• expired

Free Flight Cancellation on Jetstar (6 Months to Book/12 Months to Travel) & Qantas (Voucher) until December 31 2021

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Fee Free cancellation in form of a Voucher. If you had a fare you were going to abandon this could be of use. I would expect Virgin Australia Group to follow soon. Still nothing on Status freezes but I would imagine that will be announced in the future

Qantas and Jetstar customers given option to cancel flights and receive travel credit
Applies to customers with existing and new bookings on domestic and international flights

ADVICE FOR CUSTOMERS

Customers should not call the contact centres. Due to high demand, we are experiencing long call wait times.

To access this offer:

Qantas Anyone holding a Qantas ticket for travel before 31 July 2020 can get a flight credit and retain the full value of your booking. You need to do this by 30 April 2020. The flight credit is valid for booking and travel by 31 December 2021. This gives you more than 18 months to plan, rebook and travel.

If you already have a Qantas flight credit issued on or after 31 January 2020, this will also be automatically extended but may take a few weeks to update in our system.

From 9am tomorrow Monday 16 March 2020, Jetstar customers should go to Manage My Booking on Jetstar.com. Please do not call the Jetstar contact centre before that time should you need further assistance.
Voucher Valid: Book within 6 months of issue. Travel within 12 months

**If you have reward point booking, this can be cancelled fee free. If you have booked via a third party site (Aunt Betty etc), please contact these specific companies. I strongly do advise against booking on those sites as in these situations of change (regardless weather, virus) they are difficult to deal with.

*I will add in details for Virgin Australia if they follow tonight or tomorrow morning

Update: Extended further to Dec 2021, thanks dealbot

Related Stores

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closed Comments

  • +1

    I have been trying all morning and can't see the voucher button anywhere for qantas. Does anyone have any pictures of where this should be? Perhaps its a browser issue? I tried on chrome and Safari.

    So sad, going to lose my status credits at the end of the month and was so close to reaching gold status…

  • Anyone booked via Jetstar Holidays? And have they been successful with flights and hotel via jetstar?

    • I am very interested to know, I also booked a flights/accomodation to Phuket through jetstar holidays - however it's not til 1st week of June… Is there anything that I can do yet?? I have tried calling the Jetstar Holdays 1300 phone number but can't seem to speak to anyone and Jetstar tells me that I need to speak to them…

      • +1

        I called at 9am today, waited nearly 3 hours and then gave up. I called again after lunch and currently over 2 hours on hold music.

        • That's crazy!!! They also have a live chat option which basically fails to connect and says to try again later. Good luck getting through mate and thanks for the heads up.

  • Jetstar - canceled flight with flight voucher but still haven't received the voucher. Under my bookings, the flight is gone and when I try look it up it says the flight has already been cancelled. How long did it take you guys to get the voucher in your email?

    • I remember seeing a note saying I'll get a confirmation email with 72hrs. In addition, you'll notice it says "reimbursement request received for this flight".

  • +1

    FYI - I went into Flight Centre where I had booked my flights and they were able to cancel based on the Qantas offer (flying end of May, return flight was early June), however they were not willing to waive the $75 Flight Centre change fee. Also it had to be re-booked before the end of March.

    • +1

      That’s outrageous. Flight Centre announced that they would waive penalties.

      “ A Flight Centre spokesman said the company was allowing its customers to cancel and keep their funds on file for future bookings without incurring any penalties.”

      http://amp.abc.net.au/article/12060216

      You should go back to your agent and ask them to explain why your cancellation fee wasn’t waived.

  • +3

    Update from my earlier post. Qantas just answered. Over 5 hours on hold

    Full refund of all my points booking. No fees or charges. No questions asked. They just did it as requested. I did a classic reward booking, but paid all the fees and taxes also with points. They cancelled it and said they would refund me back all the points with no charges.

    They did say it may take a while for the points to credit back to my qff account so now just wait and see. I made my booking mid Jan for flights at the end of March.

    • so they even waived the 6000 points per passenger cancellation?

      • Yes. Didn’t charge me a thing. And I didn’t ask or question. They just refunded the full bookings points value.

    • Was this automatic (6000 points not charged) or did you have to call to get them refunded?

      • +1

        I stayed on hold for over 5 hours. I didn’t do anything online. Did it all on the phone.

        • Did you see the cancellation booking when you logged back in ?

          I also called Qantas and waited 4 hrs to speak to someone who waived my 6000pt cancellation fee and processed my cancellation

          But I just logged in to my acc and my flights are still there !
          I expect pts to take a while to reappear but I’d think my actual flights would be marked as cancelled?! Did this happen for you ?

    • +1

      I can confirm that if you're willing to wait 5 hours on hold, they will refund all points with no 6000 points penalty.

  • Been trying to contact webjet, no luck. They are saying only to contact them if you are flying within 48 hours - but by then, it will be too late to use this promo…. what stupidity.

    Never gonna book with online travel agents again.

    • yeah unfortunately i think thats a lesson for us all… it may cost us a few extra dollarydoos, but theyre more painful in this sort of event.

  • I keep getting the error msg despite booking directly through Jetstar website in the first place:

    Contact your travel agent or the airline you booked with to request reimbursement.
    We’ll have a team member available to help you soon. Please try again in a minute, we’re very busy right now.

  • Your call with be answered within 4 hours and 53 minutes

    Ok then … Seeya specific enough to stay on the line

    Still greyed out (on browser / app / pc ) trying to cancel
    Family trip

  • Wondering if anyone is in the same situation: I saw the cancel button, pressed it and it says flight cancelled but no option to recieve voucher - what to do?

    Call wait time 5 hours

  • I won a 'Trip to New York' competition last year, the trip was supposed to happen during Easter next months. Already asked the competition travel agent to cancel my flights and events paid from the winning, wonder how the voucher will work in situations like mine.

  • Cancelled the flight but no voucher.. looks like they are going through the requests manually

  • Booked flights for two in Nov last year through Qantas site, ADL to Japan, for a trip leaving 30th May. I paid cash and used points only to add seat selection.
    What are my options? Cancel and receive a token voucher valid only till Nov 2020?

  • Sorry if I have missed the answer somewhere but my travel agent mate said I could try a chargeback via my bank. Does anyone know if this is possible?

    • I'm also interested to know if this would work. Technically Qantas can no longer uphold their origins contract so under ACL they can't refuse a refund and also can't charge ridiculous handling fees.

  • My flight was booked by someone else who sold me the $450 Amex Qantas Credit.
    I cant change the booking thru the Qantas website as the change tab have been grey out.
    I want to cancel but what will happen to the credit?
    Anyone else in this situation?

    • You will need to get the person who booked to call Amex unfortunately. I just spent 1.5 hours on hold to get to someone since they're getting hammered with calls.

      I got a full refund in the form of Amex travel credit (which included the $450), no other fees. The only catch is you when you rebook, you need to COMPLETE your travels by 1 year from your original booking date.

      • The ticket you booked was booked by you? I am not so sure that the person i bought from will spent 1.5hrs to call AMEX.

  • +2

    Travel credit is going to be of little value if Qantas go into administration as a result.

    • Same story for points

  • -4

    Anybody and everybody who is having problems of any kind with this Qantas offer should be writing the Australian Minister of Transport to complain and demand he intervene. What Qantas is doing is unfair and unreasonable and has been poorly implemented to say the least based on the comments of many here. I believe the Minister is Michael McCormack but worth double checking that. His email is: [email protected]

    • +3

      Im sure this will be at the top of his list, hasnt got anything else on his plate at the moment.

      • One email he will certainly ignore. Emails from thousands of angry Qanatas customers he would have to pay attention to.

  • Qantas/Jetstar today announced 90% of international capacity has been cut. Most international flights will be cancelled

  • Agh….. was thinking they'd pull a shifty for this - and they've caught many of us.

  • +3

    Jess (Jetstar Assistant): It looks like you’re eligible for a Jetstar credit voucher. We’re not able to provide a monetary refund in these circumstances. Click here to see the Voucher T&Cs.

    My flight has been cancelled and no new flight options were offered except cancelling my booking. In these circumstances, I believe they should be offering a full monetary refund, not a voucher (with so many conditions).

  • +3

    I spent 5 hours and 17 minutes on hold (it actually
    Became a game at about the 2 hour mark lol )
    But they cancelled all of my tickets (all paid by
    Points including the taxes ) in FULL without
    Conditions .

    Apparently will take 24-48 hours to show up . Will update
    When I see them back in the account .

    • Mind confirming Qantas or Jetstar?

      • +1

        Sorry , forgot to put that in there
        Jetstar flights to Bali in mid April

    • Can you let us know how you managed to get that outcome? I've spent ages on live chat and they're refusing to budge on a refund, only voucher…

      • I outlined the safety element , the fact that my
        GP has said it is unsafe to travel and if required
        Happy to demonstrate a medical certificate indicating
        The above .
        Mentioned the elderly / the children etc

        And … I actually wanted to go as the beginning
        Of the conversation

    • To update : the points haven’t arrived(refund of points into frequent flyer
      Account ) .
      Not overly concerned - yet - as it is a LOT of people that
      They would be dealing with . Although these processes
      Are generally instantaneous.

  • +1

    Real game of chicken this - Cancel now and get a travel credit? Or hang out a bit more and see if they will do full refunds if flights are cancelled.

    Anyone have any advice?

    • My flights are cancelled, with no option to choose another flight. Jetstar not offering a monetary refund (at the moment), only a voucher.

    • Also in the same boat - I was hoping they'd cancel my flight and offer me a refund. But people have reported they are still only offering a voucher for the cancelled flights - which is confusing

  • Curious to see if people are requesting the voucher credit, then just rebooking there same flight under a new booking contact? Noticed my exact flight has gone down in price since when I booked the other week.

    How long is it taking everyone to get there voucher after they request it online? 72hours? And has it shown up that your flights are effectively cancelled?

    • +2

      Why would you do that?

      • Just curious as to what people are doing since I found today that the same domestic flight I booked last week, is half price now… I work interstate and want to return to my family during this time.

    • EDIT: Nvm this was concerning domestic flights.

  • I have flights booked for 9th June…

    What are my options as their current cut-off is for those travelling up until 31st May…

    Do I just wait?

  • You guy's are crying over spilt milk, what about the travellers who have already taken the first leg out?, it appears my return flight from Thailand has been cancelled, no other options but to cancel, crikey i don't want to cancel, i want the return flight that i originally paid for or an alternative date, but nothing is offered!, so we are in limbo!.

  • There is an item on the ABC news about this.

    See: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-17/airlines-hotels-may-c…

    It seems that if you booked another Jetstar flight with your voucher (issued on 31 March 2020) on 30 September 2020, you could fly on 30 September 2021 at the latest.

    • Both Qantas and Jetstar have changed their attitudes since that abc news item.

  • Does anyone know if you can use the voucher towards booking a hotel or holiday package through Jetstar?

    • You must book a flight.

      At the end with the extras you get an option to include a hotel from 3 choices. That's the only way to use them towards a hotel that I know of.

  • +1

    So are they gonna extend this or what. Splendour in the Grass has been cancelled, late July… Just tried for a refund and got rejected.

  • Meant to be flying to Hawaii in May, return in June. May flight has option for travel credit or later date in a June.
    Just going to wait till they cancel the service and hopefully provide a refund.

    • Hawaii has now been cancelled but I wasn't offered a refund. Credit voucher only.

      • Received a cancellation email and used the live chat option where I was provided a full refund from Jetstar to be credited back to my card within 7 days.

  • Anyone know if the voucher is in the primary passengers name? Or all passengers on the booking?

  • +2

    Just saw an update on Facebook

    For anyone who’s already made use of this offer and received a credit that expires before 30 September, we’ll extend it to 30 September 2020. It can be used for any travel dates available when you go to redeem it.

    • So technically one could rebook up to August 2021? The original option meant we would have had to travel NLT June which was only one month later. But their new post says "for any date available".

  • Qantas landed 90% of their planes, even if you keep your bookings, they will by then have to cancel flights and refund OR cannot fly at all due to gov's travel bans.

    • Do they normally refund full amount paid when they cancel flights? I understand if we are the ones who cancel, we would have to pay cancellation fee. Is cancellation fee normally $400 per ticket? If so, might worth to take voucher, rather than refund with cancellation fee deducted.

  • I arranged for a voucher yesterday so I can change a flight and am told that the voucher code will arrive via email within 7 days. However I need to book a new flight now (desired flight is 3 days away) and am still waiting for this voucher code. 7 days to receive an automated voucher code via email? - Why?

    • Same here, cancelled my return flight which was impacted and re booked a new flight without voucher, probably be a cat fight to get it refunded, there are only 4 flights listed for a return from bkk, so had to act quickly before they were gone.

  • Has anyone who has cancelled their ticket (I did mine on monday) still have their flight show up in their qantas app?

  • Does anybody know what the situation is on an international flight where you fly out before the May 31st deadline but return in June after the deadline has passed. Are we eligible or not? I wish Qantas would just write this stuff up in their press releases in such a way that customers can understand the rules. It's like they are deliberately setting out to cause confusion the way this is playing out.

    • Not sure about Qantas, but my Jetstar booking still shows return flight status as no change for June 3rd and only outbound with Credit option. So they're only offering partial value refund voucher. So have no choice but to wait and see if they cancel it, or extend the travel period to end-of-June. To try to get the full amount.

  • So government just announced Level 4 Do Not Travel ban, so does that mean Jetsar have to cancel all flights and refund, rather than voucher?

    • I’m thinking it should be ? I wonder if we can cancel online with fees waived and full refund back

      • Guess we have to wait until they make some policy announcement as they can no longer enforce the 31 May cutoff given it's indefinite ban obviously.

    • they should… dirty dogs.

    • I thought Do Not Travel was the trigger for having to give refunds, regardless of the cancellation or not. Or at least maybe with insurance. Either way, I would've thought this official change means people don't have to put up with just a time limited voucher.

      • Qantas needs to save cash so I don't think they will issue refunds. Do they even have enough cash to refund every single cancelled seat? They are not earning any money at the moment because nobody is making new bookings so they need to save as much cash as possible to stay alive for the next few months and pay for their fixed costs.

        • are they operating on so low margins that they can go under in a matter of a few months? They have no cash reserves?

          • @lostn: The just cancelled a share buyback, so will have some cash

            • @Ozbargainasaurus: well who would want shares that are in free fall? Makes sense to cancel the buyback, wait for it to bottom out first, assuming they survive and don't get left holding the bag.

              They even get to look like a good guy, trying to save people's jobs.

    • -1

      So government just announced Level 4 Do Not Travel ban

      They're trapping us in this unsafe country. :(

  • +1

    It's wort noting that Qantas will have to cancel these flights, so you can play chicken and ask for a full refund when they do.

    • +1

      For the international flights I guess Jetsar and Qantas will have to address their current departure cut-off date of end of May, so playing chicken til last day of March is fairly safe. They have to move first, imagine how many people on departing flights in June are calling them about cancelling.

      • I guess that's why they are trying to make the voucher a bit more appealing by extending the voucher expiry til the end of Sept

  • Government has said domestic flights are low risk - So I guess there is no point waiting any further to see if Jetstar may issue refunds for these flights? Might just request voucher now

  • +1

    I booked flights with classic reward points and although it said that changing flights they will waive the change fee, if you wish to cancel it, the 6000 pts fee is still in place despite the do not travel recommendation.

    I was on the phone (4hr wait time) and after initially being denied of waiving the 6000 pts to cancel flight, they put me on hold and in the end waived the 6000pt penalty and cancelled my flight with full points back plus refunding taxes that I paid.

    If this was done online myself, I’m pretty sure they would have charged 6000pts for cancelling flights. Worth a call if you can be bothered to wait few hrs

    • -1

      They're filthy bastards aren't they? Making you jump through hoops to get a fair outcome!!!!
      I'll hesitate before booking them again.

    • Hi deal01, I also booked with points, did you get a refund or a credit to use later? Cheers

      • I got a full refund of classic reward points and got the taxes that were paid refunded back onto my credit card. They also waived the 6000 points penalty for cancelling.

        If you cancel online yourself, there might be the 6000 pt penalty as per other ozbargain comments few days ago.

        So I decided to call and get them to waive it all. Good luck !

        • Awesome, it’s worth calling them though. thank you

        • +1

          Just checked Qantas site and under MANAGE BOOKING it says:

          "Cancellation of Classic Flight Reward Bookings will incur a fee of 6,000 points per passenger. The 6,000 points fee will not be applied to Classic Flight Reward bookings cancelled up until 31 March 2020, and where your original travel date was prior to and including 31 May 2020"

          "Classic Flight Reward booking points, taxes, levies and surcharges will be refunded within 10 business days."

          cheers

          • +1

            @oldrocker: Finally they updated ! Thanks!
            If I had waited another day that would have saved myself 4 hrs of wait time !

            • @deal01: I'm not so lucky with Qantas hotel booking though, it says my booking is non- refundable!!!
              Wonder if it's worth a phone call?

              • @oldrocker: If it were me, I would definitely call and give it a try.
                Also things have been changing every few days or weeks so if it didn’t work this time, wait and try again.

                I called Qantas up few weeks ago hoping they’d waive my cancellation fee (points penalty) but they said no.. few times

                I waited anyway and kept trying

  • I've been trying to request a voucher off and on for 3 days now but can't get to the end of the process. It pops up a chat window for me but nobody is available to chat. Surely the process is automated and doesn't require a real person to process the request? Is there some other way to go about it?

  • I had a similar problem, I tried about 20 time to obtain a credit voucher from Jetstar, but nothing worked, including Jess-the online assistant who was also on strike.

    Then I logged into the Jetstar website using my login and password and accessed my flights page where my flights were shown as cancelled. Against each flight was a hyperlink for claiming a voucher. I hit the hyperlinks and the website claims that I will receive a voucher within 5 business days.

    The value of the proposed voucher has been reduced by $20 for "baggage". I do not know what this means. I will ring Jetstar when they are back answering phones and ask them.

    • Please let us know what they say. Does it mean we don’t get the amount we paid for baggage and other extras?

  • Has anyone's flights been cancelled after Australia PM's announcement of 'Do not fly'?
    I'm flying to Singapore on 01/04 but no cancellations as of yet.

  • +3

    Looks like Qantas has updated their system today!

    When I click cancel on my classic rewards booking:

    "For Classic Flight Reward bookings cancelled up until 31 March 2020, where your original travel date was prior to and including 31 May 2020, the usual cancellation fee of 6,000 points will be waived."

    and in the bottom:

    "Cancellation of Classic Flight Reward Bookings will incur a fee of 6,000 points per passenger. The 6,000 points fee will not be applied to Classic Flight Reward bookings cancelled up until 31 March 2020, and where your original travel date was prior to and including 31 May 2020"

    • Seems like this is not the same for Jetstar. I saw a FB reply from Jetstar where they said if you apply for a voucher on March 18, and book by Sept 18…. Unless they have also made an announcement somewhere.

    • Strange, my classic reward flight is with jetstar but managed with qantas but I don't see that for me.

      Anyone else with this problem?

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