tinkybelle

I do know the T and Cs.
I always tell everyone that if you have a partner airline in a FF ticket that it is not changeable under any circumstances once travel has commenced.
but
A collegue of mine booked 2 RTWs in F just before the change. she flew last week to Scotland.She arrived at her brotherinlaws(hew travel companion- her husbands brother)they knocked on the door.
no answer they went away and when they came back the police were breaking in.
the brother had died in bed a few days before.
obviously there was a post mortem and therefore she has to change flights.
she wanted to cancel 2 internal europe flights and she would pay to fly to pick them up.

Qantas said.
see your insurer. if you are not on those flights we will cancel the lot.its out of our control.
If you change or do not show for one then throw the rest away!

Just to let you all know to be careful.

IainF

Bl00dy hell that is a bit harsh!!!!

Tinkybelle, if I were them i would certainly appeal to qantas head office in Australia.

I hope all goes well in this situation.
Iain

tinkybelle

We have called numerous people here in oz for them.
No dice.

absolutely NO!

she is on a standby ticket to portugal to pickup the flight. couldnt stay for the funeral even!

BronzedAussie

That sort of mentality really makes my blood boil!

I would be writing a letter directly to Jenny Chamberlain ([email protected] - GM Customer Loyalty) outlining the extremely disappointing customer service that your colleague has received! ACA or 60 minutes would have a field day with a story like this, especially seeing she wasn't able to stay for the funeral without (I presume) being stuck in Scotland.

abcedaria

Yes, because ACA and 60 minutes are both such respected shows for their well researched and neutral reporting. Why not Today Tonight? That way that wonderfully plastic woman Naomi can get angry, and we can see botox at work.

Similar situations have happened to people I know. A death in the family lead to the need to immediatley change award tickets. One's insurance covered the change, and paid for repatriation for the funeral, and the continuation of the journey after that. The second person I know of did not have insurance, and had to forgo all future sectors of the trip. I do believe they eventually got a credit for the points however.

Is this really a customer service issue? We all are given the T & C's. While I'm sure we all sympathise with the situation, I personally don't find this bad customer service. Perhaps not what a customer would be happy with, but is this in any way going back on an agreed outcome of an award ticket? I guess the argument is how far we expect company's to bend rules for extenuating circumstances.

willyroo

Absolutely - and that's why I tell anyone who cares to listen (many don't) about the importance of travel insurance.

QF make it VERY clear what the terms and conditions are on both revenue and award tickets. On every E-Ticket or paper ticket I get from Qantas, the words "Travel Insurance" are highly visible.

A timely reminder, tinkybelle - thank you.

lokijuh

It is worth noting that many travel insurances have a multitude of restrictions relating to the circumstances in which claims can be made due to death of relatives. In particular most (all?) exclude deaths from pre-existing medical conditions, and many do not provide coverage if the relative is over 80 years of age.

Regarding the OP, had a situation that the last leg of a FF award trip needed changing due to funeral attendance reasons, and QF absolutely refused to do anything about it (as per their T&C). However, AA (who the flight was on) were much more reasonable and after explaining the circumstances, they agreed to change the flight subject to T class availability on the new flight - which there was so they made the changes. Although they noted that "it would depend on the airport staff whether they allow you to be carried".

BronzedAussie

Exactly my point. Yes we are all aware of the terms and conditions of award travel but seeing as the extenuating circumstances requiring the change of ticket mean that the person travelling would otherwise miss a relatives funeral, I would have thought that they would at least give a response of "we will see what we can do" rather than an outright "no, see your travel insurer".

I totally agree with Willyroo though in that travel insurance is an absolute necessity, I would not even contemplate going o/s without it.

Dave Noble

I agree with the Roo. This is definately a situation where a call to the Travel Insurance company is in order. Most policies that I have come across cover this sort of situation.

Contacting people like Today Tonight, ACA et al.. the bastions of even handed fair reporting .. "Do you still beat up your wife Yes/NO?" type questions whilst hassling people on the street to tell them that Qantas followed its rules with ticketing seems silly to me

Dave

og

Some ticket rules allow changes or refund if due to death of traveller or partner (or whatever) - but these are clearly stated in the rules. My experience of a family death whilst overseas saw nothing but sympathy and help beyond expectation by AS and QF staff - but we were purchasing tickets rather than trying to make changes or cancellations. Staff went out of their way to get us the cheapest fares for immediate travel when they could have sold us fares at full Y prices.

mikalee

With respect... a second timely reminder to ensure you have a quality travel insurance policy in place.

Most people buy their travel insurance based on price - my view is you get what you pay for and as for any insurance policies/companies, you don't discover their true value until you need them most!

Globaliser

I didn't completely understand whether the issue was over changing a flight, or whether the idea was to skip a couple of short sectors to accommodate the funeral and then catching up (at the pax's own expense) with the rest of the ticket on its originally booked dates.

If it's the latter, it is extraordinarily harsh in the circumstances to require the passenger to fly all the booked sectors at the penalty of canx the rest of the ticket on any no-show. It's a very different kettle of fish from changing the booked dates of a ticket that was known to be a travel-or-bust ticket.

tinkybelle

You got it in one.
they wanted to skip 1 or 2 sectors(man-lisbon-vienna) buy a ticket and catch up in Vienna and complete the trip.
Qantas would not let them cancel 2 sectors. every other date was the same!
We called for her here and she called the UK both would not accommodate except to cancel the whole trip.
I was not on here having a winge-I was just reminding people that this sort of thing can happen.I think it is not good practice but it is the T and Cs and that is why I am booking people seperate tickets to and fro europe on FF now.it may be 5k to cancel but at least there is a bit of flexability!I always discus with them-but whenever there is a BA or AA flight involved I am apprehensive to book a return

QF WP

Maybe subconsciously that's why I haven't booked an Award ticket for 4 or 5 years, I just pay the economy and upgrade sectors as I need. Makes even more sense to me now...

og

I have no hesitation in booking award tickets, I just make sure I have a couple of days buffer before taking another flight - just in case of a stuff-up somewhere.