Qantas Raises Domestic Change & Cancellation Fees (Again)

6 July, 2026 Written by Matt Graham

Qantas Boeing 737-800s at Brisbane Airport — Qantas will raise its change and cancellation fees later this month. Photo: Matt Graham.

Qantas has just hiked its fees to change or cancel a domestic flight for the second time in less than a year.

On 31 July 2025, Qantas increased its domestic flight change fee from $99 to $110. And on 1 July 2026, it quietly raised this fee even further to $121.

Before this, the last time Qantas had increased change and cancellation fees on domestic tickets was in March 2017.

New Qantas domestic change and cancellation fees

The $121 change fee applies when you change the date or time of a domestic Qantas Economy Red e-Deal ticket, and is in addition to any fare difference. There’s also a $121 fee to cancel an Economy Flex ticket for a refund, or to change the name on the ticket.

The Qantas website shows most of these change and cancellation fees at the time of booking:

Qantas BNE-WSI fare inclusions — The current inclusions with Qantas’ domestic Economy fare types. Screenshot from the Qantas website.

From the same date, Qantas also increased its change fee, name change fee and cancellation fee on domestic Premium Economy Saver bookings from $99 to $110. (Qantas offers Premium Economy on QF5/6 and QF33/34 between Sydney and Perth.)

On tickets with a point of sale outside of Australia, the fee is $110 because GST is excluded on these bookings.

There are no changes to other fare conditions, nor to fees on Business Class fares.

Virgin Australia now allows Flex passengers to fly earlier for free

Just a day after Qantas increased its change fees, Virgin Australia expanded its “Fly Ahead” benefit. Previously only for Velocity Gold, Platinum and Platinum Plus members, Virgin now allows anyone booked on an Economy Flex fare to change to an earlier flight on the day of travel for free.

Not only is there no change fee, but unlike Qantas, Virgin won’t charge any fare difference for taking an earlier flight – as long as there’s a spare seat available. Virgin’s Flex fares are also significantly cheaper than Qantas on most routes.

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eminere Sep 13, 2024 #1

Direct link to the FAQ document from Qantas: Changes to Qantas fees

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FlyingKangaroo Sep 13, 2024 #2

Really a shame when you compare it to the States, where even the bottom-barrel low cost carriers have done away with them. Not surprising, of course.

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C CaptJCool Sep 13, 2024 #3

Really a shame when you compare it to the States, where even the bottom-barrel low cost carriers have done away with them. Not surprising, of course.

Well at least they have worked out that whe. You ask passengers to self-service, you don’t need to charge them for their own labour ….

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FlyingKangaroo Sep 13, 2024 #4

Well at least they have worked out that whe. You ask passengers to self-service, you don’t need to charge them for their own labour ….

Given it's almost impossible to make even basic flight changes via QF's IT, I suppose that's a fair point: it costs them money to force people to call in and painfully talk their reps how to do something we can't do ourselves, so I suppose we're on the hook for that cost. 🙃

It took me over an hour and a half last week to change two Y-class redemptions to J-class on the same flight. Just painfully difficult.

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CMA222 Sep 13, 2024 #5

The new CEO says that QF is "changing for the better" ! I think she meant "changing the fees because it is better for QF" to charge more to move my bundle of rights from one aspiration but not guaranteed fight to another aspirational but not guaranteed flight.

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Lynda2475 Sep 13, 2024 #6

Changes due to QF cancelling or materially changing time of flight will still be free. It's only change of mind changes.

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SYD Sep 13, 2024 #7

Given it's almost impossible to make even basic flight changes via QF's IT, I suppose that's a fair point: it costs them money to force people to call in and painfully talk their reps how to do something we can't do ourselves, so I suppose we're on the hook for that cost. 🙃

Have you tried for a revenue ticket? Pretty straightforward.

It took me over an hour and a half last week to change two Y-class redemptions to J-class on the same flight. Just painfully difficult.

That would be a different change regime anyway but I’ve been able to change reward bookings online. Obviously, subject to reward seat availability.

Wouldn’t changing from X to U be a cancel and rebook anyway?

No idea what the deal is for CR+ changes and not about to find out anytime soon!

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FlyingKangaroo Sep 13, 2024 #8

Have you tried for a revenue ticket? Pretty straightforward.

That would be a different change regime anyway but I’ve been able to change reward bookings online. Obviously, subject to reward seat availability.

Wouldn’t changing from X to U be a cancel and rebook anyway?

No idea what the deal is for CR+ changes and not about to find out anytime soon!

It can be pretty straightforward for revenue tickets, if: 1) the flight hasn't been previously changed (as I've had several instances where schedule changes have randomly resulted in that option subsequently greyed out); and 2) you're only trying to change the date. If I recall, it was possible to change origin or destination in the past, but bizarrely around Covid this disappeared and has never returned.

In this case, once again only the day could be changed, which was fine, except (and perhaps it was because I was looking on the same day and there is only one flight between SYD-JNB) the change tool gave me a nondescript error when selecting the same day. I had to call in, and it was treated as a change, not a cancel and rebook.

Qantas' IT is woeful, and I don't think that's a hyperbolic or controversial statement. The US carriers are the gold standard in my opinion when it comes to self-serve options, but QF is definitely towards bottom of the list of the many carriers I fly regularly.

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