Did I Get Ripped Off? Changed QF Flight from EY to PEY and Got Charged $109 Extra Taxes

hubertlam on 05/02/2018 - 08:38
Last edited 05/02/2018 - 09:23 by 1 other user

Hi all

Last April/May I made a QF Classic Rewards booking from SYD-HKG-SYD all in economy, and due to the times I ended to be back in SYD I selected a CX flight for the return journey. Ended up paying around $286 taxes to finish it off.

Last night I noticed changing (not upgrading) to Premium Economy on the forward flight cost only 22k points, which I thought was affordable. So we change and was told to pay $109 extra taxes. The original CX flight back was unaltered.

I didn't have to pay a call centre fee as the flight schedule for the forward flight had been changed by Qantas in August.

$109 sounds like a very steep increase in taxes to me. Does anyone know off the top of their memory whether this sound right or not?

If I were to calculate the difference in taxes for Rewards flights now, the difference between economy and premium economy for SYD-HKG is only $23 :(

Thanks in advance

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  tomclancy on 05/02/2018 - 09:23

  Did I get ripped off?

  Yes. You bought an economy fare with points. You got majorly ripped off. You should have sold the points for cash and then booked the economy flight with cash.

  As to the premium economy taxes extra, I'm sure there would have been some notice that taxes would be due on the extra, at the very least in your original flight booking t&c's which you didn't (and most don't) read. It does seem unfair the difference between $23 to $109. I'd call Qantas and ask for difference to be refunded or have the upgrade to be reversed

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    The Wololo Wombat on 05/02/2018 - 13:35

    +1

    Not true. In some case and some routes is way better to book FF. Especially during school holidays. I always book using points and it's always better than selling.

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      The Wololo Wombat on 05/02/2018 - 13:36

      +1

      I do take your point though. Something to be wary of, but not a hard and fast rule.

      For example, on the weekend, I booked flights from BNE-Mexico (via SYD and DALLAS), one way. Cost was $674 in taxes and 120,000 FF points for myself and my wife.

      Assuming 1c per points, that's $1200 if sold.

      However, the individual flights to book separately were over $3k for both of us. We are teachers so we need to travel in peak times.

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  meowmeowmeow on 05/02/2018 - 13:12

  Similar thing happened to me when i changed a qantas flight from SYD to LAX, to SYD to SFO. Qantas charged us extra taxes.

  In the end we had to make another change so cancelled the whole thing and re-booked and the taxes on the new ticket were lower.

  I don't know how taxes work, but I feel like the taxes should have been the same when we re-booked from scratch, so i'm a little suss with how Qantas handle changes.

  If it is an option, you could consider cancelling and re-booking, but only if you know the reward flights are available (ie book the new flights before you cancel the old ticket). It costs 5000 points to cancel though, but they do it for free if it's due to a schedule change so you might not be charged.