Teenagers!!? Changing One World Reward (RTW) travel plans.

[MikeG]

As some of you might know, alot of blood, sweat and tears (mostly tears) were spent booking RTW tickets for our family to go to the states to visit our 19yo son at college - I provided him with the itinerary when we were done, and nearly a month later he tells us he is coming home for Summer break (so he will be in Oz from May-July, while we are booked to be there from June-July). FFS! He wants to come home to earn some money (his visa precludes working in the USA), meet up with friends (which I imagine means playing video games over the net with them) and avoiding the situation where the dorms are closed for the summer break. (I haven't told him he probably wont make much more than his airfare in wages if he comes home) - I guess I could spring for the airfares as reward flights with my spare FF points. I have offered to give him some money rather than come home, but I dont think thats the main driver.

Realistically, I can rebook our RTW flights from Christmas 2020 to visit him then (in the USA Winter, which kinda appeals to me in some ways) or as he suggested, we could just juggle our holiday to avoid Kansas ("Its not worth it" - his words). Either way it means dealing with the horrid Qantas callcentre and probably organising the flights again with Award Flight Assist.

I'm open to ideas. Constraints are it needs to be during ACT School holidays as we have kids in year 9 and year 12 next year and they cannot afford wholesale time away from school (especially for the elder of the two).

M

 

[docjames]

Argh painful.

There would be a tipping point where any costs in $$ and time and PITA associated with changing would be less than giving your 19yo the $$ he would have earnt back in Oz.....

 

[MikeG]

Argh painful.

There would be a tipping point where any costs in $$ and time and PITA associated with changing would be less than giving your 19yo the $$ he would have earnt back in Oz.....

Yeah already tried that avenue - its not really about the money - I think hes just homesick and/or sick of Americans.

Might try and counteroffer $$$ plus return flights at Christmas time.

I dare say just to move the flights, accommodation, car rental, etc will cost us more than $1000 in cancellation fees / rebooking losses plus my time is worth something, especially if I have to call Qantas "Customer Service"...

 

[levelnine]

Unfortunately complex RTW itineraries are not really meant for people with significant scheduling encumbrances such as unpredictable teenagers.

If these flights are in economy, I would be happier to rebook for Christmas. Finding business availability for 4(?) people over Christmas to North America will be akin to winning the lotto.

 

[MikeG]

Unfortunately complex RTW itineraries are not really meant for people with significant scheduling encumbrances such as unpredictable teenagers.

If these flights are in economy, I would be happier to rebook for Christmas. Finding business availability for 4(?) people over Christmas to North America will be akin to winning the lotto.

Yeah it’s 2-business + 2-economy so we are just going to adjust our bookings slightly and go in june.