Back in Oct I booked a QFF redemption flight (via Jetstar) for coming back from Tokyo for 31,500 QFF points, and several days later I decided to upgrade to business (albeit Jetstar business) which costs 69,300 points in total (meaning an additional 37,800 pts paid). Due to Omicron and the Japan borders being shut, I cancelled my trip on Qantas.com and several days later got a refund notification, but to my dismay my statement shows a refund of 31,500 points for the original economy booking only. (Also, this is for 2 tickets, so the total cost of everything above is actually 2x).
I called them twice already, first time choosing the option of rewards centre where the staff was very confused, (and thought it was a browser refresh issue as she thought i wasnât seeing the refund at all). after explaining I am seeing the refund line but it was incorrect, said she would investigate & call back in 24hrs, which did not happen. Then I called again and picked âflightsâ, where the rep is more knowledgable, we went through the statement line by line until we got to the refund line where she sees 69,300 on her side, but I see 31,500 on mine. She said something about when I did an upgrade its actually putting the points on hold and it takes a few more days to reflect, but I am getting less confident this will eventually sort itself out. I feel this might be some back-end/front-end issue where there are two systems and they are not synched up (being a software developer myself, that is my hunch).
Iâm also concerned about the cash component not fully coming back through, but for now I am planning on waiting a few weeks and then call again or escalate (how?). Getting through is quite difficult in not only waiting, but explaining the situation and everything being verbal on a call without being able to share a screenshot etc. Is there any way for contacting Qantas in writing?
Have you tried twitter DM to reach Qantas? That might be better for sending screenshots and explaining your predicament. The quality of agents vary drastically though.
So today I also saw a cash refund on my credit card, and as I feared, it was just for the second payment (for the business upgrade), only. So, I am currently short changed on the points for the upgrade, and the cash for the original booking.
I called again, and I went via the QFF â Flights â International option. Spoken to the rep who can see the history including the notes from my earlier call. Unfortunately she said the FF dept is currently closed (called on Sat night) and the person I spoke to in the first call also tried to contact FF but could not get thru & have to call back on Monday.
With regards to what I think is happening, is that there are two separate departments, QFF Flights who only look at the per booking reference level, and an overall FF team which sees the overall points account (and probably other non flight redemptions). The former sends instructions to the latter to process and in my case mistakes were made in the exchange.
@shiulai This may be of no help whatsoever as it sounds like what youâve done already, but the best phone options with Qantas Frequent Flyer refunds is by getting through to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program directly. I always select Option 4 (Qantas Frequent Flyer program), then Option 3 (Qantas Frequent Flyer inquiries), then Option 4 (All other Frequent Flyer inquiries). Someone will answer. Donât spend too much time trying to explain it to that person because theyâre not really listening because they then ALWAYS put you through to another department (Reservations from memory) where you have to explain everything again from scratch. With the points, you should be able to request them to refund the points IMMEDIATELY for ANY cancelled booking (Iâve always been able to get an immediate refund of the points). With the taxes they say 6-8 weeks, but after 4 weeks has passed you can ring and ask for an âescalationâ and youâll have the money refunded within a few days (you must wait at least 4 weeks to ask for an âescalationâ but). Sorry if this is no help as it sounds like this is what youâve already done with no luck. I can only suggest keep trying until you get a call centre operator who actually knows what they are doing. You say the waiting is an issue. I find if you follow those steps (and Iâve had quite a few refunds) there is very little wait time as long as you get through to Qantas Frequent Flyer by selecting the right options.
Hi graham many thanks! Eventually in my case, in one of my calls with the flights team they transferred me over to the rewards team, and who eventually deduced that the problem was an IT issue - they basically say that the full (ie business upgraded) points was refunded, but the transaction lines does not line up with the member statement webpage view (which he could also see mismatching). He had to raise a ticket with the IT department and gave me the reference number to that. I do worry this is going to be a ânever hear backâ type of situation, but at least there is something to go on with. The tips on the call options definitely sounds handy!
