Qantas owes what it charges for and then failed to deliver on and was forced to refund in public.
QF do have a habit of to bad so sad right when a poor innocent sod has parted with cash.
I booked a RTW ticket earlier this year. Made the booking by phone as it was too close to book it via the website.
Was told that I could make changes to the routing, but would have to pay a change fee. If there was a positive difference in the new route, I would have to pay the difference, if negative, I'd receive a refund. - Ok great.
Two sectors in (LAX) I needed to come home due to health reasons.
First they tried to say that my ticket needed to be the same value of original purchase ($4.5k) so I would need to be upgraded to Premium economy. How does that work? MEL-SFO in Y then LAX to MEL in premium ≠ $4.5k
I referred them to the original call recording (which I recorded also) in which I was told I could change the routing.
They agreed to partially refund me.. except..
QF doesn't have a particularly good track record in the department of refunds
I paid using CHQ at MEL. QF repeatedly told me that I would be refunded on to the same card that I paid with.
I doubted that this was possible as this was a debit transaction paid at the sales desk.
45 business days later, the maximum refund time passed (surprise!)
Another hour on the phone, they had to call MEL sales desk, find a manager with refund authority and get my CC number over the phone to punch in to the terminal.
More insult to the injury is that when I was on the phone to QF 12 hrs before the flight home, I was told that they would reserve me a seat while they listen to call recordings etc.
Rocked up to LAX and 'we can't find any notes on the system'. I ended up having to pay US$850 to get on the flight because they couldn't sort themselves out in time.
Customer service were the ones who agreed to a partial refund, but I'm still $1400 out.
We're off to VCAT next month.
Original booking was during a 'double status credit' offer so the lost credits LAX/MEL will be sought.
It's definitely a love/hate relationship. Love having just hit gold last week, hate being ripped off.