For the record, fair warning had been provided...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/11661378-post8.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/11661454-post9.html

Bingo: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/11661841-post10.html

Qantas said there were no seats available for over a month. If that's the case how would it be possible to change a confirmed booking to a date with NO available seats????

Glad someone else has had a less than positive experience at the Qantas flight center on Collins St in Melbourne.

As I held a paper ticket, my RTW booked at Pearson in Toronto with the first flight originating at LHR, (software would not print an E-ticket) it was necessary to actually go into an office to change, well maybe not as I made a date change in Thailand by simply faxing a copy of the paper ticket to Bangkok, but that was AA in Thailand not Australia which I am inclined to believe makes all the difference.

Another problem was Qantas insisting on charging $80 to put a date on the open segment (saying it was a change) when I had changed the date going to Australia twice with AA in Thailand at no cost.

The whole experience, along with a few minor issues, has left me with a not very high opinion of Australia in general & Qantas in particular. It's really sad when a customer & visitor to a country knows more about the travel options available than the Qantas employees & is treated with contempt for having that knowledge!

That was because rather than just put dates on a ticket and change as necessary, you decided to have open dated sectors. Avoiding paper tickets would have been easy

Qantas charges service fees for revalidating tickets and is shown clearly on scale of charges at the ticket centres. If you had not had a paper ticket , you would have avoided this. They were not charging a change fee on the ticket , but a service fee ; it is pretty standard for QF to require that the ticket have a date on it when checking in ; the service desk verify the validity of the ticket and reservation and date the ticket and then the check in staff can allow check in.


You chose to gamble on availability on a route where there are 12 services per month and lost. The flights currenly to HNL are very busy with not much more than full fare available and so you could not change the booking. How is this Qantas's fault? You could have changed the booking to bypass Hawaii rather than spend $1000 and you could have avoided the issues of paper tickets by having dates on it . This would not have changed the fact that the flights had no availability however

I have also found Qantas to be very annoying when it levies service charges and other nuisance fees on xONExs; unfortunately this is permitted in the rules: One question I had - if you had to go to Hawaii, why didn't you just get a reissue, fly to LAX or SFO, then buy a separate ticket to Hawaii and back? $1034 for the upcharge (is that AUD, CAD or USD?) is an awful lot compared to $400 - $500 (US) for a return flight from LAX to HNL/KOA/OGG etc. Even adding the $125 change fee and a Qantas nuisance charge, you'd still have been ahead; in fact you'd have lots more miles in your FF account. Just a thought for next time - there are a number of OW routes where L inventory is notoriously hard to come by; AKL-SCL is legendary.

So you judge a whole country based on one poor experience getting a seat?

Heaven help Ireland if its visitors judge it by the de facto national airline, Ryanair.

Dave Noble, I repeat AA's software in Toronto would NOT print an E-tickect so after 4 hrs & many calls later they issued paper tickets.

No I am NOT judging a whole country on the basis of one seat but by the majority of my experiences there where the so-so, poor & really ignorant (Qantas staff) out numbered the few good in Perth, Freemantle, Alice Springs (with the exception of that overrated big red rock in the middle of nowhere desert), Kununurra, Brisbane & what I saw of Tasmania.

As I couldn't go directly to Hawaii I chose instead to go to Guatemala & ANC on the OW ticket which added an extra continent & the cost but made more sense (to me) than paying extra for Hawaii & extra again for Guatemala, ANC covered by 2 unused segments when I was erroneously told it was not available.

All in all OZ was a big expensive disappointment!

Guatemala, Anchorage and Hawaii are all on the same continent as far as a RTW ticket is concerned. If you really have been charged for an additional continent, it may be worth pursuing a complaint (presumably to the issuing airline, rather than QF) about being ripped off.

Open dated sectors will have caused the paper ticket issue. If there had been dates on all the sectors, there would not have been an issue in eticketing

If you had put a date on the sectors and just changed dates as dates were known, it could have nicely been done electronically

That's what I thought but just wanted out of OZ ASAP & the only other option was Singapore Airlines MEL-LAX for around $1500.

Have a couple weeks down time here in Antigua Guatemala so shall pursue this ripoff by Qantas with both AA & One World!!

If you do make a complaint, then you really must leave out the issues you have QF. AA can do nothing, and won't really care, if QF do not have the desired availability. QF will similarly not care. You held no reservation whatsoever with QF on any of its SYD-HNL services. Complain to your colleagues, friends and family if you wish, but don't waste your time in trying to seek any kind of settlement to this issue.

Being incorrectly overcharged is clearly another matter that was within the airline's control to prevent and, consequently, sort out. I'm not sure who it is that you are ultimately going to complain to as (to me) it's not 100% clear who you paid to reissue your ticket. But if you include a rant about the QF availability gripe, it will make you appear bitter and trivialise your other complaint which sounds legitimate.

You gambled and lost. Why you believe you should be compensated for losing a bet you made is beyond me.

This is how this issue looks to me:

- you have been warned by one of FTs most experienced contributors that what you were planning was risky. You decided to do it anyway.
- while being in the expensive disappointment called Australia for weeks you didn't check flight availability for your next flight at all even so it is a 3 times weekly service only. Just a quick call to AA or a look on the internet at the right time would have solved the problem. But you decided not to call.
- Then apparently you spent almost $1000 to upgrade a LONE4 to a LONE5 and re-route even so you don't even touch South America.

I would use my time in "Antigua Guatemala" to reflect on what your real base for a complaint is. The only thing to complain about IMHO is the less than stellar service of QF MEL and the fact that they charge fees (I know, lots of other airlines do this as well but I still don't like it). But none of this is a bad enough to ask for compensation.

Lots of criticism from down-under & from my experiences there it's evident that you people live in your own little world there & do things differently. So be it!

However in the real world some travelers don't plan their trips to the minute a year in advance, therefore the open ticket. I had no idea when I would leave OZ until until a week prior so what would be the point in checking.

Also during my 30 years in a public service business it was always the rule that when you sold s service it would be delivered in a reasonable amount of time, if not you were branded a shyster & didn't last long.

In my opinion 30+ days is not a reasonable amount of time & I am willing to bet there were empty seats on some flights to HNL during that month.

What Qantas did was nothing less than acting like a common thief!

If people complacently put up with such actions they will just escalate & I for one will not remain silent at a blatant RIPOFF!

I shall also recommend to anyone who will listen to avoid Australia in general & Qantas like the plague.

Yet you purchased a ticket which books into a class with very restricted availability on a route with only three flights per week, and were advised as to the risks before you did so.

Caveat emptor is appropriate here, methinks.

Nobody FORCED you to buy a ticket that books into L class. You could have purchased another higher fare that books into a different class. You were warned that your plans were risky, yet you proceeded despite the warnings. Your loss.

Absolute rubbish, what you are doing is acting like a spoilt little brat who took a gamble and lost.

Your opinion will be duly noted and ignored.

This is where your credibility is totally lost, NOBODY judges a country based upon a single occurrence, otherwise NOBODY would go to the United States (in order to avoid the TSA and CBP). Heck, TSA and CBP would be enough to deter anyone from going to the US, but we go there anyway because it is a great country. Using your yardstick, nobody in their right mind would go there.

Dave

(Who is beginning to think the OP is nothing but a troll)