Just an update to this thread for any watchful eyes in the future. So after waiting our 14 business days supposed refunds from march, i rang on 22/04 the telephone centre and found out that no refund was coming my way as the previous call centre staff did not tell me i had to lodge a form with customer care , before authorisation is given and the telephone call centres could refund our taxes and surcharges and any relevant compensation for our lost segment on the one world award flight!
How frustrating. Not to mention how frustrating it was to get to the day of our flight (23/03) and finally have to cancel as wecouldn't get ahold of them earlier for other 'options' or to reroute the flight to later in the year.
I lodged the customer care form and got a call on Monday 27/4. So the lady basically reiterated the whole aspect of no compensation for either our points lost (in not taking the flight) or the fact we forked out $3k for an economy to get home, and the refund would be $90 in taxes per person (for Zurich-Doha-Perth on business?!) Was not happy but accepted that t & cs are that one world award flights like others, once started a segment you are pretty much screwed (Please note going forward) - you can only change your date of your flight. Carrier , and class must remain constant. I think it is stupid to be honest that you can't change from a business flight to even a economy seat on even the same airline, same flight, and vice versa.
Regardless, I know now how rigid the program is. Great when it works. Terrible if things go pear shaped. The $90 in taxes i vehemently requested it be looked at. Was told it's system calculated/generated. That's it. I told them my previous experience where i was quoted to pay $400 more in taxes per person to change from perth to tokyo via HK to via singapore (different airlines). When i queried the logic of that it was eventually changed to a refund of $160 something PP, so i saved a net $500+ per person! Ridiculous! Based off that i had no trust in their 'calculations', an d$90 per person in taxes on a business class flight (Zurich - Doha - Perth) - surely not! Anyhow, i accepted it. Then spoke to the mrs who complained to me on the resolution: no alternative flights were given to change to as we were alway stold they were 'too busy, we'll get back to you".
So back I went with ANOTHER customer care complaint.I mentioned the difficulty and unjust nature of how we couldn't even change an alternative flight as we weren't given one, nor could we contact them. And that taxes SURELY must be wrong. Logically checking Qatars website i got taxes of $500 on just Zurich to Doha on business. Lo and behold, i got alovely lady - Amy from the Hobart office (Qantas if you are reading this she is a great example of a staff who is knowledgeable and well versed in customer service! As she clearly calculated/looked into our case - to be detailed shortly). But essentially she dug through policies issued by qantas throughout all the times of our calls/cancellations to see if we were covered by anything. WHICH the previous lady and persons had not even located it appears (or so Amy mentioned as she found one) , that backed up that indeed we could get a partial refund of points on unused portions as at that time per a Qantas announcement on policy at the time prior to our cancellation. So we got a small 40k points back from our 280k one world ticket, as due per the system AND she calculated the correct method of taxes back. We ended up getting $467 taxes back PER PERSON - not $90per the first lady.
Good on her for knowing how to calculate the taxes properly, and also looking up the correct policies. It just goes to show that these things are prone to human error, and ALWAYS QUERY. Ridiculous that had i not complained a second time i would have not only not gotten my 40k points, but more importantly they would have refunded my $90 of my taxes and not $467 PER PERSON. For a couple like us that's nearly $900 in money we get back, and that we actually are due back.
She herself mentioned that one world itineraries can be mispriced and misevaluated at times by staff lacking the proper training to calculate. In this case the system method is total taxes paid less taxes used on flights i took. The end result is the $467 back. Which is simple maths. God knows how the previous lady got $90. The fact she didn't check policies and dig into our case to find we were owed the points on unused flights is also concerning.
The TL: DR point is with everything these days - and i've found this true from financial products to other things: dont be afraid to question, question and complain (in a civilised way of course). So many times I've been nearly shortchanged or gotten less than what was owed. Most persons i.e. my parents, wife, would have taken the refund at face value. It's ridiculous to imagine how many other unsuspecting travellers on multi segments or one world award flights have had mispriced refunds or the like. Single flight itineraries are probably more simple, but anything complex: QUESTION, and Question again!
Sorry this is a long "update" but hopefully it helps other oneworld award persons who experience similar issues once we return to flying. The first instance when i was going to be charged $400 in taxes per person rather than refunded $160 was mid feb, so they weren't busy with covid work at that stage as much, so certainly seems reflective of the error prone methods of the humans behind the scene.
On another note the refund process is now no longer 14 days from when i first started this in March. It is now 8 to 10 weeks! Jeezus! Glad i'm getting a refund now, but what a joke that at no fault of my own (lack of training staff knowledge) that i am due to get this in June, or July?
