Cancelling return leg implications
 

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help in this scenario. My wife is looking to travel from London to Australia over November this year, returning after Christmas. I'll fly out solo in December and join her on the way back but I'm not sure about my dates just yet.

If we book the economy classic ticket outbound, and the comfort ticket back, can we cancel the return leg penalty free without any impact on the outbound leg? Or will the outbound leg be impacted (either in terms of pricing or cancellation?

I'm just concerned qatar might be too expensive by the time i know my dates and am ready to book. One way in November is fairly reasonable atm so could stick to tha, but return fare for 1200 is too good to pass up on.

If you cancel the return before flying the outbound, the ticket will be repriced at the lowest available one way fare on the day you make the change. Changing the date of the return before flying the outbound may also result in the whole ticket being repriced at that day's prices. There may also be a change or cancellation penalty to pay, which could be whatever the most restrictive fare rule states for the penalties.

If you amend the return after flying the outbound, it should be repriced at the rates available on the day you made the booking. But your cheap fare bucket may not be available anymore by then so you might have to pay a hefty fare difference, plus any change penalty.

If you cancel the return after flying the outbound, QR may notionally reprice the outbound as a one way and reduce the refund accordingly, and again subject to the penalties in the fare rules.

There's not really any way for one direction not to be affected in some way by changes to the other, unless you buy separate one way fares. This applies to redemptions as well so it is often more flexible to book those as one ways and is no different in price. Changes to redemption tickets are however subject to there being availability for new redemption tickets on the day you make the change, which can be tricky.

So no clear answer for you there I'm afraid. Whether you book now or later there's some degree of gamble involved if your dates are likely to change

Thanks.

I don't understand why they bother charging different amounte for different ticket types for each leg and saying the leg is 100% refundable. Am I not understanding something or is paying for a fully refundable leg pointless?

If the whole ticket was fully flexible and refundable then you would get all of the unused part back. But if it has a combination of fare rules, as you are planning, then you would get all of the unused fully refundable part back MINUS any repricing and penalties for changing the sectors that were not fully refundable or flexible.

A return ticket is not like two singles, and converting the discounted outbound of a return to a one way incurs the associated fare increase and penalties, irrespective of whether there are further penalties or not for cancelling the return.

Cheap tickets are cheap for a reason - usually including less flexibility and higher penalties. The way to separate the return from the restrictions and penalties of a cheap outbound is to buy them as separate tickets.

This policy is normal with all airlines to stop people circumventing the restrictions that make the cheap sectors cheap in the way you were planning.

Here is a guide to all of the restrictions and charges:

https://www.qatarairways.com/tradepo...d-Charges.html


Perhaps an easier way to think of it without all the airline speak is like this....

You go to a shop and they tell you that one item is $8 but you can have two for $10. So it sounds good, $5 each. Plus you can bring the second one back for a refund if you later decide you don't want it.

But when you take the second one back they tell you the refund is $2 rather than $5. The second item is still fully refundable but because you have now kept only one item you have to pay $8 for that one instead of the net $5 for buying two.

Airline tickets are the same. Single tickets cost more per sector than returns, and on top of any fare difference are the fare rule penalties for changing it. It’s normal business in pretty much any sector I can think of.

That is a wonderful analogy.