If my Business Class Classic Rewards Flight is cancelled do Qantas have to put me on another Business class flight?

[Lachup]

Hi all, wondering if anyone can help me with understand my rights re having a flight rebooked. In early Feb, I booked an itinerary of Business Class Classic Rewards flights to and from Europe, with trips to North Africa and intra Europe Flights, all with OneWorld airlines, so got it all capped at 318,000 points + taxes.

Soon after, my first leg (Mel-NRT-FRA with JAL) was cancelled due to "network changes". I finally got through to the Qantas call center and after a lot of exploring every avenue, it seems my only option is to instead book a economy flight to get to my first destination, Frankfurt. The operator told me that I can only get another Classic Rewards seat to replace the cancelled flight, and there are no Business Class seats anywhere for my dates, otherwise I'll incur extra points being charged.

I would have thought that if it was the airline that cancelled the flight, I would be put on a comparable flight (i.e business class) to the same destination at no extra cost? Does anyone know if I should push for this or is it simply bad luck/ Many thanks in advance for you thoughts.

 

[Pushka]

Hi all, wondering if anyone can help me with understand my rights re having a flight rebooked. In early Feb, I booked an itinerary of Business Class Classic Rewards flights to and from Europe, with trips to North Africa and intra Europe Flights, all with OneWorld airlines, so got it all capped at 318,000 points + taxes.

Soon after, my first leg (Mel-NRT-FRA with JAL) was cancelled due to "network changes". I finally got through to the Qantas call center and after a lot of exploring every avenue, it seems my only option is to instead book a economy flight to get to my first destination, Frankfurt. The operator told me that I can only get another Classic Rewards seat to replace the cancelled flight, and there are no Business Class seats anywhere for my dates, otherwise I'll incur extra points being charged.

I would have thought that if it was the airline that cancelled the flight, I would be put on a comparable flight (i.e business class) to the same destination at no extra cost? Does anyone know if I should push for this or is it simply bad luck/ Many thanks in advance for you thoughts.

While they will try, Qamtas is under no obligation to find another similar flight, and can't get another airline to release another award seat. They will simply refund points and taxes in full. I'd expect also that the complete itinerary is at risk now that the first leg is gone and I'd be checking into that as well.

 

[RooFlyer]

I would have thought that if it was the airline that cancelled the flight, I would be put on a comparable flight (i.e business class) to the same destination at no extra cost? Does anyone know if I should push for this or is it simply bad luck/ Many thanks in advance for you thoughts.

The call centre agent was correct (this is not always the case!) If you 'lose' a Reward flight, the airline will only attempt to replace it with another reward seat - but the catch is that such seats are limited on any one flight and all those within comparable flights/times may have gone, especially in J.

Your best bet is to go some time before your planned date of departure (or after, if you can afford the time) but I know that may not be feasible.

You might try calling them again, or ask someone here to look at availability with 'Expert Flyer'. Find an appropriate thread or start a new thread "Expert flyer itinerary help..." or similar to) get attention.

As Pushka said, be careful that a problem with the first leg doesn't put the entire itinerary in jeopardy. That is, say if you decide to cancel that leg and go on a paid flight, the entire itinerary might fall away.

Welcome to AFF - sorry the first inquiry isn't very positive.

 

[renatts]

While Qantas are under no obligation to put you on another business class flight, in the same situation I kept calling back until I got someone who would help me.

I was originally MEL - NRT - HEL
JAL cancelled MEL - NRT

I eventually got a call centre operator who converted two revenue seats on QF9 MEL - LHR to Business (U) reward seats and put it through as an involuntary reroute.
We then connect to Helsinki from London instead of Tokyo.
It’s a longer flight, but it gets us there in comfort.

Worth calling back a few times and different hours of the day and see if you get lucky before accepting economy.

 

[ozflier]

My experience has been that QFF are much more likely to look after you with operational changes with a Qantas flight vs a non Qantas one - Understandably they are in a much better position to convert a revenue seat to an award one on their own airline.
It does seem that there is a Oneworld disruption desk that can potentially handle issues like an operational change you mentioned but that does not mean they can convert you over to a "U" seat on a non Qantas airline.

 

[knick007]

Can confirm that once QF cancelled one leg it triggered the cancellation of my entire booking. I’d get on the phone ASAP or try to book a new rewards seat!

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Just thought I'd chime in with my (albeit limited) experience here. Last year I was supposed to fly out to LDH on QF Economy Classic Award in late August which got cancelled by the airline due to the COVID outbreak in Sydney. I called the agent and was given one of two options: rebook to any available QF operated flight to LDH within the next 7 days or rebook on a QF classic award flight departing sometime in the next 365 days with no change fee nor additional points (I made the LDH booking back when QF was offering a 20% discount on domestic classic awards). Seeing as it would be unlikely I could travel to LDH in the coming month (despite me having been double jabbed for 2 months at the time), I ended up rebooking for June this year.

My recommendation would be to find a classic business award that gets you to where you need to be. Don't worry if it costs more points due to a lengthier routing, just find it and call them back. If they push back on additional points required tell them, and who was it that cancelled a sector compromising my itinerary again? In any event, I wouldn't accept any refund or cancellation until you can find something. You have quite a bit of leverage now with an itinerary in hand than someone without anything booked.

-RooFlyer88

 

[Fil-Ski]

I had this experience today

Qantas’s canceled my Hong Kong to Australia flight which was part of a OneWorld booking

Qantas agent managed to seats on a direct flight from London to Perth without me asking

 

[jakeseven7]

My experience has been that QFF are much more likely to look after you with operational changes with a Qantas flight vs a non Qantas one -

Agree, I’ve had seats manually released on QF metal to accomodate a move due to changing schedules.

 

[martindagun]

Due to flight cancellations / time changes I've had been able to make the following changes for flights in July.
2 x ROM>DXB>HKG in Emirates J and HKG>MEL in Cathay PE, to ROM>DXB>MEL in Emirates J
1 x MEL>SIN in Qantas E and SIN>DXB>LON in Emirates J, to MEL>DXB>LON in Emirates J

I have absolutely no status and they had to ask Emirates to release flights. Just try a few people on the phone if required. Really happy with the changes as the MEL-DXB route is normally pretty hard to book in J.

 

[Lachup]

While Qantas are under no obligation to put you on another business class flight, in the same situation I kept calling back until I got someone who would help me.

I was originally MEL - NRT - HEL
JAL cancelled MEL - NRT

I eventually got a call centre operator who converted two revenue seats on QF9 MEL - LHR to Business (U) reward seats and put it through as an involuntary reroute.
We then connect to Helsinki from London instead of Tokyo.
It’s a longer flight, but it gets us there in comfort.

Worth calling back a few times and different hours of the day and see if you get lucky before accepting economy.

I wish I had of tried your approach @renats. The operator I spoke to did initially try a force a change to a Mel-Lon-Fra flight with Qantas, with after speaking with his support team came back on the phone and said it couldn't be done. After being disconnected after 4-6hr waits on hold on multiple occasions, my appetite for repeat calls was limited so took the only option I had. Regretting it now :-(

 

[Lachup]

While they will try, Qamtas is under no obligation to find another similar flight, and can't get another airline to release another award seat. They will simply refund points and taxes in full. I'd expect also that the complete itinerary is at risk now that the first leg is gone and I'd be checking into that as well.

Thanks Pushkas, you're right in that the entire itinerary was under threat, so I ended up going for the only option I could see which was Mel-LA-Lon-Fra economy reward. Not a good option but it got me there. Now seeing if there is Mel-Lon-HAM available as Qantas "Where Can I Fly" search displays a Business Class Reward seat, but it can be searched for solo or booked online.

 

[Lachup]

The call centre agent was correct (this is not always the case!) If you 'lose' a Reward flight, the airline will only attempt to replace it with another reward seat - but the catch is that such seats are limited on any one flight and all those within comparable flights/times may have gone, especially in J.

Your best bet is to go some time before your planned date of departure (or after, if you can afford the time) but I know that may not be feasible.

You might try calling them again, or ask someone here to look at availability with 'Expert Flyer'. Find an appropriate thread or start a new thread "Expert flyer itinerary help..." or similar to) get attention.

As Pushka said, be careful that a problem with the first leg doesn't put the entire itinerary in jeopardy. That is, say if you decide to cancel that leg and go on a paid flight, the entire itinerary might fall away.

Welcome to AFF - sorry the first inquiry isn't very positive.

Thanks for the suggestion RooFLyer, and good to be onboard here I'm going to keep checkign the website daily in the hope something shows up, but yes think I'm limited to an economy rewards ticket from Melbourne to Europe. No dates either side have Business Rewards it appears, save for one which I think displays in error on the "Where Can I Fly" interactive search tool, which I'm on hold to Qantas now (only 2hrs so far ).

Post automatically merged: Mar 19, 2022

My experience has been that QFF are much more likely to look after you with operational changes with a Qantas flight vs a non Qantas one - Understandably they are in a much better position to convert a revenue seat to an award one on their own airline.
It does seem that there is a Oneworld disruption desk that can potentially handle issues like an operational change you mentioned but that does not mean they can convert you over to a "U" seat on a non Qantas airline.

Thanks Ozflier, I'll look into the "Oneworld disruption desk, doe you just ask to be put through via the Qantas Call center?

 

[ChrisDPom]

We just had the DPS-KUL leg of our points booking DPS-KUL-LHR return moved forward 4 days (while the KUL-LHR is still the old date). Would require 5 days quarantine in Malaysia so we would miss the 2nd flight anyway . We only realised because I was checking on seats on the booking - no email or text message at all from Qantas warning us of the change - thanks Qantas . S

So with no Qantas metal options available and as usual cannot even get through to their call centres, we took the cancel option and have booked full pay Qatar instead.

As the booking was on Qantas' Indonesian website, I expect the usual nightmare getting the refund (4 COVID related cancelled flights - 2 sorted & 2 still not sorted after 18 months & loads of Qantas promises that it is fixed).

Just a normal day with Qantas at the moment

 

[Pushka]

We just had the DPS-KUL leg of our points booking DPS-KUL-LHR return moved forward 4 days (while the KUL-LHR is still the old date). Would require 5 days quarantine in Malaysia so we would miss the 2nd flight anyway . We only realised because I was checking on seats on the booking - no email or text message at all from Qantas warning us of the change - thanks Qantas . S

So with no Qantas metal options available and as usual cannot even get through to their call centres, we took the cancel option and have booked full pay Qatar instead.

As the booking was on Qantas' Indonesian website, I expect the usual nightmare getting the refund (4 COVID related cancelled flights - 2 sorted & 2 still not sorted after 18 months & loads of Qantas promises that it is fixed).

Just a normal day with Qantas at the moment

We cancelled our award flight to UK and the UK return money came through four weeks faster than qantas. They go into queues according to origin country and UK outbound was faster. We too then booked paid Qatar.

 

[Pgeee]

My experience has been that QFF are much more likely to look after you with operational changes with a Qantas flight vs a non Qantas one - Understandably they are in a much better position to convert a revenue seat to an award one on their own airline.
It does seem that there is a Oneworld disruption desk that can potentially handle issues like an operational change you mentioned but that does not mean they can convert you over to a "U" seat on a non Qantas airline.

I resorted to cancelling my changed flight to Europe in bc , no cost to me as qantas changed a stopover on me, 20 hours in kul, no thanks. Then I spent hours finding totally different flights . Annoyingly I kept getting an error at the last step after finding perfect flights. Many Hours wasted, the non descript error was because the final leg was not available in the real world but it was on the qantas site. Qantas tried to help , use the call back option or wait 2 hours on the phone. I got the feeling they are using the same system as we are almost, but they can see real availability, not pretend. In summary, cancel, and rebook. It’s just easier but still very hard .

 

[RichardMEL]

I resorted to cancelling my changed flight to Europe in bc , no cost to me as qantas changed a stopover on me, 20 hours in kul, no thanks. Then I spent hours finding totally different flights . Annoyingly I kept getting an error at the last step after finding perfect flights. Many Hours wasted, the non descript error was because the final leg was not available in the real world but it was on the qantas site. Qantas tried to help , use the call back option or wait 2 hours on the phone. I got the feeling they are using the same system as we are almost, but they can see real availability, not pretend. In summary, cancel, and rebook. It’s just easier but still very hard .

OT but... 20h in KUL does not have to be terrible incidently. Either the hotel attached to the airport (I have stayed several times) is quite decent (not cheap mind) and enjoyable, or a quick ride into KUL itself, a hotel with late checkout, some great street food or whateever. Perhaps not your personal cup of tea, but there are worse places to stopover imo.

 

[clifford]

OT but... 20h in KUL does not have to be terrible incidently. Either the hotel attached to the airport (I have stayed several times) is quite decent (not cheap mind) and enjoyable, or a quick ride into KUL itself, a hotel with late checkout, some great street food or whateever. Perhaps not your personal cup of tea, but there are worse places to stopover imo.

But does that work in Covid times?

 

[Mattg]

But does that work in Covid times?

It wouldn't now, but Malaysia will reopen next month.

 

[ozflier]

It wouldn't now, but Malaysia will reopen next month.

I don't want to be negative but Malaysian does have a few question marks over its safety eg see most recent investigation over inadequate inspection of pressure vents.

https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2018/aair/ao-2018-053/