- Joined
- Sep 20, 2018
- Posts
- 3,333
- Qantas
- Platinum
So, one recent Thursday night, I got a phone call that my mother-in-law in Queensland was very ill, and likely to die. I decided to make a short notice J class paid booking to travel from CBR-BNE on an early morning flight departing at 0650 the next day (Friday). As the booking was made on line the night before the travel, I was presented with an option to check in immediately, which I took. One less thing to do in the morning, I reasoned, as I was going to be busy tying up loose ends at work to get away.
Next phone call later that night was that my M-I-L had rallied, so I decided to cancel the flight, sort out my work and go up on the weekend. I made an on-line cancellation, no issues at all, and went to bed very late after doing a lot of work, and planning/packing for the weekend trip. I even checked on the web site that the booking was correctly cancelled before I went to bed, and it was. However, I was woken by an rather aggressive phone call at 0635 the next morning by a Qantas staffer demanding to know "where are you and can you just hurry up and board your flight; you are holding everyone up." I explained I had cancelled the flight the previous night, and got a huffy "so you're not flying then?" . I said "no, it's pretty hard to fly on a cancelled ticket". They then huffed and puffed a bit more and hung up.
Unfortunately, the next phone call I got was later that same morning to say that M-I-L had in fact passed away (and I would not have made it there anyway, even if I took the original flight, which was a small comfort in the circumstances). So now I needed to get another new short notice booking to fly up same day, but the web site would not let me book on line. I called the priority line (I'm a WP) and got answered quickly. I explained, and they said I had been marked as a no show, that's why I couldn't book again on the same day on line. By now I was a bit upset, and the call taker was amazing - just the right level of sympathy and get it done attitude, and I was very quickly re-booked and on my way, and no phone booking fee. Also a big shout out to flight attendant Monica on QF 1546 that day for her warm and kind service to a tired and over-stressed passenger when I finally got on board.
However, in the last few days, I have started to wonder about a couple of things:
1. as I cancelled the flight, why was the check in not also automatically cancelled?
2. if being checked in required more intervention before I could cancel the ticket, why did the web site actually allow me to cancel, and not require me to phone to make the cancellation?
3. the conditions of my fare allowed a full refund, even after no-show (and I dispute that I was a no show anyway) , so why would I be locked out from making another booking for exercising this right associated with my fare?
Any one else had this happen to them?
Next phone call later that night was that my M-I-L had rallied, so I decided to cancel the flight, sort out my work and go up on the weekend. I made an on-line cancellation, no issues at all, and went to bed very late after doing a lot of work, and planning/packing for the weekend trip. I even checked on the web site that the booking was correctly cancelled before I went to bed, and it was. However, I was woken by an rather aggressive phone call at 0635 the next morning by a Qantas staffer demanding to know "where are you and can you just hurry up and board your flight; you are holding everyone up." I explained I had cancelled the flight the previous night, and got a huffy "so you're not flying then?" . I said "no, it's pretty hard to fly on a cancelled ticket". They then huffed and puffed a bit more and hung up.
Unfortunately, the next phone call I got was later that same morning to say that M-I-L had in fact passed away (and I would not have made it there anyway, even if I took the original flight, which was a small comfort in the circumstances). So now I needed to get another new short notice booking to fly up same day, but the web site would not let me book on line. I called the priority line (I'm a WP) and got answered quickly. I explained, and they said I had been marked as a no show, that's why I couldn't book again on the same day on line. By now I was a bit upset, and the call taker was amazing - just the right level of sympathy and get it done attitude, and I was very quickly re-booked and on my way, and no phone booking fee. Also a big shout out to flight attendant Monica on QF 1546 that day for her warm and kind service to a tired and over-stressed passenger when I finally got on board.
However, in the last few days, I have started to wonder about a couple of things:
1. as I cancelled the flight, why was the check in not also automatically cancelled?
2. if being checked in required more intervention before I could cancel the ticket, why did the web site actually allow me to cancel, and not require me to phone to make the cancellation?
3. the conditions of my fare allowed a full refund, even after no-show (and I dispute that I was a no show anyway) , so why would I be locked out from making another booking for exercising this right associated with my fare?
Any one else had this happen to them?