Qantas flight change

[chambezio]

Here is the scenario....the kids gave the wife and I a trip to to Launceston in September. Fly down from Sydney-Launceston-3 days looking about-Launceston-Sydney-then on to Tamworth-Home. They also paid for accomodation. I was absolutely blown away by the gesture!!!

OK I am stoked by the whole deal but thinking about it and looking on line to see what's available I thought I might add 2 more days in Launceston. I rang the Motel-no worries just pay for the extra days when we check in-Great! Rang Qantas to change the same flight just 2 days earlier....."that will be a cost of $304.80" "What!!" says I???? I rang the new son-in-law because he had done the booking. While I was talking to him he brought up Qantas bookings and said "its only $119 each ($238) for the ticket to Launceston".....What???

When I was talking to the girl at Qantas she rattled off a charge for and a Fee for that plus the ticket.....$304.80

The son-in-law said just by new tickets for the earlier flight and just don't turn up on the later scheduled flight. Doing that Mr Qantas makes money with out having to do anything.
Is there a fairer way to just change the day of the flight? I have no experience with such dealings. May be some one may know another way.....please

[ian]

If you don't turn up for the first flight, the second (return) flight will be cancelled.
It's not Qantas, it's every airline I've ever flown with.

Best option would be to extend the back end.
Fly down as scheduled with Qantas and then do a no show for the return 3 days later.
Use a one-way to return on your preferred date.






What is really galling is that Qantas gets to keep the GST collected for your unused return flight (or so I believe)

[chambezio]

All night I kept thinking I had gotten the whole change over wrong. So I called Qantas again to see if I was wrong. Well today, including the cost of the fares $444. I still don't comprehend how they came to that figure but that is it.

I told them to go back to the original itinerary.

[Yanis]

Long story but no - it is not fair and no there is nothing you can do about it.

The short answer is that the airlines off substantial discounts on less popular flights or for very early booking in order to drive up the participation rate. The last thing they want is a half full flight. The problem is with these discount rates is that they are not transferable and tricky if not impossible to cancel. So if you need to change you flight then you basically have to start from scratch. Sometimes the cheapest thing to do is to simply not turn up and re-book another discount flight at the alternate time - that is if a discount flight is available.

You can see their point of view but it does not seem to be fair.

John

[Poppa]

Today this tin of white paint is $50. If you come in tomorrow it will be $75. Shame you weren't here yesterday when it was $10. Of course, if you bought a tin of white paint everyday, then every 100 days we'd give you one for free. No, you can't bring back the tin that you got last week for $25 and get your money back, we'll have to charge you a $200 return fee. Oh, and I have to charge you an extra $17 because you want to use your credit card. Well that's just the way we do it sir...

[chris0375]

Paint is a bit different to a service.

If you had purchased premium tickets to begin with it may have been free to change.

What are the flights you want worth separately?

[joe greiner]

Along with a few other insults, this is why I don't fly anymore.

Unless there's an ocean in the way.

Phooey,
Joe

[Pearo]

The joy of cheap flights, not negotiable. It means they know numbers and can maximise bums in seats.

The option is to buy a fully flexible flight and it costs more than 2 of the cheapie saver flights. I do a lot of interestate business flights, and we dont bother booking the flexi flights anymore, if we miss the flight we cop the loss and buy a new cheap ticket. Costs a hell of a lot less in the long term. Different way of doing business these days, but still cheaper than flights in the 80's and even the early-mid 90's.

[rrich]

Along with a few other insults, this is why I don't fly anymore.

Unless there's an ocean in the way.

Phooey,
Joe

Joe,
I'm with you!
The only problem that I have is that there are no gas stations between Los Angeles and Honolulu.

[kiwigeo]

Am I missing something? An airline offers cheaper seats of you book ahead of time...you agree to not change the booking and the airline agrees to sell you the seat at a cheaper price. If you want a booking that's free to change without penalty then book a full fare seat or a higher priced seat with less restrictions.

[q9]

I used to use jetstar to fly home...until I started looking at travel agents in Japan for my bookings. Full service airlines, decent luggage allowance (46kg of checked in with China Eastern!), meals, cancellations etc etc for the same or less price. Any hassles and I just email the agent. Can not be bothered doing it myself anymore.

[Pearo]

I used to use jetstar to fly home...until I started looking at travel agents in Japan for my bookings. Full service airlines, decent luggage allowance (46kg of checked in with China Eastern!), meals, cancellations etc etc for the same or less price. Any hassles and I just email the agent. Can not be bothered doing it myself anymore.

As a general aviation pilot myself, caveat emptor. You get what you pay for. I have spent enough time flying with airline captains and check pilots to know what I get for my money. Spend a bit of time on AvHerald (http://avherald.com/) and you may rethink what airlines you fly with.

[rrich]

Some years ago I had to be in Dallas for four weeks with weekends home.

I could buy a RT ticket Los Angeles to Dallas for about $375. If I stayed on the flight after landing in Dallas and went on to Houston the cost of the ticket was about $250. Fly further for less money.

What I did was to carry everything on, and get off in Dallas. Then on the day of my return, just call reservations to say that I had gotten an emergency call last evening and rented a car to drive from Houston to Dallas and needed the reservation changed. The third time that I did that the reservation agent said, "Likely story." but went ahead and changed the reservation anyway.

[ian]

Sometimes the other way of dealing with that scenario is to buy inside out tickets.

Fly to Dallas on the first Monday, returning on the last Friday.
Then buy tickets Dallas - LA return to go home each weekend. If you can get the timing right, the airline booking engine will offer the "staying over the weekend" special rate for each "destination".

[kiwigeo]

Posts discussing overseas flights aren't really relevant to the OP which was discussing domestic flights within Australia. Australia and Japan are much bigger markets with more domestic airlines in the case of the US and a larger population in the case of Japan and US. Australia struggles to support more than two major domestic airlines.

[ian]

may I beg to differ?

as far as I know the core software behind Qantas's (and for that matter Virgin's) booking engines is the same as that used by US airlines, so both countries have similar flight "rules"

[kiwigeo]

may I beg to differ?

as far as I know the core software behind Qantas's (and for that matter Virgin's) booking engines is the same as that used by US airlines, so both countries have similar flight "rules"

It's nothing to do with the booking software......how cheap airline can offer a seat depends more on the size of the market (=population) and how strong competition is from other airlines serving the same route.

[ian]

starting to get way off topic ...

have you ever investigated the cost of an air ticket and tracked over two or three days how the fare changes day to day and hour to hour?
It's not uncommon for an airline to track your IP address and modify their offers based on your search history.
Something is going on when a simultaneous query from a different IP address will be offered a different fare.

[Pearo]

starting to get way off topic ...

have you ever investigated the cost of an air ticket and tracked over two or three days how the fare changes day to day and hour to hour?
It's not uncommon for an airline to track your IP address and modify their offers based on your search history.
Something is going on when a simultaneous query from a different IP address will be offered a different fare.

Never seen that before, but I have seen the price change a lot over several days and hours based on the same IP address. Also seen the same effect happen when trying to upgrade to business on frequent flyer points.

[chris0375]

starting to get way off topic ...

have you ever investigated the cost of an air ticket and tracked over two or three days how the fare changes day to day and hour to hour?
It's not uncommon for an airline to track your IP address and modify their offers based on your search history.
Something is going on when a simultaneous query from a different IP address will be offered a different fare.
Has this actually been proven beyond reasonable doubt?

[kiwigeo]

starting to get way off topic ...

have you ever investigated the cost of an air ticket and tracked over two or three days how the fare changes day to day and hour to hour?
It's not uncommon for an airline to track your IP address and modify their offers based on your search history.
Something is going on when a simultaneous query from a different IP address will be offered a different fare.

Fare structures are different depending on airline and country.

Yes I have noticed (Australian domestic) fares change over the period of days and even hours......I do alot more flying than the average punter in my job and I frequently have to change bookings to the same destination. The fares generally become more expensive the closer you get to the day/time of departure.

[kiwigeo]

Never seen that before, but I have seen the price change a lot over several days and hours based on the same IP address. Also seen the same effect happen when trying to upgrade to business on frequent flyer points.

If youre changing a flyer point ticket then of course they can track you...youre doing your change via a Frequent Flyer site which has a log in and a record of your details. Tracking via IP address......I dont see how this can be going on as I believe (correct me if Im wrong) that most individuals get dynamic IPs assigned by their ISP. Businesses may use static IP addresses for the purposes of running VPNs and email systems.

[chris0375]

If youre changing a flyer point ticket then of course they can track you...youre doing your change via a Frequent Flyer site which has a log in and a record of your details. Tracking via IP address......I dont see how this can be going on as I believe (correct me if Im wrong) that most individuals get dynamic IPs assigned by their ISP. Businesses may use static IP addresses for the purposes of running VPNs and email systems.
Use cookies?

[kiwigeo]

Use cookies?

True

[chambezio]

I originally posted to have a whinge about how unfair the Airline strategies are! I have only been on half a dozen flights in my whole life. The last time was in 1988. So I am not familiar with what goes on. The Flights organised for our trip to Tassie was a gift from my kids. If I could have changed the flights I could have spent more time looking about for a couple more days. I would have been happy to pay a charge for the change but I am not prepared to be ripped off!

I read some where that there was the same set up in America (charging a whole lot more for changes to flights) that the government stepped in and made the airlines change the system to a fairer cheaper alternative. I can't see it happening here.

[ian]

Has this actually been proven beyond reasonable doubt?
yep

As you mentioned above, it is probably cookies rather than IP address, but I've sat beside my wife and booked a ticket at a price my wife (who was the one tracking the pricing) couldn't get.