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- Sep 20, 2018
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About a week ago, Qantas emailed me that they were changing my paid J flights for upcoming trip to DXB. I was originally booked:
QF 1555 CBR-MEL 1330-1435 (A220)
QF 37 MEL-SIN 1655-2205
QF 8353 (codeshare on EK) SIN-DXB 0030-0410
I did it this way to maximise time on QF metal to get as many DSC as I could out of this trip. Breaking the journey with a transit in SIN was not ideal, but you do what you have to, right?
So the new flights QF had booked for me were:
QF 1555 CBR-MEL 1330-1435
QF 35 MEL-SIN 1205 1705
QF 8353 SIN-DXB 0030-0410
They said my connection was affected (yes, it's pretty hard to depart from MEL before you arrive) and they would contact me soon with new flight options. I decided to look at my options while I waited for contact and found that there was only one flight that got us to MEL that Sunday in time for the new QF 35 MEL-SIN. That left CBR at 0850 and was a dash-8. That really didn't thrill me for several reasons including I don't like early morning starts - that's why I booked at 1330 flight in the first place, it did not allow for much lounge time (which is always a highlight for me) and I would prefer the comfy business class experience I paid for CBR-MEL rather than the noisy, cramped Dash-8. Plus, we now had 6 hr layover in SIN in the middle of the night instead of a streamlined 2 hr aircraft/airline change with a bit of lounge time thrown in. Arghhh.
Today, QF emailed me about the flights. Instead of giving me re-booking options as the first email said they would, it just said, hurry up, we told you there are important flight changes and you need to go to MMB and either accept changes or request a refund, ASAP. Talk about outsourcing their work. Went to MMB and the changes button was greyed out. The only available option was request refund - which I definitely did not want to do. So I knew I now had no choice but to make a phone call to sort it out.
I had a spare hour or two this afternoon, so I placed the dreaded call, waited about 15 mins to be connected to a Premium consultant and was overjoyed to get Hobart, where I was assisted by the lovely Daniel. He immediately grasped the issues of missed connection in MEL and long layover in SIN and said, would you accept a QF code share on EK out of either SYD or MEL instead, if they are available on the date, as this will give more options for getting to DXB. I said yes, but explained that I had booked this way to maximise QF metal for DSCs and he said, "oh involuntary change, just write in for ORC" (which I knew, but lovely to see it proactively addressed.)
So, the final upshot is a big win for us. We will fly to MEL on QF1559 (A220) in business, arrive at 1850, connect to QF8407 at 2230 and fly direct to DXB, arriving at 0540 after a 14 hour flight. This means no early start, good lounge time, no midnight stop in SIN and a flight duration long enough to eat, watch movies and sleep, before arriving at the much more civilised time of 0540 comparted to original 0410 arrival. There were no change fees (which of course there shouldn't have been, but I did not have to argue the toss.) And I will still get all my DSC, although I will have to request it. All up, it took about 1hr 15 on the phone to arrange all this. New ticket has landed in my inbox and I have even selected seats on teh Emirates web site, which also had the changes.
I am feeling like I had a win over Qantas on this involuntary flight change, which has not always been the case for me as I often feel like I get the pointy end of the pineapple when QF inevitably mucks around with my flights. Had I wanted to, I could also have cancelled for a full refund, with no cancellation fees which the fare class was eligible to charge - Business Saver and Business Sale.
I though I would start a thread on this as there was no real place I could find to put this tale into the forum, and I know that other people also have stories to tell about wins and losses on involuntary flight changes. I look forward to hearing how you go when it happens to you!
QF 1555 CBR-MEL 1330-1435 (A220)
QF 37 MEL-SIN 1655-2205
QF 8353 (codeshare on EK) SIN-DXB 0030-0410
I did it this way to maximise time on QF metal to get as many DSC as I could out of this trip. Breaking the journey with a transit in SIN was not ideal, but you do what you have to, right?
So the new flights QF had booked for me were:
QF 1555 CBR-MEL 1330-1435
QF 35 MEL-SIN 1205 1705
QF 8353 SIN-DXB 0030-0410
They said my connection was affected (yes, it's pretty hard to depart from MEL before you arrive) and they would contact me soon with new flight options. I decided to look at my options while I waited for contact and found that there was only one flight that got us to MEL that Sunday in time for the new QF 35 MEL-SIN. That left CBR at 0850 and was a dash-8. That really didn't thrill me for several reasons including I don't like early morning starts - that's why I booked at 1330 flight in the first place, it did not allow for much lounge time (which is always a highlight for me) and I would prefer the comfy business class experience I paid for CBR-MEL rather than the noisy, cramped Dash-8. Plus, we now had 6 hr layover in SIN in the middle of the night instead of a streamlined 2 hr aircraft/airline change with a bit of lounge time thrown in. Arghhh.
Today, QF emailed me about the flights. Instead of giving me re-booking options as the first email said they would, it just said, hurry up, we told you there are important flight changes and you need to go to MMB and either accept changes or request a refund, ASAP. Talk about outsourcing their work. Went to MMB and the changes button was greyed out. The only available option was request refund - which I definitely did not want to do. So I knew I now had no choice but to make a phone call to sort it out.
I had a spare hour or two this afternoon, so I placed the dreaded call, waited about 15 mins to be connected to a Premium consultant and was overjoyed to get Hobart, where I was assisted by the lovely Daniel. He immediately grasped the issues of missed connection in MEL and long layover in SIN and said, would you accept a QF code share on EK out of either SYD or MEL instead, if they are available on the date, as this will give more options for getting to DXB. I said yes, but explained that I had booked this way to maximise QF metal for DSCs and he said, "oh involuntary change, just write in for ORC" (which I knew, but lovely to see it proactively addressed.)
So, the final upshot is a big win for us. We will fly to MEL on QF1559 (A220) in business, arrive at 1850, connect to QF8407 at 2230 and fly direct to DXB, arriving at 0540 after a 14 hour flight. This means no early start, good lounge time, no midnight stop in SIN and a flight duration long enough to eat, watch movies and sleep, before arriving at the much more civilised time of 0540 comparted to original 0410 arrival. There were no change fees (which of course there shouldn't have been, but I did not have to argue the toss.) And I will still get all my DSC, although I will have to request it. All up, it took about 1hr 15 on the phone to arrange all this. New ticket has landed in my inbox and I have even selected seats on teh Emirates web site, which also had the changes.
I am feeling like I had a win over Qantas on this involuntary flight change, which has not always been the case for me as I often feel like I get the pointy end of the pineapple when QF inevitably mucks around with my flights. Had I wanted to, I could also have cancelled for a full refund, with no cancellation fees which the fare class was eligible to charge - Business Saver and Business Sale.
I though I would start a thread on this as there was no real place I could find to put this tale into the forum, and I know that other people also have stories to tell about wins and losses on involuntary flight changes. I look forward to hearing how you go when it happens to you!
antenna started overheating.....
