Public Qantas Fares Not Honoured for Booking Changes

[MelissaC]

Has anyone else run into this? I tried to change just the return leg of my international Premium Economy booking. Online, Qantas shows the exact same flight and fare for about $3,178. I originally paid around $2,000 for that leg, so I was totally willing to pay the ~$1,100 difference.vBut when I called, they quoted me over $4,000 for the same flight, same seat class — and told me the $3,178 fare is only available for new bookings, not for changes. I asked if they could manually reissue it and they flatly refused.

They’re saying it’s “Qantas fare policy” — but there’s no disclosure next to the fare online that it’s for new bookings only. That feels really off. I’m no lawyer, but surely this kind of pricing without clear disclosure is skating close to misleading under Australian Consumer Law? Just wondering if this is happening to others — and whether anyone’s ever had Qantas honour the publicly listed fare when trying to change an existing booking? I am definitely going to lodge some external complaints on this one

As a side note — when I called the Gold Frequent Flyer line and spoke to a manager, he raised his voice several times, cut me off repeatedly, and actually told me “I don’t care” when I asked why he wouldn’t escalate it. I ended up having to lodge a formal complaint for this alongside the booking issue - does not seem it is worth having status with Qantas these days

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Have you flown the outbound? Or is the ticket completely unused?

If the ticket is completely unused, what is the current return fare for your flight, including the outbound which you do not want to change?

 

[aikman]

This has been happening in some form or another for as long as I can remember. At the end of the day you are a captive customer and they know there is nothing you can do about it. I hope your complaint gets you somewhere when everyone else has failed.

 

[Berlin]

As a side note — when I called the Gold Frequent Flyer line and spoke to a manager, he raised his voice several times, cut me off repeatedly, and actually told me “I don’t care” when I asked why he wouldn’t escalate it. I ended up having to lodge a formal complaint for this alongside the booking issue - does not seem it is worth having status with Qantas these days

Surely, this was neither Hobart nor Auckland but some dodgy off shore call centre? Manila or something along those lines.

As annoying as that is: I’d put down the phone and call again.

 

[muppet]

If you post the route and dates we can probably offer more specific advice.

 

[opusman]

At a guess, if you change the return leg it forces a recalculation of the entire fare, not just that leg.

 

[offshore171]

What is the route? And was it booked as a flex fare originally?

 

[Mwenenzi]

What is the route? And was it booked as a flex fare originally?

Agreed. The e-ticket and QF web site manage booking will state list something under fares rules like "Economy Saver"
On my current QF bookings has on MMB "Travel Class Business (https://www.qantas.com/au/en/qantas-experience/travel classes/business.html) (D)"
Displaying the fare fare bucket letter seems inconsistent