Hey there everyone! I know I haven't posted in a looooong time, but I think everyone will know why that is. I hope everyone and anyone who reads this (or my blog generally) are all staying safe and well, looking after one another, and keeping on top of their mental and physical health while we all navigate such extraordinary times.
So. A new post? Hurrah! Hold your hurrahs for now, because it's unfortunately all rather negative. So... gather round, and let me explain.
What with the travel and aviation industries having been brought to a virtual standstill for the past three months (and who knows how many more), there has been (in my eyes) one global leader within the aviation industry through the crisis, and that's Qatar Airways. They have maintained a robust network and schedule, continued flying to repatriate a phenomenal number of people during the COVID-19 crisis, been moving huge volumes of medical cargo across the globe as well as giving away 100,000 free economy class tickets to healthcare workers for their exceptional dedication to our health and care at such a critical time.
In addition to all of that, they've been leading the way with their flexible booking policy, which has been updated (and enhanced) a number of times already as the situation has evolved. Their most recent policy however, blows all other airlines offerings out of the water with its flexibility and sheer generosity. This should be a great thing, right? It is... until it isn't. And no, it's not Qatar Airways taking the shine off it, it's travellers themselves.
Here's a screen grab of the overview of the policy:
Let's be clear; this policy is really, really, incredible. So incredible in fact, everyone thought the unlimited changes with a 5000 mile radius was a typo, which it turns out it wasn't, as it was checked via Qatar's call centres. Though I think with hindsight, it should have been limited to a 1000 mile radius. Why, you ask? Well... several large travel sites with huge readership have been posting articles over the last day or so about the ways the passenger can (quite frankly) take the piss with it, that's why. Sites advertising and promoting blatant abuse of the policy are here, here and here. I'm particularly disappointed in God Save The Points for doing this; I have great respect for Gilbert and read GSTP all the time for pointers and ideas. It's worthwhile to note that GSTP have also (as of 16.05.20) highlighted the issue I'm about to talk about, yet still encourage people to exploit it if they can.
I love a good deal on flights as much as anyone, and I've posted about ex-EU fares with Qatar Airways before and how they're exceptional value as well as being an easy way to get your Oneworld status to Sapphire in almost one fell swoop when you credit to the BA Executive Club. But in doing that, I acted within the rules of the fare and didn't blatantly exploit a (very obvious) loophole designed to help people during a global pandemic.
The above sites have posted about the exceptional flexibility, yes, that's the correct thing to do; it's literally their job. But, in addition to this, those sites have also blatantly encouraged people to gobble up cheap tickets and immediately change them to something that would be far more expensive or far further away. I really do think that booking a flight from Philadelphia to Kiev (via Doha) then immediately changing Kiev for Hong Kong is totally taking the piss, even if it is within the 5000 mile radius mentioned in the policy. Why? I'll tell you.
I have the receipts:
TPG:
OMAAT:
GSTP:
Some of the wording in the above article is quite interesting; it could be inferred that they're not advising or recommending doing this, but I mean... come on. It's blatantly obvious what you're inferring by calling it a 'game', giving examples of itineraries you can abuse and call centre numbers out.
When I've talked about ex-EU fares before, the Scandianavian airports of Oslo (OSL), Stockholm (ARN) and Gothenburg (GOT) often come out with very good Business Promo class fares to Southeast Asia, for example Bangkok (BKK), Kuala Lumpur (KUL), Singapore (SIN) and Hong Kong (HKG) often sell in the region of £1100 to £1350 return. Excellent value, though in ordinary circumstances, these Business Promo fares are very restricted as per the T&Cs.
I checked fares from ARN to HKG last night, minded to start thinking about booking for mid-December in case my reward flights with BA from London to Tokyo are cancelled in late October, and thus giving me something to look forward to later in the year, safe in the knowledge I could exchange the tickets for a refund or a voucher (plus 10%) and rebook later into 2021 if COVID-19 was still causing global havoc, pushing my plans from 2020 into the following year. Those fares with Qatar Airways were approximately £1340 return last night.
I also posted on Twitter (@_casualtravel, go gimme a follow!) yesterday afternoon that it would only be a matter of time before Qatar Airways cottoned on to the fact that people were taking the piss with the policy and (re)booking completely ridiculous changes with impunity just to snag a deal. I also noted, rather pointedly, that this would be end up with some kind of change being implemented that would be to the massive detriment of anyone else wanting to book something for later in the year with a mind to use the policy as intended, as opposed to blatantly abusing it.
And, it turns out I was right. Quelle suprise.
I checked again this morning for that routing from ARN to HKG, again with the same dates. The price? Closer to £4000 than yesterday's £1340. My eyes almost fell out of my face. "That can't be right..." I muttered to myself. I quickly checked for departures from OSL, GOT, HEL... similar prices. "HUH?!" I cleared my browsing history and cache. Did it all again. The same. I checked the Qatar Airways app. The same. So, I was correct. Qatar Airways did cotton on to this blatant abuse of their generosity in a time of phenomenal global crisis, and instead of backtracking and changing the policy with a mileage change or other restrictions, they racked the prices up to eye-watering levels as a blatant two-fingered deterrent. It would appear that Qatar's three types of business class fare have been reduced to just offering one; the most expensive.
I tweeted about this in a rather extensive thread. Additionally, it appears that economy class fares are (largely) unaffected; only those in business class being hiked, as that is what was being promoted online. ARN to HKG comes out at about £490, not a massive amount more than with Finnair (£380).
A huge, enormous slow-clap thank you so much to those sites in their promotion of ways to completely abuse the policy that has, in less than 48 hours, spoiled it for everyone. I mean... ugh. They, and those who booked those tickets and then changed them in extremis immediately are also the absolute worst. I actually think those tickets should all be cancelled as a secondary "fuck you". I mean, Kiev to Hong Kong. What a complete twat.
Like I said, I totally love a great deal. And unlimited changes with a 5000 mile radius is insanely generous. Was the policy meant to be abused in such a way? No. It clearly wasn't and I think it says a lot about people's morals, magnified even more so in the current pandemic, to behave in this way and ultimately ruin it for everyone else who might have needed it for honest reasons.
OMAAT says (or rather, said), "this opens up some incredible opportunities to score a deal." That aged terribly, didn't it, because y'all showed people how to exploit something offered in good faith and it's been taken away, much like a badly behaved child with a new toy.
One could counter all this with cries of "Well, Qatar Airways should have expected this by being so flexible!", and you'd be right, it's true, they were probably being naive about how exploitative, devious and cheap other people can be. I personally think they should have made the policy far more limited but that's not the situation we're in, nor has the word 'limited' been in Qatar's vocabulary during this pandemic.
TPG does actually highlight some call centre staff taking a slightly different interpretation of it, one which I think should be upheld by Qatar Airways, even if that might have been due to inexperience with that agent's application of the policy:
If your flight has been disrupted by issues out of your hands, then that's fine, change it. It's not like you're exploiting the policy in that regard.
It'll be interesting to see if those fares come down again after the policy stops being applied to flights booked after 30.09.20, or indeed, if the policy is drastically changed and the fares modified afterwards.
Like I said earlier, this should be a great thing, right? It is... until it isn't.
EDIT & UPDATE 18.05.20:
It appears I was correct; Qatar Airways have removed all Business Promo fares from sale because of this blatant game-playing and they have updated the policy as per the below screengrab, which makes it more restrictive:
I still personally think the policy should only allow a 5000 mile change where the ticket has been disturbed by Qatar Airways, due to operational issues or because of reasons owing to COVID-19; I don't think voluntary changes should be permitted at all. I also think that every ticket that was booked and then immediately changed to maximise the distance/minimise the price should be cancelled and refunded by Qatar Airways in voucher form only, or if voluntary changes are permitted, have all itineraries reverted to their original destinations and the Business Promo fares still withheld so that anyone wishing to change has to pay a phenomenal amount to do so. Punitive? Punishing? Yes. Yes. Why? Because people have taken goodwill and abused it. Simple.
In case you hadn't realised, I have really strong opinions about this. It creates distrust between retailer and customer because of such obvious abuse and will only serve to make airlines less flexible in the future which is totally counterproductive toward our common goal of having our ability to travel reinstated and our collective drive towards returning the world to a degree of normality once the worst of this terrible virus has been passed.