Earlier this week I changed a flight after a conference I am attending, in the UK in May, firmed up its dates. I had booked the return ticket last year during the August double Status Credit period, and chose Flex fares as I knew that at least one of the flights would need to change.
After confirming with a very pleasant member (Kevin?) at the Qantas call centre (16:30pm, got straight through!!!) that I would NOT lose the original booking reference number, which I believe is the link to the double Status Credits attribution, I went ahead and changed the flight out of Sydney online.
When I got to the part of the booking where the fare adjustment happens I was somewhat perplexed by what I found. If I stayed with a Flex fare, I would be given a refund of about $24 (I was actually expecting to PAY a bit more, even though I realised that the act of changing the flight date on a Flex fare was to all intents fee free). But even more surprising was that I was offered the option of making it a Saver fare, in which case I could get a refund of just under $500!! I went ahead and kept the Flex, just in case, and to keep the SC's, but I don't really understand why it was even offered.
I figure that I got value out of booking the Flex fare just by being able to change the flight date. It would seem to me to be double dipping to take advantage of Flex and then downgrading the fare type to Saver.
Can anyone tell me what that was all about? And if it has happened to you, and you opted for the change down to Saver, was there anything else to report other than the reduced SC's and, I presume, points? Was I a mug for not grabbing the dosh, given I will easily hit my platinum SC's re-up requirement anyway?
Fare adjustments are fairly common and they can go either way. Being offered a saver fare is a new one though, maybe abut loads in each class. Note a flex fare gives cheaper better upgrade chances so I tend to use flex fares for upgrades.
This is the first time I have had to alter a flight like this, and the option to downgrade to Saver seemed like a bit of an anomaly to me. I didn't want to compromise the booking by messing with it too much.
I had to re-select my seat on the new flight, and was lucky enough to get the same (but opposite) bulkhead window seat on the upper deck. I am not sure what this says about the loading, but was pretty surprised and happy that it was available!
And yes, keeping the Flex was also in part due to the improved chance of an upgrade :-)
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kanga9999
kanga9999
Member since 09 Apr 2017
Total posts 63
Hi,
Earlier this week I changed a flight after a conference I am attending, in the UK in May, firmed up its dates. I had booked the return ticket last year during the August double Status Credit period, and chose Flex fares as I knew that at least one of the flights would need to change.
After confirming with a very pleasant member (Kevin?) at the Qantas call centre (16:30pm, got straight through!!!) that I would NOT lose the original booking reference number, which I believe is the link to the double Status Credits attribution, I went ahead and changed the flight out of Sydney online.
When I got to the part of the booking where the fare adjustment happens I was somewhat perplexed by what I found. If I stayed with a Flex fare, I would be given a refund of about $24 (I was actually expecting to PAY a bit more, even though I realised that the act of changing the flight date on a Flex fare was to all intents fee free). But even more surprising was that I was offered the option of making it a Saver fare, in which case I could get a refund of just under $500!! I went ahead and kept the Flex, just in case, and to keep the SC's, but I don't really understand why it was even offered.
I figure that I got value out of booking the Flex fare just by being able to change the flight date. It would seem to me to be double dipping to take advantage of Flex and then downgrading the fare type to Saver.
Can anyone tell me what that was all about? And if it has happened to you, and you opted for the change down to Saver, was there anything else to report other than the reduced SC's and, I presume, points? Was I a mug for not grabbing the dosh, given I will easily hit my platinum SC's re-up requirement anyway?
patrickk
patrickk
Qantas
Member since 19 Apr 2012
Total posts 737
Fare adjustments are fairly common and they can go either way. Being offered a saver fare is a new one though, maybe abut loads in each class. Note a flex fare gives cheaper better upgrade chances so I tend to use flex fares for upgrades.
kanga9999
kanga9999
Member since 09 Apr 2017
Total posts 63