PRESS RELEASE: SHAME ON YOU ALAN

Shame on you Alan
On Saturday at 9.00 am my journey into Qantas hell began.
I should for clarity share that I am an almost 69 year old male with limited computer skills and NO patience.
So my family has decided we should all fly to Queenstown on New Zealand’s South Island in September 2021 to celebrate both my wife’s and my daughter’s birthdays.
Because my youngest daughter wants to return home early I booked her flight first. I found the suitable flights and agreed to upgrade her flight to business class. I was doing this with my frequent flyer points.
When I finalized the transaction and received my e-tickets instead of business class they showed economy class. I needed to talk to a human but decided to wait until I had the rest of my family’s tickets in place first.
I proceeded to book the same outgoing flight and a different return flight for 5 adults and 1 child. I had a delay of around 45 minutes while trying to confirm with my family members the date of birth of my 8 year old granddaughter. They were all in various meetings and off line at that moment.
Consequently by the time I had established the correct date of birth my connection had timed out and I had to start again. In that time the cost per seat in points had increased dramatically. I processed the tickets and was going to pay with my points and extra cash of $4,000.00 to upgrade the family to business class. Unfortunately the tickets for economy price grew and the additional upgrade cost grew to $6,500.00 in the delay to make the booking.
I then called the help line and was told the delay was between 1 and 2 hours. I held on and listened to the mesmerising music while I attempted to do some gardening. After an hour and a half the phone reception dropped out and I think I probably needed some mental health assistance.
Lots of deep breathing and I redialled. Same pre-recorded message saying high volume wait time between one and two hours. Same horrible music which by this stage I was convinced had been deigned to put customers off from seeking assistance.
After a further 5 Hours and 15 minutes a human voice answered my call.
The lady was very businesslike but not at all empathetic or sympathetic or apologetic.
She advised me the first ticket which I had upgraded showed Economy class as the upgrade would happen at the airport on the day depending on availability.
The huge increase in cost of the 5 adult and 1 child fares were simply supply and demand. As seats sold the price went up.
Bad luck for whoever buys the last couple of tickets.
This is profiteering and is UNAUSTRALIAN.
I have asked Qantas to cancel the booked flights and return my million plus frequent flyer points which they say will take two weeks to get back into my account. Why so long? 1 Million Points roughly equated to $10,000.00. Now only around $5,000.00. I thought you were considering selling your frequent flyer program. Well done for devaluing it.
Web jet have the same flights for sale for $4858.00.
So after a wasted day of my ever shortening life I will just pay for my tickets through a booking site and wait for my points to come back to me.
Thank you Alan for devaluing your frequent flyer brand.