ljwalvin

Hi guys,

I'm due to fly out on a RTW ticket on April 12th. I'll be travelling through Europe (London, Paris, Prague and Croatia) before heading to the US. In light of the current Covid-19 situation, I'm not sure if I should still be travelling. I'm pretty sure if I proceeded with my current itinerary, I would not be allowed entry into the US anyway.

have tried to message Qantas on FB but have yet to receive a response. The information on the website pointed me to "Manage your booking" in my itinerary. I am unable to re-schedule/postpone my flights online. As such, my question is, would I be entitled to a refund of the points+taxes I paid to QF in light of the current situation or would I be able to re-schedule my flights? Any response would be much appreciated!

Dave Noble

The cancellation penalty is only 6000 points anyway ( see https://www.qantas.com/au/en/frequen...l#fee-schedule )

if any of the flights in itinerary have been cancelled, then you would be entitled to cancel without the penalty - you would get any taxes and fares-disguised-as-taxes/charges refunded

og

Not only will it be hard to get into the USA, but finding an aircraft to get you there may be even harder.

Mwenenzi

In a months time when you are due to fly, would expect the situation will be very different to now/last month
Are any of your scheduled flights cancelled/changed?
The next week or so will be busy time for all airline agents. They will be dealing with people flying in the new few days/week. Flights a month way will be down the list of those to attend to.

minz56

You don't need to cancel this for another three weeks or so - even if you have already decided not to travel. Check your booking daily for any schedule changes/flight cancellations. If that happens request a full refund of points/taxes from QF.

Worst case scenario is you suffer a 6000 points penalty per ticket.

ljwalvin

Thanks for all your input guys. I'm just gonna sit and wait till closer to the date before deciding. Qantas has allowed for a travel credit and I have also booked hotels through Qantas. Would anyone happen to know if Qantas Hotels would fall under the same travel credit policy as well?

friedablass

No intention of hijacking this thread, but I'd like to clarify if I understand this correctly. Are you saying that if there is a schedule change to an award flight, I can cancel it for full points refund? If yes, can I do it online or do I have to call?

My flight on Elal to TLV is next week and I am obviously not planning to fly since their borders are closed. Over the past few days I was automatically rebooked multiple times on alternate flights due to most flights being canceled and consolidated. The latest rebooking was actually for the following day of my original booked date. So I believe I'm definitely eligible for full refund and would like to request that, just want to know if I can do so online penalty free as I am loathe to wait on hold on the phone for 2-3+ hours only to be connected to a tired worn out rep (not that I blame them...).

Another question I have is that there is an option to request a voucher when canceling online, so I want to know exactly what am I getting if I select that? I understand that for a cash booking you get the dollar amount to use towards another booking, but what happens in case of a Classic Reward?

Appreciate any insight!

minz56

A one day schedule change should be enough to get the cancellation penalty waived, but you will have to call. You can cancel it online but you will be charged the cancellation penalty. If you cancel a Classic Flight Reward you will get the points credited back to your account, and the taxes/fees back to the form of payment used to pay for them. This all assumes that travel has not yet begun on the award ticket ....

If you have a cash ticket then what happens depends of whether your flight has been cancelled or not and when you are due to travel. Here you will find QF's latest on this:

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/travel-...estic-bookings

friedablass

Thank you for the quick response. Ok, so I will call to get the miles refunded in full.

Regarding cancel for voucher option, I don't have any cash booking. I have a few Classic awards booked to/from TLV which I cannot use because foreigners are not allowed into Israel so I can't go and obviously nor can I return. Those bookings have an option to cancel for refund or voucher. I know what I get if I select refund, however what will I get if I select voucher since I didn't pay cash for the booking?

minz56

OK, I see. I would deal with all of them when you call QF.

friedablass

Thanks again.

The day prior to posting my initial question I had called Qantas and after holding for 3+ hours I gave up. I decided before calling again to ask here on FT to see if calling could be avoided. However, unfortunately as noted in your response it cannot be.

So last night I called again - initially was told by system that the wait was 1:06 to 1:27 hour, actual wait time was 2+ hours. When I finally was connected to a rep, as expected he sounded tired and worn out and was also completely clueless to boot. He kept telling me I can get a voucher to use until end of September but had no idea what form that voucher would be in.

So I told him I will just take a full refund of miles since the flight change to the following day was not acceptable to me - IMO these flights will be canceled completely anyway because Israel is in lockdown so demand is close to zero. I gave him all my booking references for outbound and inbound travel and he said it would be taken care of. As of this moment every single one of my bookings are still alive and kicking, none have been canceled.

If I had just one booking for 1 passenger I would eat the 6k miles. However, I have multiple bookings with multiple passengers on each and am not willing to eat that many 6k fees.

I'm back listening to hold music. Stated hold time 1:24 to 1:47 hour.

ljwalvin

Hi guys,

I had a flight from Adelaide to Doha on QR915 on as part of my RTW itinerary but it seems to have dropped off the system. I'm suspecting that it probably got cancelled.
I had booked the flights early last year before QF points were devalued. I had paid 280K points per person and I think now you'd need 318K points (thereabouts) for a RTW on J class.

I understand that I am entitled to a travel credit for my flights or a cancellation of my flights. Should I wish to receive a travel credit, would I then have to top up the balance in points and taxes when I wish to travel? My other option is to cancel them altogether and I'd be getting back my 280K and any taxes I have paid.

However, my flight from Adelaide to Doha is missing from the itinerary and if I were to request for a refund/travel credit, I would not be getting that portion the taxes/points back? This whole situation seems a bit confusing and Qantas seems to be swamped at the moment!

Thanks guys!

minz56

I too am a little confused that award bookings are going to be converted to vouchers (presumably for the points used and the $ amount of taxes paid) as I assumed they would cancel an award booking and credit the points back to your FF account, refund the taxes/fees and waive the cancellation fee. Someone else has suggested the same thing (ie the voucher option) so I really don't know what is correct. The only way to find out is to call QF however painful that may be. When is your first flight? If you can hold off calling they would appreciate it.

One thing I can be reasonably sure of is that to re-book the RTW itinerary you will have to pay the higher points amount. With cash bookings they clearly state that change fees will be waived but any fare difference will be payable, and I am fairly sure award bookings will be the same.

Mwenenzi

When is your QR915 flight? Other flights on your RTW may also not be operating.
Depending on dates would wait for a few weeks. The cancelling-rebooking may have settled down by then
As a QF points booking you could ask [email protected], but would not expect a fast response.

Edit
QR forum post by OP--->QR 915

friedablass

I tried emailing last week and have yet to receive a reply. If your flight is in a few weeks and don't mind waiting for an unknown amount of time that may be a good option, however if it's in a few days like mine were, then calling and listening to hold music for eons of time is unfortunately the only option.

The voucher option seemed confusing to me too and I couldn't get clear answers to my questions such as if the difference from the old award chart to the new would apply.

Given the fact that I booked in June 2019 my voucher would only be valid until June 2020 and needs to be flown by then. Since I have no idea if we will even be able to fly by then and there was uncertainty regarding many aspects of the voucher option, as I already mentioned I opted for canceling and having the miles redeposited at no fee. I know when I rebook I definitely will be paying the increased mileage amount, but to me that's minimal pain against all the other hardships currently being entailed by myself and others (such as kids having no school indefinitely ).

As of now, all but 1 of my bookings are no longer showing in my account so I'm assuming they've been successfully canceled. The miles are not yet back in my account though - cancellations done yesterday afternoon. I'll give it another day, I anyway will need to call again to get that 1 un- canceled booking canceled and refunded.

Best of luck to everyone in re-arranging their upcoming travel plans in these uncertain times.