Typical waiting times for price promise?

[bobcat]

Hi guys,

Booked an international flight about a week ago and submitted a price match.
Needless to say their '3 business days' suggestion has long passed ... any ideas how long this typically actually takes? I don't have any status with them so would prefer avoiding the call centre if I can.

Cheers
BC

 

[serfty]

Did you get any resolution on this one?

 

[bobcat]

2 emails and still nothing ... I expect better from any full-service airline.
Are they notoriously bad for price promise? Funnily enough I booked a domestic JQ price match flight on phone today and it took all of about 2 mins, operator was outstandingly efficient and pleasant

Will confront the call centre tomorrow

 

[markis10]

I never got a response after a few days for a price promise on rental cars, so I cancelled and booked the alternative.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

my friends booked a flight, they had some problems with one booking of a two person booking (not their fault) and required assistance from the call centre. a few hours later the qf fare reduced and they rang to get the price match guarantee.

there were multiple emails back and forth, ended up that any ticket booked via call centre they weren't going to price match. they then tried to price match the booking entirely made on line but qantas came back with 'you had to do to within 24 hours'. they explained they had submitted a price guarantee on both tickets within 24 hours, but one was ineligible so the other should stand.

qf wasn't having a bar of it.

my friends were not experienced flyers and gave up after three days of trying. I would not have as I believe they were within rights.

seems like QF was going out of their way not to be helpful

(contrast with JQ where they couldn't have been MORE helpful with a price match, even on a $4 fare!!! some of the best customer service I have ever had as a non-status customer)

i would follow up any price match immediately, lest they come back with a '24 hour' excuse.

 

[ferdeline]

The Price Promise is a total scam. I submitted a claim on 17 December 2013 and, like others have noted, 3 business days passed and Qantas still didn't action it. After complaining on Twitter on December 27th, I got sent an email from Qantas denying my claim on the basis that the fare was quoted below cost by Expedia. I don't see how that's my problem? If Expedia wants to sell a fare below cost, why can't they? There is nothing in the terms and conditions prohibiting this? Of course, the "Price Promise" team has no contact name or phone number, so I'm disputing this assessment over emails that aren't being responded to. It's disappointing: the only reason I booked through Qantas directly was because I had a gift voucher to use (I purchased it last December back when Qantas flew direct from Perth to Hong Kong; shortly after buying the voucher, this route was discontinued, rendering the voucher of little use to me). It's nearly impossible to find a flight that satisfies the criterion for the Price Promise given that they only match identical Qantas flight numbers, but I found one that was $350 cheaper on Expedia, and fighting to get this acknowledged is proving a real hassle. I'm not happy. All I can say is that if Qantas is struggling, I hope the first team made redundant is the Price Promise team: they don't do anything as it is.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The Price Promise is a total scam. I submitted a claim on 17 December 2013 and, like others have noted, 3 business days passed and Qantas still didn't action it. After complaining on Twitter on December 27th, I got sent an email from Qantas denying my claim on the basis that the fare was quoted below cost by Expedia. I don't see how that's my problem? If Expedia wants to sell a fare below cost, why can't they? There is nothing in the terms and conditions prohibiting this? Of course, the "Price Promise" team has no contact name or phone number, so I'm disputing this assessment over emails that aren't being responded to. It's disappointing: the only reason I booked through Qantas directly was because I had a gift voucher to use (I purchased it last December back when Qantas flew direct from Perth to Hong Kong; shortly after buying the voucher, this route was discontinued, rendering the voucher of little use to me). It's nearly impossible to find a flight that satisfies the criterion for the Price Promise given that they only match identical Qantas flight numbers, but I found one that was $350 cheaper on Expedia, and fighting to get this acknowledged is proving a real hassle. I'm not happy. All I can say is that if Qantas is struggling, I hope the first team made redundant is the Price Promise team: they don't do anything as it is.

they only seem to have one exclusion which might be relevant:

• Prices that are lower as a result of an error by the retailer.

If the price of the flight displayed by expedia.com.au was not an error by the retailer then I don't see any other valid exclusion.

You can take up your issue with the Airline Customer Advocate. It's their job to sort out issues like this. It's a free service. (but note that they are funded by the airlines.)

link to the Qantas price guarantee: Transfers Price Promise | Qantas

link to the Airline Constomer Advocate: Home

If you think you are within the terms of the price guarantee I'd pursue it. If the Airline Consumer Advocate doesn't help, contact your local consumer affairs office in your state. I don't know if it is the same in all states, but in Victoria at least you can do it all over the phone. Again, a free service.

 

[bobcat]

Many thanks for all your responses. Strange that they've gone half way with this ... surely you either do a good job (eg JQ) and market it well or just don't have the policy.

In my case ... as it turns out they told me the claim was approved straight away without issue, except there was no correspondence from QF on the matter and no credit added to the CC (it's not clear why). The amount is being 'processed', so time to kickoff another waiting game.

 

[ferdeline]

Thanks for your advice, MEL_Traveller.

I will escalate my complaint to the Airline Customer Advocate tomorrow morning.

Last Friday, Qantas offered a refund (they offered to cancel the entire booking and to refund it as a gift voucher with 1 month validity), but I responded, saying I would rather it be refunded to the credit card I used to make the original booking if they are not prepared to honour their price 'promise'. Alternatively, I will accept the refund as a gift voucher with 6 months of validity, as I do not consider 1 month of validity to be a reasonable period of time within which I could redeem it. I haven't heard back since I responded, so I'm going to have to escalate this matter further.

 

[davidj]

Hi guys,

Booked an international flight about a week ago and submitted a price match.
Needless to say their '3 business days' suggestion has long passed ...

Cheers
BC

And it will keep passing and passing.

I did a price promise about 2 months ago on a car rental, after about 3 weeks nothing. The follow up emails were so painful, and the result was they actually screwed my other car bookings and all the prices went up!

So many problems NOT worth the effort and time. The "3 business days" turnaround is a total joke. Sorry to be blunt

 

[QF2220]

Price promise is almost fraudulent IMO. I was researching a flight and called up the call centre to work out if the fare i could see on flightcentre.com was valid. He told me unconditionally that it was and that i should take a screen shot of the fare i could see then and submit that as my claim. I took the screen shot, made the booking and filed the claim. Come response time, QF Price Promise team said no on the basis that the screenshot of a fare needed to be from after the booking was made, even though they admitted that the advice given by the call centre was wrong (ie they were at fault). To no avail, I pushed the ACCC line however ACCC doesnt have jurisdiction over this.

MY ADVICE, DO NOT RELY ON PRICE PROMISE, QF WILL DO ALL IT CAN TO SQUIRM ITS WAY OUT OF IT.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Price promise is almost fraudulent IMO. I was researching a flight and called up the call centre to work out if the fare i could see on flightcentre.com was valid. He told me unconditionally that it was and that i should take a screen shot of the fare i could see then and submit that as my claim. I took the screen shot, made the booking and filed the claim. Come response time, QF Price Promise team said no on the basis that the screenshot of a fare needed to be from after the booking was made, even though they admitted that the advice given by the call centre was wrong (ie they were at fault). To no avail, I pushed the ACCC line however ACCC doesnt have jurisdiction over this.

MY ADVICE, DO NOT RELY ON PRICE PROMISE, QF WILL DO ALL IT CAN TO SQUIRM ITS WAY OUT OF IT.

you can try with your local consumer affairs office in your state. see if they can assist.

Calls to QF should be recorded and they may be able to retrieve the call where you were given the advice.

Another friend of mine found an identical qantas fare for $30 cheaper on via an online agent that didn't charge credit card fees. Guess what? Credit card fees are excluded from the price guarantee. Within the 'rules'? sure. but the idea behind the price promise is that you don't shop elsewhere. lesson learned and unhappy customer now advises everyone to shop elsewhere.