Yet another Qantas DISASTER!!

[hmmm]

Hi everyone,

In January, we booked two separate tickets with Qantas, on QF codeshares with flights operated by Emirates. The reason for the two separate tickets was different return dates and departure cities from Europe. In any case, we decided we needed to change the return date of one booking from 23 July to 26 July and found availability on the seasonal Rome to Perth, QF6 service. The fare difference for this was $104.99 vs $650 to keep the original EK routing. Naturally, we took the QF option.

Seats were allocated, an upgrade request was submitted and the charge appeared on my credit card.

2 months later, ie: today, we receive a phone call from Qantas to say that the date change (and route change) wasn’t successful and that we will need to travel on the original flights or we can change them to the new date for nearly $1000 .

We were also told that the agent advised us at the time that there was an error with the fare difference and that the change didn’t go through, despite the change reflecting in the booking and still reflecting in the booking and NEVER being told of a fare difference error until today.

This is completely and utterly outrageous. We are due to depart on the 7th and no longer know if we even have a valid ticket anymore!! What the actual F Is going on with Qantas??

 

[Daver6]

Did you receive an email with the new itinerary?

Request QF provides you with a copy of the recording of the call. That should quiet quickly work in your favour too.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Hi everyone,

In January, we booked two separate tickets with Qantas, on QF codeshares with flights operated by Emirates. The reason for the two separate tickets was different return dates and departure cities from Europe. In any case, we decided we needed to change the return date of one booking from 23 July to 26 July and found availability on the seasonal Rome to Perth, QF6 service. The fare difference for this was $104.99 vs $650 to keep the original EK routing. Naturally, we took the QF option.

Seats were allocated, an upgrade request was submitted and the charge appeared on my credit card.

2 months later, ie: today, we receive a phone call from Qantas to say that the date change (and route change) wasn’t successful and that we will need to travel on the original flights or we can change them to the new date for nearly $1000 .

We were also told that the agent advised us at the time that there was an error with the fare difference and that the change didn’t go through, despite the change reflecting in the booking and still reflecting in the booking and NEVER being told of a fare difference error until today.

This is completely and utterly outrageous. We are due to depart on the 7th and no longer know if we even have a valid ticket anymore!! What the actual F Is going on with Qantas??

Did they send you an e-ticket when you changed the flights ?
It’s also pretty weird that you could submit an upgrade request on the website if the flights weren’t ticketed.

Not good at all. I hope you get it resolved.

 

[encryptededdy]

We were also told that the agent advised us at the time that there was an error with the fare difference and that the change didn’t go through

I think this is the big point here, yikes. I guess it's your word against theirs. As @Daver6 said requesting a call recording would be good, but with only two days to go I wonder if you have enough time to get this sorted.

 

[hmmm]

Did you receive an email with the new itinerary?

Request QF provides you with a copy of the recording of the call. That should quiet quickly work in your favour too.

They’ve admitted everything and concede it’s all their fault, but still didn’t stop them trying to extort an extra $900 from me to cover their mistake.

Apparently the original agent repriced the fare as a ‘one way’ meaning she was intending to cancel the outbound legs when this was never even discussed. It was a simple date change on the return flight.

We didn’t get a new email with the new itinerary but the flight changes were visible and are still visible in the app, including the upgrade request, so I’m just confused by how it all went so wrong.

 

[hmmm]

Did they send you an e-ticket when you changed the flights ?
It’s also pretty weird that you could submit an upgrade request on the website if the flights weren’t ticketed.

Not good at all. I hope you get it resolved.

Honestly, I didn’t notice. But upon checking, no we didn’t and I now understand why we didn’t. Because it never ticketed. But for two months, the change has been reflected in the app and we were nine the wiser.

And it’s totally weird that we could submit the upgrade request without a ticketed flight. But it definitely shows in the app and has done since we requested it on the 7th of May.

 

[RooFlyer]

So, are you sorted, with tickets and a valid itinerary? Who sorted it for you (call centre ... ?)

 

[Happy Dude]

Did they send you an e-ticket when you changed the flights ?
It’s also pretty weird that you could submit an upgrade request on the website if the flights weren’t ticketed.

Not good at all. I hope you get it resolved.

Equally weird that charges appear on credit cards for flight changes that were unsuccessful and never happened.

It's time that QF googled "What's the difference between an cough and an elbow?"

 

[hmmm]

So, are you sorted, with tickets and a valid itinerary? Who sorted it for you (call centre ... ?)

There is an itinerary but who knows if there is actually a valid ticket behind it. Apparently it was reticketed but then the agent emailed the original itinerary. When I queried her on this she said she mistakenly sent the old one and would resend the new one. Whilst waiting for that to arrive, the call miraculously ‘dropped out’. Upon calling back and wasting another hour, it’s apparently Queued for reticketing which means it wasn’t reticketed when the agent expressly told me it had been. I just don’t understand why they lie to customers? It’s beyond unacceptable.
I’ve told them in no uncertain terms that I had better not show up to the airport in 48 hours to find there isn’t a valid ticket and we can’t check in.

Post automatically merged: Jul 5, 2022

Equally weird that charges appear on credit cards for flight changes that were unsuccessful and never happened.

It's time that QF googled "What's the difference between an cough and an elbow?"

I actually didn’t put in the upgrade request online. The first agent who stated this mess with the fake date change did it. Just adding further frustration to the mix.

 

[sqrt()]

Equally weird that charges appear on credit cards for flight changes that were unsuccessful and never happened.

It's time that QF googled "What's the difference between an cough and an elbow?"

If the booking/rebooking associated with the charge is never ticketed, the purchase authorisation will disappear in a couple of weeks.

Still annoying if it's a large charge and eats into your available funds/credit.

 

[Mattg]

What was the outcome of this @hmmm, did you fly?

 

[hmmm]

What was the outcome of this @hmmm, did you fly?

Omg. You wouldn’t believe it.

Qantas admitted to THEIR error and I told them in no uncertain terms that we had a binding contract and I expected it to be honoured. After hours and hours of backwards and forwards they finally agreed to charge us the original amount (which they took payment for 2 months prior) and pay the balance on their ‘charge card’ to finally reissue the ticket. Which they did and the problem was solved.

Or so we thought…….. because then the REAL drama started.

36 hours before departure, I received an email from Qantas customer care. I open it and find a letter from ‘Andrew Fleming, Head of Aviation and Corporate Security’ advising me that I am now on a Qantas Group ban list and the ban includes flying on codeshare flights. He went on to say ‘they may disclose this to Emirates’ and they request that I cancel my reservation and book directly with Emirates.

I spent the best part of the next ten hours trying to get hold of someone at Qantas to confirm what the hell was going on. No one could verify anything. Emirates weren’t advised of anything and the agent had no advice either. On the morning of (12 hours before) departure, the agent calls me to advise they’ve been contacted by Qantas directly and instructed to cancel the ticket with normal penalties and asked if I was ok with that. I told them I most certainly was NOT and he was nice enough to keep it active. However, he advised to book a back up ticket just in case Qantas take over the ticket and cancel it themselves close to departure. So I was forced to pay $3,119.99 for the last economy seat on the same flight to Dubai to ensure I travelled as planned. Emirates issued the ticket but immediately flagged it as a duplicate booking but didn’t cancel it automatically.

At the airport, Emirates knew nothing of the ban (despite me explaining everything to the duty manager, as I did not want there to be an issue) and checked me in on the original ticket and I’m replying from blisteringly hot Dubai.

The new ticket is in for a full refund and we wait and see what happens on Tuesday when we try to fly to Paris on the original ticket Qantas tried to cancel.

As a final ‘F@$! You’, Qantas unlinked the two bookings so we lost our joint seat allocations and were separated by 40 or so rows and the best emirates could do was put us together in row 88 with a spare seat between us.

Looks like I’ll need to issue my own ‘travel ban’ to Qantas!!

 

[Daver6]

This story is almost beyond belief. What the heck is going on with QF?!

 

[Princess Fiona]

Omg. You wouldn’t believe it.

Qantas admitted to THEIR error and I told them in no uncertain terms that we had a binding contract and I expected it to be honoured. After hours and hours of backwards and forwards they finally agreed to charge us the original amount (which they took payment for 2 months prior) and pay the balance on their ‘charge card’ to finally reissue the ticket. Which they did and the problem was solved.

Or so we thought…….. because then the REAL drama started.

36 hours before departure, I received an email from Qantas customer care. I open it and find a letter from ‘Andrew Fleming, Head of Aviation and Corporate Security’ advising me that I am now on a Qantas Group ban list and the ban includes flying on codeshare flights. He went on to say ‘they may disclose this to Emirates’ and they request that I cancel my reservation and book directly with Emirates.

I spent the best part of the next ten hours trying to get hold of someone at Qantas to confirm what the hell was going on. No one could verify anything. Emirates weren’t advised of anything and the agent had no advice either. On the morning of (12 hours before) departure, the agent calls me to advise they’ve been contacted by Qantas directly and instructed to cancel the ticket with normal penalties and asked if I was ok with that. I told them I most certainly was NOT and he was nice enough to keep it active. However, he advised to book a back up ticket just in case Qantas take over the ticket and cancel it themselves close to departure. So I was forced to pay $3,119.99 for the last economy seat on the same flight to Dubai to ensure I travelled as planned. Emirates issued the ticket but immediately flagged it as a duplicate booking but didn’t cancel it automatically.

At the airport, Emirates knew nothing of the ban (despite me explaining everything to the duty manager, as I did not want there to be an issue) and checked me in on the original ticket and I’m replying from blisteringly hot Dubai.

The new ticket is in for a full refund and we wait and see what happens on Tuesday when we try to fly to Paris on the original ticket Qantas tried to cancel.

As a final ‘F@$! You’, Qantas unlinked the two bookings so we lost our joint seat allocations and were separated by 40 or so rows and the best emirates could do was put us together in row 88 with a spare seat between us.

Looks like I’ll need to issue my own ‘travel ban’ to Qantas!!

Who’s “The Agent”?
Did you book these codeshare fares online directly with QF ?

Sounds awful anyway but just wondering who the agent is that called you before departure and told you to book a back up ticket ?

 

[Blackswan]

This is absolutely outrageous. I'm lost for words.

 

[NamarrgonFlyer]

Why would Qantas put you on a ban list though? Was it the separate ticket? Was it all just too much work for them? I have a feeling they've been reading this thread.

 

[**TBA**]

Why were you banned from Qantas? They usually do that to abusive customers?

 

[hmmm]

Who’s “The Agent”?
Did you book these codeshare fares online directly with QF ?

Sounds awful anyway but just wondering who the agent is that called you before departure and told you to book a back up ticket ?

It was just booked on Skyscanner with an OTA that ended up being ‘select world travel’ based on the Gold Coast. 081 ticket with QF codeshares MEL-DXB, MAD-DXB and DXB-MEL, and an EK flight number DXB-CDG.

I think they were shocked/surprised why Qantas would call them directly and instruct them to cancel a ticket on the morning of departure without the passengers authority or approval.

I can’t help but feel this is all very retaliatory on their part when the errors were entirely of their doing. If we make a mistake, we are responsible and accountable and I see no reason why the reverse also shouldn’t apply

 

[hmmm]

Why were you banned from Qantas? They usually do that to abusive customers?

It didn’t specify why. Whilst I wasn’t abusive or rude, I wasn’t very pleased with the constant refusal to accept any responsibility, accountability or willingness to fix their error. The worst I said was probably something along the lines of ‘what on earth makes them (Qantas not the agent) think they have the right to treat people this way?’ And ‘the honourable thing to do would be to admit your error and fix it, instead of blaming the innocent customer and trying to make us pay (literally!) for their mistake’

I was very forthright with them and told them im well versed in consumer law and I fully intend on enforcing my rights.

As for the ‘ban’, I’m not really bothered one bit. I haven’t flown Qantas in god knows how long and after this debacle, won’t ever set foot on one of their aircraft ever again. In hindsight, it was an error on my part in booking the codeshares rather than the equivalent EK flight numbers directly for no material benefit other than 25,000 points and a few status credits that I don’t even need. Dealing with them just isn’t worth it!

 

[hmmm]

Why would Qantas put you on a ban list though? Was it the separate ticket? Was it all just too much work for them? I have a feeling they've been reading this thread.

The letter didnt specify why but without being a conspiracy theorist, it feels retaliatory and to try and leverage some sort of revenge for being held to account and responsible for their poor training and wrong information their staff provide customers. It was just coincidental that it was issued first thing the next morning, one day (literally 35.5 hours) before travel.