Delay Advice
 

Wondering whether i could seek some advice from the experienced people of the Qantas Forum!
I am a Qantas Club/Silver FF. Today I was returning from MEL and was originally booked on QF440/04Dec MEL/SYD at 1430. Due to a cancelled meeting, i arrived at MEL airport at 1200, approached the Ticket Desk and enquired about the possibility of an earlier flight. The fare type i was on (Red-e, i think) did not allow changes on the day of departure, so if i wanted to change, i needed to purchase a new ticket. The helpful agent advised i could travel on QF434 at 1300 for a total of A$157.70.
This was a good deal to get home 90 minutes ahead of my original plan. Ticket issued and boarding pass done, I headed for the Qantas Club.
On entering, I noticed the boarding time of QF434 was 1340, which would mean a delay of at least an hour. I approached the service desk to see whether i could get on the 1230 flight, to be told that they were just about to cancel that flight, so i should stay with QF434.
Anyway, QF434 eventually departed at 1431 and arrived in SYD at 1552.
My orginal flight QF440 departed at 1431 and arrived in SYD at 1556.
Is there any point writing to anyone at Qantas. It just seems ridiculous that i purchased a new ticket only to leave at exactly the same time.
Any advise would be appreciated.
Cheers

You can try, but my senses tell me you may not get anything out of the deal.

It is a bitter pill, but the fact remains is that you changed flights under your own volition. The fact that the flight you changed to got delayed is irrelevant. (At least until some legislation comes in place which will directly charge any airline for compensation of sorts if they do not deliver a flight on time.)

I doubt you'll get far with any complaint, but the key point to me seems to be whether the ticket for QF434 was sold to you with the ticketing agent knowing, or reasonably should have known, it was already delayed at the time?

I have no idea if the ticketing counter has up to date info of that nature, but if they do, and the flight was already delayed, then that is tough at best, and shameful on their part at worst (note this is a big 'if', and I by no means suggest this is what happened).

If there is any way of establishing that the flight was already delayed when the ticket counter sold you the ticket for the 1300 departure then maybe you'll have a case, but I think chances are slim.

In any case, you were stiff!

Chalk it up to experience.

For future reference you should ask nicely at the Qantas Club if you can be brought forward to an earlier flight (providing you have no checked bags). If QF are having delays often they will change your flight free of charge at the QC if they have a) been told "to bring passengers forward", b) if seats are available and c) you have no checked bags.

Delays this week I understand to have been caused by ATC calling in sick (again).

I think chalking it up to experince is the best advice. Some agents are better than others; I have the feeling the one who served you looked at fare availability, not timeliness. If they had, they might have already noticed it was delayed.

However, the OP purchased a 'pig in a poke'. If that 90 minutes was important then a quick check of the monitors would have provided sufficient information to make an informed decision.

For future cases, I would suggest booking a flexi saver for the flights home if you want to hop on to earlier flights if you get out of business eary

Dave

Don't bother
 

I was on the 12:30 flight which was cancelled after the pilot noticed an engine problem half way down the runway. The 1:30 flight was also cancelled. I was re-accomodated on the 4pm service - and I was lucky!- so given yesterdays events I think you are probably better off leaving it. Put it down to bad luck. I don't think QF will compensate for a plane being delayed by one hour. At the end of the day it was your choice to change flights- (At least that is how they will see it).

This is good advice. I book the cheaper flight going and the flexisaver coming home - same deal with qantaslink/Jetstar/Virgin. This way, when I am early or the flights are changed as some of the examples in this thread highlight, then you are almost first in line at the Qantas club when you need a flight change.

I have known people that have been in positions where they have had to buy an extra ticket for one reason or another, and a letter explaining what happened has sometimes resulted in a refund or credit for the airfare. I would suggest writing a letter and explaining what happened as above, and they may come through (or they may not), but doesn't seem to be harm in asking

Indeed, fixed out and flexible back is a good way of doing it imo. I can be fairly fixed on my outbound but like to come back as soon as ready

Dave

The other advantage of flexible fares coming back is you normally double your SC's for that leg which means you get to the next level of airline status quicker.

Only true for domestic in Australia. Even very expensive flexible fares on doemstic in NZ earn only discount SCs :td:

I used to subscribe to the fixed out flexi return theory but to stretch my travel budget further I have changed to fixed/ fixed without any issues. QF rebook in times of cancellation/ delay based on status not fare class (from personal experience). So I havent had any issues with fixed/ fixed from this perspective. Actually I have found QF to be very good about the occasional free change at the QC to an earlier flight, or good at advising me to stay on the plane I am on rather than risking a change.

With the recent sales I have been able to double the reach of my travel budget by booking fixed rather than flexi meaning I get to fly twice as often for the same number of status credits. :-)

Even if this is the case, which I don't think really since if there are disruptions it would seem that they will allow anyone to change, it doesn't handle the general situation where non flexible ticket holders will not get away earlier

I tend to know the worst case departure time I will need and book that; frequently I am away earlier than that and to just be able to turn up and go at the airport I find to be well worth it

Dave

Most of the time if a delay or cancellation of flight leaves you in the drink, QF will reaccommodate you without much trouble, although there are some odd caveats with it and it is not consistent.

• NZ tends to handle this better than AU
• Status has a subtle effect on success here
• In some cases they will waive the change fee (i.e. surcharge when changing a Red e-Deal), but not the fare difference
• It's best to know precisely what you want to change to - the less you look like you're stuffing around the agent handling your change, the more likely they'll process you without a fuss

Sometimes, however, it's just a lottery. I met a young British backpacker at BNE who was travelling to ASP via SYD, and I believe her ticket was Red e-Deal and she had no status (not even QF or BA membership). Nevertheless, the QuickCheck machine did make a note to recommend her if she wanted to change to an earlier flight (which she declined).

My best guess is that in the event of voluntary change requests, agents will check flights and if there is a possibility of a change without impacting too much on loads and/or buckets, they will do this seamlessly, else standard procedures and charges will apply.