Using flight credits ~ the system can’t be right?

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emwagner

Junior Member
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Oct 11, 2010
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Qantas
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Hi. Had to cancel flights to Darwin when Melbourne went into lockdown. that holiday opportunity has passed but wanted to use credits to book a flight to Sydney for Xmas (fingers crossed).
Darwin flight was red eDeal cheap. $887.87 But I can’t find in anything from Qantas what fare class it actually is.

trying to book Sydney flights I cannot find a single fare on any day weeks either side (I don’t care what date or time I fly I just want to get up to family) that is less than $448 each way.

I called and they explained the fare class thing which I already knew….. but found retun flights for $ 678 total which i was ok with and asked them to book, she said yes but flight credit for remaining may take some time I said no worries please book it. They said they would call back within 30 mins to confirm the credit. but they never called back and nothing has been booked (More than 24 hours ago now)

i don’t want to pay excess when I could just book the same flights for under $300. I am moving overseas on Jan 14 so don’t want to leave them with a credit.

suggestions? How is it possible that for an $887.87 flight credit I can’t book a return flight to Sydney when the going rate is under $300? how can I accept the fare class argument when they won’t tell me what the fare class is, or why they could find something so much cheaper but it wasn’t available to me online?

Thanks if anyone is out there.

Emma
 
When you say fare class rule.. you mean the rule that you must book into the same fare class as the credit?

Your original DRW flight was a Red E-Deal - so discount economy. Are the flights you are trying to book also discount Y?
 
I just looked and there is tons of availability right up to Christmas across all fare classes MEL to SYD. Red E-Deal same week for $123 each way. Why don't you just book it directly on the website using your credit?

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I just looked and there is tons of availability right up to Christmas across all fare classes MEL to SYD. Red E-Deal same week for $123 each way. Why don't you just book it directly on the website using your credit?

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Absolutely - thats what i want to do. I first found the flights but there is no option to pay using flight credits. So i read what i'm supposed to do and went to manage my booking, clicked on the link and put in exactly the same dates and the cheapest flights came back at $448
 

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Absolutely - thats what i want to do. I first found the flights but there is no option to pay using flight credits. So i read what i'm supposed to do and went to manage my booking, clicked on the link and put in exactly the same dates and the cheapest flights came back at $448
I selected the same exact days. the far left column says red e deal. I'm stumped which is why i called them and spent over 2 hours on hold and on call... i graciously accepted the offer of $644 for return flight to Sydney which they said on phone they booked for me.. but they didn't.

I guess I call again tomorrow.

Does anyone know how many red e-deal classes there are (are there really 7 like she told me!) and how you find out? I mean if push comes to shove i'll just use the credit but it seems like a ridiculous rip off to pay this much for a red e-deal to sydney!!!
 

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Did Qantas cancel your original flight to Darwin? If so, I suspect you might be entitled to a refund rather than a credit.

If I were you, I would call up and ask if you can get a refund for the cancelled flight (Qantas tries to give everyone a credit automatically, but if they cancelled the flight you should be entitled to a refund) and then book new tickets for ~$100 each way.

Not sure if this would work, but you can only ask.

The reason you're seeing only expensive MEL-SYD fares is probably because the website is only letting you use your credit to book a fare in the same or higher fare class to what your MEL-DRW flight was booked in. (By fare class, I mean a letter like N, Q, O, S etc. which corresponds to the fare bucket - rather than red-eDeal.) Which is frustrating when Qantas doesn't actually tell you what fare class you're booking on their website.
 
Thanks, the flight was not cancelled i but if i had travelled I would have had to do two weeks quarantine and it was only a two week holiday! So I cancelled it myself in manage my booking. I don't think I'm entitled to a refund (particularly as it was a cheap fare).

I'll call again today I guess.
 
@emwagner I assume you are trying to book online using the credit AKA voucher, if this is the case the returned results will always be looking for an equal to or higher fare class. What @Mattg states in his last paragraph has also been my experience and it has been like this for years, there have been several threads on this site about the same subject. When calling QF the agent (assuming they know what they are doing) can rebook your voucher into the lower fares, over the years I have done this quite a few times. Good luck
 
@emwagner I assume you are trying to book online using the credit AKA voucher, if this is the case the returned results will always be looking for an equal to or higher fare class. What @Mattg states in his last paragraph has also been my experience and it has been like this for years, there have been several threads on this site about the same subject. When calling QF the agent (assuming they know what they are doing) can rebook your voucher into the lower fares, over the years I have done this quite a few times. Good luck
Thanks @Matt_01 - good to know its not just me. I'm also surprised they can get away with doing this - relying on fare class information that you can't see or verify seems a bit dodgy.
 
Thanks @Matt_01 - good to know its not just me. I'm also surprised they can get away with doing this - relying on fare class information that you can't see or verify seems a bit dodgy.
Personally I do not think that QF are trying to get away with anything or deliberately being dodgy, it is more likely over the years other priorities have been put ahead of addressing what is broken. They most likely got the configuration/ code wrong years ago and drafted up the rules and have never reviewed these, QF are known for their poorly worded and often confusing T&Cs. Although this site is about frequent flying I would suggest that this is all relative some may think 12 flights per annum (1 per month) is frequent, there are others who do a 100+ trips per year and if broken into sectors can be more. Most in the later category have learnt (the hard way) how to game the system and what one can book and get away with without to much effort. It is just my opinion that most QF PAX would not even think in normal times to cancel flights and convert to vouchers as the original booking conditions remain. At the moment QF is offering the fee free changes, it sounds and is a good option but presents other problems to deal with if one is not used to these. Let's face it how many actually click on the fare rules then the full T&Cs link and read them before proceeding, it is so much easier to tick the 'I confirm' box and move on.
 
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I'm not sure if I have misread your problem. Over the last 18 months I have had many QF flight credits and have been able to redeem most of them online without any hassles. The exception being if I needed to use more than one flight credit for a new booking, then dealing with the call center was required.
As a QF FF member all that's required to use a flight credit is to login to your account, go to "my bookings". Any flight credits will be listed after any current bookings you may have. Click on the credit you want to use then select your flights. If your new flight is less than your credit a new voucher for the balance will be issued. If your credit is less than the value of your new flight you can pay the difference with a credit card.
Good luck.
 
I'm not sure if I have misread your problem. Over the last 18 months I have had many QF flight credits and have been able to redeem most of them online without any hassles. The exception being if I needed to use more than one flight credit for a new booking, then dealing with the call center was required.
As a QF FF member all that's required to use a flight credit is to login to your account, go to "my bookings". Any flight credits will be listed after any current bookings you may have. Click on the credit you want to use then select your flights. If your new flight is less than your credit a new voucher for the balance will be issued. If your credit is less than the value of your new flight you can pay the difference with a credit card.
Good luck.
I can use the credits... its just that the cheapest flights it will allow me to book to Sydney cost more than the flights to Darwin! I booked the cheapest red e-deal flights I could to Darwin, but it would seem that fare class to Sydney is $448 each way.... when I can buy a return flight normally (not using credit) for less than $300 return!

My gripe is that a) how was I to know what fare class I booked to Darwin? its not available anywhere and b) how can a red e-deal of any fare class be $448 each way to Sydney? that's flex fare territory.

If I could transparently see the fare classes and understand the working I'd probably still be upset but at least be able to understand why.

Also after calling them they were able to offer a cheaper fare to use with my credit - which i couldn't book myself online. They said they had made that booking for me but nothing came through, so now I need to find a few free hours to call again!! No wonder their phone lines are busy. I too have had many many hassle free re-bookings but this is the first time its involved a non MEL-SYD flight.
 
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