Qantas 'carrier charges' for o/s award bookings

[rdwestbury]

Tried to book Darwin Singapore return with points...

My Complaint to Qantas as below ...ridiculous really

I was trying to book a direct return flight from Darwin to Singapore out Fri 5/4/2013 back sat 13/4/2013. Fights were available at cost of 36000 points ..ok great, I try and book until the airport charges/fees come up with a cost of $479.86! Booking with Jetstar.com direct costs $355 for the same fight, the same day. Why should I stay a loyal flyer with Qantas, save up my points only to find that when I come to use them it costs me not only my points but more than booking a flight directly with Jetstar? Would you please explain how this overcharging falls in line with Qantas's customer service ethic?

 

[moa999]

its airport charges/fees AND fuel surcharges.
also why generally Economy fares on certain airlines are not good use of miles,
the charges are the same on Business/ First fares.

 

[Mwenenzi]

A question for the Airline Customer Advocate (ACA) ?

 

[rdwestbury]

thanks moa999 and Mwenenzi
What irks me is that its the same seat, same flight, same day yet costs over twice as much more. Im comparing apples with apples as all surcharges etc are included in the Jetstar fare. It just doesnt add up
I'll try ACA if i get no joy from Qantas
cheers and thanks for your response

 

[dajop]

The Qantas award on Jetstar is on the Qantas codeshare on Jetstar. Qantas charge their own fuel surcharges on any of their codes - whether operated by QF or another carrier (an exception may be within the US, not sure, but that's irrelevant here), and Jetstar don't charge fuel surcharges to people buying Jetstar coded flights. Simple as that.

What's more QF fuel surcharge, if I recall correctly, is a single rate for flights between Asia and Australia, so some doing a redemption on the 4.5 hr DRW-SIN flight (on the QF code) gets the same fuel surcharge as someone doing a redemption on the 9.5 hr SYD-NRT flight! It really is a case of buyer (or in this case redeemer) beware!

 

[yohy?!]

if you have flexibility in your dates you can book it as an Any Seat Award instead which would be 28k points + $274.22

this puts you on the JQ flight number avoiding the QF gouges, bear in mind this include 0kg checked baggage (which seems to be its own ripoff set of rates when buying in points!)

 

[eastwest101]

I feel for the original poster. There are three possible solutions:

1. Fly JQ direct ($355 price with SC costing extra with a bundle)
2. Maybe better YASA redemption rates on QF codeshare but still get JQ metal if you can change dates
3. Blow 36000FF points and $480 to redeem on QF codeshare with JQ product
4. Fly QF with connections through SYD and BNE that totally suck and require flying to Melbourne as well (price $1480+)
5. Consider changing dates to 3rd and 15th April and fly SilkAir (price around $665 but is direct)

By having to travel on Friday and Sat you will be really hard pressed to get anything reasonable or sensible out of Qantas by going via MEL/SYD/BNE. Your choice really depends on if you are trying to earn SC or simply burn off QFF points. At that redemption rate you are better off printing off your points balance and then setting fire to it....

 

[eastwest101]

this puts you on the JQ flight number avoiding the QF gouges, bear in mind this include 0kg checked baggage (which seems to be its own ripoff set of rates when buying in points!)

Very elegantly put - simply ask if the OP would they like to be gouged by Qantas fuel surcharges or by Jetstar baggage fees and bundles!

 

[dajop]

Why would the OP do anything other than buy the $350 fare? Maybe I missed the sarcasm, or the in the statement about the 28000 pt + $274. I'd suggest getting a few woolie's vouchers would be much better use of 28,000 pts in this case!

 

[ric_melb]

Regular readers of AFF know there are times you use classic awards, times you use anyseat awards, and times you buy the flight for cash.
Darwin/Singapore on Jetstar is one route you would seldom use points in my opinion. Previous posters have explained reasons why cash fares make more sense on this route.

 

[casanovawa]

Or if you can, see what other airlines are flying out of Darwin and then ring Jetstar to beat their advertised price by 10%... I am looking at an Air Asia flight from Perth to Bali for $109, but these cheapest flights leave at a pretty cough time (get up there neat midnight), i will call up Jetstar (who have flights leaving at better times) and try and get them to price beat them, only has to be leaving on the same day for Jetstar to try to beat the price, so see if Tiger or anyone else flies out of Darwin and then if the SCs and QFF poitns are important try and add a bundle to it???

 

[Must...Fly!]

You can't add a bundle to a price beat fare unfortunately.

 

[eastwest101]

Or if you can, see what other airlines are flying out of Darwin and then ring Jetstar to beat their advertised price by 10%... I am looking at an Air Asia flight from Perth to Bali for $109, but these cheapest flights leave at a pretty cough time (get up there neat midnight), i will call up Jetstar (who have flights leaving at better times) and try and get them to price beat them, only has to be leaving on the same day for Jetstar to try to beat the price, so see if Tiger or anyone else flies out of Darwin and then if the SCs and QFF poitns are important try and add a bundle to it???

Darwin is a tough one - there is essentially no competition that suits the OP at all (SilkAir being more expensive for his dates), and the redemption rates on JQ are rubbish.

The OP can't even price beat a Darwin-Bali flight as JQ have no competition on that route. If he/she can get to Bali cheaply then that opens up a lot of competition from Bali to Singapore including Indonesia AirAsia, KLM, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Mandala Airlines and Valuair.

Its pretty much a microcosm of the situation for anyone in Australia travelling overseas, if you can get out of Australia as cheaply as possible, then the competition increases and the fares decrease quite remarkably.

 

[dajop]

Darwin is a tough one - there is essentially no competition that suits the OP at all (SilkAir being more expensive for his dates), and the redemption rates on JQ are rubbish.

The OP can't even price beat a Darwin-Bali flight as JQ have no competition on that route. If he/she can get to Bali cheaply then that opens up a lot of competition from Bali to Singapore including Indonesia AirAsia, KLM, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Mandala Airlines and Valuair.

Its pretty much a microcosm of the situation for anyone in Australia travelling overseas, if you can get out of Australia as cheaply as possible, then the competition increases and the fares decrease quite remarkably.

But I don't think the OP's issue was with the Jetstar price. I don't understand this tangential discussion about price matching etc. $355 for return 4.5hr flights is IMHO, pretty reasonable, especially given around $80 of that is going straight to the government and airports. That's like a $300 return fare from SYD-PER. The OP's issue was with QF wanting to charge an extra $125 and 36,000 pts for exactly the same flights, giving the 36,000 pts a value of -0.35c per point!

 

[eastwest101]

But I don't think the OP's issue was with the Jetstar price. I don't understand this tangential discussion about price matching etc. $355 for return 4.5hr flights is IMHO, pretty reasonable, especially given around $80 of that is going straight to the government and airports. That's like a $300 return fare from SYD-PER. The OP's issue was with QF wanting to charge an extra $125 and 36,000 pts for exactly the same flights, giving the 36,000 pts a value of -0.35c per point!

Oh don't get me wrong I agree - the basic JQ fare is actually pretty reasonable. The gripe is with the QF gouging. I am not the OP but my complaint would be that you either get gouged by QF for flying JQ on code share, or you are compelled to book with JQ and then possibly get gouged by JQ if you wanted to get SC and other bundle benefits. Who knows - in this case the bundle prices may be reasonable, but as its an A320 service they can't exactly offer a Max Starclass bundle with SC and points earn to the OP.