- Joined
- Nov 12, 2012
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- 25,667
- Qantas
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- Virgin
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- Silver
The other day I went to redeem a voucher and due to some prior issues that aren't relevant here, I had to call (the Plat line) to redeem for the flights I wanted.
I looked at the flights and fares I wanted on the Qantas web site (was more than the voucher so I would top up by cc) so was surprised when the fares quoted back to me by the phone agent were quite a bit higher than what I could see on the web site (Red-e-deal fare going the usual booking route on line). Talking only about the fare component, including taxes, here, not the phone booking fee etc.
I queried the fare being quoted, asking if the agent was able to offer the same fares as I could see on line. The agent regrettably didn't answer that query directly but just kept saying that the fare she was quoting was the lowest and seemed to be peeved that I was trying to get a lower fare. If she had said that they couldn't match the web fares, I would have stopped the process, booked via the web and used the voucher another time. But she didn't. After a bit of polite back and forth on both sides, she abruptly said that she was ending the conversation, she wasn't going to talk to me any more and she would 'see if a supervisor would talk to me'. (I then presumed that if said supervisor declined to talk to me I'd simply get hung up on.) I was a bit shocked at what she said, and can assure readers that there was absolutely no aggro on my part - just querying why the fare I could see on the web was different to that being offered (by quite a bit).
Anyway, supervisor came on the line, looked up Qantas.com and agreed that the web was actually offering the fare I was talking about (she seemed quite surprised) and after putting me on hold so she could 'ry to understand what's going on, came back and booked it for me. I asked again whether the phone agents could usually see the same fares as on line and the reply was along the lines of 'usually, but not always'.
That's a long way of asking ... in people's experiences, can the phone agents always or usually offer a fare that's on the web site, when the web fares are displayed as 'regular' ones (ie not some special section which might be titled 'web only special' or the like) ? I can't see anything under the Red-e-deal T&Cs that say its a web only price and the supervisor didn't mention anything like that.
I looked at the flights and fares I wanted on the Qantas web site (was more than the voucher so I would top up by cc) so was surprised when the fares quoted back to me by the phone agent were quite a bit higher than what I could see on the web site (Red-e-deal fare going the usual booking route on line). Talking only about the fare component, including taxes, here, not the phone booking fee etc.
I queried the fare being quoted, asking if the agent was able to offer the same fares as I could see on line. The agent regrettably didn't answer that query directly but just kept saying that the fare she was quoting was the lowest and seemed to be peeved that I was trying to get a lower fare. If she had said that they couldn't match the web fares, I would have stopped the process, booked via the web and used the voucher another time. But she didn't. After a bit of polite back and forth on both sides, she abruptly said that she was ending the conversation, she wasn't going to talk to me any more and she would 'see if a supervisor would talk to me'. (I then presumed that if said supervisor declined to talk to me I'd simply get hung up on.) I was a bit shocked at what she said, and can assure readers that there was absolutely no aggro on my part - just querying why the fare I could see on the web was different to that being offered (by quite a bit).
Anyway, supervisor came on the line, looked up Qantas.com and agreed that the web was actually offering the fare I was talking about (she seemed quite surprised) and after putting me on hold so she could 'ry to understand what's going on, came back and booked it for me. I asked again whether the phone agents could usually see the same fares as on line and the reply was along the lines of 'usually, but not always'.
That's a long way of asking ... in people's experiences, can the phone agents always or usually offer a fare that's on the web site, when the web fares are displayed as 'regular' ones (ie not some special section which might be titled 'web only special' or the like) ? I can't see anything under the Red-e-deal T&Cs that say its a web only price and the supervisor didn't mention anything like that.