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And welcome to the friendly QF Board on FT malcolmkinns. .

PaulST

Since you've reached Gold status I assume you fly a lot so how have you not heard that JQ are a LCC and you have to pay extra for luggage? Did you lodge a complaint with them because there was no included food (unless you bought an extra pack?)

And how was JQ to know you'd made a mistake and weren't simply trying to sweet-talk your way into saving a few bob?

vbroucek

+1

Platy

It is quite possible to be a Gold customer of QF and never/rarely set foot on a JQ aircraft and therefore not be up-to-date on the upside and downside of such, and specifically the baggage rules of the airline.

The airline has a responsibility to make key terms clear to the purchaser at time of purchase.

Now if a PAYING customer selects a SYD-HBA flight from the QF booking engine which is serviced by JQ they are forwarded to the JQ booking engine: the baggage issue is clearly presented to the customer during the booking process, when they have the option to add on fare bundles to cover expected baggage needs. Obviously if they then turn up to the airport without pre-purchasing the required kilos it is eminently reasonable for JQ to charge them at check in.

However, when a QF AWARD customer selects a SYD-HBA flight from the QF booking engine (which is the online process for such a booking - it can't be done from the JQ), it does NOT redirect to the JQ, but processes the booking as a QF booking, presenting the customer with QF-centric information. The baggage allowance is presented late AFTER the booking has been made in the "manage my booking".

At booking the award looks and feels like a QF ticket (whereas the paid flight is clearly a JQ booking).

To locate the baggage allowance on such a QF award booking pre-purchase the customer would have to some serious searching through multiple links.

If QF was customer-focused it could easily add a clear caveat at time of booking, without expecting the customer to go digging through several web pages to find the fine print...and risking the sort of situation which the OP faced.

I would imagine it would be in the interests of both QF and the customer to do such.

...That said, if I had a set of golf clubs, I'd be double checking!

PS surely there may be some instances when the JQ baggage allowance wouldn't apply but the QF/Gold one (?) - for example if the flight was part of an international itinerary...not saying that is the case here, but...

Platy

The issue of lack of meals, entertainment, blankets are covered at the time of making a JQ award booking on the QF website.

The baggage allowances are not directly addressed in the booking process (see above post).

Dave Noble

It does not need to be made clear that the Qantas Status benefits do not apply since it is clearly stated in the terms of the Qantas scheme where the benefits apply

As highlighted by Thai-Kiwi , there is a baggage allowance included

With any booking, it is the allowance of the airline on which the award is booked that will apply. Book on CX, then CX's allowance, BA then BA's, etc - so if not knowing what the allowance is for Jetstar that is the passenger's responsibility to find out

Platy

Perish the thought that the untouchable and infallible QF would take any responsibility to make a key term of carriage clear to its customers in the case of a JQ award booking off its website, as an integral part of the booking process...

Nor is the customer prompted to purchase additional baggage or have a readily accessible means to purchase extra baggage at the time of booking: yes, on the JQ website and, yes, on the VA website, but not on the QF website. The VA website even helpfully states the allowance in the booking process tailored for status.

Sure, everyone should read the small print, but the airline doesn't have its sh-t together either in its website design. Both JQ and VA show what QF could do to mitigate any confusion.

Dave Noble

Why should it try and handle the policies of every airline that someone might book?

The information is available from the operating carrier ( as it is for any other airline booking made by Qantas )

Anyway the issue seems to less be the baggage allowance but that the QF benefits of additional allowance did not apply. This is not a booking issue but someone not knowing the benefits entitled to and not something that would expect a booking engine to spoon feed information about

Platy

Please provide the link to the information supplied by the website of the operating carrier (Jetstar) that makes it clear that a QF economy award booking carries a 20kg allowance.

Yes, the rates per kilo are provided.

Spoon feed? The most basic information (award allowance, excess baggage purchase process during or after booking, etc) is very hard to find!

I doubt a single person responding to this thread to date could have quoted with confidence that 20kg checked allowance figure off the top of their head - so much for slagging off the OP for ignorance as a QF Gold.

IF the customer is starved of basic information they don't know what they are buying - that's gonna lead to nasty surprises for the customer (which by your logic the airline is right not to give a rats a--se about).

Yes, you are right in that the OP and all of us should check the detail and not assume that Gold perks apply to JQ, etc. An expensive mistake by the OP.

It's just that the checking is not easily done in this case...

(...and why would anyone play golf anyway...!)

Platy

It's not every or any airline. It's JQ. An integral part of the QF Group and represents a significant part of the international and domestic QF network. Possibly by now carrying more pax internationally than QF - not sure on the domestic front.

QF sells JQ sectors as part of it's tickets and offers reward space extensively on JQ.

QF manages to make clear which PAID fare type on the QF web site maps to which JQ bundle with a leader in the column header: inexplicably it doesn't bother with the award booking. Such information could be easily added.

Dave Noble

it is no different to any other partner that QF sells tickets for

Platy

I'm still struggling to locate that info on the QF website - but I need new reading glasses!

In the case of the OP I would check that due credit was indeed given for the first 20kg. The levy looks a little over...I though there was a 20kg maximum additional?

Platy

Not true.

The baggage allowance on a domestic JQ award is specifically defined for a JQ award, not mapped to a standard fare type of the operating airline.

The information on the baggage allowance is not made clear on the web site of the operating airline.

Dave Noble

From the link provided


At $15 per Kg, that would be 19Kg over allowance. The OP did not indicate that the calculation of weight was incorrect, just seems to have an attitude that for some reason he should be exempt the cost

Platy

Thanks, but can't see the "20kg" quoted, but maybe I'm having a microchiropteran moment...