How to retrieve money from Qantas

[Sham.raz]

Qantas suspended my frequent flyer membership without any notification or information.

I have been trying to seek response for last 2 months but they are not reverting. Lodged complaint with NSW Fair Trading but of no use.

I sent them letter of demand but they didn't budge by deadline. I have over 200k points which were earned through tens of thousands of dollars worth of spend.

Being an individual, can I hire debt collector for this matter? What are other options available to get money(points equivalent) back?

Thank you

 

[opusman]

It seems odd they would suspend your account for no reason.

200k points has a nominal value of $2-4k which would put it in small claims court territory. I think that would be your only option. Qantas don't acknowledge that points have any monetary value so you would need to convince the tribunal that they do.

 

[dajop]

My initial reaction, to try and understand why they might do this. Have you redeemed points for someone else or sent points to or received points from someone else ?

 

[dylarr]

More information is definitely needed here. Why were you suspended?

 

[Kerrodt]

Why is the heading about “retrieving money” and the OP’s issue seems to be about points? Points are not money.

More information, and the full facts, are required here. I’ll be surprised if either are forthcoming.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

If qantas has closed the account the OP is looking for monetary compensation.

Qantas value counts at .7c each. So a fairly easy calculation.

Whether or not the OP will be successful depends on why the points and account were closed.

 

[dajop]

Whether or not the OP will be successful depends on why the points and account were closed.

I would have thought if the account was closed in error, then restoration of the account and the points held therein would be the easiest to achieve. If it was closed for a reason (breach of T&C) then no compensation is likely. Any hint of buying or selling points or award tickets associated with the account is the most likely a reason this has taken place.

Not to say that it wasn’t closed in error, we all know the OP could hit the Qantas customer care brick wall...

 

[love_the_life]

Not to be cynical.....

 

[jpp42]

I realise that the T&C's probably specify that points will be forfeited in case of a breach of terms and conditions, the determination of which Qantas is the sole arbiter.
But I wonder if there isn't scope for some more fairness here given the points values that some people hold. It's hard to argue they have no value whatsoever given you can purchase so many things with them.

If you breach a bank's terms and conditions they may close your account, but they can't keep all the money in it! They have to pay you.

Even if Qantas alleges monetary losses due to the breaching behavior, shouldn't they be forced to prove this with some kind of due process, like arbitration? Otherwise what's to prevent them from just closing accounts left and right because they feel like it?

 

[juddles]

.........

If you breach a bank's terms and conditions they may close your account, but they can't keep all the money in it! They have to pay you.
.......

Not really comparing apples with apples - with a bank you put the cash in to start with.

And before we go talking about "fairness" it would be really nice for the OP to come clean expand on what actually happened.

 

[33kft]

If you breach a bank's terms and conditions they may close your account, but they can't keep all the money in it! They have to pay you.

There's no money in it. There's points, and those points are entirely useless if you are no longer entitled to participate in the program.

 

[33kft]

Qantas suspended my frequent flyer membership without any notification or information.

So how do you know it's suspended?

 

[oz_mark]

i doubt Qantas will ever pay out cash for the points. I've never heard of it happening, although someone may be able to point at an example.

The only real way I see is to get the account unsuspended. But as we don't know what happened, there's not much else to say.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

OP says account was closed, and they can’t get any information from QF.

What other course of action can the OP take? If they won’t speak to you, you’d have to explore other avenues. Maybe a small claims will do that.

 

[dajop]

OP says account was closed, and they can’t get any information from QF.

What other course of action can the OP take? If they won’t speak to you, you’d have to explore other avenues. Maybe a small claims will do that.

Maybe small claims will do. But if OP has, for example been trading points with strangers on ozbargain, which is a contravention of QFF T&C, it might be futile even going down this path.

 

[juddles]

OP says account was closed, and they can’t get any information from QF.

What other course of action can the OP take? If they won’t speak to you, you’d have to explore other avenues. Maybe a small claims will do that.

MEL_T, we get a thread like this every month. "Qantas wont tell me anything". "Qantas has done XYZ without explanation" etc. The common thread (sorry if that is a "pun", because I hate that whole thing) is that invariably the poster:

(a) provides bugger all info
(b) despite the scarcity of info normally describes a classic case of someone who has been ripping the system and has been caught out
(c) provokes the usual commentary ranging from "please more info" to "nasty Qantas"
(d) disappears when they realize that this is not a forum that will help them further rip the system

Personally, on the info given, I would encourage the OP to hire several highly paid debt collectors, launch a crusade via all social media, make a complaint to the police as they have been robbed, get a QC involved to lead a legal action, and, sell their amazing story to any of the number of current affairs programs who would LOVE the chance to attack a big company if the complaint is real.

To the OP, if you ever come back, please forgive my hesitance to believe in your cause. It is just that many people ignore the Qantas terms and conditions and do wondrous things to try to "game" the system. This is all good if it does not come unstuck. But if it does, and you want good advice here (which you can get!), then please take the time to openly and honestly say what really happened. And we will help, if we think it is fair.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The OP hasn’t asked us to debate the merits of their claim. They’ll find out one way or another whether they have a valid complaint, or not.

They asked how to progress the matter as they can’t engage through standard means.

 

[juddles]

The OP hasn’t asked us to debate the merits of their claim. They’ll find out one way or another whether they have a valid complaint, or not.

They asked how to progress the matter as they can’t engage through standard means.

No, the OP has said that Qantas is "not reverting". Whatever that means. And they say that their action through NSW Fair Trading is "of no use". With no explanation of what those phrases actually mean.

What do you mean that they cannot "engage through standard means"?

 

[p--and--t]

According to AFF stats, the op has been back on the board as late as 7:41pm this evening and there were 9 posts in total on the thread before that and the op hasn't seen fit to respond.

I think juddles is possibly right and there is a low likelihood of a further enlightening of the situation.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

No, the OP has said that Qantas is "not reverting". Whatever that means. And they say that their action through NSW Fair Trading is "of no use". With no explanation of what those phrases actually mean.

What do you mean that they cannot "engage through standard means"?

Why does it matter? My interpretation was that the OP’s points have gone, and they don’t really have an explanation as to why. Or maybe they do, but they’re not happy with the response.

So they’ve asked what other means they can use.

i don’t think a debt collector would the the right course of action. But maybe a small claims action would.

But that’s not considering whether such a course of action would be successful. Because we don’t know enough.

But I’m not sure we *need* to know.