Confused about points refund

[Princess Pia]

I’m hoping someone can help me understand the refund I got when cancelling some flights from a classic reward ticket. When I called the call centre to cancel them(as unable to do online) I was told there would be refund of about 35,000 points per person, however I have ended up with 12,600 per person.

Original itinerary all booked in Y
MEL-NAN-LAX-LIM-AEP then EZE-MIA-LAX-SYD-MEL on a combination of FJ, LA, AA and QF.

Total cost was 142,100 points each (just wondering is this the max for a Y classic reward and that is why the refund isn’t what I expected??)

Cancelled LAX-SYD-MEL as LAX-MEL in PE became available and I had to book this separately as the call centre said it wasn’t available for me to change the LAX-SYD-MEL to LAX-MEL (and I tried calling a few times to check).

When I cancelled LAX-SYD-MEL I was told I would get approx 35000 points back per person which seemed correct given it is 41,900 and they have taken off the 5000 points pp. As mentioned however I only got back 12,600 points pp.

I’m still confused about this, but it just occurred to me if it’s maybe because the original itinerary met the criteria for the max points Y classic reward and the new one doesn’t? Any help understanding would be great as I was hoping to use those extra points to apply for a upgrade so it’s a bit of a loss!

 

[opusman]

When you drop one or more legs you don't necessarily get back the points that booking that flight as a standalone journey would cost, instead the entire itinerary will be repriced and you'll be refunded the difference less the cancellation fee.

You'd need to price up the shorter itinerary to know for sure how much the refund should have been I think.

 

[Princess Pia]

Thanks, yes I did get that as I wanted to make sure all the other legs were intact still as it just didn’t make sense. What they gave me adds up to what I have been charged but I was confused, especially when I had been told I would get the 35,000 points each back

 

[aikman]

Qantas is correct.

Original itinerary home is Zone 10 - 55,200 points
New itinerary home is Zone 7 - 37,600 points
That's a difference of 17,600 points minus 5,000 change fee equals 12,600

For 2 people, the refund is 35,200 points, perhaps that's what the agent meant when you were told 35,000

For your reference the cost of your original itinerary is
MEL-LAX 41,900
LAX-AEP 45,000
EZE-MEL 55,200