dbuckho

My family and I are heading to Australia in late July using QF miles – 4 x J Classic Awards. We are flying in/out of BNE. Would have preferred into BNE and back from somewhere else or vice-versa but made the bookings before Australia officially announced its opening – so at the time I booked, domestic connections were not offered even if award space was available (I believe because of the quarantine requirements). Not a big deal – happy enough to find 4 business seats each way.

We were scheduled on QF 56 departing LAX 10:20 AM arriving BNE 5:40 PM + 1 day. Once Australia announced its opening and domestic travel rules became clearer, I worked out an itinerary for our 18 days, starting with booking us BNE – AYQ on JetStar – separate ticket – for 8:30 AM on +day 2 from the inbound flight and booked us overnight at the Pullman BNE. Figured it was an ok idea given we were set to arrive the night before.

Of course, then QF cancelled QF56 and re-accommodated us on QF 16 LAX – BNE 12 hours later – departing 9:40 PM arriving 5:00 AM + 2 days. And then on top of it JQ moved up the flight to Uluru 30 minutes to 8:00 AM. If we are on time, we will probably be ok with a 3-hour international to domestic connection, but if we miss the connection, it throws off our trip quite a bit. And my worry level will be sky high between now and then, not to mention I was looking forward to getting a night’s sleep before getting back on a plane with our two kids after the 14 hour ride there.

Re-scheduling our domestic flights BNE-AYQ; AYQ-SYD; and CBR-BNE would be cost neutral right now, but currently there is not hotel availability in Uluru for the possible rescheduled dates (BNE-AYQ is not daily – so it leaves limited options). Still working on a few alternative itineraries – i.e. reversing our order, or maybe we go to/from AYQ from Sydney as the flights are daily, which opens up some available AYQ hotel dates. But since my current AYQ hotel/car can be cancelled day of arrival and my JQ flights were pretty cheap, I think my plan B is really just skip Uluru, eat the JQ cost (about $800) and make our way to Sydney if we are late. Any other options will cost more as hotel and car in AYQ is now much higher vs. when I booked. That said it would be 100% better if we could be re-accommodated to an earlier flight instead of what they gave us.

This happened about two weeks ago (10 weeks to departure), and as soon as I got the notice I spent the hours to call a couple times (average hold time 90 mins, with at least 2 hang-ups about 20 mins in each time) – but each CSR I got said there would have to be 4 Classic Awards available on QF16 the day before to move us up 12 hours vs. their accommodating us back 12 hours. I pushed back on that idea since there were not 4 J awards open on the flight they moved us too. But no one I got via phone was willing to take any further action – i.e. submit to a supervisor or revenue management for consideration of moving us earlier due to the significant schedule change.

After that I submitted appeals via the contact form, email, and twitter – no response after a week. I then forwarded my request to every email on Elliott Advocacy – not sure if that did the trick or someone finally got back to me 9 days later from my original email/form submissions – but I did get a call from Australia and someone submitted a request for me. For about 2 days this past weekend I could see the earlier flight in my bookings online, so was hopeful – but then it disappeared yesterday. Someone did try to call me from Australia about the time is disappeared, but my phone did not properly pickup – no message or attempt to call me again (and if I call the number back, I just get the general queue). But I assume they were calling to tell me the request had been denied.

Do I have anywhere else to go with this? I know it could be worse – i.e. just refunding the miles with no reaccommodating. Then we would probably be re-scheduling the entire trip. But this is flyertalk after-all – must at least try everything possible to get what one prefers!

I was hoping Qantas might work like SQ – I have had a lot of success ticketing a Saver Award and waitlisting for a different flight – and it being granted about a month out. But looks like you cannot keep an award waitlisted with QF? We are flexible to go up to a few days earlier, even on short notice – any chance that much award availability opens up +14 days? Or any quicker way then emailing the CEO’s office to resubmit a request to consider opening inventory as the date gets closer?

Does the A330 have internet access in case we leave late and I already know I need to cancel/reschedule stuff? Or any tips for the connection at BNE if we are on-time?

Dave Noble

As far as it goes, QF has met its obligations by rebooking you on the next flight. Obviously you can refund instead

For the involuntary reroute, award space was not required since Qantas had to rebook. For a voluntary chamge award availability is required,

There is no internet on international QF flights
There is no waitlisting for award bookings - you are, I suspect, unlikely to get 4 business award seats pop up
3 hours should be plenty of time to connect - if you are delayed derparting the USA, perhaps get online or call before departure

og

If you really want to email the CEO’s office, I’d suggest restricting your request to a few lines only. And in any case, you’d be lucky if the request was actioned rather than flicked. Sorry.

dbuckho

The message I sent was pretty short -- a forward of the flight change notification email with two lines explaining that while I appreciated being put on the next flight, that it created a very short connection vs. getting in the night before, and then another line with a request to be accommodated on the flight 12 hours earlier vs. 12 hours later given how significant a change it is.

My assumption is some staff member reads the executive emails. As I said, I actually got a call back shortly after that -- but I have no idea if it was related to the executive emails or just the regular frequent flier/customer care team finally getting back to me. My money is on the latter given how hard it is to get hold of anyone at Qantas these days - I can see it taking 9 days to get to my original submission and respond.

I understand they met their commitment - pretty much said that in my original post. I guess it just depends on when involuntary becomes voluntary - i.e. when I made my first two calls, I had not accepted the change, so I still considered myself involuntary impacted at that point - and my question was if they could put me on the later flight, why not the earlier flight? Same difference on their end in terms of opening up seats. That said, when I got the third call from the person who did submit the earlier flight request for me, they said I needed to accept the change first so they could then submit to whoever they were sending it to -- so I guess at that point I technically moved to requesting a voluntary change.

hansyuwiwb

Based on your description of schedules your original LAXBNE flight must have been on a Sunday or a Tuesday. If it’s a Sunday you are going to have a hard time getting them to change you to QF16 departing on a Saturday night - there’s a reason why your award was available on QF56 that being traditionally the westbound schedule is always an redeye so aussies don’t like the daytime flights.

What you can try is to ask them for QF18 - it’s LAXSYD on a Sunday departing in the morning at a similar time to your original QF56 and it’s unlikely to be heavily booked. They will probably be unwilling to reroute you just Sydney so you’d have to do SYDBNE, but at least you’d get there the night before for your peace of mind. If I were you I’d push for this option as you have a stronger case for it - same departure time on the same calendar day and will more likely be successful

dbuckho

It was a Sunday flight.

Appreciate the response/idea -- LAX-SYD-BNE would have worked if granted. But over the weekend rooms opened up at Uluru so just decided to push everything back 2 days. Have changed 2 of our 3 domestic flights so far at a cost just over $200 USD for 8 tickets. But now we have one less hotel night to pay for which saved about $400, and a few existing hotel reservations were significantly cheaper when I shifted the dates -- so at this point coming out ahead on the cost of changes. Though the last flight change might wipe out those savings - but hopefully just back to cost neutral.

However the total cost ends up, my stress is gone - so worth the changes.

downtheback.

When you get to LAX, you should be able to check in all the way thru. YMMV.

nancypants

Not sure that will work on jetstar. Also unlikely to save a huge amount of time due to needing to clear customs in BNE

dbuckho

Should have been clearer - still have the Sunday night QF16 flight they re-accommodated us to, arriving early AM Tuesday. Pushed the rest of our itinerary back two days -- so now have Tuesday/Wednesday in Brisbane before flying to Uluru Thursday.

If we had kept the 3 hour connection, my understanding - since they are separate tickets - is that we would have had to collect our bags on arrival at BNE, take the bus, and then check in with JQ at the domestic terminal. I had asked one of the QF agents if they could link the PNRs thinking it might offer some sort of protection if QF16 was late -- but they were unable to see the JQ booking with the reference number I provided.

newyorkaviation

Did you email Alan Joyce? What's his email, want to ask him to bring the JFK flight back

Dave Noble

You would have to collect bags at Brisbane and taken the bus even with a through ticket - the only difference is that if you missed the onward flight due to a problem with the inbound flight, you would be entitled to be rebooked

Linking records would make no difference. A separate booking would still be a separate booking. If you missed the Jetstar flight, that would have been your problem to fix

Having a day in Brisbane is a sensible on separate tickets

dbuckho

Google "Qantas" and "Elliott Advocacy" -- several executive emails listed there including two possibilities for Alan Joyce. That said I don't think you need to email him for that -- didn't they just announce an A350 order with an aim to re-launch JFK-SYD non-stop by 2025? Or perhaps you are asking for the LAX-JFK segment to come back, which I think is doubtful given the long-term direction for the non-stop.

I think it keeps getting missed when people read this thread (about emailing the executives). Yes, after submitting the online contact form, reaching out via twitter, and emailing Qantas frequent flier, and then not hearing back for 9 days I did forward my email to all the email addresses Elliott Advocacy lists for Qantas. And very shortly thereafter I received a call from someone in Australia. That person was experienced enough to submit a request to open up space on the Saturday flight for me (i.e. it was listed as one of my upcoming flights for a couple days but not ticketed, before disappearing).

But I have no idea if that call had anything to do with my emailing the executive email addresses or not. It could have just been someone finally getting back to me from my original form submission or email to Qantas Frequent Flier.