The old qantas/jetstar runaround

[boxjelly5]

In Nov 2023 I booked Q classic reward in J for SCL to Syd via AKL. The AKL SYD leg only had JQ economy so I took it. Today I checked seat allocation and saw that my 3 hr stop in AKL is now over 10 hours and has a different JQ flight no. There has been no communication of this to me even though it was apparently changed back in April. Two calls to Jetstar advised that as it was booked via Q website they cannot assist and advised me to call Q. Two calls to QFF advised Jetstar are responsible for notifying me and advised even though I could now see 3 other preferable Points reward flights available online, they could not give me those flights as they were "not available" at their end. I then suggested the minimum they could do was grant me a lounge pass in AKL as I was after all travelling on J class points the entire journey. They advised they could not and suggested I call Jetstar about that. it appears Q and Jetstar don't talk to each other and the customer service "improvement" at both still have a long long way to go. flying in Sept. Any suggestions welcome

 

[Mwenenzi]

Keep trying with QF frequent flyer. They are your travel agent.
SCL-AKL on LATAM? They fly on to SYD
Are there QF flights with J award AKL-SYD showing at a time you could connect? Or even a better timed JQ flight?
QF fly SCL-SYD non stop. LA also fly SCL-MEL non stop.
Worth looking at options on award routes in J. Up to QF frequent flyer to fix, but better if you offer a suggestion that has J availability.
QF can open up award seats on QF flights. Buy hard to convince QF to do. A low level phone agent would not have that authority.
Any change should be a no cost to you ( other wise 5000 QF points)
Could try [email protected] They may answer by September!
And [email protected] (from a MattG post 25/06/2023)

 

[opusman]

Given the difference in journey time you would be within your rights to cancel the booking and get a full refund, however I think any attempt to get Qantas to put you on another flight will be fruitless (and given that you actually did book Y AKL-SYD, there would be no obligation on them to reroute you or put you in J for that leg simply due to the time change).

If you have the points to spare I would book one of the preferable award flights you mention and then cancel the original booking.

 

[henrus]

And [email protected] (from a MattG post 25/06/2023)

This is probably going to get the fastest results. Send an email saying you’re not happy with the uninformed schedule change and wish to be put on a Qantas flight over to Auckland instead.

 

[Mattg]

Not exactly the same, but I had a similar issue a few months ago with a QFF award booking flying LATAM. I was booked to fly EZE-SCL-AKL with a ~3 hour layover in SCL, but then LATAM cancelled the EZE-SCL flight and rebooked me onto a flight departing 9 hours earlier. The problem with that was that I now had a ~12 hour layover in SCL, which isn't allowed for an Australian citizen without getting a visa.

When the original schedule change happened, I got a notification of the change but someone at Qantas actually re-ticketed my booking with the new flights without asking me. Apparently they left a note in the PNR saying that the customer (me) had agreed to the schedule change, which wasn't the case.

I ended up enlisting the help of an AFF member who is a travel agent to get in touch with LATAM, who released a seat for me on a suitable AEP-SCL flight that connected to my SCL-AKL.
This would have been easier if the affected flight was operated by Qantas as Qantas is able to release seats on its own flights in the case of schedule changes that disrupt its passengers.

@boxjelly5 I would contact Qantas again (not Jetstar) and ask to be put on a Qantas flight out of AKL due to the significant schedule change which is ultimately their responsibility to fix. FWIW you also should have been notified and given alternative flight options at the time of the original Jetstar schedule change (see https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/qantas-self-service-reward-flight-rebooking/)

 

[boxjelly5]

Thankyou for suggestions. I have emailed the dedicated Classic reward email address. From previous experience I hesitate to mess with it too much because I simply can’t afford to lose that SCL AKL J leg.

 

[SYD]

Thankyou for suggestions. I have emailed the dedicated Classic reward email address. From previous experience I hesitate to mess with it too much because I simply can’t afford to lose that SCL AKL J leg.

Have you tried “changing” the flight online?

You won’t lose the flight just checking for alternatives (although there probably aren’t any).

@Mattg ’s suggestion that insisting QF release a seat on one of their flights is very sensible.

Did you pay full Biz points for the entire trip or was it less given it has a JQ sector? If the later, there might be a slight points difference with a QF Economy sector compared with the existing JQ. But hopefully that’s waived given the underlying cancellation.