One free change costs $99 pp

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So I made a domestic booking a few weeks ago and my understanding is that you get one free change under QF's current CV "book with confidence" policy. I just made a change (to outbound and inbound flights - on a return booking) and was charged $99 pp. Not wanting to miss out on the flights at the same price (other days had increased fares) I paid the $198 for 2 persons. So what happened to this policy - doesn't seem to be working when you make changes online.

Of course I tried to phone but wait in the call waiting queue and finally gave up - posted on FB - will see if I get a response.
 
Hey luxury-lizard,

Did your booking meet the following criteria?
  • Book any Qantas domestic Australian flight between 21 May and 27 July 2020
  • Travel between 12 June and 31 October 2020
If so, looks like QF IT strikes again. I've had success calling late in the evening / early in the morning. During the days can be hit and miss unless you're lucky enough to be offered the callback option.
 
Hey luxury-lizard,

Did your booking meet the following criteria?
  • Book any Qantas domestic Australian flight between 21 May and 27 July 2020
  • Travel between 12 June and 31 October 2020
If so, looks like QF IT strikes again. I've had success calling late in the evening / early in the morning. During the days can be hit and miss unless you're lucky enough to be offered the callback option.

Flights were booked on 17 June for travel on 6 August (SYD-CNS) - will report back if any luck getting through to QF on phone on FB.
 
So I'm reporting back on this issue - sent QF a PM via FB - I received a response today - they "have refunded the change fee" but then implied that it could take 8-10 weeks - I'm OK with that as long as it happens. Hopefully they reported the issue to their IT department or they will have an even greater backlog of requests.
 
So I'm reporting back on this issue - sent QF a PM via FB - I received a response today - they "have refunded the change fee" but then implied that it could take 8-10 weeks - I'm OK with that as long as it happens. Hopefully they reported the issue to their IT department or they will have an even greater backlog of requests.
Of course it could be a deliberate 'mistake' by Q as it helps their cash flow massively - income without any cost = FREE working capital for 2 months+ since it looks as if Q has totally run out of any assets to use as security now.

Remember it was Q who shut down points redemptions BEFORE Virgin did.
 
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Of course it could be a deliberate 'mistake' by Q as it helps their cash flow massively - income without any cost = FREE working capital for 2 months+ since it looks as if Q has totally run out of any assets to use as security now.

Remember it was Q who shut down points redemptions BEFORE Virgin did.

Well I think the admin overhead would not make keeping customers' $99 for 8 weeks would be worth it - but maybe they're hoping many won't complain.
 
Well I think the admin overhead would not make keeping customers' $99 for 8 weeks would be worth it - but maybe they're hoping many won't complain.
Not just the free working capital but also (which I did not mention before) is that generally 2/3rds or more of people don't question being charged incorrectly. Whether apathy (you can't win against XYZ), lack of knowledge or lack of time - people normally don't fight back, & those that do mostly get put off at first knock back.

In the mid 1980s a then massive Australian Insurance Company got fined for what was in its procedures manual for claims. A disgruntled employee who got wind that they were getting fired had taken home a copy of the Claims procedures manual. The worst section said that ALL claims must be rejected a minimum of 4 times before they may be processed further. There were different form letters to use for each stage rejection, and then after the 4th there were a variety of procedures to follow to further reduce claims paid. The fine by the Fed Govt was around 1/200th their previous year's profit. Yes that company made political donations to both sides of politics (& still does).

Further illustration of people not checking...

It is the same company that under-performed some of its competitors Super funds for every rolling 3 yr period from 1969 through to 1987 - when looked into it. Something that apparently no Wholesale Consultant nor Financial Planner had ever bothered to do. It became a great source of investment mandates for us after that. Nothing better than showing (only 3 fore-runners to Industry funds back then virtually all your own company run fund) mgmt & employee reps how if they'd given us the amount that XYZ had 5 yrs ago then the avg balance would have been $12,300 more etc.

For example - how many people check to see if the interest charged on their mortgage is correct?

In the late 1990s one bank had upgraded their systems with some mistakes made. One of which was double charging interest if there were 5 days a month that matched the 'repayment' day. Confused? Obviously both the programmers & quality control people were. So say you had fortnightly repayments that were due every 2nd Wednesday. If there were 5 Wednesdays in the month then the account got charged for 3 x fortnights interest which got netted off against what was really capital repayments OR added to the outstanding mortgage amount. Went on for over 3 years I think it was before someone (enough?) must have checked & complained about it. Quietly fixed with almost zero publicity.

Yet many people assume mistakes are not deliberate....
 
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