Downgraded from Business Class.

[Ansett]

Glad that your friends parents made it home and that the crew were at least good to them. It is a shocker that QF ground crew was so disinterested.

One if the things I have always said about QF is that when something goes wrong they are generally very good at recovery however I am starting to doubt this now based on experiences on here and that of myself and friends of late.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sorry for the delayed reply everyone. My friend's parents are now home, one managed to get a J seat as there was a no-show and the other was in Y. The situation was explained to the flight crew who were apparently appalled at what had happened.

I am thinking this is probably one situation where I would support seat swapping half way through a flight. If a couple were separated on an involuntary downgrade, it would seem fair to allow each of them 7 hours sleep in a flat bed.

Compensation? I would push for one free return business class ticket for one passenger. To be used at leisure and cut the costs in half on their next trip. The compensation could be by way of miles, but with a note on file that confirmed space will be created by QFFF as required.

 

[Hvr]

Thanks for getting back to us BNEFlyer, let's hope there is a proper resolution and explanation as to why this happened and how it will be prevented in the future.

 

[vitagen]

That is pretty poor service from QF. I hope your folks get compensated well above their expectations.

 

[amaroo]

Massive fail by QF! Compensation should be free-flowing and plentiful.

What are the chances the odd up-grader or OpUp's were sitting in F or J? That would make my blood boil...

 

[AIRwin]

I haven't seen the US Department of Transportation (DOT) regulation mentioned on this thread so I shall give it a go...

Part 250 on "Oversales" would be relevant here:
eCFR — Code of Federal Regulations

Unfortunately, the downgraded passenger is not eligible for denied boarding compensation under Part 250 but is entitled to an appropriate refund for the fare difference:
eCFR — Code of Federal Regulations

Nevertheless, QF should have requested volunteers for denied boarding before using any other boarding priority:
eCFR — Code of Federal Regulations
QF's Customer Service Plan refers to this:
http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/customer-service-plan/us/en#jump6

I'm not sure if the downgraded passenger was provided with the required written notice before the boarding pass was issued in Y class? In particular:
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retriev...18b7e7fa70ce28efb17&r=SECTION&n=se14.4.250_19

The other regulation that is applicable is Part 259 on "Enhanced Protections for Airline Passengers" which requires the carrier to send a substantive written response to the complainant within 60 days of receiving the complaint.

 

[DC3]

Thanks for the update, BNEFlyer.

Originally, I was somewhat sceptical that this could have actually been happening and that maybe there was more to it.

But what a monumental disaster. I hope that they receive proper compensation that is acceptable to them.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Wow - makes my blood run cold - not what you expect of Qantas especially for passengers with status. My heart goes out to the couple as they must have experienced a great deal of stress which ruined the trip for them. Just not good enough really - sounds like the ground crew just wanted to do the downgrades without putting too much effort into it. Qantas should be going back and investigating how it happened and procedures for ensuring better handling of downgrades in the future, but nothing I have seen of Qantas leads me to believe they follow quality control procedures....

 

[Pushka]

Given the cost of J flights and the anticipation of a comfortable journey I know I would not be well behaved if this had happened to me. Makes the dissatisfaction of loss of WP shadow on the other thread seem rather inane.

I think we all need to know if this is going to become more frequent. Even an enhancement.

And I hope that Q doesn't cite "privacy" as a reason for not providing an explanation as to how this could happen, especially to an SG. I wonder if ground staff thought that perhaps a retired (or at least older) couple might be easy game to downgrade.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Given the cost of J flights and the anticipation of a comfortable journey I know I would not be well behaved if this had happened to me. Makes the dissatisfaction of loss of WP shadow on the other thread seem rather inane.

I think we all need to know if this is going to become more frequent. Even an enhancement.

And I hope that Q doesn't cite "privacy" as a reason for not providing an explanation as to how this could happen, especially to an SG. I wonder if ground staff thought that perhaps a retired (or at least older) couple might be easy game to downgrade.

It may have been a case of bumping whoever didn't have pre-allocated seats a bit like musical chairs. If people who had done points upgrades were bumped back to whY or PE then refunding the points is fairer than refunding the difference between the J & full Y fare when the pax has paid probably $6K for a J class fare wouldn't have paid anywhere near 4K had they chosen to purchase a discount economy fare - more like half or a third of that.

 

[Pushka]

Agree beachbabe. That would make sense to follow that order of bumping. But clearly there were no fairness rules applied here.

 

[ellen10]

Wow, I am very disappointed for the Brisbane couple who had this "bad taste" experience at the end of their holiday.
I am also concerned reading this, as after saving up our points, we have booked 2 x J seats (our first time in J) for our trip to the USA next year.
I understand the status of passengers and paying versus points, but it sounds like the flight was very oversold in J.
It makes me a little nervous!

 

[Princess Fiona]

I think this is a pretty big cough-up by QF and a very suboptimal customer service experience for the OP's friends (understatement of the year maybe).
I hope that they receive a satisfactory apology and explanation from QF as soon as possible including appropriate compensation.

But let's not all get carried away here please folks, the sky isn't falling. There are numerous members on here including myself who have taken collectively thousands of QF flights in J and F and not had anything like this experience.

 

[UP4014]

Not what you expect from QF, a total cough up! Makes me mad this stupid stuff QF can't get right. As i've said before, the service on the aircraft I've always found to be great but outside that......

But don't worry, Lesley someone with the words manager and loyalty in the job title are touring telling all what a good job they are doing.

 

[markis10]

But let's not all get carried away here please folks, the sky isn't falling. There are numerous members on here including myself who have taken collectively thousands of QF flights in J and F and not had anything like this experience.

So far.....touch wood.

 

[Princess Fiona]

So far.....touch wood.

My hand was on my head as I was posting it

 

[Flying mermaid]

I have never been downgraded in 40 years of flying Qantas, however I have had a friend downgraded this year when flying back to Australia from the US. it was PE to Y and she was asked and given some freebies and promised a refund (which she was pretty unhappy with as it turned out to be only $200). now I know airlines have always oversold cabins, but I am wondering if it isn't happening a bit more aggressively on this route for some reason?

 

[DC3]

The sky will be falling if that ever happens to me!! :evil:

I would be looking at options like flying the next day (or even the day after that), or via MEL instead of SYD. If I wanted to fly Y then I would have bought a Y ticket.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I have never been downgraded in 40 years of flying Qantas, however I have had a friend downgraded this year when flying back to Australia from the US. it was PE to Y and she was asked and given some freebies and promised a refund (which she was pretty unhappy with as it turned out to be only $200). now I know airlines have always oversold cabins, but I am wondering if it isn't happening a bit more aggressively on this route for some reason?

I think passengers should be told exactly how much money they will receive before they agree to the downgrade as they may think in good faith that they would be receiving the difference between a sale fare & PE which could be $2,000 ($1,000 if downgraded one wsy).

 

[Anna]

I was downgraded once by QF from J to Y on an award flight and wasn't given any money in compensation, only a shadow in Y and a bottle of wine. It was about 16-18 years ago on a flight from ADL to SIN.