Unnecessary reissue demanded by Qantas?
 

Hiya

A friend just called me from New Zealand very upset because Qantas are demanding a reissue fee on her AONE4.

The itinerary is ticketed as AKL-MEL-PER, with AKL-MEL very early in the morning and MEL-PER late in the evening on the same day. She wants to change the AKL-MEL segment to the day before, while leaving MEL-PER as it is on what would now be the following day. QF are saying that she is changing her itinerary from a transit to a stopover and so a reissue is required.

From my and her knowledge of the Technical Rule Sheet this does not seem right but there is no movement from QF and they even put the phone down on my friend when she politely tried to argue her case. What do you think/know about this? Is this one of those esoteric xONEx rules that one only discovers through experience or is the reissue fee frivolous?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

I'm far from an xONEx expert, but it seems like an obvious reroute to me. Fare constructions changes (AKL-MELx-PER becomes AKL-MEL-PER) = get dinged with a reissue fee.

If the earlier AKL-MEL is scheduled to arrive more than 24 hours before the MEL-PER flight departs then it is definitely a "stopover"!

From June 9th, there are three AKL-MEL flights, maybe a later one get in less then 24 hours before the PER flight departs.

6:30 AM 8:35 AM
1:00 PM 3:05 PM
8:55 PM 11:00 PM

Is QF demanding a change fee (US$125) or a re-issue fee?

There should be no change fee as there is no re-routing and only a change of date and time (which is explicitly permitted). Conceivably, the taxes might change if MEL changes from a transit to a stopover (though I doubt they would).

Whether or not a re-issue is required if you change a transit to a stopover, I don't know. Did QF issue the ticket originally? Whether or not an individual airline wants to impose a re-issue fee is up to them. AFAIK, AA does not - if QF does, then it's just one more reason to avoid having your RTW tickets issued by QF. How much is the fee they want?

But unless the ticket was issued in SWP region stop overs vs transits do not matter unless taxes change. No restriction on stop overs on such an itinerary. Stop overs/transits in the issued region and transits Asia on SWP-EU. ex some African countries etc are restrictions

As advised often on FT if you think the answer given is incorrect phone again.
May be worth phoning QF Au [61 (2) 131313 or +61 (2) 9691 3636] and not QF NZ

A change from a transit to a stopover has always been a change & reissue with any airline. It doesn't matter whether the transit was not necessary as part of the rules, if the ticket was issued as a transit and you now want to stopover then it's a change & reissue. And US$125.

The ticket office is correct.

Australia has many charges and fees. I cant find the link but it has been listed before on this forum. I have always book all of my segments as stopovers in AUS. My last ticket was AKL-SYDx-PERx-ADLx-MELx. Then I was covered. I changed it to AKL-SYD-PERx-ADL-MELx at no charge albeit with the AA RTW desk. I then changed it again to AKL-SYDx-PERx-ADL-MELx. The agent said she needed to see about the new stopover and I reminded her that the cost had already been collected. NO re-issue.

In North America ( IN MOST CASES ? ) transits and stopovers do not matter as there are no new fees. DFW-SJOx-MIA-LHR is the same as DFW-SJOx-MAIx-LHR. You have to do all the imigration/customs/yada yada stuff regardless.

The one you are sure to get called out on is the the Gordon Brown "Greenie BS" tax. £80 for a longhaul flight if you go from a transit to stopover. They have always got me on that one and rightly so.

These are a few experiences I have had .

Wrong. A "change and re-issue" is not US$125. If there is no change in routing - which there is not, it is simply a date and time change, which is explicitly permitted without charge - then there is no US$125 change fee on a xONEx ticket. If QF wants to impose a 're-issue' fee (of some unknown amount) then that is up to them but it is not the US$125 'itinerary' change fee.

It is a change in routing since there is now a stopover whilst before there was a transit

Dave

sorry , but there is a change in routing

the old routing was AKL x/MEL ( transit ) PER

the new routing is AKL MEL (stopover ) PER

while I appreciate that the average layperson sees this as not being a re-route because the cities havent changed the routing on the ticket has changed as a transit has been changed to a stopover .

When training retail travel agents in RTW fares this was a point I always took care to emphasise as it is important that pax understand which changes will incur fees and which ones will be free ( subject to availability of applicable booking class ) .

If the pax changes both sectors and still only transits at MEL then you would be correct , it would only be a date change , if the pax changes a transit to a stopover ( which is what they are doing ) that is a re-routing and a re-issue is required .

In many cases the taxes will be different between the routing ABC x/DEF GHI and the routing ABC DEF ( stopover ) GHI so an additional collection will often be necessary as well as the re-issue fee ( not sure whether there will be any additional taxes at MEL as a result of the rerouting although I suspect not )

No. As others have stated. Changing a transit to a stopover is a change in routing.

Given this comes under xONEx rules the following is correct, but irrelevant to the topic:

Is it me or may people be missing a major point here. Your friend called from New Zealand? As in, they live there? So... is this the start of the xONEx? I thought changing the very first segment brings with it a total reissue. It's not clear to me reading this thread that AKL-MEL is the first segment, but it is not clear to me that it is not the first segment either.

This would not necessarily be correct if the AKL-MEL coupon (still transit in MEL) is the first coupon.

According to CX rules, this would require a reissue.

Furthermore, even transit case, TAX maybe different.
Some airports waive tax for sameday transit only.
So, if you change a connecting flight to the next day, but still in 24-hours transit rule, your TAX increases in some airports.

In this case, there is no transit-stopover change, but a TAX recalculation needed.