Qantas increasing domestic change fees

While change is part of life, when it comes to flying, change can be expensive.  Change and cancellation fees are part of life when it comes to air fares, and as passengers have moved towards cheaper fares, the airlines have countered with restrictions and change fees.

In the case of Qantas, making certain changes to air tickets is about to become more expensive. Effective for tickets issues from March 14, 2017 Qantas will be lifting some change fees from $88 to $99.

The fees affected by this increase are:

Red-e-deal

Red-e-deals are the cheapest family of fares that Qantas offer. In return for the cheapness, you do tend to lose flexiblity. Qantas do, however, allow you to change your travel dates, as long as you do this prior to the day of departure.

As of March 14, 2017 the fee to do this is increasing by $11 from $88 to $99. This is in addiiton to any applicable fare difference.

In addition, if you cancel a booking, the payment is held as a credit voucher which you can use at a later date. The cancellation fee for doing this is increasing to $99.

Note that in the case of Red-e-deals, name changes and refunds are not available.

Flex Fares

While Flex fares are more expensive, they do allow you to make changes to the flights for no charge. In addition, they allow, for a fee, name changes and refunds which are not available on red-e-deal fares. In order to process a name change or refund, Qantas levy a fee. This fee will also be increasing on March 14, from $88 to $99.

Summing Up

All of these fees will be charged on the following tickets:

• new Red eDeal and Flex tickets issued on/after 14 March 2017; and
• subsequent reissues of existing retail and wholesale tickets purchased on/before 13 March 2017 which have been reissued on/after 14 March 2017.