Our internal guidelines are beyond the minimum IATA requirements to allow individual, overall experiences to be considered by way of discretionary goodwill gestures. What does this actually mean?
The goodwill offered by Customer Care on this occasion was in addition to any fare differential offered by the agent, and the cash payment received at Los Angeles airport at the time. What are the rules applying to fare differentials? Is it the paid business class compared to the lowest available economy class at time of booking?
Our yield management team is recognised as one of the best in the industry, however they don’t always get it right due to various operational reasons. A call out was made earlier in the day looking for volunteers to either downgrade or travel on the following day with the same offer of compensation. Were there any operational reasons? Or did everyone just turn up? Were seats actively sought on the CX departure from LAX to HKG leaving a couple hours after the QF departure? This would have returned passengers to australia a day earlier.
For those suggesting that IATA regulations should not allow airlines to overbook flights, please note that fares would significantly increase to allow maximum flexibility across all airlines, in all fare buckets. IATA regulations may allow overbooking, as do most governments around the world. But just because overbooking isn't illegal, it doesn't necessarily mean it's not a breach of contract. EU261 contains strict provisions for events such as these, would Qantas be happy to adopt EU261 worldwide?
The refund via Flight Centre is following normal, documented procedure to be followed by all agents selling our products, but this process can take time. While we’re keen to maintain consistency, we have limited visibility over agent’s transactions. Was a contact at Qantas provided to personally process the refund calculation as soon as possible provided Flight Centre was willing and able to submit the refund application immediately? (Much in the same way as the other 'generic' waiting periods have been expedited?)