Is QF deliberately hanging up on me? AONE ticketing dispute

[eosphoros]

I recently had an AONE4 ticket re-issued by QF and they quoted me an additional $1074.20 AUD in taxes/fees/carrier charges. This seemed to me an incorrect calculation, since I had already paid $1511.08 AUD in taxes for this ticket. (My new ticket has far fewer sectors and countries, and the only additional country (without stopover) is Singapore.) When I questioned the agent in respect of the calculation, she said that the taxes I had previously paid had been ‘absorbed’ by a previous re-issue, and that the additional $1074.20 was due to my flying out of London and Sydney. I pointed out that this made no sense, because those cities were on the itinerary as originally ticketed and therefore the taxes in respect of those ports should have already been paid. (Obviously they can increase but I doubt that there has been such an enormous increase.) I further pointed out that if these calculations were correct, it means that the total taxes and fees on my ticket came to over $2500 AUD for KIX-xHKG-LHR-xDFW-SYD-CBR-SYD-xSIN-HKG-HND-KIX. Again, I was told that it was due to London and Sydney. I didn’t have the energy nor time to argue so I notified the agent that I would deal with this later when I had time, and that since I’m travelling within 48 hours (LHR-DFW-SYD) to issue the ticket.

Today, I went through my emails made a chronology of events in respect of the ticket. I noted in my email inbox that earlier in the year when I no-showed for what would have been LGW-SKB and then SKB-JFK, I was emailed with a re-issued ticket out of JFK. This re-issue was not requested, and I suspect it is the reason why the additional tax collection is so high — I am being charged for UK APD (which I had already paid) and makes sense of the agent’s nonsensical explanation that the charge is because ‘You are now flying out of London rather than New York’.

Armed with this information and all the e-ticket numbers, I contacted QF again today. I believe I was hung up on twice. The first agent provided the same bogus explanation that ‘London is expensive to fly out of’. Well, yes, but I had already paid the APD. When I pointed this out and sought to quote the original e-ticket number, the line cut out. I called again and the second agent explained that the no show fee on the AONE4 is USD 500. I pointed out to her that it was in fact only USD 125 and that in any event, that is not reflected in the $1074.20 provided on the receipt, since QF took a total of $1244.69. She flatly asserted (again) that all no show fees are USD 500. I then stated that I have a copy of the rules and asked her to wait for a moment so I could direct her to the clause. The line immediately cut out.

A few questions for the community:
1. Are these disconnections merely a coincidence? It seems to me highly suspicious that the line (which was otherwise clear) would immediately cut out when the possibility of a dispute arose in which the agent would have to do some actual work and thinking.
2. Do the additional taxes of $1074.20 seem correctly calculated?
3. If ‘No’ to Q2, how should I best go about claiming a partial refund of the additional amount paid over?

As a side note, I find it utterly astonishing that the second agent flatly asserted that all no show fees are $500 on every single ticket. This is quite frankly complete incompetence.

My current thinking is to wait until I get back to Sydney so that I can speak during business hours to someone more senior.

 

[moa999]

I'd ask for a full breakdown of pre and post taxes. They should be able to give you individual line items.


Certainly seems high even I adding a Heathrow stopover.
I believe the highest rate of UK APD is £156 (increasing to 172 in 2019)
Rates for Air Passenger Duty

Not sure what the no-show fee is how that applies to this situation

 

[BenSQ380]

In my experience a booking change such as this is re-priced at today's prices. Even if you have less sectors the base fare difference at this point in time could be a large chunk of the additional fees. Moa999's advice to get the breakdown (of the entire fare) would be the best starting point - it's probably not just taxes. The point about the old taxes being absorbed merely means that they're just looking at the totals paid/ due before and after the change. That is, the difference in total fares is what is payable/ refundable upon change - the breakdown doesn't matter.

As to your call centre experiences:
$500 cancellation is a standard fee on cheap non-flexible tix but certainly not every single ticket. xONEx no show fee is listed as USD125.
If you lost your cool on the call (and I'm not saying that you did) then their SOP may be to hang up.

Good luck.

 

[serfty]

my experience a booking change such as this is re-priced at today's prices

This is a one world explorer fare.

The fare rules are specific - once the first segment is flown any changes should not engender a reprice of the actual fare unless changing the number of continents, and even then, such reprice is to the applicable fare at the time of original ticketing.

Only the USD125, revised +++ difference and service fee should be payable.

 

[eosphoros]

In my experience a booking change such as this is re-priced at today's prices. Even if you have less sectors the base fare difference at this point in time could be a large chunk of the additional fees. Moa999's advice to get the breakdown (of the entire fare) would be the best starting point - it's probably not just taxes. The point about the old taxes being absorbed merely means that they're just looking at the totals paid/ due before and after the change. That is, the difference in total fares is what is payable/ refundable upon change - the breakdown doesn't matter.

Serfty’s point about the rules concerning repricing is correct. In any event, no such error was made, as my re-issued e-ticket separates the base fare and taxes component, and the $1074 was only for taxes. However, I would note that one of the agents I spoke to did try to claim that the difference was a difference in the base fare.

I'd ask for a full breakdown of pre and post taxes. They should be able to give you individual line items.

This is what I did today when I finally managed to get hold of an agent that seemed to know what she was talking about. Currently on the phone on hold whilst she is taking the matter up with the ticketing department, acknowledging that it appears that I may have been charged taxes twice-over.

As to your call centre experiences:
$500 cancellation is a standard fee on cheap non-flexible tix but certainly not every single ticket. xONEx no show fee is listed as USD125.
If you lost your cool on the call (and I'm not saying that you did) then their SOP may be to hang up.

I can’t say to know what the standard no-show and/or cancellation fees are on cheap fares, but it surely must be a serious failure to make such forceful assertions when I was clearly calling in respect of a xONEx.

I would add that I never lost my cool, though no doubt the tone at the points of disconnection was always markedly less cordial than earlier.

If I may make an observation concerning QF call centres, it is not an infrequent experience to have agents very forcefully cite certain policies or rules. Sometimes this is new information for me, although the tone is nonetheless still jarring. Other times, they are in fact incorrect. One is then put in the awkward position of trying to counter this forceful tone without coming across as knowing more than the agent about their own products. I have found this to be particularly the case in respect of xONEx rules. (Previous examples include being told that I could not fly through the same city twice, and being told that I could not be booked onto codeshares.) Agents have different reactions; some acknowledge their mistake once directed to the appropriate clause; others have what I would call a ‘let’s figure this out together’ approach; but the agents I take issue with just dig in and continue to repeat themselves like a broken record until the line is suddenly disconnected.

ETA: I used to be very content with using the ‘call up and try again’ method. I am now firmly of the view that this is not good enough. For complex itineraries and tickets, each ‘call up and try again’ can take over an hour, only to result in failure. Further, I am now based in London, and the time difference means that this method only has a realistic chance of being successful during very limited hours of my day.

 

[eosphoros]

Happy to report that after two hours on the phone, a refund of $1074.20 has been processed.

Very pleased with my experience with Jackie, and I have written to QF complimenting her.

 

[opusman]

You should complain about the hang-ups, as there would presumably be a recording of the calls. Either they have something wrong with their phone system or they did indeed hang up on you, either way you'd think they'd want to know about it.

 

[moa999]

Happy to report that after two hours on the phone, a refund of $1074.20 has been processed.

Great result

 

[jetpack]

As I have also been hung up on previously I agree with your theory that they do that when the call requires them to do actual work. I get the impression that is the accepted culture at QF call centres.

 

[downgraded]

As I have also been hung up on previously I agree with your theory that they do that when the call requires them to do actual work. I get the impression that is the accepted culture at QF call centres.

That's a bit of a broad brush statement. I recently had the auto callback ring me after the indicated 20mins, Greg from Hobart took up my ticketing of an Emirates flight issue that had been unresolved for a while, suggested it wasn't probably worth hanging on hold whilst he sorted it out. Rang me back an hour or so later to confirm it was resolved and how it has been done, and then refunded an erroneous call centre booking fee that someone else had charged.

Excellent customer service in that case.

 

[dajop]

... from Hobart ...

The magic words in this particular instance?

 

[RichardMEL]

re the hang ups it's interesting I was reading the QF facebook page last night (it can be both amusing and distressing) quite a number of people reported being hung up on.. so I don't think it's personal. I think it's another QF Fail (which just pisses off people even more, specially if they've been on hold for 45 minutes waiting!). Really coughpy.

Glad to see n this case all is resolved with satisfaction(and not a hang up!)

 

[jetpack]

I've also received good service over the phone but the couple of times I've been hung up on certainly leaves a stronger and longer impression than the times I've received good service.

It might be just me but I think it is completely unacceptable to hang up on a customer unless the customer was being abusive.

 

[Daver6]

I had three calls drop out with Qantas on Wednesday morning. I thought it was because I was calling from Macau and found call generally bad from there. But perhaps they were having a genuine issue with their phone system? Twice the hangup happened while I was still on hold (or perhaps going from on hold to an operator, I wasn't sure). Third time was mid-conversation.