Which airlines?

[Tulip1]

On 07/08/2020 at 04:27, Paul1Perth said:

By law they probably should refund. Try getting your money back though and you're more likely to get an offer of another flight within the next year. Which is what we had to accept, rather than lose a lot.

You wouldn’t have lost the lot even if they indicated you would. They have to refund you if they cancelled the flight. They will always offer a voucher/reschedule. But....they are legally obliged to refund you. They didn’t provide the item you paid for. If you bought a new tv from the store and they didn’t deliver it you would get refunded. They may try it on and say we will give you another one next year but it’s your choice if you want that it not. They tried all that with me but I know my rights and it worked of course, I received a full refund. 

[NicF]

4 hours ago, Tulip1 said:

You wouldn’t have lost the lot even if they indicated you would. They have to refund you if they cancelled the flight. They will always offer a voucher/reschedule. But....they are legally obliged to refund you. They didn’t provide the item you paid for. If you bought a new tv from the store and they didn’t deliver it you would get refunded. They may try it on and say we will give you another one next year but it’s your choice if you want that it not. They tried all that with me but I know my rights and it worked of course, I received a full refund. 

Laws are different in Australia though, especially when it comes to refunds.

[Tulip1]

5 minutes ago, NicF said:

Laws are different in Australia though, especially when it comes to refunds.

True, it may be different there.  I just can’t imagine if you paid for a service that the provider cancelled and it was therefore no longer available to you they could refuse to refund you. I’m not doubting what you’re saying though, just surprised.

[ali]

8 hours ago, Aussiebird said:

Does anyone know if scoot airlines are flying to Perth from Singapore? I have been informed that Scoot do not have their September schedule  yet so no flights can be booked for that journey, my reason asking is that I have been on the phone to Qatar who tell me they can book a flight from Singapore to Perth on 14 September, but it seems a bit dodgy as Scoot do not have a published schedule yet for September??

Should I avoid this booking??

I am surprised Qatar can book such flights with Singapore airlines anyway????

TIA XX

They code share.

In a code-sharing agreement, two or more airlines share a flight. In this way, one airline can book a seat on a flight that is actually operated by another airline under a different flight number or code. ... All major airlines are party to one or more code-sharing agreements.

[Marisawright]

1 hour ago, NicF said:

Laws are different in Australia though, especially when it comes to refunds.

What Tulip1 described is pretty much the same in Australia.

[Marisawright]

17 minutes ago, ali said:

They code share.

In a code-sharing agreement, two or more airlines share a flight. In this way, one airline can book a seat on a flight that is actually operated by another airline under a different flight number or code. ... All major airlines are party to one or more code-sharing agreements.

That is true. The last time we went to Europe, we noticded our flight was listed on the departures board four times - because it was listed under four different codes, one for each of the airlines flying passengers on that flight.

These days, you book with one airline but you could be flying with anybody.

[Paul1Perth]

7 hours ago, Tulip1 said:

You wouldn’t have lost the lot even if they indicated you would. They have to refund you if they cancelled the flight. They will always offer a voucher/reschedule. But....they are legally obliged to refund you. They didn’t provide the item you paid for. If you bought a new tv from the store and they didn’t deliver it you would get refunded. They may try it on and say we will give you another one next year but it’s your choice if you want that it not. They tried all that with me but I know my rights and it worked of course, I received a full refund. 

We had booked through flight centre, not direct with the airline, which someone told us we would have more chance of getting a full refund. We had the choice of getting most of our money back or getting a voucher or whatever it's called, for the full cost and same flight value. I think it lasts for a year and if we can't go to the UK we can use the same cost to go somewhere else. 

Can't remember what excuse they used for not giving the full cash refund. We didn't really chase it up hard as we were supposed to be going for a wedding, which is now happening next year.

[newjez]

4 hours ago, NicF said:

Laws are different in Australia though, especially when it comes to refunds.

If you bought it on a credit card, wouldn't you just claim it back from the credit card company?

[Tulip1]

2 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

We had booked through flight centre, not direct with the airline, which someone told us we would have more chance of getting a full refund. We had the choice of getting most of our money back or getting a voucher or whatever it's called, for the full cost and same flight value. I think it lasts for a year and if we can't go to the UK we can use the same cost to go somewhere else. 

Can't remember what excuse they used for not giving the full cash refund. We didn't really chase it up hard as we were supposed to be going for a wedding, which is now happening next year.

I was the same actually. My flights were with Qantas but I booked them through a third party via skyscanner.  They tried to give me a voucher/credit and I said no. I contacted Qantas in the end who were very helpful but said as my contract was with the third party, I had to deal direct with them. They did confirm though that I was entitled to a full refund as they had cancelled the flights.  They said that the agent would need to fill out a certain form which would get sent on to Qantas who would in turn refund the agent who would then refund me.  They were good enough to email all this to me.  Still the agent messed about a bit but I wasn’t budging and in the end they did the relevant form and my refund happened.  I suppose the agents would have kept their commission if they issued credits for future flights so I understand why they’d try it on.  For me, I just wanted my money back to be free to do a new search for flights once I’m able to. It sounds like you are happy with what you got though so all good. 

Edited August 10, 2020 by Tulip1

[MacGyver]

In response to the original question, in the current climate I would only fly to/from australia on a business class ticket. I say this as someone who has never flown business class in my life. But the number of flight cancellations (seemingly in economy with business class passengers being prioritised) would make me find the extra cash if at all possible, to try and avoid flight cancellations in Singapore/Doha/Dubai etc, given the significantly reduced numbers allowed to enter Australia at present.