QF domestic 28-day advance purchase Business Class - not worth the pain

[Vic]

LOL I crack up everytime I hear "Hey Bec, Hey Fellas, double shots, mate, big night last night" followed by a fake (& loud) laugh

Yeah, so big night in London, we're hung over AF and we're just about to crew a long haul flight for Qantas. Great marketing. NOT...

 

[Quickstatus]

Yeah, that's actually wrong, flexi economy and business on Qantas domestic do allow changes at no cost, depending on available fare classes.
It's all in the fare conditions.

Thats why i said "Almost". It all depends on the available fare classes on the day of change. Expect to pay more for the flight you want to change to if that flight does not have the fare class of the original booking.

However, I find if I ask nicely at the lounge with my boarding pass in hand I sometimes get a "fly ahead" using a discounted advance purchase J class fare.

What we should not do then is expect we will also get it next and every time we ask...And don't then think QF has inconsistent service if we don't get it - That we don't get it everytime when it's effectively a gift is not inconsistency.


Here is the domestic business fare condition:

 

[CaptJCool]

I gather the commercial J like sales J have different conditions for the lower than retail fares J ?

I know corporate J fares were like 50-60% cheaper than website advertised fares but didn’t realise they came with strings attached ....

 

[Vic]

Thats why i said "Almost". It all depends on the available fare classes on the day of change. Expect to pay more for the flight you want to change to if that flight does not have the fare class of the original booking.

However, I find if I ask nicely at the lounge with my boarding pass in hand I sometimes get a "fly ahead" using a discounted advance purchase J class fare.

What we should not do then is expect we will also get it next and every time we ask...And don't then think QF has inconsistent service if we don't get it - That we don't get it everytime when it's effectively a gift is not inconsistency.


Here is the domestic business fare condition:
View attachment 160552

All Business fares and all flexi economy, domestic qantas. That does not fit with "almost no ticket..."
All domestic business and flexi allow changes for free, DEPENDING on available fare classes.

Have a look here: http://www.qantas.com/regions/amadeus/minirules/AUAURED1JQ_SUMMARY/

Interersting that your screenshot didn't include the bit that said changes can be made.

 

[Quickstatus]

That changes can be made does not mean it’s also free.

In fact no where does it say “changes can be made for free”
It just says changes can be made with the disclaimer to then check the T&C and fare rules

 

[Forg]

Actually, it specifically says that if you want to change you have to pay the difference between what you've already paid & the flight you now want to change to.

So they're not hitting you with any cancellation or change fees … just that if you booked (currently looking at the QF site) QF479 at 6:45pm on Thursday 16th May for $903 and you wanted to change to QF493 which is at 7:15pm & costs $1099, they charge you the extra $196 to make that change.
However QF463 at 6:30pm is $903, so you could change to QF463 for free.

HOWEVER, I'm assuming ticket prices go up a couple of hours before a nearly-full flight … so if all that was available on the flight you wanted to change to was a $1099 ticket, they'd hit you up for that $196 - even if it had been available for $903 a month ago?

 

[Vic]

Sorry guys, changes are allowed into the same fare class for all domestic flexi economy and business class fare, WITH no fee. Thats what it says. ALL of those fares allow free changes. That is the fact.
Now if you phone up you pay a phone fee - NOT a change fee.
If the original fare class is not available then you have to pay fare difference. - NOT a change fee.
I reiterate - all domestic flexi and business tickets allow free changes, depending on fare availability.

 

[Quickstatus]

@Vic
We are talking about different aspects of the same issue

I’m talking of fare difference which is the point of the original post. - the cost to change to a different flight because while there is no change fee in most cases there is still a cost to change.

You are talking about change fee.

If same fare bucket is available then no cost
If higher fare bucket then fare difference needs to be paid.
And if the original purchase is a discounted advance purchase, the same fare bucket will invariably no longer be available. Almost but not never.
The cost to change is change fee ($0.00) plus fare difference

The difference is QF does not use the word FREE. It just says changes can be made.

 

[RooFlyer]

Again this is a situation where the expectation of a ticket entitlement is greater than the actual entitlement attached to the ticket, and the expectation of Frequent flyer status entitlements is greater than actually provided.

Whats your opinion on the 'entitlement' of a customer - any customer - not to be talked to rudely or in a way not to give offence? There are ways to handle the customer in this case - one way is to imply 'suck it up princess or pay up', which is what seems to have happened here, the other I think is to be addressed in a courteous and sympathetic way. I'd suck at a customer-facing role, as I don't have the patience, and Qantas seems to employ more than its share of like-skilled folk.

 

[Quickstatus]

Whats your opinion on the 'entitlement' of a customer - any customer - not to be talked to rudely or in a way not to give offence? There are ways to handle the customer in this case - one way is to imply 'suck it up princess or pay up', which is what seems to have happened here, the other I think is to be addressed in a courteous and sympathetic way. I'd suck at a customer-facing role, as I don't have the patience, and Qantas seems to employ more than its share of like-skilled folk.

Well I do not know how it went down. As usual there are 2 sides to the story. So I don't have an opinion about the "rudeness" except that generally people perceive the other party as unhelpful, rude, dismissive, bullying when they don't get what they want. Whether they were correct in their perception is not for me to judge either way.

But my point was not about that but rather how the perceptions of entitlement often increases with an expensive ticket and some frequent flyer status. Its a bit hard to take a moralistic stance if the expectation of a remedy is not provided in any of the terms and conditions of the transaction/relationship. The free remedy is really in the gift of the airline/agent but if they dont want to play ball, it is no use arguing about it. Im talking generally here not specifically to the specific interaction as described in the original post.

BTW If I were on the customer facing role, I would be a stickler for the rules. No if ands or buts for me. Any talkback will be responded to similarly.....

 

[RooFlyer]

BTW If I were on the customer facing role, I would be a stickler for the rules. No if ands or buts for me. Any talkback will be responded to similarly.....

Which is why you and I, along with many that are, shouldn't be in those roles. I only mention this aspect as it was a significant part of the OPs gripe. Some people have a talent for disarming difficult people, some clearly not.

Not to say the OP was difficult, but to have the 'discussion' end in the customer walking across the aisle to pay more to fly with the opposition might say something about the people skills of the lounge staffer. To say ' we weren't there so can't comment' is a bit of a cop out. I'm happy to take posters with a gripe at face value unless reason to do otherwise.

Fortunately I've had plenty of situations where I had a complaint ( think telco, banks) and the call had ended well, even though I didn't get what I was after ( I was shown to be wrong about my claim). It's the way the other person deals with you.

 

[Lynda2475]

Given the majority of fares are booked online these days (be it by the individual or via a corporate travel portal) Qantas really should show all available fares - and give the booker the chance to book a more flexible option if there is one.

 

[Forg]

Given the majority of fares are booked online these days (be it by the individual or via a corporate travel portal) Qantas really should show all available fares - and give the booker the chance to book a more flexible option if there is one.

I may be completely misunderstanding the situation - but there's no such thing as a more flexible option, at least as far as I can see.

To describe by example:
The J flight at 3pm costs $500, and is fully flexible.
The J flight at 7pm costs $1000, and is also fully flexible.
You can switch from the 3pm to the 7pm, and they don't charge you any sort of fee - just the extra cost of that ticket (ie. an extra $500). There's no fee for changing, there's no penalty; it's just the extra cost of the more expensive ticket.
It doesn't really make sense for anyone to choose to pay $1000 when they book the 3pm ticket … there's no extra flexibility involved, you'd just be paying extra just in case you wanted to change and didn't have your credit-card on you or something like that.

 

[Lynda2475]

Apologies I didn't realise that there were not different ticket types / booking classes for Qantas domestic J - all seem to be fully flex now with a price difference factor.

For work we travel Y and via the corporate portal as soon as I select fully flexible fare on a economy qantas domestic route all the flight times show the same price (meaning i can change my seat to any other economy flight on that route on any day provided at least 30 mins notice given), so the fare difference (and change fee) only seems to apply to discount economy tickets. I wrongly assumed there was something similar for J.

 

[Forg]

As soon as I select fully flexible fare on a economy qantas domestic all flight times show the same price

I'm not au fait with it at all … I can't find a way to filter it on those criteria, and all I can see are 5 columns (Red e-Deal, Flex, Business, Economy Classic Reward and Business Classic Reward).
The Flex column barely changes though (at least for QF flights), across May 16th if varies from $496 up to $505. I've not had a reason to book a flexible economy fare since the website changed years ago, so I never noticed how close those prices were regardless of the time (e-Deal varies from $169 to $389 on the same day & flights - that's usually the column I'm in ).

 

[Haplo]

I really like the Catha y system where they let you choose the type of fares. I guess Qantas does have it but only for international fares (but then again there are domestic flights out of Hong Kong)

 

[Forg]

I really like the Catha y system where they let you choose the type of fares. I guess Qantas does have it but only for international fares (but then again there are domestic flights out of Hong Kong)

Not having booked with Cathay for 10 years, I just had a look at their system; I agree that some features they have are cool (eg. choosing by aircraft type), but the actual choice of fares seems much the same as Qantas, except that instead of showing a heap of columns like QF the CX system showed me two columns & when I selected a flight that selection ‘zoomed in’. It made for a less cluttered mobile-device page, but the choices were the same; I chose Y+ and was offered a fully-flex Y+ fare or a non-flexible (change-fee applicable) Y+ fare. QF isn’t making you choose an inflexible fare, it still offers the choice of flexibility; it’s just that the same route has different prices at different times of the day.

I wasn’t even aware CX flew A359’s to Oz before checking their site!

 

[Vic]

@Vic
We are talking about different aspects of the same issue

You raised flexibility to change without cost. I'm talking about the same issue. The tickets do allow flexibility to change without cost, with caveats like needing to have the same fare class. The fact that there many be other costs, e.g. to change fare class, does not mean the original ticket did not include the flexibility to change for no cost.

 

[CaptJCool]

You raised flexibility to change without cost. I'm talking about the same issue. The tickets do allow flexibility to change without cost, with caveats like needing to have the same fare class. The fact that there many be other costs, e.g. to change fare class, does not mean the original ticket did not include the flexibility to change for no cost.

Although since it was a advance purchase then it prob came as a lot of

“strings attached”

 

[Lemon_Party]

LOL I crack up everytime I hear "Hey Bec, Hey Fellas, double shots, mate, big night last night" followed by a fake (& loud) laugh

“Your aircraft has great coffee too”

It most certainly doesn’t.