Reconsider non-essential overseas travel - waiver of QF change fees?

[Haz]

Hi Matt_01

Did you cancel online or did you call and have the fees waived by the agent?

Yes, keen to see if you cancelled online or had to call either Qantas or an Agent to get the fees waived. We have a rewards domestic PER-MEL return in Business at end of April which I would rather keep but am looking at postpone & cancel options in advance just in case.....

 

[Matt_01]

Hi Matt_01

Did you cancel online or did you call and have the fees waived by the agent?

I called in, it was my choice, as I was playing the involuntarily change card. A change had been made 2-3 weeks earlier which I had not accepted.

 

[jbman]

Is there a clear description of what this voucher looks like in terms of value, usage and tips on how to use it around?
Do you need to use the voucher in one go or could it be used for multiple bookings or payments for award and paid tickets.

just trying to get my head around if this is a decent offer or if there are too many restrictions it might be better to take the hit and just cancel for a refund.

Not knowing when the voucher could be used for a personal booking is the concern.

thanks in advance

 

[Matt_01]

@jbman I posted something similar to this in another thread earlier today. A QF travel voucher, is the original PNR, the original booking conditions be it DSC, DP, 50% SC or any other offer available at the time of creation and the value will all remain intact. What QF is offering at the moment is for you create a voucher that will also waive change fees. In general you need to use the entire voucher as a single use and you will have to pay any fare difference. There are other ways to use them such as co-payments, you can combine up to 4 to use up the values. There are many permutations of this which I will not attempt to explain.

If you have booked any flight that will have a change fee, e.g. red-deals, any one of the international booking classes that will change you a fee to change IMO this is not a bad deal.

Below are the conditions that you have to accept, as this one was from today, the last bullet point is not normally included. Also bullet point 3, vouchers can be used for multi-city booking you just need to ring in. I am always using vouchers as my flights change, it is not a difficult concept.

 

[jbman]

Thank you

 

[p--and--t]

Looks like Qantas will do this piece by piece. But the bottom line is that their crews will all be subject to the same quarantine restrictions as the rest of us, so they won't operate any international flights from midnight onwards. They will have to cancel flights and refund us in full without fees - unless they try the Australian Consumer Law thing about unavoidable costs already incurred. And that would lose them so much goodwill...

Crews are exempt from self isolation.

 

[p--and--t]

This might give me a lot of blow back but would like to voice my opinion anyway.
I have a trip planned to the US for mid May and at this stage on the wait and see approach.
As long as the US or Australia is not put on the do not travel list i still plan to go.
My reason for this is all about probability of getting the Corona Virus and falling severely ill of it that requires medical care
I will be looking at the states i travel to and the number of cases. As long they are reasonable as it is as of today i would still choose to leave.
One of the states on my trip is Utah, Wyoming, Montana which has as of today six cases or less
There is a 1% chance to fall ill of the virus and of that another 10% chance to fall severely ill. This is almost like a lottery win and i never win
I have no travel insurance that would cover any of the Corona virus related claims.
My biggest fear is to buy into the panic of social media and mainstream media and ruin a perfectly great holiday.
keeping in mind that cancelling the trip what be a huge financial hit.
However if the US would look like Italy i most likely change my mind.
i guess the big question here is to buy into the panic or be reasonable of the statistics.
The million dollar questions.

The governor of Ohio has estimated today more than 100,000 cases in his state alone. He is obviously not sure of real figure because no testing.

 

[Deleted member 78125]

I have a question to people who have received the voucher. Did you get a credit voucher for the specific value or just for the same booking fare? I'm asking, because I have a Qantas reservation (flights on April) related to "Golden ticket" promotion and I'm wondering if I will able to change my flights to another date (same fare) without any additional fees.

 

[aggie57]

This might give me a lot of blow back but would like to voice my opinion anyway.
I have a trip planned to the US for mid May and at this stage on the wait and see approach.
As long as the US or Australia is not put on the do not travel list i still plan to go.
My reason for this is all about probability of getting the Corona Virus and falling severely ill of it that requires medical care
I will be looking at the states i travel to and the number of cases. As long they are reasonable as it is as of today i would still choose to leave.
One of the states on my trip is Utah, Wyoming, Montana which has as of today six cases or less
There is a 1% chance to fall ill of the virus and of that another 10% chance to fall severely ill. This is almost like a lottery win and i never win
I have no travel insurance that would cover any of the Corona virus related claims.
My biggest fear is to buy into the panic of social media and mainstream media and ruin a perfectly great holiday.
keeping in mind that cancelling the trip what be a huge financial hit.
However if the US would look like Italy i most likely change my mind.
i guess the big question here is to buy into the panic or be reasonable of the statistics.
The million dollar questions.

Frankly I wouldn't go. I live in the US, the place is starting to shut down and they are so disjointed in response and public health it's extremely likely to get way worse before it gets better. No, the US is not a place for a holiday in the next few months, sadly.

 

[dylarr]

I have a question to people who have received the voucher. Did you get a credit voucher for the specific value or just for the same booking fare? I'm asking, because I have a Qantas reservation (flights on April) related to "Golden ticket" promotion and I'm wondering if I will able to change my flights to another date (same fare) without any additional fees.

The credit voucher is for the value of the original booking.

When rebooking, if the same fare isn't available you need to pay fare difference.

 

[Deleted member 78125]

The credit voucher is for the value of the original booking.

When rebooking, if the same fare isn't available you need to pay fare difference.

Thank you! So in that case I will try to contact them to make changes.

 

[por930]

I have just been reading the latest advice from Qantas and I just realised that the credit starts from the booking date and not the planned flight date. As you would realise, to book an award points flight, usually takes 12 months lead time...My flight date is May 26 2020, but my booking was 29 July 2019.

This seems to say, I can get a credit...but must fly on or before July 29th 2020, If i can get award F and J points seats for BNE>SYD>TOK>DUBAI>BERLIN>LHR>DUBLIN DUBAI>BNE, would be a miracle.

Looks like the best idea is to cancel it and accept paying the cancelling fees.

 

[oz_mark]

I have just been reading the latest advice from Qantas and I just realised that the credit starts from the booking date and not the planned flight date. As you would realise, to book an award points flight, usually takes 12 months lead time...My flight date is May 26 2020, but my booking was 29 July 2019.

This seems to say, I can get a credit...but must fly on or before July 29th 2020, If i can get award F and J points seats for BNE>SYD>TOK>DUBAI>BERLIN>LHR>DUBLIN DUBAI>BNE, would be a miracle.

Looks like the best idea is to cancel it and accept paying the cancelling fees.

I have nothing to test with, but thought the flight itself could be beyond 29 July, as long as you booked by then.

 

[CaptJCool]

Award tic cancellations are discussed on page 5 of this thread

Seems consistently inconsistent ...

and some avenues suggested to get the cancellation fees waived .....

 

[CaptJCool]

I had no ability to cancel two flights online (originated as gift vouchers in Feb 2019), and they are now in credit.

Only trick is I need to phone again to book a new flight... when 2020/21 cricket season is posted....

Also no ability to cancel a return F leg from Australia to Stockholm In early June 2020 (past the current 31 May 2020 date)

but “looks like I can extend it for Upto 12 months”....

well the date changes were shown as available through to March 2021 but yet to proceed to checkout to see if it actually sticks...

 

[kgreenuq]

I'm in Dublin trying to cancel my return flights to Adelaide with Qatar, booked as a Qantas Classic rewards flight. But the "Cancel" button in "Manage your booking" is greyed-out and a pop-up says "Contact Your Qantas Office". With a five-hour-plus wait on the phone, I can't afford to do that. Is there any alternative that folks are aware of?

 

[Scr77]

I'm in Dublin trying to cancel my return flights to Adelaide with Qatar, booked as a Qantas Classic rewards flight. But the "Cancel" button in "Manage your booking" is greyed-out and a pop-up says "Contact Your Qantas Office". With a five-hour-plus wait on the phone, I can't afford to do that. Is there any alternative that folks are aware of?

Try 1800 556 135 (within Ireland)

 

[kgreenuq]

Try 1800 556 135 (within Ireland)

Ta, but I'm getting a "The number you have called is not recognised" response, both with and without the Ireland ISD.

 

[Scr77]

Ta, but I'm getting a "The number you have called is not recognised" response, both with and without the Ireland ISD.

Ok. +353 1 407 3278. From qantas site. Are you using local phone/sim ? You wont need the 353 but not sure on the 1

 

[OATEK]

Ta, but I'm getting a "The number you have called is not recognised" response, both with and without the Ireland ISD.

I think I posted this earlier: Flight booking contact numbers | Qantas