Asked to leave pe seat, and move to economy

[Travelqueen]

Currently sitting in hong kong airport, on my way back to Australia. However, I have been thinking about this for last few days. Sunday I was on QF 127, ( I had a premium economy seat, but used points for upgrade to business) When I went to QP, the staff said something like, "oh, you are lucky, we are oversold on that flight, and we are asking passengers to give up their pe seats to move back to exit rows in economy"
Thank goodness, not me, I thought. However, since then I have been wondering.....if that happened to you, what type of compensation would Qantas offer those passengers, and how do they pick who goes and who stays?
Maybe another frequent flyer was on the flight, or has been in this situation before......just curious :?::?:

 

[Hvr]

Haven't been there but would be really annoyed if it happened to me. I reckon status would come into play here as well as check in time.

 

[ausi ski bum]

I would tell them I will catch the next flight, I think PE will grow as a product and they will end up adding more seats.

 

[JohnK]

Someone posted the compensation amount recently but it would have to be a significant to cover the difference in cost of airfare + compensation.

I think volunteering to off load for another flight is minimum $400 + hotel accommodation.

 

[oz_mark]

As a starting point, Qantas publish a table of fare adjustments for involuntary downgrades. See http://www.qantas.com.au/agents/dyn/qf/policies/FareRefundTableEffective17Sep12.pdf. In this instance, it would appear that the fare adjustment would be either $630 or $385 depending on your fare class.

You may be able to argue for more though!

 

[muppet]

As a starting point, Qantas publish a table of fare adjustments for involuntary downgrades. See http://www.qantas.com.au/agents/dyn/qf/policies/FareRefundTableEffective17Sep12.pdf. In this instance, it would appear that the fare adjustment would be either $630 or $385 depending on your fare class.

You may be able to argue for more though!

I always look at those and think.... woefully inadequate

 

[defurax]

By any chance do you know if this was a last minute change in A380 configuration and QF were suddenly stuck with an extra 8 J passenger to downgrade? I have been wondering for the past few weeks if this has been happening lately.

Sent from my HTC Desire using AustFreqFly

 

[Berlin]

I always look at those and think.... woefully inadequate

Couldn't agree more. Ridiculous!

 

[simongr]

I think for PE to whY the amounts are ok. F to J and J to PE/whY are laughable

 

[yohy?!]

pretty rough - hopefully they would put J onto CX rather than sitting them in PE or Y?

 

[markis10]

By any chance do you know if this was a last minute change in A380 configuration and QF were suddenly stuck with an extra 8 J passenger to downgrade? I have been wondering for the past few weeks if this has been happening lately.

Sent from my HTC Desire using AustFreqFly

It was a 744:

25/11/2012	QF127	Sydney		Hong Kong	VH-OJL	B747-400	14F/52J/32W/255Y
26/11/2012	QF127	Sydney		Hong Kong	VH-OEB	B747-400	14F/66J/40W/187Y
27/11/2012	QF127	Sydney		Hong Kong	VH-OJL	B747-400	14F/52J/32W/255Y
28/11/2012	QF127	Sydney		Hong Kong	VH-OJL	B747-400	14F/52J/32W/255Y

 

[Berlin]

It all will in the end depend on your flexibility as the traveler: I had several occasions in the past where this happened to me and a group of colleagues but I just happily waited for another day in- let's say- LA and enjoyed my QF-founded luxury night at a hotel in Hollywood and without much of a problem ended up in the class originally booked. I was simply telling my partner that I was another night and informed work that, due to unforeseen circumstances, I will coming back into the office a day late- of course being very very sad about that by my rooftop pool in LA

However, it was a very different story for my colleagues, they had some screeching kids at home in Australia and hence could not under no circumstances enjoy sunny Southern California for a day longer but rather decided to take the downgrade option to Why. Well, each to their own

 

[chrisb]

For me, flying F,J or PE is a very rare treat that I've probably been waiting for years to do. There is no way to properly compensate me for the disappointment of a downgrade.

 

[richie9x]

Anyone traveling on private travel with staff or industry discounts would be first to be downgraded.

 

[harvyk]

If it was me, I'd be asking for the difference between the fare I paid, and the cheapest fare in the class I actually traveled. For example if I'd paid $5000 for a J fare, and I was placed into Y, and the cheapest Y seat sold on that flight was for $1000 (so a red-e-deal or sale fare) then I would be asking for a refund of $4000, anything less than that amount refunded and I would not be accepting the downgrade.

This current notion that a downgrade equals you paying the highest fare possible in the new lower class is almost daylight robbery as far as I'm concerned.

 

[harvyk]

For me, flying F,J or PE is a very rare treat that I've probably been waiting for years to do. There is no way to properly compensate me for the disappointment of a downgrade.

I don't know, if your flying J, and your downgraded to Y, but then given a voucher to travel in F on your next long haul flight, I think you might be happy with that...

 

[defurax]

It was a 744:

25/11/2012	QF127	Sydney		Hong Kong	VH-OJL	B747-400	14F/52J/32W/255Y
26/11/2012	QF127	Sydney		Hong Kong	VH-OEB	B747-400	14F/66J/40W/187Y
27/11/2012	QF127	Sydney		Hong Kong	VH-OJL	B747-400	14F/52J/32W/255Y
28/11/2012	QF127	Sydney		Hong Kong	VH-OJL	B747-400	14F/52J/32W/255Y

Oh, so actually a change of aircraft from VH-OEB to VH-OJL would cause even more problems than going from A380 v1 to A380v2. I was flying back from JFK in September on QF108 and I was quite surprised to receive a phone call from QF saying that QF108 would be 4 hours late out of JFK. I was surprised mainly because the call was made more than 30 hours before the flight scheduled departure from JFK; meaning that the "delayed" aircraft had not even left Australia yet. When I asked the CSM what was the reason for the delay back in SYD he told me that it took QF 3 hours in Sydney to figure out how to reshuffle all the passengers around the old config 744. The nice part though is that I got seat 1A (old F seat) instead of the new 744 without F seats.

 

[lovestotravel]

The only appropriate compensation for being downgraded is the full fare difference at the time of purchase!

 

[flychrisfly]

The only appropriate compensation for being downgraded is the full fare difference at the time of purchase!

I'd be VERY happy with a voucher giving me a free upgrade to First next trip, as harvyk suggests.

 

[RAM]

It was a 744:

25/11/2012	QF127	Sydney		Hong Kong	VH-OJL	B747-400	14F/52J/32W/255Y
26/11/2012	QF127	Sydney		Hong Kong	VH-OEB	B747-400	14F/66J/40W/187Y
27/11/2012	QF127	Sydney		Hong Kong	VH-OJL	B747-400	14F/52J/32W/255Y
28/11/2012	QF127	Sydney		Hong Kong	VH-OJL	B747-400	14F/52J/32W/255Y

Where do you pull those details off?