QF ADL Sale flights crediting zero points - “Private corporate airfare”

[Daver6]

So I get another response earlier today after I pointed out that I booked direct with QF. The response is basically the same but more convoluted wording including:

“Private fares are made available to certain groups of customer through certain booking channels. They offer discounts and/or different conditions to corresponding published fares.

Unfortunately this fare type is not eligible to earn Qantas points in Qantas Business Rewards, as it is a private discounted fare.

Some private fares are available to QBR members, some are not. For example, a discounted private fare designated for a business with a corporate deal, and distributed through travel agency, is not available to a QBR member who is not on a corporate deal.

Further, QBR member Deal fares are technically private fares but are eligible to earn Qantas Points in QBR because they are specifically designed for the purpose.”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Adelaide/South Oz promotion was publicly available to all????

Correct. Was publicly available. Nothing private about it.

They've used lots of words that all up make no sense.

I'd also consider asking them how one can tell in advance which tickets would and wouldn't be eligible to earn QBR points, specifically on relation to booking via the QF website.

 

[SYD]

Correct. Was publicly available. Nothing private about it.

They've used lots of words that all up make no sense.

I'd also consider asking them how one can tell in advance which tickets would and wouldn't be eligible to earn QBR points, specifically on relation to booking via the QF website.

Yeah, a tad frustrating. I’ve gone back again reiterating that these were publicly available fares advertised and booked on qantas.com.

I almost included a question re how are we supposed to know what earns and what doesn’t but I decided to stick to one question at a time…

 

[madrooster]

In the background, these fares were filed as tour fares (otherwise known as an IT fare), under an corporate account code for SA Tourism Commission. Tour fares are a form of discounted private fare.

IT/tour fares are normally used for package deals, eg. when you book flights+accommodation, flights+tours etc. In this case it's classified as self guided touring so it doesn't quite meet the normal criteria for what a IT fare is normally used for, but it is close enough.

The above is the reason behind why you had to book them via a special search page and portal. That search page and portal was specifically setup to show those IT fares.

QBR's general terms and conditions do exclude these fares (my highlighting below). The terms and conditions are here: https://www.qantas.com/au/en/business-rewards/terms-and-conditions.html

Eligible Flight in relation to the earning of Qantas Points means, subject to these Airline Reward Scheme Terms and Conditions, a regular scheduled flight with a Qantas ‘QF' flight number shown on the ticket that was purchased in Australia and ticketed on a Qantas ticket (ie where the ticket number for the Itinerary commences with the numerals ‘081') and excludes:

a. Classic Flight Reward (as defined in the QFF Program Terms) ;

b. flights where an airline's flight number other than Qantas ‘QF' is entered on the ticket or the ticket number does not commence with the numerals "081";

c. charter flights;

d. freighter flights carrying any passengers;

e. promotional, "contra" and free of charge flights;

f. travel industry or airline staff discounted or rebated flights;

g. competition prize tickets and tickets purchased at auction;

h. discounted private fares or rebated fares under a corporate airfares agreement or travel agent agreement;

i. flights which are not eligible to earn Qantas Points;

j. child and infant fares;

k. flights for which the booking indicates a child or infant passenger;

l. flights taken before the commencement of Qantas Business Rewards; and

m. flights taken before the relevant Member joined Qantas Business Rewards;

Ultimately, QF could have worded the SA sale conditions better to distinguish that these fares were special private fares as such - there's no doubt about that.

 

[SYD]

In my post #9 I speculated exclusion “h” you list above but QF didn’t mention anything up front in the offer conditions. For the individual traveller, we still got points/SCs but it’s only an issue for the subset of QBR accounts…

 

[Daver6]

In the background, these fares were filed as tour fares (otherwise known as an IT fare), under an corporate account code for SA Tourism Commission. Tour fares are a form of discounted private fare.

IT/tour fares are normally used for package deals, eg. when you book flights+accommodation, flights+tours etc. In this case it's classified as self guided touring so it doesn't quite meet the normal criteria for what a IT fare is normally used for, but it is close enough.

The above is the reason behind why you had to book them via a special search page and portal. That search page and portal was specifically setup to show those IT fares.

QBR's general terms and conditions do exclude these fares (my highlighting below). The terms and conditions are here: https://www.qantas.com/au/en/business-rewards/terms-and-conditions.html



Ultimately, QF could have worded the SA sale conditions better to distinguish that these fares were special private fares as such - there's no doubt about that.

Is it reasonable for the average person booking this to know that condition H would apply? Further to that, is it reasonable that an average person who sees that this is available publicly to then draw the conclusion, since it wasn't specified, that his is somehow a "private fare"?

 

[madrooster]

Is it reasonable for the average person booking this to know that condition H would apply? Further to that, is it reasonable that an average person who sees that this is available publicly to then draw the conclusion, since it wasn't specified, that his is somehow a "private fare"?

In fairness, the fares were clearly aimed at leisure travel, not business travel. Given it was in conjunction with SA Tourism Commission, it'd be a tough argument to argue it was aimed at business travel.

Private fares are publicly available all the time, particularly on international - just that on a website it's not entirely transparent.

 

[SYD]

In fairness, the fares were clearly aimed at leisure travel, not business travel. Given it was in conjunction with SA Tourism Commission, it'd be a tough argument to argue it was aimed at business travel.

Private fares are publicly available all the time, particularly on international - just that on a website it's not entirely transparent.

Well, the penny’s dropped at QF and they’ve escalated my query. ie why was a publicly available fare tagged as “private”.

As an SME, a good fare is obviously attractive (yes, there are risks with non-flexible fares etc). I’m sure other small business owners have taken advantage of these, 1/2 price deals and other incentives fares?

 

[SYD]

Well, the penny’s dropped at QF and they’ve escalated my query. ie why was a publicly available fare tagged as “private”.

As an SME, a good fare is obviously attractive (yes, there are risks with non-flexible fares etc). I’m sure other small business owners have taken advantage of these, 1/2 price deals and other incentives fares?

After a few months and a couple of prods, I just received an email confirming the points have been credited (and I can now see the flights with points - previously zero with “Corporate Fare”) in the poinrsxactivity.

No indication why there was the error or what’s been done. Could be just easier to credit the points!

 

[Mattg]

After a few months and a couple of prods, I just received an email confirming the points have been credited (and I can now see the flights with points - previously zero with “Corporate Fare”) in the poinrsxactivity.

No indication why there was the error or what’s been done. Could be just easier to credit the points!

No points here

Not sure I can be bothered complaining again about this.