wayoutwest

Booked economy sale fares from CHC to SYD. Wanted to upgrade to the Business saver tickets an extra $360 pp. Qantas want a further $100 pp on top!
Weird way to do business when someone wants to give an extra $720 to then try and charge and extra $200 on top - so guess what, I ain't paying to upgrade, so they loose guaranteed $720 in the hope no doubt that someone will pay the fare.

Mwenenzi

Is common with many airlines that a ticket has a changes fee in addition to difference, especially with low cost discount economy tickets. Will be in the T&C's of the ticket you bought.

Dave Noble

When buying a ticket, you have to agree to the terms of the fare. In this case, the fare has a $100 change fee and that is what is being charged to make a change

This is pretty much on par for airlines

Oneworld_Flyer

This is actually how Qantas (and many other airlines) make money - change fees on discount economy fare buckets allow the business to protect the fidelity of more expensive flexible fares (which cost the airline more to offer). Without change fees, there is no incentive for people to purchase flexible fares outright if they're likely to need them. It's the same in your circumstance - without those fees, you'd only ever buy a discount ticket and if/when you need to change your flight, you'd simply upgrade the fare class and take advantage of the flexibility. That's why these fares are differentiated, even though the onboard product is the same - you could get rid of change fees, but sale fares as we know them would cease to exist.

SFO777

SOP with many airlines including AA, DL and UA.

wayoutwest

I do not want to change flights, I accept I should have to pay if I need to change flights. I want to stay on same flight but change class and give them more money on the same flight.
Even NZ (who getting pretty tight on things) will let you change from economy to business without charging the contact service fee.
Not an economist but very basic thinking to me is that if someone wants to give me more money, then silly to discourage that by telling them they have to pay for the privilege - accept better seats etc but really, turn down money unless we pay extra!
Probably my thinking is the reason I generally only book business and as this was to be first time on QF wanted to let boss see economy, but then have surprise upgrade bought which boss couldn't see.
Never mind, my mistake and I know for next time who and how to book.

Blackcloud

As others have said this is a standard change fee, not really a contact service fee, to discourage people buying cheaper sale tickets and then trying to make a change. I do not see why this would cause QF to lose money when in fact it may be increasing their revenue by requiring pax wishing flexibility to pay a higher fare.
If you really want to upgrade you can do it at the airport @$450 pp ow but not get luggage or Business Class QFF points or status credits.
I do not know your reasons why you wanted to book the way you did, the Business Class Saver fare was clear to see on the the same booking page, I usually do the calculations in my head to see how much extra it is.

SFO777

You are thinking way too rationally. We are talking the airline business here.

Dave Noble

I disagree; all I see is thinking that since it doesn't work the way that it benefits the poster that it is somehow bad

When buying a ticket one has choices on fares , from very cheap fares which may allow absolutely no changes at all, through to very flexible fares with no penalties at all

If choosing to make a booking where penalties apply, it is not irrational for the airline to apply the penalties

The business class ticket could have been purchased in the 1st instance, but chose not to. If wanting to book economy and then pay a difference, there is the option of booking a fare that has no change penalties and then paying the difference from that

To me it would be irrational of an airline just to ignore the fare rules

This would seem that the airline will just not charge the service fee for a telephone change rather than that the airline will ignore the change fees

nux

By this logic would you expect QF to upgrade you if you offered $260 extra each instead? I mean there is a spare seat in business so why shouldn't they take your money..

The cost for you to upgrade is $460, but for someone who hasn't booked yet the extra cost is only $360.
Basically QF has you booked and in a paid seat already, and is offering new customers a discount on booking business straight up. If anything, this is how QF makes money.

wayoutwest

Dave Noble - NZ do not charge any extra to go from economy to business regardless of what fare you booked. They see it as not a fare change but a product change from Y to J.
Nux - I am not offering them anything other than what there system tells me is the difference is price between the products. Sure they also saying they want cahnmge fee and I am saying no. Thats is why I see them loosing, may not be strictly a good arguement, but I am asking to change product not not fare.

Never mind lesson learned, must double check before booking or just go staright to what I want and stick with it, as after all like some one pointed out, logic and the airline industry does not seem to go hand in hand which is why last minute fares are so high, they would rather fly with empty seats than take less than full fare.
I'll stick to my day job 'cos i ain't ever gonna be able to unnnerstand money things.

RooFlyer

So?

If I find a situation where I am asked to pay more than I think reasonable (rightly or wrongly), then its bad in my book.

But each to their own. Maybe if you were in the same situation you might think it 'good' ?

ExecPlatinum_Lord

AA no longer charges a change fee when upgrading to a higher cabin. One simply pays the fare difference.

This is a "recent" change, I believe I saw it on "the other board"; perhaps a year or so ago.

And I can attest - we had booked a DFW/LAX fare in a discounted Y bucket; planning to use stickers or an expiring SWU to upgrade our 2 seats. About 2 weeks before our travel date; they had a discounted F fare available that was literally $80 more than our discounted Y. Rang the EXP desk, they upgraded us, took $160+ taxes ($80 for 2 tickets); and no change for reissuing the ticket

BD1959

[Pedant=on]

Does Qantas "loose" money? I thought the latest industry analysts had them making a similar profit this year to last year.

OK, so QFi may be in the red, but the change fee - I'm pretty sure - is common across all units which actually make money.

[Pedant=off]

Regards,

BD

Dave Noble

Just because something isn't good for you, it is not a reason to start trying to suggest that this is bad for the company which is the suggested assertion ( assuming that the OP meant to use "lose" rather than "loose" )