Qantas cancelled award flight. Cannot get letter for insurance purposes.

[luckyjohn888]

Can anyone give me any advice as to how to get Qantas to deal with my request in a timely manner. I booked a number of Business class award flights with Qantas last September and now 1 of the flights out of LHR has beed cancelled(as in discontined) I t was on a partner airline and Qantas stated that they could not offer any alternative and suggested I should contact my travel insurers and make a claim.The insurer, QBE said they would look at a claim but I had to provide a letter from Qantas stating that the flight had been cancelled and setting out the points I would be refunded for that portion of the booking and any fees and taxes which I had paid which would be refunded.
In the meantime I have gone searching for business class fares from LHR to SFO in July this year which I can purchase. I presume the insurer will look at the additional cost to me of buying the fares compared to what Qantas would have charged me in points and fees and refund the difference.
My problem is that I have been chasing Qantas Frequent flyers and customer care for nearly a month now and still I am waiting for a simple letter and they refuse to say when I might receive it. The request has twice in correctly been assigned back to frequent flyers who are unable to provide a letter so it keeps going back to "customer care" ( which I must say seems to be a misnomer) where the file has been re- assigned to 3 different "consultants".
Every 5 days when I phone and enquire what is happening they tell me they will assign it to another person because that consultant is not in today and they will give it priority and mutter something about 3 days or so but that never happens. Goodness knows what happens to a file that is not prioritised. They will not allow me to speak to a supervisor because they tell me they do not speak to people.
Talk about frustrating. Any ideas what I should do?? Appreciate any help. Thanks, John.

 

[muppet]

Can anyone give me any advice as to how to get Qantas to deal with my request in a timely manner. I booked a number of Business class award flights with Qantas last September and now 1 of the flights out of LHR has beed cancelled(as in discontined) I t was on a partner airline and Qantas stated that they could not offer any alternative and suggested I should contact my travel insurers and make a claim.The insurer, QBE said they would look at a claim but I had to provide a letter from Qantas stating that the flight had been cancelled and setting out the points I would be refunded for that portion of the booking and any fees and taxes which I had paid which would be refunded.
In the meantime I have gone searching for business class fares from LHR to SFO in July this year which I can purchase. I presume the insurer will look at the additional cost to me of buying the fares compared to what Qantas would have charged me in points and fees and refund the difference.
My problem is that I have been chasing Qantas Frequent flyers and customer care for nearly a month now and still I am waiting for a simple letter and they refuse to say when I might receive it. The request has twice in correctly been assigned back to frequent flyers who are unable to provide a letter so it keeps going back to "customer care" ( which I must say seems to be a misnomer) where the file has been re- assigned to 3 different "consultants".
Every 5 days when I phone and enquire what is happening they tell me they will assign it to another person because that consultant is not in today and they will give it priority and mutter something about 3 days or so but that never happens. Goodness knows what happens to a file that is not prioritised. They will not allow me to speak to a supervisor because they tell me they do not speak to people.
Talk about frustrating. Any ideas what I should do?? Appreciate any help. Thanks, John.

Sorry, I can't answer your exact query. But as it is so far away, July?, Qantas should have to offer you an alternate option if they've cancelled.
Qantas doesn't fly LHR-SFO, so what's the flight they've cancelled on you?

 

[mannej]

Something doesn't sound right - where is the flight between?
I'd imagine that they'd need to look at moving you onto an alternative

 

[ozmille]

Which OW airline has discontinued flying between LHR and SFO? Can't they just put you on a BA flight?

 

[luckyjohn888]

Sorry, I can't answer your exact query. But as it is so far away, July?, Qantas should have to offer you an alternate option if they've cancelled.
Qantas doesn't fly LHR-SFO, so what's the flight they've cancelled on you?

The flight I had booked as a Qantas award flight was LHR to Dusseldorf on BA and then Air Berlin to SFO. The Air Berlin flight is the one which has been cancelled.
THanks fro your reply. John.

 

[luckyjohn888]

Something doesn't sound right - where is the flight between?
I'd imagine that they'd need to look at moving you onto an alternative

They said no alternative. Flight was LHR to DUS on BA then DUS to SFO on Air Berlin. All business class. Thanks for your reply, John.

 

[mannej]

Mmm - could they not route you through LHR to LAX onto SFO on AA? I'd be researching alternatives and re contacting them with your suggestions

 

[luckyjohn888]

Which OW airline has discontinued flying between LHR and SFO? Can't they just put you on a BA flight?

Not sure about which ONE World partner is best but the cheapest Business class fare I could come up with to just purchase online was on Virgin Atlantic LHR-SFO direct for around $3500.
However I did find a work around and I have booked 2 First class flights on BA using my AA Advantage award points for 62500 miles( purchased for around $1200) per seat + around $500 taxes so a better deal than the Virgin business class.
Yes I would have thought that Qantas could have put me on a BA flight as Business class as well as first class was avilable through BA

 

[luckyjohn888]

Mmm - could they not route you through LHR to LAX onto SFO on AA? I'd be researching alternatives and re contacting them with your suggestions

Tried all that but no alternatives could be found on Frequent flyers site. Possible that some alternatives were avail as long as I booked direct with an alternate carrier and paid for it.
Thanks for you reply. John.

 

[mannej]

Tried all that but no alternatives could be found on Frequent flyers site. Possible that some alternatives were avail as long as I booked direct with an alternate carrier and paid for it.
Thanks for you reply. John.

Have they refunded your points?

If they haven't I'd be pushing them to get you on those alternatives

 

[luckyjohn888]

Have they refunded your points?

If they haven't I'd be pushing them to get you on those alternatives

No they have not refunded points or fees. Still cannot get an answer from them re how many points will be refunded and how much in fees. That is the point really now I have used my AA Advantage points to book 2 first class seats on BA LHR-SFO all I want is the letter from Qantas staing the facts os I can make a claim for my additional costs on my travel insurance. Thanks for your reply. John.

 

[muppet]

okay.
we need dates mate.
I can see options in Business on 4 July.
LHR-BA-JFK-AA-SFO

You need to be more creative.

BA flies LHR to JFK/ORD/LAX/MIA/DFW.

Then to connect AA in Business that reduces you to JFK/EWR. However you can go LAX/ORD/DFW/MIA if you're happy for the AA leg to be economy.

 

[muppet]

No they have not refunded points or fees. Still cannot get an answer from them re how many points will be refunded and how much in fees. That is the point really now I have used my AA Advantage points to book 2 first class seats on BA LHR-SFO all I want is the letter from Qantas staing the facts os I can make a claim for my additional costs on my travel insurance. Thanks for your reply. John.

Right. Okay then.

We seem to have missed the point. Sorry. We thought you wanted options to make it work.

Now that I understand, no travel insurance I've ever taken out will provide reimbursement of those types of expenses.

It's months away. You'll been given a refund.

The only option is Qantas I think. Sometimes insurance companies offer additional expenses when it relates to a specified event (wedding/funeral/conference etc.) but not costs due to airlines cancelling a route.

 

[luckyjohn888]

Right. Okay then.

We seem to have missed the point. Sorry. We thought you wanted options to make it work.

Now that I understand, no travel insurance I've ever taken out will provide reimbursement of those types of expenses.



It's months away. You'll been given a refund.

The only option is Qantas I think. Sometimes insurance companies offer additional expenses when it relates to a specified event (wedding/funeral/conference etc.) but not costs due to airlines cancelling a route.

I did contact my insurers and explained the situation and they said they will entertain a claim however they need the additional costs quantified therefore I need the letter from Qantas stating the flight is cancelled and they cannot offer an alternative after searching for me for some considerable time. I know the cheapest alternative business class fare I can purchase to replace the award flight I just need Qantas to actually produce aletter for me which they say they will but have not done so yet after almost a month. So how do I get some action from them as they just keep passing the file onto another consultant.Thanks for your reply but just looking for a way to get Qantas to send me that letter asap. Thanks . John.