Qantas Revenue booking cancellations (under covid19)

[RichardMEL]

(for reference Darwin is DRW and Perth is PER)

I would still leave it. It's hardly likely they are finished with flight cancels...

however given the unreasonable timing of the return sector you probably have some grounds to call and request a refund as that schedule change is not acceptable?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

You can cancel for that time change, get a full refund. or call QF and they’ll prolly change you to a better connection.

 

[Pete98765432]

My original return flight was 3.5 hrs and I am now being offered a return flight via Brisbane that will take 23 HOURS and an overnight stop!!!! Not Happy Jan
View attachment 211343

At least you have a positive transit. They expect me to depart Melbourne 2 hours before I get there!

 

[Jools]

I had a booking and cancelled today - this was a classic reward booking. However, it did not even give me the option to choose 'voucher' as per the Qantas instructions and there were no other instructions on how classic flight rewards would work.

Does anyone have any info on this?

I had the same experience so didn’t continue. No voucher option. I want to know what happens to the so called taxes

 

[serfty]

I had the same experience so didn’t continue. No voucher option. I want to know what happens to the so called taxes

Welcome to AFF

The $$$'s paid for Taxes, Levies and Charges for a Classic reward booking are returned in full when the booking is cancelled.

There may be a 6000 point fee per passenger payable as well; however If you have a booking for travel before May 31st and you cancel to day, the 6000 point fee should not be charged.

Qantas advertise it can take up to 14 days for the points to be refunded.

 

[Jools]

It means that the 6000 points that are usually deducted per booking for Classic Rewards bookings will not be deducted when the points are returned to the account which made the booking and which the points were originally "spent" from.

What about the so called taxes

 

[MEL_Traveller]

What about the so called taxes

see bold text below...

The $$$'s paid for Taxes, Levies and Charges for a Classic reward booking are returned in full when the booking is cancelled.

 

[Seat0B]

At least you have a positive transit. They expect me to depart Melbourne 2 hours before I get there!
View attachment 211344

Oh that's just too funny - it even says on the screen shot "transit in Melbourne -2hrs". Sometimes you just have to laugh.

 

[Danger]

At least you have a positive transit. They expect me to depart Melbourne 2 hours before I get there!

Those advocating for a bit more leniency and flexibility in the voucher system need look no further for evidence of just how difficult it likely is on Qantas's backend.

 

[Walloper]

Those advocating for a bit more leniency and flexibility in the voucher system need look no further for evidence of just how difficult it likely is on Qantas's backend.

I think that Qantas will appreciate your concern for their backend.

But - they have managed to make backend alterations already that suit them, eg, removal of the "refund" button from whence it previously appeared together with their very proactive attempts to have vouchers issued as opposed to servicing refunds. Qantas has managed to extend the life of a voucher, this perhaps occurred at their backend.

If it is indeed a backend issue for Qantas then perhaps they need to announce this.

This is a commercial issue for Qanta$ - it is not an IT issue.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Those advocating for a bit more leniency and flexibility in the voucher system need look no further for evidence of just how difficult it likely is on Qantas's backend.

But the negative two hour connection is just a computer generated re-scheduling. Negative connections in those circumstances are extremely common - most airlines have handed them out at times

 

[JohnM]

I had the same experience so didn’t continue. No voucher option. I want to know what happens to the so called taxes

There is no voucher option for a classic flight award. You need to phone and cancel. It may be 2-4 weeks before the points and surcharge $$ are refunded and you may cop the 6000 point cancellation penalty (see my earlier post #504).

 

[jboy90]

An update of my booking via Amex for travel in May.

My flight booking disappeared from the Qantas app a few days ago. I phoned Amex just an hour ago and had about a 1 minute wait before I was put through to a super lovely and helpful assistant. Qantas had cancelled the flights in their system and I was given the spiel on the voucher. I politely asked whether I can have a full refund instead as I won’t be able to use the voucher given other cancelled bookings. Put on hold to have the booking run through the qantas system and it came back as being able to be cancelled with no qantas cancellation fee (as it should) and a refund has been requested. Amex closed but they will transfer the refund through to the bank account in about 6 weeks.

A great outcome by my standards! The assistant was very helpful and very accommodating!

 

[JohnM]

An update of my booking via Amex for travel in May.

My flight booking disappeared from the Qantas app a few days ago. I phoned Amex just an hour ago and had about a 1 minute wait before I was put through to a super lovely and helpful assistant. Qantas had cancelled the flights in their system and I was given the spiel on the voucher. I politely asked whether I can have a full refund instead as I won’t be able to use the voucher given other cancelled bookings. Put on hold to have the booking run through the qantas system and it came back as being able to be cancelled with no qantas cancellation fee (as it should) and a refund has been requested. Amex closed but they will transfer the refund through to the bank account in about 6 weeks.

A great outcome by my standards! The assistant was very helpful and very accommodating!

Was that a booking made with the $450 Amex card travel credit, or just a paid booking using Amex Travel as your TA?

 

[jpp42]

@RichardMEL,
Another thing to add to your comments (which are very apt) is that these kinds of changes have to be done in consultation with finance/accounting as well. I am not sure if vouchers are seen as some kind of liability on the books, but if so, the expiration thereof would be something that the financial systems are planning for in some way. Just running a job to change the expiration in one database, may throw off all kinds of financial projections and actually have a material impact on the financial position of the company (I can't speak to details, just know that it sometimes does matter). Obviously, the finance people are super busy in a time like this trying to just keep the company afloat, and if something like this is going to have even further negative impact, they would want to consider it quite carefully. So perhaps they are perfectly able to make the change from an IT perspective but are deliberately holding off while they work out larger financial questions/problems.

 

[RichardMEL]

I think that Qantas will appreciate your concern for their backend.

But - they have managed to make backend alterations already that suit them, eg, removal of the "refund" button from whence it previously appeared together with their very proactive attempts to have vouchers issued as opposed to servicing refunds. Qantas has managed to extend the life of a voucher, this perhaps occurred at their backend.

If it is indeed a backend issue for Qantas then perhaps they need to announce this.

This is a commercial issue for Qanta$ - it is not an IT issue.

(I had written a very long and tedious post about this whole thing but removed it on reflection ) ).

I will just write this. Removing a "Refund" button from a web page generated in the frontend (the website) is relatively trivial. That is not a function of the backend. Changing in bulk expiry dates of all credit vouchers is pretty straight forward case of, more or less "find and replace" with no logic required for each flight credit voucher - when all expiry dates are changed to 31/12/21 this is easy to do and does not likely cause potential issues with other interlinked systems and processes.

Other, more complex changes, probably will without careful consideration and effort which IS required for such complex systems.

That's the short version

 

[CaptJCool]

I wonder how many $750 a week employees will Qantas re-engage thus saving them paying out annual leave....

 

[Must...Fly!]

I wonder how many $750 a week employees will Qantas re-engage thus saving them paying out annual leave....

All of them as I expect VA will too. However it is normally the employees right under their agreements to utilise leave should they prefer to keep their normal rate of pay. However that's potentially a relatively expensive way to do it for the employee.

 

[lindyb]

(for reference Darwin is DRW and Perth is PER)

I would still leave it. It's hardly likely they are finished with flight cancels...

however given the unreasonable timing of the return sector you probably have some grounds to call and request a refund as that schedule change is not acceptable?

Thanks for the correct reference for Darwin & Perth

 

[jboy90]

Was that a booking made with the $450 Amex card travel credit, or just a paid booking using Amex Travel as your TA?

Booking made with the $450 travel credit that I’m not expecting to get back.