Flight booked through Qantas Cancelled. Need advice on options

I have flights from sydney to Rio( return) all booked through Qantas.

3 June 1) sydney to santiago( LAN airlines)
2) santiago to Rio ( LAN airlines)

23 June 3) Rio to Santiago ( operated by TAM—> NOW CANCELLED)
4) Santiago to Sydney( LAN airlines

The issue is that i will be in Argentina during the end of my trip. I theoretically i was going to book a flight from argentina to Rio and go on all my scheduled flights.
However with the cancelled flights can i possibly get:
a) some sort of refund
b) negotiate a flight from Argentina to Santiago( it's cheaper from argentina to santiago than rio to santiago
c) get to Chile myself( approx $350 one way flight) and don't ask for any financial reimbursement.

Going to call up Qantas in the next few days. Any advice and past experience in this situation all appreciated

Comments

  • Have they offered an alternate flight? In the past when I have had (non-refundable) flights cancelled they have given me a couple of options to choose from as a replacement. I have asked to change departure cities before to suite my arrangements better, but they said that since there are alternative options offered they will not change the route/departure.

    • -1

      i have not called qantas yet to ask. just wanted to see if people in the past have actually changed departure cities. Also wondering how much Qantas can actually do since it's not actually a qantas carrier.

      • "Sometimes due to circumstances outside our control, such as bad weather, emergencies or industrial action, your flight may be disrupted or cancelled.
        If this happens, we will do all we can to fix the problem and keep you informed of developments and the choices that are available to you."
        http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/disruptions/global/…

        As long as you booked it through Qantas they will attempt to get a replacement ticket. However, I know from deep in the Virgin site that if you do not show up for the first leg of a multi-city international trip (with Virgin), they will cancel the entire trip. It is based on the booking, not the individual flights. Assuming that Qantas has the same policy, you must get it resolved properly and not skip the first flight in a booking.

  • What was the reason for cancellation?

    • don't know.

  • I haven't had it with Qantas before but have had the situation with Air NZ and Jetstar.

    Negotiation of the flight from a different city might be difficult with Qantas (especially as they're trying to cut costs everywhere) but I did have luck with Air NZ on this once before. I'm not sure what the Qantas process is, but I never clicked the confirm option on the many emails ANZ sent me to try accept the alternate flight. After about three emails a very helpful customer service officer called, and because they'd made the cancellation and were time pressed to get me to assent they allowed me to change cities with no hassle.

    Jetstar changed the same flight 5 times and then moved a morning flight to one that landed outside business hours. I objected on these grounds and they stood firm on the no ticket amendment condition of my ticket (even though they'd done so FIVE times!) and issues a refund instead. Given they're owned by the same mob this is probably more likely, but Qantas isn't as dollar driven as Jetstar so perhaps you'll have more luck.

  • They will re-book you on an alternate flight on TAM first, and if that option doesn't work, they can book you onto a partner airline, in this case, LAN. You can research alternate options yourself, and present it to the airline, but they will always prefer to re-book you onto their own metal, or a partner airline. So the best case is to find a flight with LAN to Santiago ex. Argentina, and then ask if they can re-book you onto that. You could also try TAM but that will require a connection.

    The worst case scenario is that you'll have to fly on an flight at an alternate time ex. Brazil. Hope everything turns out for you :)

  • called qantas and they are charging a $180( describes the cost as admin/etc) for changing the destination of the flight plus $27 tax/surcharge from flying out of argentina. So would only be saving approximately $100. Seems a bit unfair that i'm charged $180 by changing to a cheaper flight than what would have actually if i had left from Rio to Santiago.

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