yaziyo
Intern
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2022
- Posts
- 54
I thought people may enjoy hearing about the remarkable comedy of errors I've enjoyed this past few months dealing with a Qantas classic rewards booking on Royal Jordanian. This isn't a request for help or anything of the sort, just a chance to give you all the opportunity to enjoy some incredibly rubbish customer service.
My Goal: to book a flight for 4 people from Antalya Turkey (AYT) to Amman Jordan (AMM) in May this year.
My options for direct flights: pay $200 on Pegasus, a Turkish budget airline departing at 1AM. Pay $400 on Royal Jordanian for a flight departing at a more reasonable hour, or redeem the RJ flight at a cost of 10k QFF points plus about $140 in taxes and other made up airline charges. I decided to go for the final option to keep more money in my pocket.
The Qantas website does not recognise the airport code AYT so I had the joy of calling Qantas to book the flights over the phone.
Here's a rough timeline of events for your enjoyment.
1. January 2023: Call Qantas to book the 4 tickets. It takes a good hour sitting on the phone to get them booked but I was able to book the tickets. Upon looking at my QFF account I immediately identified that there were two problems with the tickets: the agent charged me the 7700x4 point fee for booking over the phone even though she said she was waiving it, and she spelled 3/4 of the passenger's names wrong. Ah amazing start.
2. I pointed these errors out to the agent. She said the fee can't be refunded until after we travel (my BS detector is ringing) and she said she's fixed the names and we'll see the correct names once the flights get ticketed. We end call 1.
3. Some time soon the flights are ticketed. Predictably, the names are still wrong.
4. Still January 2023: I call up again. After some time on the phone, the fellow manages to get the incorrect fee returned (a 77% fee for this booking, mind you) and says he's submitted a name update and it will reflect on 24-48 hours.
5. No names are updated.
6. A few days later I call again about the names. After being put on hold many times while the agent works out what to do. I'm informed that the only way to update the names on this booking is to cancel and rebook. I'm not too keen on this as I wasn't certain if the tickets would get back into the rewards inventory after cancelling. That being said, this is the first agent I feel isn't actually BSing me which is nice.
7. After trying to see if RJ themselves could help (they couldn't) I decide to just leave the typos on the names and "Yolo" it for the airport.
8. February 2023: RJ changes the date of the flights. I notice they're in the rewards inventory again, so rather than accept the change I cancel the flights.
9. I call up again to rebook new flights on this route. This time the names are right. I am once again charged the 7700x4 points fee in error.
10. Call up again and get the bad fee refunded.
11. April 2023. 2 weeks before my flight. RJ decides that this route is no longer for them and cancels my flight. I don't get any notice from Qantas, but receive an email directly from RJ as at one stage I logged into their manage booking and put my contact details on. I firmly believe had I not done this I wouldn't have known anything until I showed up at the airport.
12. April 2023: I put in a refund request for those flights and end up booking Pegasus in the end.
13. May 2023: I happily fly on Pegasus.
Oh, and I'm still waiting for my refund to come through. It's been nearly 2 months. It's also worth mentioning that the flight itself is only an hour long.
Isn't Qantas a joy?
My Goal: to book a flight for 4 people from Antalya Turkey (AYT) to Amman Jordan (AMM) in May this year.
My options for direct flights: pay $200 on Pegasus, a Turkish budget airline departing at 1AM. Pay $400 on Royal Jordanian for a flight departing at a more reasonable hour, or redeem the RJ flight at a cost of 10k QFF points plus about $140 in taxes and other made up airline charges. I decided to go for the final option to keep more money in my pocket.
The Qantas website does not recognise the airport code AYT so I had the joy of calling Qantas to book the flights over the phone.
Here's a rough timeline of events for your enjoyment.
1. January 2023: Call Qantas to book the 4 tickets. It takes a good hour sitting on the phone to get them booked but I was able to book the tickets. Upon looking at my QFF account I immediately identified that there were two problems with the tickets: the agent charged me the 7700x4 point fee for booking over the phone even though she said she was waiving it, and she spelled 3/4 of the passenger's names wrong. Ah amazing start.
2. I pointed these errors out to the agent. She said the fee can't be refunded until after we travel (my BS detector is ringing) and she said she's fixed the names and we'll see the correct names once the flights get ticketed. We end call 1.
3. Some time soon the flights are ticketed. Predictably, the names are still wrong.
4. Still January 2023: I call up again. After some time on the phone, the fellow manages to get the incorrect fee returned (a 77% fee for this booking, mind you) and says he's submitted a name update and it will reflect on 24-48 hours.
5. No names are updated.
6. A few days later I call again about the names. After being put on hold many times while the agent works out what to do. I'm informed that the only way to update the names on this booking is to cancel and rebook. I'm not too keen on this as I wasn't certain if the tickets would get back into the rewards inventory after cancelling. That being said, this is the first agent I feel isn't actually BSing me which is nice.
7. After trying to see if RJ themselves could help (they couldn't) I decide to just leave the typos on the names and "Yolo" it for the airport.
8. February 2023: RJ changes the date of the flights. I notice they're in the rewards inventory again, so rather than accept the change I cancel the flights.
9. I call up again to rebook new flights on this route. This time the names are right. I am once again charged the 7700x4 points fee in error.
10. Call up again and get the bad fee refunded.
11. April 2023. 2 weeks before my flight. RJ decides that this route is no longer for them and cancels my flight. I don't get any notice from Qantas, but receive an email directly from RJ as at one stage I logged into their manage booking and put my contact details on. I firmly believe had I not done this I wouldn't have known anything until I showed up at the airport.
12. April 2023: I put in a refund request for those flights and end up booking Pegasus in the end.
13. May 2023: I happily fly on Pegasus.
Oh, and I'm still waiting for my refund to come through. It's been nearly 2 months. It's also worth mentioning that the flight itself is only an hour long.
Isn't Qantas a joy?
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