Refund of points on Jetstar flight?

[al57]

My first question here.

I am looking at booking a Classic award flight on Jetstar. Normally, if you cancel a Classic flight for any reason you get the points back (minus a 5000 point penalty) and the money you paid for fees etc is refunded in full.

I can't work out whether this applies to Jetstar flights, though. The terms and conditions section of the Classic Awards is not helpful. It talks of refunds being given "where permitted", but there is no way of working out what "where permitted" means: there is no mention of Jetstar or other partners in this section.

If points ARE refundable in the same way as they are for QF, then that makes points bookings on Jetstar more attractive than paying cash.

Does anyone know whether I will get the points and money back if I cancel?

Thanks.

 

[Hvr]

Did you book your flight through the JetStar site or the Qantas site?

The cancellation conditions are generally noted on the ticket.

Oh and welcome to AFF.

 

[al57]

Qantas (I wasn't aware that you could do it through Jetstar). I haven't actually done it yet, so I don't have a ticket. I would like to know about this before I make a decision.

 

[dajop]

I think the information you need can be found by doing a dummy booking on QF site (ie find a seat, and click conditions). Essentially you can cancel and obtain refund if your itinerary only included a classic award. If you have any part of the itinerary that is a commercial booking (either paid for with cash or a combination of cash/points) you probably will be restricted:

[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR="class: alt, bgcolor: #F9F9F9"]
[TD="align: center"]If you combine Classic Awards with non-Classic Award fares ("Commercial Fares"), the most restrictive fare condition of those Commercial Fares apply to the segments booked as Classic Awards for cancellations and refunds. Refer to the Commercial Fare conditions.
If your booking contains only Classic Awards, then the following conditions apply:

• Refunds or re-credit will not be allowed once travel has commenced, even if remaining travel is not completed.

Requests to cancel a Classic Award ticket (where permitted) and re-credit points may be submitted prior to the commencement of the first flight in your booking and will incur a Cancellation Refund Fee in points. Only points that would not have expired will be re-credited.
In accordance with the US Department of Transportation rules, customers who purchase an Award ticket in the United States may cancel their booking and have their ticket refunded without incurring the Cancellation Refund Fee within 24 hours of ticketing when the ticket was purchased one week or more prior to scheduled departure of the first flight in the itinerary.[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

If it is a short flight within Australia (eg MEL-HBA) which costs 6,400 pts, it would be barely worth the cancellation fee (5,000 pts), but I guess you do get taxes back too.

 

[al57]

The flight is an international one (BKK).

The key words in those conditions are "requests to cancel a Classic Award ticket (where permitted) and re-credit points may be submitted". There are quite a few rubbery words in there. I guess I won't know unless I actually try it.

 

[al57]

Well, here I am replying to my own question!

I booked the flight to BKK, fully intending to go, but I have now had to cancel. There was no cancel option on the website, so I rang Qantas and cancelling was very straightforward. I received a refund of all the cash, and all of the points, less the standard 5000 point penalty.