Redeem gift voucher: prices 25% higher?

[aussierob]

Hi all,

I was just looking at redeeming a $50 Qantas gift voucher for a flight (return SYD to BNE)
Depart: Friday 19 Oct 2018
Return: Monday 22 Oct 2018

When redeeming the voucher, prices for Business Class are $1100 each way
A similar search from the regular Qantas website: $880 each way.

What in the hell makes the fare 25% more expensive when redeeming a gift voucher ?!?!?!?!
($880 * 1.25 = $1100)

Is the recent Qantas website overhaul to blame?
I've never seen this before.
Perhaps its a new "pricing policy"?
Anyone know anything about this?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident. There was a thread about this here on AFF not so long ago: Gift Voucher Booking nonsense

That might be a good place to start. I didn't read back the whole four pages to see if there was a solution though!

 

[Hvr]

Is the recent Qantas website overhaul to blame?
I've never seen this before.
Perhaps its a new "pricing policy"?
Anyone know anything about this?

Read this post for how I overcame this very issue:

Bouquets for the FAs

 

[VPS]

You just need to call or webchat to Qantas and they will fix it

 

[RichardMEL]

I noticed during the brief dom J sale last week that all of a sudden the "old" (ie: voucher) booking engine was showing full J pricing on domestic flights, no matter the availability. Insane. It contined past the sale. I consider it yet anpother coughpy bug. I'm shocked QF hasn't fixed this one yet (no wait, I mean NOT shocked). Ironically though I was able to see F Sale and the like fares internationally, just seemed to affect domestic J that I could tell.

very very annoying.

 

[Mattg]

I suspect that the gift voucher booking page isn't showing availability in the lowest business fare class and is defaulting to a higher class. This used to happen with economy "E" class; not sure if it still does as I haven't checked lately. Usually you can still book using the voucher at the correct price by calling Qantas.

Do you have any screenshots of the incorrect pricing being shown?

 

[RichardMEL]

Yup, the bug is still there.

I just looked at May 4, 19 for MEL-ADL

I agree it is not showing I or D class. I have not checked if that is C or J, but it's obviously not the "lowest" Business price in the market. I've checked in MEL-OOL too

 

[Mattg]

Yup, the bug is still there.

I just looked at May 4, 19 for MEL-ADL

I agree it is not showing I or D class. I have not checked if that is C or J, but it's obviously not the "lowest" Business price in the market. I've checked in MEL-OOL too

For MEL-ADL, $771 is the D class fare, which is not showing when you try to use a voucher. The $925 fare is C class.

 

[JohnK]

Very poor that Qantas have still not fixed this glitch.

 

[kermatu]

Why fix a glitch that undoubtedly saves them some money from unsuspecting pax?

Good to know though that it can be addressed by calling.

 

[JohnK]

Why fix a glitch that undoubtedly saves them some money from unsuspecting pax?

Deception? Similar to the award pricing glitch that involves connections.

Whatever happened to integrity?

 

[RichardMEL]

I would note this particular one, in my experience anyway, only started towards the end of the most recent domestic J sale. As in I'd booked tickets at the "proper" price earlier this month. No doubt there have been other glitches in the past, specially with this old dodgy interface, but this current one is relatively new (and annoying!)

 

[dmgale1960]

I ran into this problem several years ago with gift vouchers and ave avoided them ever since.

They should be treated like any other payment type, with an option for make a part payment with a voucher and the rest with a credit or debit card, Bpay, points or whatever.

 

[attimo69]

Very poor that Qantas have still not fixed this glitch.

GLITCH? you've gotta be joking. it's deliberate. I posted about this a couple of years ago and no-one believed me. Of course they'll "fix it" if you speak with them, but they are very happy to take the extra revenue from unsuspecting punters who don't do their research. If it were indeed a glitch, they would have "fixed" it years ago. For Qantas, it's not a bug, it's a feature...

 

[Pushka]

I ran into this problem several years ago with gift vouchers and ave avoided them ever since.

They should be treated like any other payment type, with an option for make a part payment with a voucher and the rest with a credit or debit card, Bpay, points or whatever.

GLITCH? you've gotta be joking. it's deliberate. I posted about this a couple of years ago and no-one believed me. Of course they'll "fix it" if you speak with them, but they are very happy to take the extra revenue from unsuspecting punters who don't do their research. If it were indeed a glitch, they would have "fixed" it years ago. For Qantas, it's not a bug, it's a feature...

You really should see the thread referenced above .

 

[RobJ]

Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident. There was a thread about this here on AFF not so long ago: Gift Voucher Booking nonsense

That might be a good place to start. I didn't read back the whole four pages to see if there was a solution though!

It's not just gift vouchers or recent. A couple of years ago I had to get a refund for a refundablee ticket which came in the form of a voucher instead of cash. I didn't complain because I was sure to use it some time. When I tried for a super cheap deal to Noumea, it turned out that the bargain fare disappeared when I tried to use the voucher and only the normal rates remained. This is straight out dishonest.

 

[downloadingdata]

Deception? Similar to the award pricing glitch that involves connections.

Whatever happened to integrity?

Who needs integrity when you have cornered the market? As a QF elite are you really going to take a VA flight next time?

 

[Quickstatus]

It seems that a gift voucher or refund voucher redemption may book into a higher fare class for some reason (nefarious some would suggest).

I would just ring up and ask a manual rejig.

I suspect also that it may be their software issue in that many fares are not refundable but a credit voucher can be applied to the same or higher fare. Seems like gift and refund vouchers have been lumped into this same system

Not a good look for the airline. This would be very attractive to an ACCC commissioner.

 

[attimo69]

It's hilarious how everyone wants to give them the benefit of the doubt. it's deliberate. if it is a glitch, it's deliberately not been fixed.

 

[RichardMEL]

Gift Vouchers and refund, or residual, vouchers are VERY DIFFERENT beasts.

A residual or refund voucher from a cancelled booking *retains the fare conditions of the original booking* and as such a higher fare class is manditory in most cases). Along with things like "Must be of same or higher value" - these conditions are clearly spelled out when these are issued.

a GV does not have these conditions when first created.

And I want to note that personal experience has seen this "glitch" come and go. If it's deliberate it's deliberate to QF's famous slogan of "Consistently Inconsistent"(tm) because I've seen both variations of behaviour with fresh GV.

And as noted, calling and talking to a human has the problem resolved.. if it was deliberate, agents wouldn't be able to make sanity prevail IMHO.

Not benefit of the doubt, just thinking it throgh and using my own experiences.