Urgent payment to Qantas booking due to their change from SIN to DXB

[michrow]

Hi, This is my first post but I have been learning lots of new stuff from these boards in the past few weeks which has been great. But now I have a bit of a dilemma.

Me and my boyfriend are planning a round the world trip starting in August this year, lasting for 12 months. We have been given a quote of $2640 per person to fly Brisbane - Los Angeles - New York - London - Singapore - Brisbane (dummy dates for all legs beyond New York as they are unable to book, but we get a free date change).

We got the quote on Monday but now have been told that unless we pay tomorrow morning we will loose the quoted price as Qantas will no longer be flying via Singapore from Europe. Has anyone else had this experience?? I looked up the Qantas website which clearly states they will still fly to Singapore, but with an amended timetable.

I don't know whether I should just pay tomorrow, or wait. I was going to try and get a new credit card to take advantage of Qantas FF points for the purchase.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[nlagalle]

Hi, This is my first post but I have been learning lots of new stuff from these boards in the past few weeks which has been great. But now I have a bit of a dilemma.

Me and my boyfriend are planning a round the world trip starting in August this year, lasting for 12 months. We have been given a quote of $2640 per person to fly Brisbane - Los Angeles - New York - London - Singapore - Brisbane (dummy dates for all legs beyond New York as they are unable to book, but we get a free date change).


We got the quote on Monday but now have been told that unless we pay tomorrow morning we will loose the quoted price as Qantas will no longer be flying via Singapore from Europe. Has anyone else had this experience?? I looked up the Qantas website which clearly states they will still fly to Singapore, but with an amended timetable.

I don't know whether I should just pay tomorrow, or wait. I was going to try and get a new credit card to take advantage of Qantas FF points for the purchase.

Thanks so much for your help!

Welcome to AFF.. From April Qantas won't fly London-Singapore anymore, so it would be on BA most likely..

 

[moa999]

Subject to final ACCC approval.
Qantas will fly Aus-Singapore but not Singapore-London. London flights will go Aus-Dubai-London.

Without knowing more about the ticket (and airlines involved) can't add more advice.

Does appear that Qantas is loading new routes (on Emirates) at present
Qantas taking bookings on Emirates flights as part of new partnership | News.com.au

 

[ftm]

Today, tomorrow, next week, or last month - Qantas hasn't had flights in the system for quite some time between London and Singapore post Dubai launch.

I doubt it is that the flights won't exist after tomorrow. Maybe the fare won't be, but the flights aren't going to miraculously change.

 

[nlagalle]

Subject to final ACCC approval.

Regardless of the decision, Qantas have already said they will move from Singapore to Dubai. The fact they have no been given interim approval means it's pretty much going to happen..

 

[michrow]

Thanks for the quick reply.

The flights I have been quoted on are:

Bris - LAX Qantas QF15

LAX - JFK Qantas QF107

JFK - London Heathrow British Airways BA112

London - Singapore QF3346

Singapore - Brisbane QF52


I guess I'd assume the last two would just be replaced with BA flights? Is that likely? I'm a very nervous flyer so I usually like to know all the details as early as I can.

 

[tuapekastar]

Welcome to AFF. I don't know the fare rules for your trip, but it seems a pretty good price at the moment. It is correct that while QF will still fly to SIN, it will only be from Australia, and not from Europe (subject to final ACCC approval which I think is pretty much a given). So I guess if you snaffle the current fare, then when the change is made you would be put onto someone like BA for the LHR-SIN flight, at no extra charge.

I've never liked any 'pressure' tactic (regardless of whether they are genuine or not), and my own inclination would be to wait, or at least ask the TA (you're using one?) what the alternative is. The decision is down to you, but I would have thought the TA could tell you what the alternatives (routing, cost) were to assist you with the decision.

 

[ftm]

The London to Singapore is already on a BA aircraft, just a QF code share.

I hadn't heard QF were dropping the code share on this route, so it is strange what you have been told. Even if it is correct, if you issue the tickets tomorrow and QF do in fact remove the code share, the ticket will need to be reissued.

This wouldn't be a Flight Centre would it? Sounds like a furfy.

 

[tuapekastar]

Thanks for the quick reply.

The flights I have been quoted on are:

Bris - LAX Qantas QF15

LAX - JFK Qantas QF107

JFK - London Heathrow British Airways BA112

London - Singapore QF3346

Singapore - Brisbane QF52


I guess I'd assume the last two would just be replaced with BA flights? Is that likely? I'm a very nervous flyer so I usually like to know all the details as early as I can.

QF3346 is a codeshare flight that is already on BA metal, so will be valid. I think it still boil down to what price you will get after tomorrow. Singapore to Brisbane will remain as QF52, no impact.

 

[michrow]

Yeah it is a Flight Centre travel agent. She has really been vocal about how they are a massive Qantas customer, and they always get good deals. Its a lot of money for me to spend though, I'm not a fan of how much pressure I'm suddenly under to spend $5k.

I might have to have a longer talk with her tomorrow about what all the options are.

Really appreciate everyone's quick replies! This will be my first time going further than NZ or Thailand and its quite a lot to take in.

 

[ftm]

If you booked it Monday, then what I reckon is that the ticketing time limit is tomorrow. You can likely rebook to extend it.

The "flight being removed" line is just trying to get you to commit.

 

[Jleno]

Only a couple of days ago I asked Flight Centre to quote a SYD-US (with a couple of connections in between) flight, while at the same time searching the QF and US domestic airlines' website. They were able to find the same flights as the ones I saw while booking separately on the airlines' website, but no lower (for me, beating my price by $1 doesn't count). But they do end up more expensive because they charge you one AUD price for the US flights (which I could get a smidgen cheaper through using my 28 degrees credit card). Plus, they also said I needed to pay the same day, with the options either debit card or cash or else incur credit card charges.

What I do know is that those same category of cheap fares were running low on the QANTAS website (and when it's gone, you'll literally cry cos it's immediately a couple of hundred more for no added value), so I can understand if flight centre need to lock it in that day for that reason. There's been a couple of times where I've literally lost the cheap fares are a refresh within 10 minutes, found the fare gone on the QANTAS website, and called flight centre who were also unable to get that lost cheaper fare. So I'm now convinced that flight centre will never be able to get a better fare than what you can find on the Qantas website.

Anyway, even if you missed the low fare, it's not a totally lost cause. Much to my dismay, after I booked on the QANTAS website, I found the low fare re-released again the next day. By then my BPay had already gone through and there was no way to cancel. That didn't happen over Christmas/NY and I ended up paying more after waiting and booking later, and for my upcoming Feb trip, I also lost out by locking the flight in after losing the low fare to find it re-appear again later. It's all luck of the draw.

 

[medhead]

QF6 from Frankfurt to Singapore will still be available until October. Might be an option.

 

[michrow]

Hmmm the Frankfurt option might have been ok, but we will be leaving Europe in August 2014, so I don't think there will be any QF flights out of Europe to Singapore by that time. Thanks anyway though

 

[ftm]

Same day ticketing is common for US carriers.

The exchange rate is set once a week by IATA, and applied to all fares generically, regardless of agwncy or airline. So if there are significant movements in a particular currency within that week, then differences can arise.

The benefit of an agent over the QF site is they can grab that last seat and hold it without paying, typically for 3 days on the cheap fares. If the passenger then decides they no longer want that seat, it goes back into the pool and is one possible reason why one day you can't see the cheapie and the next day you can.

 

[michrow]

Ok that all sounds quite fair. It the cheapest quote by a few hundred dollars out of the 4 that we have had.

Getting slightly off the original topic... British Airways is still a decent carrier isn't it? I've had no experience with them. I'm still freaked out about being over the pacific for such a long period of time.

 

[Jleno]

The benefit of an agent over the QF site is they can grab that last seat and hold it without paying, typically for 3 days on the cheap fares. If the passenger then decides they no longer want that seat, it goes back into the pool and is one possible reason why one day you can't see the cheapie and the next day you can.

I would love to know whether that is how the Flight Centre hold system works vis a vis the QF booking site. i.e, if they hold a seat, and then cancel, the seat only goes back overnight and shows up on Qantas' booking system again at their refresh time. I also wonder how genuine the "Hurry" messages that you see on certain QF fares are, or whether it's just a marketing ploy to get people to lock in their bookings, and then for them to release more seats at that low price.

 

[JohnK]

Welcome to AFF michrow!

Getting slightly off the original topic... British Airways is still a decent carrier isn't it? I've had no experience with them. I'm still freaked out about being over the pacific for such a long period of time.

British Airways is a more than adequate carrier.

And yes it is a long time over the Pacific. When you look at the time and 7 hours have passed and you are really tired just think that you are at least half way. If you can sleep it is OK.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I had a quick look at the Jetabroad website & broke the journey into SYD/SFO/LHR/ORD/SYD for example & it came up with the airfare AUD996.73 taxes $812.18 total fare AUD1,808.91 return pp.

I would check the rules but generally if the destination is Europe your ticket validity would be 12 months & they usually allow 2 stopovers in the US in both directions plus your destination of course.

Keep in mind when booking through Flight Centre is that even if the airline permits date changes free of charge, FC will most certainly charge you a change fee. Even if you try & change direct with the airline they may refer you back to the travel agent to make changes if the booking was originally made by a TA.

The only thing with the above itinerary is you wouldn't get SIN into your itin.

Definitely join the UA Mileage Plus program to earn frequent flyer points. One feature a lot of US carriers have when booking direct on the airline website once you've signed in with your frequent flyer profile, is to pay a small fee to use a 'mileage multiplier' where you can often double or triple your miles.

I have only used it on US Air within the US & received triple miles by paying another $9.00 but that was for a short sector so you'd be charged more on an Aust/UK itinerary if they offered it.

Personally I would not feel comfortable being railroaded into making a rash decision & paying tomorrow as you've got plenty of time to shop around for cheaper ways of getting there. Other options could be to look at airfares ex NZ & just pay a sector fare to AKL to pick up the AKL/Europe ticket.

Some people find that buying two tickets eg a sale fare Aust/SIN/Aust (you would need one valid 12 months though) then a separate ticket SIN/Europe/SIN could end up being less than a through airfare Aust/UK/Aust. [TABLE="class: pricePointRowTable"]
[TR]
[TD="class: pricePointPriceContainer"]
[TABLE="class: airfareTaxesAndFeesTable"]
[TR]
[TD]Fare
[/TD]
[TD="class: priceCell baseFare"] $996.73
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[TABLE="class: airfareTaxesAndFeesTable"]
[TR]
[TD] Tax
[/TD]
[TD="class: priceCell"] $812.18
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Total AUD $1,808.91
Final Price
[/TD]
[TD="class: pricePointFlightSummaryFirstCell"]


United Airlines

[TABLE="class: legSummaryTable"]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="class: eTicketableDescription, colspan: 2"][/TD]
[TD="class: travelTimeHeader"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: departureDateCell"] 22 Aug
[/TD]
[TD="class: flightLeg"] from Sydney, NSW (SYD) to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) via Los Angeles
[/TD]
[TD="class: flightTimes"] 2 flights at 1:50 PM
[/TD]
[TD="class: flightTravelTimes"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: departureDateCell"] 24 Sep
[/TD]
[TD="class: flightLeg"] from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to London HEATHROW Airport, United Kingdom (LHR)
[/TD]
[TD="class: flightTimes"] 4 flights at 1:00 PM, 7:40 PM
[/TD]
[TD="class: flightTravelTimes"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: departureDateCell"] 29 Oct
[/TD]
[TD="class: flightLeg"] from London HEATHROW Airport, United Kingdom (LHR) to Chicago -O´Hare International Airport, United States (ORD)
[/TD]
[TD="class: flightTimes"] 6 flights at 9:05 AM, 11:05 AM
[/TD]
[TD="class: flightTravelTimes"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: departureDateCell"] 03 Nov
[/TD]
[TD="class: flightLeg"] from Chicago -O´Hare International Airport, United States (ORD) to Sydney, NSW (SYD) via Los Angeles
[/TD]
[TD="class: flightTimes"] 4 flights at 6:30 PM, 7:00 PM
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[Sprucegoose]

Ok that all sounds quite fair. It the cheapest quote by a few hundred dollars out of the 4 that we have had.

Getting slightly off the original topic... British Airways is still a decent carrier isn't it? I've had no experience with them. I'm still freaked out about being over the pacific for such a long period of time.

why the Pacific and not any other ocean or land?