I definitely going to escalate this, thanks for sharing on ACCC, I will cc Airline Customer Advocate (ACA) in Australia too. Probably next week after my travel.
I somehow has a feeling that I am being "blacklisted" or "marked". I made a call this morning for a flight change, from morning to evening flight. The agent after checking system, first response was, oh, seems like you made changes before, now you can no longer make any more changes.
I push back. Then only she proceed to check availability, and informed no seats available.

That's quite strong, not much more than the ex-CAIs most people were booking post-devaluation. I think my DONE5 ex-CAI was $4700-ish. I don't think I'm going to buy another one this year myself since I'll already be over 250k AA LPs with my ex-CAI once it's finished. Might get tempted if there's another strong swing somewhere though and just book for next spring / summer, my primary reluctance in booking too far out is that I will have to use QF and they only allow changes to a year from ticketing vs. the correct 1 year from first departure. Will probably speak to one of the travel agents who have come out on the board for next time since I can't use AA (too much hit to LPs)

I wouldn't be worried about AA, they'll follow the correct rules and manually price them anyway. QF tries to autoprice which doesn't seem to work most of the time, if ever.

I, too, was told by Qantas I had to end in CAI on a planned itinerary that began in CAI. It's obviously wrong, but Qantas didn't seem to care.

The ACCC largely wouldn't care less. As an organisation, it only seems to act when there's a multitude of complaints along the same lines. And it won't mediate or act on an individual's behalf.

I wouldn't waste my time with the ACCC and the ACA seems to only be marginally better. Reports on Australian Frequent Flyer suggest taking legal action through an appropriate tribunal in Australia (such as the New South Wales Civil and Administration Tribunal) is more likely to get traction. It's not an easy process, though and not without costs. I assume you're not based in Australia and that makes it more tricky. If you reside in a country where Qantas has a registered office, you may explore legal avenues there.

Perhaps a better option still is to lodge a complaint with the US Department of Transportation. It's my understanding that airlines are required to respond to consumers in a certain timeframe following lodgement of a complaint.

Thanks for sharing on AFF (I had a peek, cant find much on RTW thread, will check out in details later).
Will definitely at US DOT in cc

LOL so making a quick 16 hr date change to one segment having already flown five of an Explorer ticket.

"I just need to let you know these tickets from Cairo were all underpriced by over $10,000 and there will be a substantial charge if you change anything. I see you've already snuck it by several agents so I'll be documenting the record so you can't do that again."

Funniest part? I got the Australia call center and she was even more aggressive and incorrect than Fiji. Will be interesting to see what happens after she gets back from "consulting a supervisor."

edited: for typo

I credit to QRPC, where you can keep accumulating QPoints after you hit QRPC PLT (OneWorld EMD), and earn PLT for two years instead of one. Plus, I fly between Thailand and the U.S. typically three roundtrips per year, and a DONE3 is usually less expensive than a straight roundtrip.


Agreed. Their superior knowledge, willingness to follow the rules, accept being corrected if they're wrong about a rule and being consistently friendly are the major reasons I've always used the AA RTW desk since South Africa stopped being the bargain that it used to be and we were all using Mindpearl in JNB.

Yes, the two ex-CAI I have are 1500$ and 1200$ cheaper than this. Worthwhile premium to avoid dealing with QF or BA for sure!

LOL, underpriced by what standard? Even post-EGP deval they weren't that much cheaper than ex-Japan and Norway. Certainly not by AUD10k, that's nonsense. I think they just got overwhelmed by ex-CAI bookings this spring because for whatever reason they became the ticketing carrier for most itineraries booked in the OW tool. Who knows if that was by design of by accident, but reports this year of even itineraires that should have been ticketed by BA getting sent to QF for ticketing via the OW tool, that's not a good thing for us, and seems they don't want to be dealing with them either. I really want a warning flag in the OW tool to say who the ticketing carrier is about to be on the payment page. Then you can make your own choice if you really want it or not.

Similarly I could make QRPC Platinum very easily with my travel patterns, but have a slight favor to AA status for the once or twice a year TPAC I take with my partner when we just buy the cheapest ticket and use SWUs for upgrades (they have always cleared even if just a few days before). That plus Avios long haul redemption cost is brutal in comparison to AAdvantage, and an EXP would likely earn 2-3x total miles per year vs QRPC Plat due to partner multipliers AA elites have that other OW programs don't offer, assuming the AA EXP is avoiding most AA, BA, and IB coded flights. It's not one size fits all, I know, but works extremely well for me in today's environment. I definitely though would appreciate the QRPC Plat Al Safwa access on paid J tickets on QR as I have a lot of those, but the new Al Mourjan Garden works well enough, much better than the original 'south' one.

In fairness, after the warning/scolding she went away to work on it, made the change and advised "only the $125 change fee" and I'll take a credit card when ready.

I asked her nicely to pull up the rules, directed to her about the date changes part...and she not only admitted she was wrong, but thanked me for explaining it to her. Quite refreshing in customer service these days to see someone willing to learn and admit their mistakes instead of digging in. My sense was she's seen so many of these with people arguing about massive price increases when making changes before departure that she wasn't willing to invest the time making changes if I wasn't warned ahead....

The food and champagne have gone downhill a bit at Al Safwa, but I still like it for the sleeping rooms. I've had incredible success getting one when I wanted/needed it. Only been denied once. I must say, I also enjoy the small exhibits of pieces from the collection of the Museum of Islamic Art.

Hi, what are the changes you made? Isn't date change suppose to be free?

Maybe my post was unclear. It was a date change. She was wrong in thinking she should charge a fee. When I guided her through the rules she figured that out.

edited to clarify: free AFTER the first segment is flown. Before that any change is a refare.

A DONE3 planning question. Note the earlier reference by DR.HFH was for a DONE3.....ex Japan
Also my plan...
Madrid to Singapore in October....
Choices:
MAD-LHR to QF 2
MAD-DOH-SIN on QR.
What is the likely difference in "additional charges" resulting from selecting QF from LHR(connection so no UK departure tax)
I would credit to QF so a substantial difference in points awarded.

Note: for a DONE4 LHR to PER QF has zero mid week D class available either direct or via SIN
Once again think about wandering
Fred

Hi, Fred,

You can get a breakdown of the fees and other charges using ITA Matrix. Even though it's now owned by Google, it still gives a complete breakdown of these other charges.

I didn’t think ITA gave good info for fees and charges when a fare is part of a xONE, though?