Issue with QF on-line booking engine?

[opusman]

It is not as if he has been overcharged for the ticket or as if he thought he had been misled and not allowed to downgrade the ticket to one fully non-upgradeable or charged a change fee on top of the fare difference

Would you feel the same way if you had bought and paid for a business class ticket but found you'd been booked into economy?

Just because the benefits of Super Saver over a cheaper fare are less than those of business over economy, the principle is the same - Qantas advertised a product (a Super-Saver fare) at a specified price, and failed to deliver what was promised.

 

[JohnK]

There has been no loss by the customer to ask for compensation against

Your logic is flawed. There has been a loss to the customer. In this case $185 extra to upgrade to an upgradeable airfare they had purchased in the first place.

Qantas cannot list an airfare as Super Saver and then put 2 of the flights into lower booking classes. So what you are saying is that it is OK for to advertise an airfare as Fully Flexible or Flexi Saver and then have 1 or more segments in a non flexible booking class? So one pays through the nose for a flexible airfare but then has to call them and pay more? Surely this defeats the purpose?

How about if a person books business class or first class airfares but ends up in WHY or premium economy? Where does it end? The airline, QF in this case, is clearly wrong and taswegian77 should be refunded the extra money paid.

 

[Dave Noble]

Would you feel the same way if you had bought and paid for a business class ticket but found you'd been booked into economy?

Just because the benefits of Super Saver over a cheaper fare are less than those of business over economy, the principle is the same - Qantas advertised a product (a Super-Saver fare) at a specified price, and failed to deliver what was promised.

If I bought a ticket and it turned out that some sectors were in economy when I saw it, yes I would be disappointed and would contact the airline.

If they then said,ahhhh... yes ... that's a mixed class ticket with part in economy and part in business.... to get a business ticket the whole way will be more expensive, then I would have to choose to pay it , stick with what I had or cancel

If I chose to cancel and they said that I would have to pay a cancellation fee , then I would feel I had grounds for complaint
If I chose to upgrade and they said I had to pay a change fee on top of fare difference, then I would feel that I had grounds for complaint
If I said, sure, ok.... I'll pay the fare difference, then I would have no grounds to complain

Dave

 

[serfty]

Well at least a change fee was not payable. This is an acknowledgment from Qantas staff there is a problem. I wonder if the OP could have received a cancellation and full refund on that basis if that was their preference?

 

[Nigelinoz]

If I bought a ticket and it turned out that some sectors were in economy when I saw it, yes I would be disappointed and would contact the airline

Which is exactly why oz_marks point about Qantas displaying the fare class during the booking process is more than sensible and one would think easily achieved by their booking software.

 

[Dave Noble]

Your logic is flawed. There has been a loss to the customer. In this case $185 extra to upgrade to an upgradeable airfare they had purchased in the first place.

Qantas cannot list an airfare as Super Saver and then put 2 of the flights into lower booking classes. So what you are saying is that it is OK for to advertise an airfare as Fully Flexible or Flexi Saver and then have 1 or more segments in a non flexible booking class? So one pays through the nose for a flexible airfare but then has to call them and pay more? Surely this defeats the purpose?

How about if a person books business class or first class airfares but ends up in WHY or premium economy? Where does it end? The airline, QF in this case, is clearly wrong and taswegian77 should be refunded the extra money paid.

You are ignoring the major point. the person was NOT charged the CORRECT extra cost for a ticket that was upgradeable the whole way

e.g. if it cost $1000 for a ticket that was V class MEL-SYD , N class SYD-SIN-SYD and V class back to MEL
but cost $1185 for a ticket in V class the whole way

a person purchased a ticket for $1000 for this trip and got booked in V-N-N-V and the site indicated that it was a super saver ( which the V class portions are )
He then wants to change it to V-V-V-V , phones up and gets charged $185

HOW HAS HE BEEN PENALISED?

Ok, he may have purchased thinking that all of the sectors would be upgradeable, but he has not been at any loss

Dave

 

[Dave Noble]

Which is exactly why oz_marks point about Qantas displaying the fare class during the booking process is more than sensible and one would think easily achieved by their booking software.

And that is a different issue. I would be v pleased to see them change the engine to get away from the terms that they use and move to display the booking class for every sector

That is quite different to whether the person has been disadvantaged in this instance. Other than having to make a phone call and sort out the fare difference, there has been no loss

Dave

 

[Dave Noble]

Well at least a change fee was not payable. This is an acknowledgment from Qantas staff there is a problem. I wonder if the OP could have received a cancellation and full refund on that basis id that was their preference?

That is a relevent issue which I have referred to.

If he had decided to cancel/downgrade all sectors to the cheapest fare based on this, would they have allowed it without penalty. In the OPs case, it wasn't relevent since he agreed to pay to bring the fare up

If he had wanted to downgrade but they wouldn't , then that would be grounds for complaint imo

Dave

 

[JohnK]

You are ignoring the major point. the person was NOT charged the CORRECT extra cost for a ticket that was upgradeable the whole way

I did not ignore the major point. The major point here is that Qantas advertised and sold a Super Saver airfare which actually was not a Super Saver.

Do you call this false advertising? Deception? Misleading? Or simple IT issues? Everyone of these points the blame back to Qantas and under these circumstances Qantas should not have charged extra to deliver what they had promised to deliver at the point of sale. Nowhere in the terms and conditions of the Super Saver airfare does it mention that some of the sectors may be in lower booking classes....

 

[Dave Noble]

I did not ignore the major point. The major point here is that Qantas advertised and sold a Super Saver airfare which actually was not a Super Saver.

Do you call this false advertising? Deception? Misleading? Or simple IT issues? Everyone of these points the blame back to Qantas and under these circumstances Qantas should not have charged extra to deliver what they had promised to deliver at the point of sale. Nowhere in the terms and conditions of the Super Saver airfare does it mention that some of the sectors may be in lower booking classes....

No... The 2 logical recourse are (a) charge the extra to allow it or (b) cancel it and allow the person to rebook. The passenger took (b)

The US compensation culture is getting pervasive

Dave

 

[opusman]

If I said, sure, ok.... I'll pay the fare difference, then I would have no grounds to complain

That's called "bait-and-switch" and is illegal. Just because you're the sort of mug that puts up with that from companies doesn't mean everyone else is

 

[Flashback]

That's called "bait-and-switch" and is illegal. Just because you're the sort of mug that puts up with that from companies doesn't mean everyone else is

If you read Dave Noble's earlier post, you would note that he would not put up with that

 

[tuapekastar]

This really seems to boil down to a vendor's responsibilities when they make a mistake. If you sign a contract to purchase an item, and when delivered, it is not what was specified in the contract of sale, can they then say, oh, I made a mistake, pay me more to get what you contracted for?

I doubt it. A full refund offer just doesn't cut it.

So compensation should never have been an issue...QF should simply have allowed the upgrade requests.

The OP agreed to pay the difference, but should never have been in a position of being requested to do so. I think QF acted unconscionably in this case.

The amount in question is not going to send the OP to the poorhouse, but he/she is entitled to push on QF in this matter.

 

[wandering_fred]

While I am no fan of USA style law-suit mentality, it is a pity that the customer was/is not a QC.
1. Lack of full disclosure to make a decision to purchase the product
2. Perhaps "bait and switch"
3. QF arrogance. They only respond when pushed.

We should not have to "interrogate" the web page source code to find the fare classes.

Just an opinion or three.

Fred

 

[Dave Noble]

This really seems to boil down to a vendor's responsibilities when they make a mistake. If you sign a contract to purchase an item, and when delivered, it is not what was specified in the contract of sale, can they then say, oh, I made a mistake, pay me more to get what you contracted for?

except that it was delivered ... exactly what was paid for

there was no overcharge

Dave

 

[tuapekastar]

except that it was delivered ... exactly what was paid for

there was no overcharge

Dave

What was initially delivered was not what was initially paid for.

 

[Dave Noble]

What was initially delivered was not what was initially paid for.

Yes it was. Flights to the required destinations were provided

Dave

 

[tuapekastar]

Yes it was. Flights to the required destinations were provided

Dave

We're just going to have to agree to disagree here - life is too short...

 

[JohnK]

This really seems to boil down to a vendor's responsibilities when they make a mistake. If you sign a contract to purchase an item, and when delivered, it is not what was specified in the contract of sale, can they then say, oh, I made a mistake, pay me more to get what you contracted for?

There is a difference between a genuine mistake and a known glitch in the system that never gets the necessary attention. Booking a $9,900 business class airfare for $990 is a mistake. Booking a Super Saver for x amount and getting non upgradeable flights is wrong in more ways than I can imagine.

So compensation should never have been an issue...QF should simply have allowed the upgrade requests.

Exactly.

I mentioned earlier what would happen if I booked a Fully Flexible or Flexi Saver airfare and then found out that it was not flexible at all. Should I have to pay extra to make the airfare flexible? Qantas has advertised flexible airfare and accepted my money at booking time. Sorry Qantas but it is time you got your act together....

 

[Timtammi]

As far as I'm concerned this all boils down to QF not showing full details of what it is you are buying. In an attempt to simplify things (grouping classes of fares and called them red edeal or super saver etc) they are not disclosing the fact that you may be buying sectors that book into classes they wont let you upgrade.

As they specify the classes as the requirement for upgradeability then they need to show those classes in the booking engine. Otherwise its potentially misleading and deceptive as others have noted.

I have no argument with the fact that the fare purchased wasn't upgradeable, just that the purchaser had no way of knowing this and therefore was unable to factor this into his buying decision! In fact all evidence was to the contrary, so therefore it was misleading and deceptive on QF's part.

Cheers