Couple loses at VCAT over Lifetime QF Club card allegedly issued in error

[Ausbt]

read too many stories from the US about successfully suing companies for oddball reasons.

"Hey Pepsi, where's my jet?"

now if you'll excuse me I'm off to phone a certain bank about the last 38 years of interest I'm owed on a $1m balance....

I admire your honesty as a teenager but seriously were it me today, I'd like to imagine I'd be diverting that balance for a few weeks to make a little money somewhere (though given my own poor performance as an ASX-day-'trader' there would be many risks). Still, we can dream. A friend of mine was reimbursed $40K by a bank with an actual cheque (it was a duplicated reimbursement). She ignored it, just put it in a drawer. Personally I would have put it against my mortgage and waited for them to follow it up, but I guess that's me.

 

[dairyfloss]

"Hey Pepsi, where's my jet?"

Exactly! Just watched that series on NF a few weeks ago, too

 

[RichardMEL]

Those claiming the club member did not contact Qantas are just speculating. There is nothing to support your assumption. Having contacted Qantas about my partner's account, I know that it is possible for the husband to ask about the wife's account. Putting that aside, as a number of comments have mentioned, we do not know the details of that conversation. Those who stated there is no evidence that the lifetime expiry was queried with Qantas should also accept that there is no evidence to say it wasn't queried. VCAT made a ruling before such matters even came into consideration.

Who is claiming the club member did not contact QF? The club member (Husband) DID contact them - this is the phone call from March 2019 as documented where he called to query why his new card didn't say lifetime. Nobody's disputed this.

What people have queried is that there's no evidence that his Wife - the one issued the lifetime card - didn't contact QF. Per the VCAT docket it can be assumed that since they didn't query or dispute what they were apparently told in 2019 this was not raised until her refusal to be admitted in 2021.

Perhaps there's some confusion here as to who is the club member and who had the partner card?

it may be splitting hairs a bit, but it is potentially important (and noted in the docket)

Post automatically merged: Jan 9, 2023

There is one thing about this affair that doesnt quite gel with me and we will probably never know.

Infrequent flyers (or at least naive members who don’t have an basic understanding of the system ) …….

1. wouldn't normally be generating enough points to throw them away on using them to buy lounge access instead of flying or hotel rooms or toasters

2. If you don't fly often, why would you have a need for expenditure on buying lounge access at all for the few times you fly.

And if they are actually frequent flyers enough to warrant buying lounge access for both of them instead of only one and guesting the partner in, then it smells of them just trying to game the system as they would know Lifetime Memberships haven't been available for yonks

Yes, this did cross my mind when reading the VCAT docket and it noted they did renewal with points. I guess there's CC churn and points club type points earn

(it was also noted she was granted access via guest pass which implies either PC+ or a CC with guest pass)

 

[RichardMEL]

So here’s the other pickle

Qantas Club Gives Another Complimentary 7-Month Extension

Qantas is giving yet another complimentary extension to Qantas Club members. Anyone who had an active membership as of 30 June 2021 will automatically be

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

because the original paid for membership “ran” out, the complainant missed out on at least 4 or more complimentary extensions and would not have been required to pay for at least 18 months if not more.... so what’s a future 20% discount worth ?

Qantas previously ran an offer of 50% off selected Qantas Club memberships in April 2022. And then again in October 2022

Half-Price Qantas Club Offer (October 2022)

For a limited time, Qantas is offering a 50% discount off 1-year Qantas Club memberships - both for new members and on renewals. From 11-17 October 2022,

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

which in light of the hearing and decision Dates were not able to be used by the customer, who knocked back a free 4 years, and then was offered a 20% discount - QF definitely could have eased the pain of defeat... as for the announced $1.5 billion current year profit ....

Well they rejected the initial offers in June 2021 which is 12 months before the June 2022 promo. Kind of seems a bit irrelevant. I mean QF most likely in June 2021 were not aware of promo plans a year later (and of course this is pandemic peak where everything was a huge question mark as to the future).

btw per the docket, the 20% discount offer was the first offer made in June 2021. The 4 year offer was made just prior to the VCAT hearing (16 June 2022) and a free 4 year mmbership would still be a better deal than a 50% off deal. Anyway it was rejected too.

I'm also unsure how a profit announced in later 2022 is relevant either. They also had a huge loss a year earlier and first half 2022 iirc. sooo?

 

[RichardMEL]

Surely if she contacted QF it would have been said in the hearing?? There is also a note in the findings about her not contacting them within 6 months of noting the error

Remember, the husband is the actual QC member - or primary cardholder - and he DID contact QF within six months (March 2019).....

Her card was offered at the Partner Rate (as per the docket)

 

[Rich]

Allegedly 80,000 (not confirmed by any official source) cards were posted incorrectly.

If you are requoting my requote from a comment on the original article, note it said there were 80000 such cards, but didn't say they were posted. I feel we would have heard from someone else on this site that they received such a card if there were 80000 sent.

 

[p--and--t]

If you are requoting my requote from a comment on the original article, note it said there were 80000 such cards, but didn't say they were posted. I feel we would have heard from someone else on this site that they received such a card if there were 80000 sent.

Thanks I could not recall where I had seen it.

 

[whughes3]

80000 would be a large slice of the total QC membership: if this was indeed the case, surely it would have come to light long ago.