Qantas staff cancelled my flight and rebooked it to a new country!

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chenny613

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Apr 2, 2018
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On 5/3/18 after waiting for 1.5hr on the phone we finally booked our flight from Sydney to HongKong, then return from taiwan to Sydney. We received our booking confirmation and hang up the phone. We immediately checked the online account and confirmed the booking is correct (just in case the lady misspelled our name or anything). After five mins I checked our booking again to enter passport details and realised our booking was gone! As in it disappeared completely. I was so confused as I saw it a moment ago.

I quickly called my husband to log in again using his laptop and to our shock we got a brand new booking ID! And to a completely different country! We were so confused as how this could of happened and we realised we were not getting our original booking back as the money taken from my credit card was more than what was quoted! I called back at 11:30 midnight to follow up and to our luck waited another hour. We were told they couldn't do anything at the moment as the flight was with Cathy pacific.

The following days we called six times with no one able to fix the booking or offer explanations. I finally got sick of it and asked to speak to a manager who told me it looks like their staff thought we wanted a return flight from Sydney to Taiwan hence she changed our flight. I told the manager if the operator was confused or unsure why not call us?! Why would you cancel someone's flight and not even tell them? I even said check the voice recording on three occasions I said sydney to Hong Kong only. I never said I wanted a return flight.

As I spent literally 10 hours try to sort out their mistake I asked to get compensation. The manager promised us valet parking as a good will gesture which we accepted. But after one months we never got the promised Parking voucher. I called today only to be told it was rejected! I was very angry as no one even bother telling us we not gonna get the compensation and instead they changed it to pitiful 2000 pts! You gotta be kidding me right! 2000 pts equals to $10 and I wasted so much time calling and now I have to call to follow up on a compensation. And thr funny thing was we got a call to confirm we wanted thr parking voucher the dat after I spoke to the manager.

I now would like ask for possible suggestions on email of senior staff as the operator on the phone couldn't help me and their contact centre is useless as well. We were lucky I rechecked the booking straight away otherwise we will get a lucky surprise when we travel!
 
Hi chenny613

Welcome to AFF - sorry it is under these circumstances. I don't have contact details, sorry, but can offer advice which is frequently given in such circumstances.

When you write to Qantas - keep it as brief as possible, and keep to the facts. Don't dress it up with emotion. Document as much as possible with dates and times. Tell them what you want - keep it reasonable. 50,000 points? Prepared to accept 30,000 ??? Up to you.

Your e-mail will probably be ignored at first and/or just get some sort of generic, reply, not addressing your complaint. Be persistent, but keep at it. Don't worry if some criticise your post as a 'rant' - most of us rant on occasion :).

Good luck!
 
Pretty amazing story.

I opine that Qantas are so into Inclusivity nowadays, that they have also gone for inclusivity of tickets.

I am pretty sure that it is unlawful for a company to charge your card for something you never ordered. I'd be mentioning that in anything you write to them.
Regards,
Renato
 
I wish I was making up stories that would mean I didn’t have to spend all that time on hold to talk to them.

I was very switched on and recorded the exact amount the lady told she was going to charge me to the cent. So when I called back I knew exactly how much they overcharged me.

Every time I called the operator on the other side just couldn’t believe what happened. Imagine my frustration having to repeat the same story again and again. I told the manager why would I make up lies as she could see my original booking was cancelled within five mins of the second booking being made. Why would I call back 11:30 midnight to change the flight back to our original booking if we requested the change ourselves.

It all shows the Qantas staff changed our booking without our consent. Even after all this they now telling us no compensation! My god if this was at my work we will def be issuing some kind of refund. Qantas is so money hungry they don’t care about their customers anymore. And the funny thing is we are even flying business.

Pretty amazing story.

I opine that Qantas are so into Inclusivity nowadays, that they have also gone for inclusivity of tickets.

I am pretty sure that it is unlawful for a company to charge your card for something you never ordered. I'd be mentioning that in anything you write to them.
Regards,
Renato
 
Thank you for your suggestion. My complaint was lodged one months ago but no one even contacted me.

When we called today we were promised someone will call back. But the operator already told us we won’t be getting more than 2000pts. I told the operator how would you feel if this happened to you. I was lucky we checked the confirmation twice as the first time it was correct. But the second time it was changed.

I can’t imagine what kind of shock we will get if
We get to the airport only to be told we are going to a new country. I also forgot to mention the new flight also meant we will miss our connecting flight from Hong Kong to China. Again lucky I checked.

Hi chenny613

Welcome to AFF - sorry it is under these circumstances. I don't have contact details, sorry, but can offer advice which is frequently given in such circumstances.

When you write to Qantas - keep it as brief as possible, and keep to the facts. Don't dress it up with emotion. Document as much as possible with dates and times. Tell them what you want - keep it reasonable. 50,000 points? Prepared to accept 30,000 ??? Up to you.

Your e-mail will probably be ignored at first and/or just get some sort of generic, reply, not addressing your complaint. Be persistent, but keep at it. Don't worry if some criticise your post as a 'rant' - most of us rant on occasion :).

Good luck!
 
This is great! Exactly what I am looking for, another agency that is not qantas. I just lodged a complaint with ACA and hopefully we will get a better outcome.

My husband want me to drop the complaint as we won’t get much compensation. But I am so upset as a 7mth pregnant customer I was made to stay up at 11:30pm waiting to get this sorted and yet they won’t even give us a valet parking. It is matter of principle and I am not being unreason about the compensation. I think even if I asked for a partial refund that won’t be considered as unreasonable but I didn’t even ask for it as I knew we will never get it.

@chenny613 Do you have emails saved, reference numbers etc.

Seems like it is time for this:

The Airline Customer Advocate (ACA)
 
It pretty much sounds like yet another stuffup with Qantas' very average call centres.

Was the staff member you spoke to in South Africa?

Yes! How did you know. I didn't realise they were from overseas until I spoke to the manager. I was so frustrated with the number of calls I made. So I asked the manager her name and where she was located so I could locate her for future calls. I understand they made a mistake but it is a very bad mistake and how the are dealing with it is just very poor.
 
This is why i prefer to book my own flights directly on the web site, rather than trusting a CSR to get the details right. Ive done many open jaw tickets myself no problems.
 
This is why i prefer to book my own flights directly on the web site, rather than trusting a CSR to get the details right. Ive done many open jaw tickets myself no problems.

I couldn't agree more. All things being equal, these relatively simple bookings (and maybe some not so simple ones) are best done online at your own pace. If there was something really complicated or something that I couldn't book online, then I would use a T/A.
 
This is great! Exactly what I am looking for, another agency that is not qantas. I just lodged a complaint with ACA and hopefully we will get a better outcome.

My husband want me to drop the complaint as we won’t get much compensation. But I am so upset as a 7mth pregnant customer I was made to stay up at 11:30pm waiting to get this sorted and yet they won’t even give us a valet parking. It is matter of principle and I am not being unreason about the compensation. I think even if I asked for a partial refund that won’t be considered as unreasonable but I didn’t even ask for it as I knew we will never get it.

That's where as someone else mentioned, keep the emotion out, stick with the facts. While you don't need the extra stress telling them you are 7 months pregnant has no relevance on the chain of errors.
 
Yes! How did you know. I didn't realise they were from overseas until I spoke to the manager. I was so frustrated with the number of calls I made. So I asked the manager her name and where she was located so I could locate her for future calls. I understand they made a mistake but it is a very bad mistake and how the are dealing with it is just very poor.

The South African call centre is absolutely hopeless. Qantas have clearly paid as little as possible and achieved the expected result.

I only call if I absolutely have to, and even then expect the worst.

It plays into qantas’ hands. They get the cheap call centre, and customers are so disillusioned with how bad their customer care department is, they don’t bother to complain. Win win.
 
The South African call centre is absolutely hopeless. Qantas have clearly paid as little as possible and achieved the expected result.

I only call if I absolutely have to, and even then expect the worst.

It plays into qantas’ hands. They get the cheap call centre, and customers are so disillusioned with how bad their customer care department is, they don’t bother to complain. Win win.

The Johannesburg call centre is there to suit that Timezone, the other call centres are Tucson, Auckland and Hobart. So if you call during Hobart hours you get them.

Matt
 
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I think this is April Fool's thing.....
It sounds like yet another stuff up like the time on 4th/5th January I called to add infant daughter to wifes international booking and on 24 February (a few hours before flight) informed by EK that infant daughter is not on booking.

I have zero confidence in Qantas to do anything.
 
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