Upgrading a Starter Fare to earn QFF points

[jakeseven7]

Hi all

Has anyone booked and paid for a Jetstar flight on a Starter fare and been able to subsequently call Jetstar and upgrade to a Starter Plus fare in order to earn QFF points?

Reason being my work booked a Starter fare for next week - but thought it might be worth seeing how much it would cost / and if you can actually upgrade the fare after it has already been booked and paid for....

Anyone done this?

Cheers

 

[wafliron]

Has anyone booked and paid for a Jetstar flight on a Starter fare and been able to subsequently call Jetstar and upgrade to a Starter Plus fare in order to earn QFF points?

I've been looking at this recently too - booked a J* Starter fare ADL-MEL in late July and now want to upgrade it to a Starter Plus fare.

I went through the process of trying to change it on their website - you can upgrade, but they will charge you the difference between the two fares (at current prices - so if the flight has filled up since your booking it's more than just the normal "add on" price for Starter Plus) and a $49.95 booking change fee. In my case it would have doubled the cost of the flight so I didn't bother.

I didn't try calling them to see if there was any "wiggle room", however - if you do end up calling them please post the result back in here, I'd be interested to hear how you went.

 

[Hvr]

To the OP, is your trip domestic or international?

There have been reports of JQ call pax in economy before their international flight and asking them if they want to pay to upgrade to business. Some have even reported being able to get SCs and points.

You may be lucky.

 

[jakeseven7]

I've been looking at this recently too - booked a J* Starter fare ADL-MEL in late July and now want to upgrade it to a Starter Plus fare.

I went through the process of trying to change it on their website - you can upgrade, but they will charge you the difference between the two fares (at current prices - so if the flight has filled up since your booking it's more than just the normal "add on" price for Starter Plus) and a $49.95 booking change fee. In my case it would have doubled the cost of the flight so I didn't bother.

I didn't try calling them to see if there was any "wiggle room", however - if you do end up calling them please post the result back in here, I'd be interested to hear how you went.

I thought that might be the case....

I may try calling them see if I can upgrade for the normal add on price....

I'm sure lots of AFF members might be interested in this especially if they have tight cough procurement managers like us who make us fly cheapest available on JQ and DJ..... Ugh....

 

[jakeseven7]

To the OP, is your trip domestic or international?

There have been reports of JQ call pax in economy before their international flight and asking them if they want to pay to upgrade to business. Some have even reported being able to get SCs and points.

You may be lucky.

Domestic - and starter plus is still economy.

 

[samh004]

You need to pay the Plus fee, as well as a change fee, as changes aren't allowed with Starter, only Plus. Tried to do this with an existing fare when the changes were rolled out but with the change fee the total was absurd.

 

[Danger]

I tried to do this today with a booking made earlier this month. My sistuation was slightly different, however, in that I was one of three passengers on the one PNR. As I pointed out to the JQ representative, while I can pick and choose different baggage options by passenger, I can choose a different fare level. The JQ was very polite but adamant that I would need to pay a change fee. Interestingly, she did suggest that had I phoned JQ the day the reservation was made and tried to move to the next fare level, it probably would have been allowed.

This was actually my second call to JQ today for the same thing. The first agent was adamant that I needed to phone QF to make my fare frequent flyer earning. I knew the information was incorrect but he was certain that that's what I had to do so I duly took his employee number to fire off a little email to JQ about adequate staff training.

 

[Timba-Jet]

I'm sure lots of AFF members might be interested in this especially if they have tight cough procurement managers like us who make us fly cheapest available on JQ and DJ..... Ugh....

Seems like my company (via corporate TA) are adopting same approach and booking JQ for SYD-MEL-BNE triangle if price competitive.

If they book the starter plus it would be ok, but not to be.

 

[pauly7]

Interestingly, she did suggest that had I phoned JQ the day the reservation was made and tried to move to the next fare level, it probably would have been allowed.

Interesting but I wonder why she would say that???

 

[Danger]

Interesting but I wonder why she would say that???

It may have been an attempt at trying to appease me (as I continuously pointed out the 'flaw' in their booking process by way of the inability to add a high fare to one or more passengers on a multi-passenger itinerary).

Something else she did mention and that I should have noted in my previous post: if you want to do what I do (ie. have less than all the passengers on a single PNR on a different fare type) you need to book that passenger(s) separately, resulting in a separate PNR (including in the above situation, should it be correct, whereby you call up as soon as the booking has been made).

Now that I think about, though, JQ's logic is probably quite normal. I'm not aware of another airline that allows multiple passengers to book different fare types/classes on the one booking. My frustration probably stems from the fact that the booking engine allows you to choose different baggage allowances for different passengers. I would have thought that if you can do that then you should be able to change the fare level. Obviously it's more complex than my naive mind can work out!

 

[serfty]

Interesting but I wonder why she would say that???

Many airlines¹ have internal policies of allowing free changes to bookings made online within a defined time limit.

This is because people do make mistakes using computers and gives the passenger a chance to rectify any once they check the booking/e-ticket. Without having such opportunity, the provider may find themselves at greater risk of running afoul of consumer protection laws.

¹ From experience oops Qantas have a "Same Day" allowance.

 

[TonyHancock]

Many airlines¹ have internal policies of allowing free changes to bookings made online within a defined time limit.

This is because people do make mistakes using computers and gives the passenger a chance to rectify any once they check the booking/e-ticket. Without having such opportunity, the provider may find themselves at greater risk of running afoul of consumer protection laws.

¹ From experience oops Qantas have a "Same Day" allowance.

On more than once occasion I have benefited from QF's "Same Day" allowance.