Reissue of OWE and fuel charges
 

Quick question.

I have a ticketed OWE waiting for me in Australia. I'm thinking of changing the routing of two of the domestic sectors (the pre-intercontinental flight sectors). I contacted the TA to confirm my understanding that I would not have to pay any fees, penalties etc as these changes are being made pre-departure.

The TA has advised that only a $25 reissue fee is required.

I purchased the ticket before the fuel charges were introduced, if I reissue the ticket will I be charged the fuel charge for all the flights? Has anybody reissued and had this occur?

Thank you
Dani

If you are changing the first flight on the ticket the fare and taxes must be recomputed. The "reissue" fee is not from OW (that is free), it must be a T/A fee. It sounds like you are changing the first segment in which case you will have to pay any new taxes/fees such as the fuel surcharge for any of the 20 segments. Re-issue after the first segment is flown will not incur this except for any changed routings (at least other fees work this way, not 100% sure if the fuel surcharges don't have special rules).

Certainly for CX, fuel surcharges get policed at check-in, as do any changes in taxes since the ticket was issued. They first check the ticket issue date to see if it appears to be before the changes came into force, and, if so, have a detailed look at the calculation to see what extra is needed.

My experience is that if the taxes have changed when a reissue is done then the increment (or, in very rare cases, decrement) in taxes is collected at the time of reissue (along with any change fee).

The same rigourousness does not seem to apply in reverse when fuel surcharges are removed...

Thanks for your replies, number_6 and christep.

I was tossing up adding a DRW-BNE segment at the beginning of my OWE. I rang Qantas in Aust, and the CSA, after speaking with his supervisor, said he "believed" upon reissue I would at least have to pay the fuel surchage on my Qantas flights ($15 for International segments, and something like $5.50 for domestic). As he sounded unsure, I then rang Qantas in London, and the CSA, after speaking with her supervisor, told me if I reissued I would have to pay the fuel surcharge and airport tax for the added segment.

I think I'll try ringing on Monday and see what I'm told on my third attempt.

Whatever you're told on the phone will not be taken as word until time of ticketing. Unfortunately there is absolutely no way to avoid additional fuel charges etc that has incurred after your ticket has been issued. Since you chose to reissue your ticket, you will have to bear responsibility for any new surcharges that has since cropped up after your ticket was issued.

I'm sure two stops in same city is allowed??
 

Guy Betsy, you are right. I have now spoken to 4 different Qantas CSAs and havebeen given 4 different and, of course, conflicting responses. 3 of these CSA's say they consulted with supervisors.

Well, today I finally received a reply from the TA and they informed me that they contacted their Qantas rep and were told that even though I am adding a segment in the continent of origin the fare will not change and therefore I will not be charged fuel surcharges. Reissue will be $25.

However, now my TA says I cannot stop in the same city twice. I'm sure this is incorrect??.

My continent of origin now looks like this DRW-BNE, SYD-MEL (less than 24hrs in MEL), MEL-BNE. Seems fine to me.

I went through this same issue today with my TA. I had her consult the fare rules directly from QF's on-line version (apparently last updated in Feb 2004). The only mention of stopovers is as follows:

1. A STOPOVER IS A BREAK OF JOURNEY OVER 24 HOURS - (unlike QF domestic services where anything that crosses midnight is considered a stopover.)
2. STOPOVER PERMITTED ANYWHERE. (that means anywhere, no restrictions about number of stops in any one location)
3. MAXIMUM 2 STOPOVERS PERMITTED IN THE CONTINENT OF ORIGIN - (this is the only restriction clause)

The only other mention of stopovers is in relation to routing exceptions relating to the one inter-continental departure and one intercontinental arrival permitted in each continent.

Where is our journey commencing and ending? Once you hit the starting point again, that is the end of the journey. So if you started in BNE, then went RTW and came back to Australia into DRW, then to BNE, that is the end of the trip, no matter how many SWP sectors you have remaining.

Hi NM, thanks for confirming my thoughts.

My OWE as it stands now is:
DRW-BNE, SYD-MEL (less than 24hrs), MEL-BNE, BNE-SIN=>=>....ending with SCL-AKL-BNE.

Where you may have a problem is that an open-jaw or land segment is also considered a stopover. And since you started in DRW, you technically finish in DRW. However, you can finish with an open-jaw by stopping in BNE, but that last stop into BNE is really a stopover for the land segment back to DRW. And you have already had two stopovers in the country of origin, being the land segment BNE-SYD and the stopover MEL-BNE-SIN (both in BNE). So technically that is three stopovers in continent of origin :( .

There should be no worries in regards to a third stopover as the ticket is issued open jaw - thus there's no need to return to the point of origin. This is outlined in the rules:
I'm currently on a ticket that was booked BNE-SIN........LAX-SYD(stopover) SYD-AYQ (stopover) // DRW-SYD. There was no need for me to return to BNE or have that counted as an additional leg or stopover (that would take me over the 20 segment limit).

Open-jaw is definately permitted, and does not count to segments. But some agents may interpret that as a stopover as it could also be considered a ground segment at the end of the journey. I believe it should be ok, but some may read it differently :confused: .

Its all in the way the agent interprets the rules :rolleyes: .