Qantas woes (21 May 08)

When we wanted to booked our flights to the UK from Singapore in May 07 last year, we looked around for an open date tickets. The online tickets were much cheaper with discounts, but they had 6 mths or 12 mths validity. That wouldn't work for us, as we are flying in Aug 07, and we wouldn't know when we would be coming back. We needed something longer. So we went to the Qantas office in Orchard road a few times to explain to them about our situation and purchase our tickets. The Qantas system only allows us to purchase and book dates up to 12 months ahead. Therefore, we paid for higher tier tickets, which allowed us to change our return date to a later date, and book our return date on 1 Jun 08. We also had to pay for the service charge, as we were booking through the counter.

We purchased our tickets and flew off on the 22 Aug 07, thinking everything is fine.

When we decided to change our return dates to 18 Sep 08 , we made a few calls to the UK Qantas office as well as to the Australian office last week (all calls to Singapore office is routed to Australia). The Australian staff told us that the system had put us on a last date to return as 21 Aug 08! This is because there is a ruling that tickets are only allowed a 12 months validity (We are supposed to know that. Its an international travel rule). Therefore, they now expect us to purchase single trip tickets, if we want to fly back to Singapore on 18 Sep 08. Requests to extend and allow us to book the return flight on 18 Sep 08 were also rudely and quickly rejected.

We were confused, as this wasn't explained to us at the time of purchase, nor was it written down on our e-tickets or on our online Qantas Frequent Flyer account. If we had wanted a 12 mth validity, we would have booked online for discount tickets. Instead, the whole family have to go down specially to Orchard road a few times to understand and purchase the ticket at a higher price and add to that a service charge!

I decided then to send an email on 15 May to request for an appeal to allow us to book the return flight. Their first email response came back on 17 May to tell me to call their office for bookings....I responded to them immediately to explain my situation again, and they have since not replied to me.

Our Godma even tried calling the Singapore office and she managed to get through after 3 calls, and tried to help us to resolve the situation. We are even willing to pay for tier difference and penalty, as we wouldn't like to see the tickets go to waste. No surprises about the response.

So we tried calling the UK Qantas office again. Apparently, now, because of our emails and phone calls, Its all over their system that "the customer" have been informed about the last date validity on 21 Aug 08, and any further requests would be denied. At least the lady at the UK Qantas office was apologetic and polite, unlike the Qantas staff in the Australian office who answered our calls.

Sigh! Yes, we were informed last week when we called to change the return date, and not at the time of purchase. It seems like they think we are the kind of people who would buy the return ticket, instead of single trip tickets, and then try to "circumvent" their system by argueing our way through. Hmm, we could have bought cheaper single trips tickets from other airlines, and then source for a cheaper return tickets when we are here.


Its just such a waste of resources. We can't leave any earlier due to my dissertation and our upcoming trip to US in Sep 08. So I guess we will need to purchase single trip tickets now. Would I go and purchase Qantas tickets, which is now about GBP 600 more expensive than the cheapest I could find online now (for 2 adults, 1 child & 1 infant)? Even if they are the cheapest I could find? Nah!



Its depressing to find things turning out like this, but God always make things turn out better than expected. Everything happened for a reason which we may not know until later. It certainly taught us to check the terms carefully in future. Skeptics may call this blind faith, but I believe that God has been in my whole life guiding me, and He will still be here. The Holy Spirit is with us guiding us closer to God. I trust God.