QFF Awards Fee Schedule

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kamchatsky

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Hi all,

I have been looking for a trip for 2 to Vanuatu sometime next year using Classic system, with the fact I was not sure of exact date of travel I thought about book it first then change it to different if required. So I had a look at the fee schedule:

Frequent Flyer - About the Program - Terms & Conditions

Service Fee Assisted Award Booking Fee
Money payment option is available for Bookings made in Australia
or in New Zealand.
Amount must be paid at the time of making your reservation.
Note: Payment of the Assisted Award Booking Fee
for Jetstar Any Seat Awards can only be made with Points. 2,500 Points per passenger
or where money payment option available:
A$27.50 (domestic Australia)*
A$27.50 (trans-Tasman)
A$50 (international)
NZ$25 (domestic New Zealand)
NZ$25 (trans-Tasman)
NZ$45 (international)
in each case per passenger Award Ticket Reissue Fee 5,000 Points per passenger Cancellation Refund Fee 5,000 Points per passenger Courier Fee - urgent membership kit delivery From A$30 Lost Ticket Replacement Fee
through Frequent Flyer Service Centre
through Qantas Travel Centre or Airport (money payment required)
5,000 Points per passenger
A$50 International (to 31 December 2008)
or A$75 (from 1 January 2009) or
A$55 Australian domestic per ticket Refund of Unused Flight Upgrade Fee 5,000 Points per Upgrade Reinstatement Fee 5,000 Points per passenger Replacement Card Fee A$25 or 2,500 Points Revalidation Fee 2,500 Points per passenger Statement Request Fee 2,500 Points per passenger Jetstar Any Seat Award mailing fee $7 per booking (within Australia)
$20 per booking (outside Australia) * Including GST where appliciable.

It looks like Qantas has silently increase the points required for reissue/cancellation/reinstatement/revalidation from per itinenary to per passenger. Has this been implemented for a long time? Whilst this looks like nothing for singles but for family of 4 any ticket reissue/cancellation would costs like 20000 points ....... Even revalidation would cost like 10000 points ...... What's the point of that? Wouldn't it costs Qantas staff almost the same amount of effort to make changes to the itinenary? Or in my ironic sense it is another way of ripoffing Aussies?
 
It looks like Qantas has silently increase the points required for reissue/cancellation/reinstatement/revalidation from per itinenary to per passenger. Has this been implemented for a long time? Whilst this looks like nothing for singles but for family of 4 any ticket reissue/cancellation would costs like 20000 points ....... Even revalidation would cost like 10000 points ...... What's the point of that? Wouldn't it costs Qantas staff almost the same amount of effort to make changes to the itinenary? Or in my ironic sense it is another way of ripoffing Aussies?

The April 1, 2007 version of the T&C's (says per passenger):

ServiceFeeAssisted Award Booking Fee 2,500 Points per passenger Assisted Award Booking Fee
payment option for bookings made in
Australia (per passenger) A$27.50 (domestic)
A$25 (trans-Tasman)
A$40 (international) Assisted Award Booking Fee
payment option for bookings made in
New Zealand (per passenger) NZ$25 (domestic)
NZ$25 (trans-Tasman)
NZ$45 (international)
Award Ticket Reissue Fee (Changed Tickets) 5,000 Points per passenger
Cancellation Fee5,000 Points per passenger
Courier Fee - urgent membership kit delivery From A$30.00
Lost Ticket Replacement Fee
(through Frequent Flyer Service Centre) 5,000 Points per passenger Lost Ticket Replacement Fee
(through Travel Centre or Airport) A$50.00 International or
A$55.00 Australian Domestic per ticket Refund of Unused Flight Upgrade Fee 5,000 Points per Upgrade Reinstatement Fee 5,000 Points per passenger
Replacement Card FeeA$25.00 or 2,500 Points
Revalidation Fee 2,500 Points per passenger
Statement Request Fee 2,500 Points per passenger
 
Obviously I haven't really redeemed any tickets since then ...... Looks like I am way behind the times ...... still expensive though .... compare with other airlines.
 
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I had 4 reward tickets issued by United Airlines for travel on Thai Airways and the fees were not insubstantial - forget what they were but I was surprised at the amount.

Again, it's not only QF that charges but this is what we are led to believe due to complaining (here and elsewhere (especially Australian press)) about Qantas's charges!
 
Air NZ charge a A$100 fee for international award bookings. And the only ones you can book online are AirNZ flights ex-Aus. So for partner awards and even Air NZ bookings ex-HKG, ex-LAX etc you have no choice but to pay the fee. To that end I think QF seem entirely reasonable.

In fact some of the fees (cancellation) fees probably do help many of us, as they do assist somewhat in being a discincentive for some people making speculative bookings, taking up inventory and cancelling at the last minute.
 
From the responses I decided to look at fees for other airlines.

Velocity Rewards seems to be nasty when for partner awards. You cannot even change the ticket at all when ticketed:

Velocity - Terms & Conditions

Just had a look at SIA ...... Fees quite similar to Qantas except that it is not per pessenger, and ticket reissue fee is only 2000 miles or $20US ......

Singapore Airlines

Cathay Asia Miles seems to be pretty good as well:

Asia Miles - General Information - Terms and Conditions

United and AAdvantage seems to be quite steep ....

United Airlines - United award fees

Award Details

From what I see looks like Krisflyer still has the cheapest deal in town ....... even with service fees.
 
From what I see looks like Krisflyer still has the cheapest deal in town ....... even with service fees.

One could argue that Krisflyer have a 17.65% service fee when it comes down to booking award redemptions on SQ/MI metal over the phone. But cleverly it is positioned as a 15% discount for online bookings.

But to be fair, they didn't increase the award rates by 17.65% first and then introduce the 15% discount for online booking.
 
One could argue that Krisflyer have a 17.65% service fee when it comes down to booking award redemptions on SQ/MI metal over the phone. But cleverly it is positioned as a 15% discount for online bookings.

But to be fair, they didn't increase the award rates by 17.65% first and then introduce the 15% discount for online booking.

Even for the "17.65%" service fee for booking over the phone, their redemption rate is still far lower than QF. That's probably why a lot of people here in FF is switching to SIA.
 
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