Absurd Qantas cancel fees and a question about no show rules?

[aleksandrab]

I’m travelling in India at the moment. Booked direct with Qantas, originated in Canberra.

Our outbound flight is Bangalore > Delhi (AI) / Delhi > Melbourne (QF) and Melbourne > Canberra (QF).

We asked if we could alter the flights slightly to allow a few days in Delhi on our way home. No availability. No problem with that, flights get full.

Asked if we could cancel the Bangalore > Delhi leg for a partial refund or credit and just make our own way to Delhi. After a few holds to confirm, we were advised a $9400 cancellation charge PER PERSON. This leg is probably worth $150 max. The whole fare was around $1800. The Qantas service agent requested confirmation of the cost twice and then seemed reluctant to tell us the cost. $18,800?!?! To cancel a leg. This seems utterly absurd?

So - my question to this forum: if we no-show to the first leg (Bangalore>Delhi), will Qantas cancel our whole ticket home? Or can we check in as normal for Delhi to Melbourne?

Thanks!

 

[exceladdict]

If you miss the leg you will likely forfeit the rest of the ticket.

 

[dajop]

So the entire ticket originatea in Bangalore, right? I wonder if they are quoting the amount that it would be in Indian Rupee, 9400 INR is about 180 AUD.

 

[DC3]

… The Qantas service agent requested confirmation of the cost twice and then seemed reluctant to tell us the cost. $18,800?!?! To cancel a leg …

Fiji?

 

[aleksandrab]

So the entire ticket originatea in Bangalore, right? I wonder if they are quoting the amount that it would be in Indian Rupee, 9400 INR is about 180 AUD.

No entire ticket originated in Canberra, I’m hoping to change the return journey. I asked if the charge was INR and she confirmed $9400 AUD pp. She agreed it was a crazy price!

Post automatically merged: Oct 31, 2022

Fiji?

Sorry are you asking about the call centre? It was South Africa.

 

[dajop]

No entire ticket originated in Canberra, I’m hoping to change the return journey. I asked if the charge was INR and she confirmed $9400 AUD pp. She agreed it was a crazy price!

Post automatically merged: Oct 31, 2022

Sorry are you asking about the call centre? It was South Africa.

Ok. That then sounds like the only way they could do this would be to cancel the whole itinerary and rebook. So the change fee is probably only a few hundred dollars but given the skill and experience of the operator the only way they could do this is cancel all sectors and to rebook you on a completely new itinerary and re price at whatever that itinerary is selling for today in whatever class is available.

 

[aleksandrab]

Ok. That then sounds like the only way they could do this would be to cancel the whole itinerary and rebook. So the change fee is probably only a few hundred dollars but given the skill and experience of the operator the only way they could do this is cancel all sectors and to rebook you on a completely new itinerary and re price at whatever that itinerary is selling for today in whatever class is available.

Ah okay, that makes more sense. She said she was speaking to the ‘Qantas support team’ but wouldn’t transfer me because they were ‘internal’, so I think you’re right. I’ll try again tomorrow in Aus business hours and see if I can speak to someone at home. Thanks for your help!

 

[aikman]

I would just buy a separate ticket Bangalore > Delhi > Bangalore making sure I'm back in Bangalore to fly the original ticket.

 

[levelnine]

A friend had a similar experience — quoted thousands of dollars to remove a leg from a flight. The friend sent complaints to Qantas through multiple channels, got a call from a Hobart agent who cancelled the leg and was given a refund of several hundred dollars.

 

[offshore171]

I would just buy a separate ticket Bangalore > Delhi > Bangalore making sure I'm back in Bangalore to fly the original ticket.

Yes likewise.

I wouldn't risk messing with the itinerary as booked. Given what we've seen in other posts here, there's a decent chance of being stranded in India.

 

[MrJetset]

What are the fare rules of your ticket? Officially you're asking for a reroute, so it is a cancellation.

$9,400 is unlikely the cancellation fee. It's more likely to be a smaller cancel fee, or the entire ticket cost, plus the cost of a new ticket on the new route, perhaps any full fare Y, especially given that you said flights were full.

 

[aleksandrab]

I would just buy a separate ticket Bangalore > Delhi > Bangalore making sure I'm back in Bangalore to fly the original ticket.

That’s definitely an option, thanks - just trying to avoid flying laps of the country if possible!

 

[TheInsider]

What are the fare rules of your ticket? Officially you're asking for a reroute, so it is a cancellation.

$9,400 is unlikely the cancellation fee. It's more likely to be a smaller cancel fee, or the entire ticket cost, plus the cost of a new ticket on the new route, perhaps any full fare Y, especially given that you said flights were full.

Correct. Instead of a Bangalore - Canberra, you are now asking for a DEL-CBR. It's a routing change.
Then if the flights are full, they are seeing full Y class tickets.

 

[CaptJCool]

to answer your first question
if we no-show to the first leg (Bangalore>Delhi), will Qantas cancel our whole ticket home? Or can we check in as normal for Delhi to Melbourne?
YES they would. No shows invoke the non-refundable tic gig

The issue in the current environment with limited capacity is its terribly difficult to do anything other than fly your original Itinerary on the dates you booked to fly.
the second trouble is one way international tickets are not just 50%, they are often 75-100% of return tic price (As is the case when I went to look at Dehli-CBR one way prices (appear fairly available at about $1,800 pp))

the third issue is Bangalore to Dehli is codeshare QF operated by Indigo. Don’t know what that entails (aside to say vs QF flys Bangalore direct to Sydney...)

so another strategy is to suffer the NO SHOW LOSS ($800) and book a brand new one way tic around the $1800-$2100) - that’s still $3,000 per passenger....
vs the other idea - book a separate return (laps of India) tic as mentioned above.
Vs
Seeing what you can do yourself online (I’m figuring from what you mentioned, tics likely booked as a SALE fare.
this has the most restrictive conditions and the fare conditions suggest changes can be made online BUT as the previous comment suggested, it’s not for the faint-hearted)

what was interesting in looking up the fare conditions was Stopovers could have been booked (probably by a travel agent) for no extra cost.... Itinerary changes $225 PLUS fare difference. Cancellations themselves a mere $400 With a residual flight credit...AND then copping the equal or higher value of the flight credit AND change fees per person on top of that, so say your flight credit is $800, you gotta find a new tic worth at least $800 PLUS then cough up the $400 cancel fee AND any extra fare difference over and above the $800. (in effect sending good money after bad....) or one can cut their losses (like my mother has just done as the flight credit expired)



That’s why I rarely book early unless I’m willing to lose the lot nor LATE change CHEAP tickets (Nor book domestic returns) Given Whats foist onto the customer, it’s a case of banker always win and False Economy.

Of course, the verbal quoted changed fare is absurd - Screenshot anyone? - doubt it would happen to you were you to self-service online - and also comes with a phone service fee. They don’t miss out on their fees

 

[aleksandrab]

Good news - got through to a very helpful service agent in the premium call centre at home this morning. Cancelling the first leg cost us $200pp, and we received a credit for $234pp, so we came out $34pp on top, it was sorted in 20 mins.

I couldn’t believe the wildly different answers I received to the same questions across multiple service agents, so definitely pays to be persistent! And don’t trust the advice you receive from some of the call centres - we were told it’d be fine to no-show last night, and were told this morning that a no-show would’ve left us stranded!

Thanks all for your advice!

 

[ChrisMars]

Good news - got through to a very helpful service agent in the premium call centre at home this morning. Cancelling the first leg cost us $200pp, and we received a credit for $234pp, so we came out $34pp on top, it was sorted in 20 mins.

I couldn’t believe the wildly different answers I received to the same questions across multiple service agents, so definitely pays to be persistent! And don’t trust the advice you receive from some of the call centres - we were told it’d be fine to no-show last night, and were told this morning that a no-show would’ve left us stranded!

Thanks all for your advice!

Glad it sorted out, yep there is a big gap beetween trained agents, and others. What disgust me is that untrained agent tell so much bs with such confidence.

Anyway, this is the correct outcome, I have done similar rerouting in the past without any issues, sad that one has to win the Hobart lottery to get it done. The reason why I ll switch to VA once I drop gold.

 

[levelnine]

Good news - got through to a very helpful service agent in the premium call centre at home this morning. Cancelling the first leg cost us $200pp, and we received a credit for $234pp, so we came out $34pp on top, it was sorted in 20 mins.

I couldn’t believe the wildly different answers I received to the same questions across multiple service agents, so definitely pays to be persistent! And don’t trust the advice you receive from some of the call centres - we were told it’d be fine to no-show last night, and were told this morning that a no-show would’ve left us stranded!

This result also contradicts many of the comments of the posters in this thread saying you should be up for the full cost of the new flights due to it being a routing change.

It thus pays to be sceptical of the some of the 'wisdom' on this forum.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

It thus pays to be sceptical of the some of the 'wisdom' on this forum.

As Gus Mercurio would say - ‘Boxers - Touch gloves snd come out fighting’

 

[TheInsider]

This result also contradicts many of the comments of the posters in this thread saying you should be up for the full cost of the new flights due to it being a routing change.

It thus pays to be sceptical of the some of the 'wisdom' on this forum.

If they were changing the routing and only Y class was available at that time, then the prices would've been a high price.

That's how ticketing works. You can't just cancel off one leg when it's been booked as a through fare, the routing needs to be repriced as there are new flights, it's a flight change.

Maybe the price given was incorrect and wasn't in the correct currency, who knows with those Mind Pearl agents. But it still remains, the OP requested a routing change, therefore a reprice on the booking. It's not as simple as just deleting the flight from the booking on international sectors.

 

[RooFlyer]

So what actually happened?