Qantas Maths and Sod's Law

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. To make up for it this post has lots of words..

I love to book holidays. Apart from the fun of researching cool places to go and things to do it’s also nice to lock in the trip so you’ve got something definite to look forward to.  As such I tend to book holidays nice and early so there’s the maximum look-forward-to factor, and also usually the  best bargains to be had.

One such instance of booking early is a trip Jon and I are looking forward to in Alice Springs this August.  My original idea was to do the Larapinta Trail Race, which is a 4 day stage running race based in Alice Springs.  I’m not massively into long running races but each stage of this race covered a stretch of the renown 223km Larapinta hiking trail.  I figured we’d be able to experience the trail without having to carry heavy packs, and we’d get to stay somewhere nice each night.    I discovered this race a while ago (before entries opened) so I signed up for the newsletter and waited patiently until I could enter us both.   I was thinking I’d be working full time by August so I wouldn’t be able to take more than a few days off work, so this race fitted in really well with that.  I was so keen I even requested and got leave approved for those dates.

So about 8 weeks ago I got an email informing me that the entries had opened - yay!  I headed on over to the website with my credit card in hand, only to discover that the entry fees (and shuttle bus fees) for Jon and I were going to be $1700.  Yikes. Once I’d factored in flights and that nice accommodation I was thinking of,  the cost of our 4 day holiday in Alice Springs would have been very close to $4000.  Too much. WAY too much. Dang.  I spent the next few days moping around disappointed.

Then I realised that the whole reason I wanted to go was to see Alice Springs and experience the West MacDonnell Ranges, which we could do perfectly well without doing the race.  In fact there are heaps of tour companies who will drop you off and pick you up, and the trail is really accessible for day hikes and circuits.   Since I’d already asked for leave I decided we would go anyway, stay somewhere nice, and hike/cycle/relax-by-the-pool as much as we wanted.  Once I added up lights and accomodation and car hire the total was still only $2700 and that included the extra day that I had decided i really  needed. 

So with new enthusiasm I got online and booked our flights - I got reasonable red-edeal flights on Qantas for $388 each way  per person ($1500 or so all up) leaving Hobart on Thursday morning, and returning the following Tuesday. Yay - holiday locked in and flights booked!  

About 4 days later we got an email from Jon’s nephew saying that the wedding date for their South Australian wedding was finally set.  For the Friday of our Alice Springs trip.  Arrgh!! First we thought we would just skip the wedding but after sitting on that decision for a few weeks we decided it just didn’t feel right. We really like Rory and Emma, and it’s a good opportunity to catch up with Jon’s family.  So then I investigated options for making it happen. After trying all the airlines I found the best option would be to fly to Adelaide on Thursday night on the new Jetstar direct flight, attend the wedding on Friday night, then go up to Alice on Saturday morning. Then we would just return from Alice Springs on Wednesday rather than Tuesday.  

So I booked the relatively cheap Hobart to Adelaide flights, then I booked the Adelaide to Alice Springs leg using frequent flyer points plus taxes (jhow come Qantas has so many taxes?). Then I just had to change the original qantas return flights. As I’d booked the return journey it all on one booking I would have to cancel the whole thing and start again (rather than just change dates), and because it was a red-e-deal that meant I would only be entitled to a voucher, rather than a refund, and of course when I went to use the voucher I’d have to pay a change of booking fee of $99 each person Ugg. Still I didn’t have much option so I went ahead and got emailed my $1500 voucher from Qantas. That part seemed easy.

Then I considered how to spend our voucher.  It is only valid for a year, so my fear was that we wouldn’t use it and the whole $1500 would be up in smoke.   So I decided that since I’d already forked out to book new flights, I’d try to minimise extra expenditure and use the voucher it to book our new return flight from Alice Springs. Our voucher conditions said it had to be used for a flight of equal or greater value so I accepted the fact that our new 2 x $388 fares would simply use up all the value of our $1500 voucher.  Definitely a loss but better than using up new money to book.

In order to use the voucher i had to call the call centre, so I found the flights I wanted on line (still $388 each) and rang them.  

Well it turns out Qantas aren’t happy for you to use your $1500 voucher on $740 worth of flights and keep the change - nope that’s not ok.  They really did want me to book flights for equal or greater value, which would have meant I’d have to book the fully flexible fares all the way home from Alice Springs.  Which would have satisfied the ‘or greater value’ clause - by $400 + the change of booking fee of $99 each.  So aside from using up the entire value of the $1500 voucher, I would have had to pay an extra $600 to book on the same flights. basically that would mean we would have spent  $2100 for the same flights as the $740 fares.  

Sitting here now I realise I should have just rung back later and booked return flights in the opposite direction and not turned up for the return segment - I did suggest that on the phone but the operator  didn’t seem to understand me and then claimed there were no flights from Hobart to Alice Springs that would make it work.  There must have been something.  humph.  So I hung up and moped around for a week or so, watching the cheaper flights disappear from the website. In the end I just booked the flights online with my credit card. 

So now I still have this $1500 voucher I can’t think how we are going to use before january next year. We can’t use it for kids fares and we’ve our other trips this year (cos I like to book early and all!). And Qantas is normally the last expensive resort anyway. sigh.

So the lessons I’ve learnt are:

- sometimes early isn’t great 

- Qantas sucks. I’m sure the other airlines are equally annoying though

- never book a return flight in one go - there’s no advantage in it if you have to change or get a refund it will be much worse.

On the plus side, i”ve still got a holiday in Alice Springs to look forward too, and it’s so far in the future the sick feeling I have in my stomach from  spending so much money on airfares will surely have dissipated by then!