Qantas Frequent Flyer/Jetstar Any Seat Award Scam - 200,000 pts lost

[Jem]

I'm a Qantas Gold Member who has been happily booking award flights online, both domestic and international, for many years, always being careful to read the terms and conditions. In April I attempted to book a domestic flight operated by Jetstar but after being redirected several times from qantas.com.au to a blank page, gave up and booked QF flights costing more points. I had to change the return flight date, knowing it would incur a penalty of 5,000 points, and did so online, where the fee was confirmed.

I recently booked an award flight to Bali during July, after reviewing the options in Classic Awards and Jetstar Any Seat Awards, and took the cheapest option of an Any Seat flight at the still exorbitant rate of 142,000 points. Due to work commitments it's now impossible for me to go, but not only does the booking not appear under My Bookings when I'm logged in as a FF, but when I access it under Manage My Bookings there's no option to cancel because apparently it's a non-refundable flight.

When I checked my activity statement, I saw points had been deducted for BOTH domestic return flights back in April even though I had online confirmation that one was cancelled, and more remarkably, they're both listed as Jetstar Any Seat Awards, even though the CANCEL FLIGHT button no longer appears on such bookings. It was definitely on the booking page when I cancelled it.

What's going on here? I'm now down 200,000 points - more than enough to cover a return trip to New York, for flights I either didn't, or cannot take. The Qantas website has reassuring notices like 'We understand your plans may change so rest assured that you can cancel your flight if you need to. You can cancel flight bookings including Qantas Frequent Flyer Award bookings from or within Australia, online in no time.' Only by following several links in small print does one arrive at conditions stating otherwise, although these are ambiguous and imply that penalties do not apply to those who book online. At the same time, one is encouraged to use the online booking service to avoid incurring additional fees.

The only reason I'm not hopping mad is that losing ff points is not the same as losing hard cash, but by crikey if I treated my customers like this I'd have gone out of business years ago. Is there anything I can do to recover these points?

 

[cove]

Hello Jem,I would try up to 3 phone calls at different times. Use your finely tuned business negotiating skills and don't go on the attack.I recently discussed this with one of my sons and he is now at YES to get his points back from an Any Seat Qantas flight back from America. It has gone No,Maybe and finally Yes.

 

[ozmille]

definitely give them a buzz to talk about your options. And the above statement is very usefull... it never hurts to call again. Best of luck and I hope you get your miles back.

 

[brad330]

I had the same problem aswell. I booked any seat in J CNS-SYD-MEL-SYD-CNS at 80,000 points and had to change it and when I did it came up with only paid options not points and not only that it would only let me change to a ticket worth $820. So I rebook economy red-edeal for $800 which is wotrh 36000points. so they basically took 44,000points :evil:

 

[cove]

My son has his 159k Any Seat points back into his account for a long haul trip he had to cancel. To his credit he remained calm and persistent and negotiated a great result for himself. After each call we discussed what he should do and the important thing was he did the calls.

 

[cove]

Here is the best reverse scam.Mrscove is a WP. We book a 159,060 Any Seat in First.She gets 22,473 in points credits back and there were no fees paid.She gets 270 Status Credits to her account.It does not always go against you and sometimes the polite,nice folks who do not lose their cool can do better than others.

 

[Jem]

Thanks for the suggestion Cove. I've made one call so far and have been offered substitute flights to be taken within the next 12 months, for the same destination and traveller, providing I rebook by phone before 16 July. Not much use as the proposed Bali trip is off, not postponed, but better than nothing.

Also, points for the domestic flight I cancelled in April were refunded (my mistake) but I could get no satisfactory explanation why online cancellation was possible for that, described on my activity statement as a Qantas & Jetstar Any Seat Award, when current fare rules say this applies only to the highest grade economy fare (now called 'Max') which isn't what I booked.

Jetstar recently changed its fare types, amalgamating 4 or 5 levels into 2 and replacing those of existing bookings with what it deems to be the new equivalent. There's no record of what fare types I chose when originally making these bookings, though I recall the Bali flights being called Flexi-something. In Manage My Booking they're now described as 'Starter' fares, the Qantas leg included, though Qantas customer service today repeatedly maintained that Jetstar is a separate entity operating under different rules over which they have no jurisdiction.

Impressive that your son got his points fully refunded - what tactical changes did he made between calls? Any tips would be greatly appreciated, and my phone manner is calm and courteous, I promise you.

 

[cove]

On the second call he was told it could be refunded but that would take a while (probably 2 weeks) because there were some changes at QF.After a while nothing had happened so he tried the third call and he got the points to refund in about 3 days. I think he held his ground,remained nice but made it very clear that he wanted the points back and not a voucher.In the first refund of 144,000 Classic I started the call then handed it to my son to complete.I had it so the agent realized another customer would be very happy to get a first class ticket in school holidays. My son had no delay on this one so Classic refunds are easy with Qantas.Jet* may be different to Qantas but I have only been on one flight ever and have never tried a credit.

 

[Old Dynamite]

It is all a scam.

Tried to book a Business Class international fare to Europe. Usual impossible dates, but came up with an obscure routing to Paris. Small print revealed that only the leg London-Paris was in Business Class, with Melbourne-Singapore-London, and vice versa, in Economy - but they wanted to take all the Points anyway.

QANTAS is showing all the signs of going the way of ANSETT.

 

[nlagalle]

It is all a scam.

Tried to book a Business Class international fare to Europe. Usual impossible dates, but came up with an obscure routing to Paris. Small print revealed that only the leg London-Paris was in Business Class, with Melbourne-Singapore-London, and vice versa, in Economy - but they wanted to take all the Points anyway.

QANTAS is showing all the signs of going the way of ANSETT.

I'd say (as has been previously said before) a website bug and not deliberate. Scamming deliberately is hard to prove.

 

[gerardmahoney1]

I think that flights melb-broome and vice versa did not have a ff alllocation for august 2011,they only had business and I was tracking from the start

 

[Jem]

Cove, I think I'm stuffed because getting Classic Award points refunded is relatively straightforward compared to Any Seats which are a different animal. I was tossing up between the 2 and only opted for Any Seats because the Classic quoted 50,000 points plus almost $500 in fees and charges, which worked out at slightly more than Any Seats 142,00 points only.

Like Old Dynamite, I was caught out by the small print, now amounting to numerous links on both qantas and jetstar sites, many of which are not even working.

Yes, nlagalle, scam is probably too strong a word, but there's definitely a lack of responsibility in encouraging customers to make online bookings without providing clear, unambiguous instructions, and then refusing to reverse the inevitable mistaken bookings that result.

I too sense a certain desperation in qantas's operations of late and wouldn't be surprised if it's poised on the brink. I might try a variation of Cove's idea and offer to pay a penalty fee in dollars, pointing out they can then flog my school holidays flight to a fare paying passenger, else they'll be flying with an empty seat as I'm not obliged to cancel it and just won't show up on the day.

 

[cove]

Or Jem if all else fails go and have the break you deserve. Be brave Little Noddy said Big Ears.....you can still go??Actually the telephone contact grabbed the idea of exciting someone else with a First Class seat to LAX which was nice.I hate thinking of a seat like that not being used when so many would love to grab it.

 

[Jem]

Nice thought Cove, but unfortunately the flight wasn't for me, but my 17 year old daughter (didn't want to overcomplicate my post) who was planning to travel with a friend who had the offer of a free villa for the week. Daughter then got a new job, and now can't take time off. The ticket is not transferrable to another person or destination, the companion and villa were a one-off opportunity, and she has no idea what date during the next 12 months she might be in a position to head off to Bali - any rebooking has to be done before the original departure date of July 16. Hmmm.

On the subject of Qantas going down the tube, saw a tiny newspaper article today with an announcement from the CEO that it faces extinction, with a last ditch plan to save it due to be unveiled in August.

 

[Vinny]

Call 13 11 31. Explain the situation slowly and tell them what you expect. Then when the question of paying FF points for booking or rebooking comes up, remind them that the site is telling you one thing while hopefully the call centre op is telling you another. Best luck and let us know how you go.

 

[cove]

Keep trying but do not refer to any previous call.My son pulled some work during his University break so he could not come.Fortunately they were his points and he did finally get to Yes.I had wanted him to be QF Silver and that is why we went Any Seat to get him Seat Selection.