QFF redemption ripoff - Business cost for mainly economy booking

[Alanslegal]

Or you can ring up the QF desk and try getting flights via HKG. I believe there is a direct flight HKG-YYZ with CX which means you avoid the infamous LAX experience.

Alot of us is aware of the technical glitch and I know the technology could be handled better, but if you persist long enough, you might even book J seats, find out there is no J seats, and instead of being shoved into Y .... you will be instead confirmed into First. Fly First for the cost of J points, yes they are out there.

 

[A_traveller]

QANTAS J class points charge for a Y class seat?

Has anyone noticed that QANTAS will charge the full J class award points even when they only offer a Y class seat?

I was looking to book a one-way, BNE to LHR in October in business. QANTAS web-site offered me J seats on most days on the BNE-SIN-LHR route, so I selected an appropriate date. Moving through the booking to selecting the particular flight, I was surprised to discover that the J class was BNE-SIN only, and then Y class ex SIN to LHR (on an A380). The award points were 128000, the full one-way cost for J class.

Isn't this a fraud? The initial offer on the web-site advises that a business seat is available, and their required charge is for a business seat rate all the way through.

Must contravene Trade Practice or be Misleading & Deceptive Conduct or just plain daylight robbery!

Anyone else experienced this and resolved the issue?

 

[markis10]

Re: QANTAS J class points charge for a Y class seat?

Welcome to AFF, one of the features of the rewards system with QF has been to charge the highest class of travel points level for the booking even if the booking has only one segment in that class, its a thing to be on the lookout for!

 

[Stephen65]

Re: QANTAS J class points charge for a Y class seat?

This is a well known issue with their system that Qantas refuse to change - presumably because it gives the impression that there are many more J award seats available than there really are and because they get to profit off the occaisonal person who doesn't realise the "J award" he paid full J points for is something like CBR-SYD in J, SYD-LHR in Y.

Other airlines have booking engines that allow you to tick a box to exclude all such mixed results. With QF you have to wade through them all looking for the ones that are really J seats in the main segments.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

Re: QANTAS J class points charge for a Y class seat?

Isn't this a fraud? The initial offer on the web-site advises that a business seat is available, and their required charge is for a business seat rate all the way through.

Must contravene Trade Practice or be Misleading & Deceptive Conduct or just plain daylight robbery!

Anyone else experienced this and resolved the issue?

The T&C of the FF scheme states that you will be charged the highest class of service for a mixed-class itinerary. So the QF website is reporting the charge correctly per the T&C. The main problem is that they don't provide an easy way to identify these mixed class itineraries. It's a well known (and often grumbled about) issue.

 

[awilcockson]

Re: QANTAS J class points charge for a Y class seat?

The main problem is that they don't provide an easy way to identify these mixed class itineraries. It's a well known (and often grumbled about) issue.

Along with not providing a simple method to exclude Deathstar flights from the search results.

 

[A_traveller]

Re: QANTAS J class points charge for a Y class seat?

Many thanks for the comments.

Its clear that I need to forward the T&Cs to my lawyer for a 'plain english' version. So, its just plain daylight robbery, not misleading!

Another reason why QANTAS have plummeted to the bottom of my preferred carriers.

 

[Ontime]

Re: QANTAS J class points charge for a Y class seat?

Imagine the person who does not notice this in their booking and turns up at the airport with high expectations only to be sitting down the back of the bus.

 

[jono88888]

Re: QANTAS J class points charge for a Y class seat?

For some folks who don't travel too frequently, it may have taken years to amass their points before the choose to indulge themselves on what they think is going to be a J flight. I know it's the same points regardless, I just see it hurting more for those who've taken longer to reach their required points.

As I know about this con I'm not likely to fall into the trap, but if I did it would be some time, if ever, before I boarded a flying roo again. Seems very shortsighted marketing ploy to me.

 

[medhead]

Re: QANTAS J class points charge for a Y class seat?

The main problem is that they don't provide an easy way to identify these mixed class itineraries.

Or to exclude mixed class bookings from the search.

 

[dajop]

Re: QANTAS J class points charge for a Y class seat?

The T&C of the FF scheme states that you will be charged the highest class of service for a mixed-class itinerary. So the QF website is reporting the charge correctly per the T&C.

The only way around this is to make separate bookings. Which has of course the chance of a misconnect. It's really bad, to use a hypothetical example MEL-SYD-LAX and the only availability MEL-SYD is in J ... the charge if booked as a connection would be 96,000 pts. Same flights booked on separate tickets would be 64,000pts.

 

[Balwyn3103]

Re: QANTAS J class points charge for a Y class seat?

We were trying to book J LHR-SIN 364 days out and all we were offered was Y from LHR to Helsinki, Y from Helsinki to HKG and then (whoa!!) J from HKG to SIN, all at full J points of course. This may be in the T&C but there is legislation about unfair terms in contracts and I wonder if this has ever been challenged.