be on our own from then on; wouldn't transport us to the Int'l terminal. They told us to suspend our RTW flights! I told them & the lounge attendant to look up the relevant Aust & Chinese websites. They refused! We got a taxi from dom to int'l terminal. We had no problem getting on the China flight from Sydney. A few months later, Qantas admitted it was wrong.

 

[UP4014]

For my own sanity I wouldn't be bothered to do more than write a letter saying I was out of pocket and a copy of the receipt.

 

[glennp]

Has anyone ever received a response from Qantas Customer Care? I thought it was a token application that allowed people to vent over Qantas' lack of customer care. I have a collection of Customer Care reference numbers from August 2021 through February 2022, each time I requested someone contact me but nobody bothered.

 

[harvyk]

For my own sanity I wouldn't be bothered to do more than write a letter saying I was out of pocket and a copy of the receipt.

Agreed, was Qantas in the wrong? Absolutely. Is it worth following up with Qantas to get back less than $100, nope.

If you truly feel ripped off chose to fly with someone else next time.

Side note: COVID rules are changing just so quickly, so I can't imagine what it would be like for an international check in staff. It's likely that the check in Agent had the exact same argument with someone going to a destination that a PCR was a requirement earlier in the day.

 

[Kremmen]

Side note: COVID rules are changing just so quickly, so I can't imagine what it would be like for an international check in staff. It's likely that the check in Agent had the exact same argument with someone going to a destination that a PCR was a requirement earlier in the day.

Not quite. Ireland removed the PCR test requirement as of 6 Jan, so it's almost 2 months now.

 

[Franky]

Agreed, was Qantas in the wrong? Absolutely. Is it worth following up with Qantas to get back less than $100, nope.

If you truly feel ripped off chose to fly with someone else next time.

Side note: COVID rules are changing just so quickly, so I can't imagine what it would be like for an international check in staff. It's likely that the check in Agent had the exact same argument with someone going to a destination that a PCR was a requirement earlier in the day.

Your side note is a good point, and you can probably accept that arguments like these happen at least once during every shift, at every airport, all around the country, or the world for that matter. That said, if QF followed the complaint thru to the staff involved, and though they may not have been able to identify those involved, they have in effect all been given a reminder to ensure that the info you give to customers is correct. Feedback is essential - if you never get it, you keep doing things the same old way.

 

[harvyk]

Not quite. Ireland removed the PCR test requirement as of 6 Jan, so it's almost 2 months now.

But the check in agent wasn't doing flights to Ireland, pax could be travelling to any one of 194 different countries, not to mention that different regions inside the same country can have different rules.

As it was a connecting flight not even a direct flight I can easily understand how a check in agent could make that mistake.

Note: I'm saying I understand, I'm not saying the check in agent was in the right.

 

[Danger]

Has anyone ever received a response from Qantas Customer Care? I thought it was a token application that allowed people to vent over Qantas' lack of customer care. I have a collection of Customer Care reference numbers from August 2021 through February 2022, each time I requested someone contact me but nobody bothered.

I waited 17 weeks for a reply to my customer service enquiry through the website. At that point, I decided to call. Getting through to the right person took two calls, four agents and almost four hours, only to end up with a reservations agent who hadn't read it (and really wasn't that interested in the issues). That call itself took over 90 minutes.

On the flipside, I recently sent a compliment through the website about a reservations agent. I received a response in under 24 hours.

 

[dylarr]

On the flipside, I recently sent a compliment through the website about a reservations agent. I received a response in under 24 hours.

I've noticed this too! A compliment sent via the customer service form will get a response within 24 hours but a complaint or anything requiring action sometimes takes months.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

I waited 17 weeks for a reply to my customer service enquiry through the website. At that point, I decided to call. Getting through to the right person took two calls, four agents and almost four hours, only to end up with a reservations agent who hadn't read it (and really wasn't that interested in the issues). That call itself took over 90 minutes.

On the flipside, I recently sent a compliment through the website about a reservations agent. I received a response in under 24 hours.

I've noticed this too! A compliment sent via the customer service form will get a response within 24 hours but a complaint or anything requiring action sometimes takes months.

Maybe putting a compliment and complaint in the same feedback would get a faster response.