Qantas (or Jetstar) cancels holiday booked on classic rewards points

[CaptainCurtis]

Just a follow-up, nothing heard from Stephanie from Qantas since submitting my first email 2 days ago.

You need to email multiple times within a short period of time so that it attracts her attention

 

[jaztech99]

You need to email multiple times within a short period of time so that it attracts her attention

A further follow-up: 3 emails to Stephanie and saying I was going to take it to the media triggered a call from another Qantas customer service representative this morning who assured me, once again, that the reason the tickets were cancelled is because Jetstar had cancelled the flights. I told the person that I had a screen shot from the afternoon (after) my flights were cancelled showing them still operating. I was assured that if I looked today they wouldn't be there. So, I went to the Jetstar website and did a search and guess what? The same Jetstar flights to and from Bangkok are still there and you can still buy tickets. I now have 2 lots of screenshots showing that the flights have no been cancelled by Jetstar. So, I'm done with the lies. I've contacted both A Current Affair and Today Tonight. Maybe I'll have more luck there getting to the truth.

 

[Marksonamap]

Hi @jaztech99

Sorry to hear about your experience! I'm unfortunately in almost the exact same plane (or lack of...) and I found this thread after Googling.

A few days ago we booked JQ flights through Qantas using points, upon checking the Manage Booking page we found both flights listed as Disrupted with no further information or options.

Long story short, many phone calls and live chats later - Qantas are claiming that Jetstar have cancelled both flights, even though they are still offered for sale on both Qantas and Jetstars website and Jetstar agents have confirmed they are not cancelled.

These flights were to/from Japan, where border changes have just been announced so the flights are now much more valuable!

We're still going back and forth with Qantas trying to get this sorted, but if we don't have a resolution soon I might reach out to the media as well. Might be a bit of a story here if Qantas are not honouring these flights to sell them for higher prices now that demand has changed!

Have you had any further luck?

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF @Marksonamap , sorry about the circumstances. I wish you luck in chasing the flights up.

 

[Limewood]

So sorry to hear this and the way you've been treated, If I had spare dosh I'd shout you, maybe we have a ticket find me here!

 

[maia200]

Wondering if this was resolved in anyway?

 

[eastwest101]

Wondering if this was resolved in anyway?

This sounds to me like JQ have no intention of operating the flight, hence why QF will not take the risk of having to reroute the OP on QF metal and why QF are happy to just cancel the entire itinerary. Of course, JQ have no intention of letting pax know if and when they will operate that flight to BKK given their B788 problems until the last minute, they are basically not canceling the flights yet to hold onto customers' money.

Given that there are screenshots of JQ still selling seats to BKK on the OP's date this would either seem to be an open and shut case of 'bait and switch by Jetstar and/or 'Misleading and deceptive conduct by Qantas when they cancelled the OP's flights.

I would be interested in knowing if the OP got any resolution seeing as its school holidays now and presumably we are close to the originally intended date of travel.

 

[QFP/VAP BNE]

JQ appear to have changed a range of flights to Japan without offering QF rewards booking options. Similar situation as QF won't offer any other options as there are no rewards seats - only a refund of points.

 

[dajop]

Given that there are screenshots of JQ still selling seats to BKK on the OP's date this would either seem to be an open and shut case of 'bait and switch by Jetstar and/or 'Misleading and deceptive conduct by Qantas when they cancelled the OP's flights.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity" (or in this case incompetence). It doesn't sound like bait and switch, nor misleading and deceptive conduct, but it does reek of incompetence. It seems to be me that there was a schedule change, the booking wasn't re-validated properly and Jetstar then went and cancelled the sectors that hadn't been confirmed by the deadline. Given what we know about similar issues, I for one would bet on this as the scenario that lead to the cancellation, but I could be wrong.

 

[Leroy]

Same thing happened to me. Flights to and from Denpasar cancelled in Feb for flights in April when borders reopened. No alternative flight available so we ended up having to pay inflated prices for seats.

After 8 calls, 4 submitted complaints I got my refund August 25th. No compensation for holding my money and points for 6 months, and got a response 2 weeks ago stating that basically ‘changes happen and COVID lol’.

Absolute incompetence and IMO the height of dishonesty. I wonder how many peoples money they’ve held onto pulling cough like this that they’ve gotten to a point where it’s not worth following up?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

JQ appear to have changed a range of flights to Japan without offering QF rewards booking options. Similar situation as QF won't offer any other options as there are no rewards seats - only a refund of points.

Under section 9 of their conditions of carriage, even for events outside JQ’s control, they say they will use best endeavours to carry you on the next available service.

If the flight has been cancelled due to JQ’s control, they ‘will’ carry you on their next service.

Conditions of Carriage - JQ | Jetstar

Flying Jetstar? This is where you can find a comprehensive overview of the Conditions of Carriage for passengers flying Jetstar flights.

www.jetstar.com

The availability of award seats does not matter, they should carry you regardless.

I would be going back to JQ to get them to honour this, or take up your case with the Airline Consumer Advocate.

 

[Marksonamap]

Well, surprisingly we've had a resolution for our JQ Japan itinerary. We've had countless phone calls to both Qantas and Jetstar, messages to Qantas on Twitter, a compliant through their website and a subsequent ACA complaint.

At some point during all of this, someone was able to rebook the JQ flights and make them stick (no one seemed to know how), but Jetstar still needed to be "paid". Our points had been taken, however our visa card payment (for taxes) had since been cancelled after pending for over a week.

We were advised that they could not take this visa payment again without also deducting the points again, they couldn't deduct the points again because we had an insufficient points balance. The points couldn't be refunded unless we agreed to cancel the entire booking, but if we did this we couldn't rebook because the reward flights were no longer available! Frustratingly, the agent did not seem to understand this paradox...

I ran the usual speil - "Can you please escalate?" "Can I please speak to a manager or complaints department?" etc. This was all rejected by the agent as not possible.

So, I tried another option - I simply asked for my call to be transferred back into the queue for a new agent. Another 40min hold later and I had a new friend to tell the saga too (I was getting pretty good at it now). Believe it or not, he just asked to confirm my visa card details and 10mins later sent me my ticketing confirmation.

I couldn't believe it... I told him just how much of a legend he was! He seemed so genuinely shocked to receive thanks, completely breaking character from the standard monotone call centre voice..
I was actually worried that he was tearing up a bit. Just imagine what it's like to work in a Qantas call centre right now?!

I hope anyone else that comes across this thread because they're in a similar situation gets their issue resolved as well. It won't be easy, but once it's done you can promise yourself to never fly Qantas again (once your FF points run out at least).

 

[Mwenenzi]

Good outcome. Hope it sticks

Which just proves the point many/most of the QF and JQ phone agents are not match fit. Or even known the basic rules of the game.

 

[exLXCXFF]

Well, surprisingly we've had a resolution for our JQ Japan itinerary. We've had countless phone calls to both Qantas and Jetstar, messages to Qantas on Twitter, a compliant through their website and a subsequent ACA complaint.

At some point during all of this, someone was able to rebook the JQ flights and make them stick (no one seemed to know how), but Jetstar still needed to be "paid". Our points had been taken, however our visa card payment (for taxes) had since been cancelled after pending for over a week.

We were advised that they could not take this visa payment again without also deducting the points again, they couldn't deduct the points again because we had an insufficient points balance. The points couldn't be refunded unless we agreed to cancel the entire booking, but if we did this we couldn't rebook because the reward flights were no longer available! Frustratingly, the agent did not seem to understand this paradox...

I ran the usual speil - "Can you please escalate?" "Can I please speak to a manager or complaints department?" etc. This was all rejected by the agent as not possible.

So, I tried another option - I simply asked for my call to be transferred back into the queue for a new agent. Another 40min hold later and I had a new friend to tell the saga too (I was getting pretty good at it now). Believe it or not, he just asked to confirm my visa card details and 10mins later sent me my ticketing confirmation.

I couldn't believe it... I told him just how much of a legend he was! He seemed so genuinely shocked to receive thanks, completely breaking character from the standard monotone call centre voice..
I was actually worried that he was tearing up a bit. Just imagine what it's like to work in a Qantas call centre right now?!

I hope anyone else that comes across this thread because they're in a similar situation gets their issue resolved as well. It won't be easy, but once it's done you can promise yourself to never fly Qantas again (once your FF points run out at least).

Good old HUACA - good outcome!