Is "Fare Difference" fair?

[albatross710]

Generally my business travel is planned well in advance and I'm happy to lock in my itin 3 months in advance. This year I have found myself having to change a few bookings and making some international bookings 1-2 weeks prior to travel.

Obviously changes need to be made in accordance with the fare rules. A couple of small things that I discovered this year:

a) A fare of equal or higher value. I came unstuck on this one when I used a $770 fare credit that I had from a cancelled 2016 domestic flight. I proposed to use this credit towards a one way $773 international fare that I wanted to use the credit towards. There was some complication easily explainable in the detail that related to the original fare having a GST component and my new fare being GST free. Fair enough. The small difference which prevented me using it meant that I needed to get an international fare for a further $100 increase. I accept that the airlines recognise the "fare" as being the excluding GST amount. My confusion is that the voucher is issued for the full amount inc GST ie the amount I am out of pocket. I still got the $770 value but it was restricted as to the fares that I could apply it.

b) Change fee plus Fare Difference. We are all used to accepting that if we purchased a discounted ticket a few months go and then change at the last minute that we pay the difference to the higher fare. As I boarded my new flight and noticing that the flight was full I was wondering did the airline resell my old seat at the original discounted price or at the current much higher price? It seems both halves of the fare recalculation work in the airlines' favour.

The other consideration regarding the Change Fee is that it has no relationship to time. So making a change to a flight 8 months in advance might cost $225 as does the cost if I make the change 1 day before my schedule flight.

In making current future bookings I've been looking at the more flexible fares. My other calculation is that fare difference is still greater than the change fee difference so I have still been taking the lower fare with a acceptance of paying the change fee if I have to.

The end result is that I am leaving it later until I make my bookings when my travel plans are more certain.

My question is ...are the "fare Difference" rules fair?

Alby

 

[Assassin]

A couple of observations:

1. The credit is for the full value because you have not paid GST. Qantas is obliged to pay GST on the fare and you just pay a price which is inclusive of the GST that Qantas will need to pay. How that translates from the perspective of a fare of equal or higher value, I am not sure. I think (but am by no means an expert) that when you apply your credit to an international flights, the GST which Qantas paid on the original domestic fare would become creditable to them. Therefore, it would seem on this logic, that you should have been able to apply the $770 credit against the $773 international fare.

2. On the change fee plus fare difference, the airline may not have been able to re-sell your seat at all. So while they had the opportunity to re-sell, they might not have succeeded.