Reader Email: Qantas Unable Servicing Oneworld RTW Tickets It Issues?

A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a case about a Qantas-issued Oneworld Around-The-World (RTW) ticket that the airline has trouble servicing due to agent quality (or lack thereof).

Readers are encouraged to send us questions, comments, or opinions by email, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We’ll cover them here several times a week.

You can access Oneworld here and Qantas here.

Reader’s Note:

Today, I have an interesting issue that I believe you have not covered in your previous articles.  I am still researching and exploring what recourse that I have with respect to the airlines and would appreciate your thoughts on it.

Basically it is to do with round-the-world tickets which I understand you have been on one recently.  The situation is actually my friend’s RTW ticket ex-Tokyo which I helped them to structure/issue late last year.  Things are okay until they want to change one of the dates (only date change NOT destination change) on one of their segments, essentially from London to Paris, when they are already on the road.  It is a very simple change moving the dates to a few days earlier, but my friends face a lot of frustrations in trying to do this simple change of date.

The facts of the matter are as follows:-

1) The product is the oneworld Explorer product ex Tokyo, which I purchased using the oneworld website.  The oneworld website offers two options in terms of the ticketing airlines – JAL or Qantas.  I chose Qantas at the time of booking the oneworld Explorer product.

2) The request is a simple change of British Airways BA314 flight from LHR-CDG on May 2, 2025 to April 30, 2025.

3) They reached out to the operating airlines BA but they asked my friend to call the ticketing airline Qantas for the change.

4) They reached out to Qantas UK given they are in London.  I believe the call got re-routed to an operator based in India.  The operator lady had absolutely no idea how to handle the RTW tickets.  After 30 minutes on the phone going nowhere, they decided to call Qantas HK (place where they reside) later on to handle their case.

5) Qantas HK office is a bit better but they are still ill-equipped to handle changes in the RTW ticket.  The Qantas HK operator informed them that they need to pay USD125 for the change + AUD77 as service fee.  I understand they need to charge the service fee (which is stipulated in their schedule of fee https://www.qantas.com/au/en/business-rewards/info/schedule-of-fees.html) but they were incorrect in terms of requiring them to pay the USD125 for a simple change of date.   I know that USD125 is the fee for re-routing only.

6) I told my friend to draw their attention to Clause 16(a) Rebooking / Rerouting – sub-clause 2, which states the following:-

“After departure: 

125. Changes are permitted provided ticketed points remain the same.
     b. Changes to ticketed points are permitted at a charge of USD 125 per transaction.
     c. No Show requires rebooking at a charge of USD 125.
     d. If the rerouting results in an increase to the number of continents previously charged, the ticket shall be recalculated. Ticket may be reissued to any applicable Explorer fare validating all rules of the new fare except for restrictions on retroactive use. Rerouting fee applies when the resulting fare is less than or equal to the original fare. No refund applies. See Upgrading provisions when recalculation results in a new fare basis at a higher value.”

Clause 2(a) states changes are permitted provided ticketed points remain the same.

7) The Qantas HK operator saw the Oneworld rules on the website but was unable to decide and defer to her Qantas HK internal team.  The Qantas HK internal team came back and said that they are required to charge USD125 per transaction as it falls under Clause 16(a)(2)(b).  This is clearly not correct as the wording said “changes to ticketed points”.  They are not changing any destination but only the date of the flight, but Qantas HK insisted USD125 is required.  This is very frustrating and they finally gave up pursuing the change.

I have 3 questions in my mind and I appreciate John if you have any thoughts on your end.

(a) Is the ticketing airline the only airline who can handle the changes of dates/itinerary for RTW tickets?  I saw previously on Flyertalk that AA RTW desk is very good at handling the RTW matters but I don’t seem to be able to find a direct contact no for them.  I also do not know if AA will handle RTW tickets issued by Qantas.

(b) Given the situation above, do you think they have any recourse/compensation they can get from Qantas.  They technically have not suffered any financial losses but Qantas is in front in breach of their contract.

(c) They are still travelling on the RTW ticket and will plan to do some changes to the dates on their later part of the itinerary.  What you do think is their best option to reaching out to Qantas to make the change and not get incorrectly charged.

Appreciate your thoughts on this.

The reader is correct. I have done quite a few of these Oneworld RTW-tickets, usually through an agent, but the most recent was issued using the Oneworld online tool that pushed it to Qantas:

Oneworld Business RTW Trip Frequent Flier Program Crediting Dilemma

Buying Premium Fares: Case Oneworld Around-The-World In Business DONE4 Ex-Japan

There are pros and cons to doing these via an agent or through an airline. You certainly save plenty of time, but you do pay a fee if you use an agent, as these are very complicated tickets.

The agent I used in the past would rather not do these anymore, and also suggested that they would prefer minimal changes, as the fare calculations can get extremely complicated.

I have no experience dealing with the AA’s RTW desk, which is apparently well-versed in these products, unlike Qantas, whose agents are really misinformed or unaware of the complicated rules associated with them.

There is no $125 fee for merely changing a date on an existing itinerary unless it changes a previous connection to a stopover or vice versa. Even the ticket doesn’t need to be reissued but merely revalidated.

When I had to make a couple of simple date changes with my Qantas-issued RTW, I actually did them through their social media team using FB Messenger. It can take a while to get someone to reply, but at least they are open to hearing your thoughts and can reissue/revalidate tickets.

I did run into an issue at the end when I wanted to change my last two segments, HEL-LHR-CAI, to something else, i.e., HEL-DOH-somewhere in the Middle East (surface segment allowed). I couldn’t get anywhere with Qantas, so I just decided to fly the last two “torture” flights on short-haul equipment.

Theoretically, any of these airlines could make changes to the itinerary, especially if it doesn’t require ticket reissuance, but I doubt that you’ll find this level of product knowledge from the front-line agents.

Conclusion

Qantas has been engaging in all kinds of fraudulent and illegal behavior lately, including selling tickets to flights it had already internally canceled and then trying to force passengers to accept vouchers.

Qantas Settles With ACCC & Pays A$120M

The point here is that Qantas shouldn’t ticket these Oneworld RTW itineraries if they are incapable of properly servicing them that was the case with mine as well that I concluded on March 31^st.

So, my advice is NOT to have these issued by Qantas if you need to make any changes, as they really don’t have staff on hand that do any changes.

Going through a competent agent would be the best course of action unless you have some AA flights thrown in and can get the AA RTW desk to issue them.

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