Advice Needed: QF Award Booking Changed
 

Hi

New here so please be gentle. I recently booked a QF F award on QF/EK MEL-BNE-DXB-GVA in December 2020. This week I was notified that my flights have changed, which seems to be because Emirates changed their schedule and EK435 (BNE-DXB) is no longer operating on the day I was planning to travel. I was re-booked on EK435 two days earlier (which is fine) and EK89 (DXB-GVA) two days after my original flight, resulting in a 4-day layover in DXB.

I called Qantas to change my booking and asked whether I can be booked on the next available flight EK89 DXB-GVA after EK435 BNE-DXB arrives in DXB. EK89 is scheduled to operate on that day and the itinerary (3-hr layover in DXB) can be booked on the QF website. I was told this isn't possible as there is no award space on EK89 on this day and I can only re-book on flights where the same booking class is available. The options I was given were to cancel the ticket or re-book on a BA Y award via SYD-SIN-LHR, which I would like to avoid.

Does anyone have experience with a similar situation and is it correct that QF award tickets can only be changed if the same booking class is available, even in cases where the airline changes my booking?

Many thanks in advance.

There is nothing preventing the QF Call Centre from contacting EK to see if they will release seats on your preferred dates/flights.

If you were to cancel QF award flights, just be aware that the points are not returned to your account immediately. There are reports of waiting for weeks/months, currently. I have been waiting for over four weeks. I only mention this in case you do not have sufficient points in your QFF account to cover a new award booking.

Thanks a lot for your reply. I called Qantas twice today. First time I received the same response as before. Second time they proactively offered to change my booking to fly from DXB to GVA on the day I wanted ... Seems a bit random to me but I'm glad it worked out.

Good that it worked out in the end.

It’s the luck of the draw as to which QF Call Centre you get connected to. Manila and Cape Town I find to be generally very ordinary. Auckland and Hobart are very good. The first three are open 24/7. Hobart operates from 7.00am to 11.00pm daily (AEST).

Welcome to FT.

Are you permanently departing Australia?

I hope the QLD border is open by then!

Being in transit DOM to INTL the QLD border is not an issue other than a major inconvenience, and the requirement to fill out a border declaration pass.

https://www.bne.com.au/passenger/pas...19-coronavirus

KF

Wouldn't the exemption to actually leave Australia (assuming your a resident) be the biggest inconvenience.

I’ve got a tag on question to this if that’s ok- if QF schedule changes you to the extent that the fare is now Eligible to be refunded, is there a time limit in which one is able to wait to decide?

i booked EK F MXP-JFK on QF points and got downgraded to J from an equipment change which leads me to no longer want to fly this itinerary - I’m hoping to hold out for them to re-upgauge the flight back to a plane with F and just move me back but am unsure if I should just cancel and refund it and wait for the long refund process and chance no F space comes around or sit on it until closer in (Mar 2021).

also it seems from OP that if I wanted to request MXP-DXB-JFK in F as an alternative that they would have to call in to request space be opened

Personally I would be quite happy getting such a downgrade.

If you travel, then you are entitled to a 75% refund of the points and carrier surcharge paid , so makes for a pretty cheap trip

If you don't want to travel in business, I would suggest getting the refund now - I suspect the likelihood of it switching back is low and, even if it did, it isn't guaranteed that the airline would rebook into 1st

That is a great point. I had totally blanked on EC261. I’ll have to double check how it’s being handled in a post COVID world, thanks for the thoughts!

no change to EC261 due to COVID-19