Hi,
In Dec last year I made a booking for a QFF rewards flight (ADL-LHR then BCN-ADL) and am scheduled to fly in Sept. It's actually all on Emirates apart from the very last internal leg (BNE-ADL) I specifically booked the dates as a First Class seat was available for the ADL-DXB leg on the way to London. On 28/12/18 I was notified that the First Class seat had been downgraded to Business Class. Clearly there is a difference in the number of points used as well as the additional carrier charges which I had to pay using my VISA.
(As an aside, I'd saved my points for 17 years for this as a post-PhD 'holiday of a lifetime'. I'll likely never have another chance at a 1st class flight as I'm rather poor and mature-age.)
I have made four attempts to enquire about having my points refunded and am having no luck. My last straw came yesterday when I called the QFF help desk, who told me I needed to speak to Reservations and transferred me. Reservations told me I needed the QFF help desk & transferred me back. The QFF help desk again told me I needed Reservations and transferred me again. Once again Reservations told me I needed the QFF helpdesk at which point I got rather firm and said no. She promised to get them on the line & give me a callback as soon as she did, but no callback happened. From the one person in that chain who actually tried to help, it was clear he had NFI what was happening with my booking, but did verbally guarantee I'd be refunded before transferring me on. (Can't remember which step of process they were on). He sounded genuinely perplexed about my situation, so I'm hoping I'm an outlier & this isn't business as usual for QFF. It's literally the first time I've ever tried to use my points. I have since sent a fairly furious complaint via email requesting only email communication so there is a paper trail in case I have to progress thing further.
A few questions for the more experienced:
- Am I correct in assuming that both points and carrier fees should be refunded? The QFF T&C seem to state this fairly clearly to my non-lawyer reading
- Is this a breach of Australian Consumer Law, given they are currently in breach (IMHO) their own T&C and this involved a financial transaction, not just points (which I understand are a grey area in Australia)
- Has anyone else had similar experiences with any successful resolution? I'm now at over 6 months of trying for a refund with no success
- Am I likely to receive any response to my email requesting only email communication? Previously I've either been completely ignored, or just told to call the support lines
- Given there is money involved which has been charged for a service I will not receive, is it worth calling in my VISA concierge service to at least try get something back?
Clearly it's casting a fairly large shadow over my 'holiday of a lifetime'
Thanks
In Dec last year I made a booking for a QFF rewards flight (ADL-LHR then BCN-ADL) and am scheduled to fly in Sept. It's actually all on Emirates apart from the very last internal leg (BNE-ADL) I specifically booked the dates as a First Class seat was available for the ADL-DXB leg on the way to London. On 28/12/18 I was notified that the First Class seat had been downgraded to Business Class. Clearly there is a difference in the number of points used as well as the additional carrier charges which I had to pay using my VISA.
(As an aside, I'd saved my points for 17 years for this as a post-PhD 'holiday of a lifetime'. I'll likely never have another chance at a 1st class flight as I'm rather poor and mature-age.)
I have made four attempts to enquire about having my points refunded and am having no luck. My last straw came yesterday when I called the QFF help desk, who told me I needed to speak to Reservations and transferred me. Reservations told me I needed the QFF help desk & transferred me back. The QFF help desk again told me I needed Reservations and transferred me again. Once again Reservations told me I needed the QFF helpdesk at which point I got rather firm and said no. She promised to get them on the line & give me a callback as soon as she did, but no callback happened. From the one person in that chain who actually tried to help, it was clear he had NFI what was happening with my booking, but did verbally guarantee I'd be refunded before transferring me on. (Can't remember which step of process they were on). He sounded genuinely perplexed about my situation, so I'm hoping I'm an outlier & this isn't business as usual for QFF. It's literally the first time I've ever tried to use my points. I have since sent a fairly furious complaint via email requesting only email communication so there is a paper trail in case I have to progress thing further.
A few questions for the more experienced:
- Am I correct in assuming that both points and carrier fees should be refunded? The QFF T&C seem to state this fairly clearly to my non-lawyer reading
- Is this a breach of Australian Consumer Law, given they are currently in breach (IMHO) their own T&C and this involved a financial transaction, not just points (which I understand are a grey area in Australia)
- Has anyone else had similar experiences with any successful resolution? I'm now at over 6 months of trying for a refund with no success
- Am I likely to receive any response to my email requesting only email communication? Previously I've either been completely ignored, or just told to call the support lines
- Given there is money involved which has been charged for a service I will not receive, is it worth calling in my VISA concierge service to at least try get something back?
Clearly it's casting a fairly large shadow over my 'holiday of a lifetime'
Thanks