FA Unilaterally Downgrading PAX from J to Y on Trans Tasman (Jetconnect)

[chrizzz14]

a recent trip of QF25 with jetconnect from MEL-AKL that i took was somewhat quite the opposite! The plane was old - and i say OLD because the plastics inside the aircraft where not white, nor cream but yellow, aged yellow! And to be frank the plane stank.

The FA's were grumpy and can you believe, had the audacity to ask me to move from my J seat to a Y seat to allow a couple ( that had individualy booked tickets one in J and the other in Y) to take my seat so they could sit together. When i asked "will i get a refund", the response i got from the FA was, and i quote, " please sir dont be a nuisance, it is only a 3 hr flight im sure you will be fine back in economy" and then litterly pushed me down the cabin. Needless to say i was furious!

I will avoid Jetconnect from now on i think!

 

[Mal]

Unilateral Downgrading of PAX from J Trans Tasman by FA

The FA's were grumpy and can you believe, had the audacity to ask me to move from my J seat to a Y seat to allow a couple ( that had individualy booked tickets one in J and the other in Y) to take my seat so they could sit together. When i asked "will i get a refund", the response i got from the FA was, and i quote, " please sir dont be a nuisance, it is only a 3 hr flight im sure you will be fine back in economy" and then litterly pushed me down the cabin. Needless to say i was furious!

Wow !

Did you complain to Qantas?

 

[dede]

Re: Jetconnect 737-800

a recent trip of QF25 with jetconnect from MEL-AKL that i took was somewhat quite the opposite! The plane was old - and i say OLD because the plastics inside the aircraft where not white, nor cream but yellow, aged yellow! And to be frank the plane stank.

The FA's were grumpy and can you believe, had the audacity to ask me to move from my J seat to a Y seat to allow a couple ( that had individualy booked tickets one in J and the other in Y) to take my seat so they could sit together. When i asked "will i get a refund", the response i got from the FA was, and i quote, " please sir dont be a nuisance, it is only a 3 hr flight im sure you will be fine back in economy" and then litterly pushed me down the cabin. Needless to say i was furious!

I will avoid Jetconnect from now on i think!

My response would have been "It's only 3 hours, I'm sure they'll be fine being apart for that long"

 

[chrizzz14]

Re: Jetconnect 737-800

i did send qantas an Email, alas no actual reply just eh normal auto-generated one!

I wanted to give the FA a piece of my mind, but like i said she litterally pushed me down the cabin, it happened all so quickly - she took my bag out of the over head locker whilst she was asking!
I assume she knew the couple on a personal level.
I was furious, more so cause the seat that i was put in was a B seat, in the middle of two others on a heavily booked flight. I HATE sitting in B, infact in my 40 something sectors this year i have not had to sit in a B seat! Nor will i ever again.

What made things even worse was the flu i was suffering! Ahh it was horrid!

 

[docjames]

Re: Jetconnect 737-800

+ 1 on the did you complain?

+1 on the pics - I'm really keen to see what the new fitout is like. It sounds promising that soon (well, 2011 onwards) we'll have these in mainline domestic.

 

[djfuzz]

Re: Jetconnect 737-800

Woah - you had a fully paid J ticket and the FAs unilaterally downgraded you? I didn't think that was something they had the discretion to do (subject to legitimate operational reasons). The only time I could imagine that happening would be if you were on staff travel.

Surely if the couple couldn't arrange to each have paid J tickets and there were no free seats, they would be far below you in the order of priority. Something is very amiss.

 

[david870mdg]

Re: Jetconnect 737-800

The FA's were grumpy and can you believe, had the audacity to ask me to move from my J seat to a Y seat to allow a couple ( that had individualy booked tickets one in J and the other in Y) to take my seat so they could sit together. When i asked "will i get a refund", the response i got from the FA was, and i quote, " please sir dont be a nuisance, it is only a 3 hr flight im sure you will be fine back in economy" and then litterly pushed me down the cabin. Needless to say i was furious!

This behaviour by FA/CSM whoever it was is disgraceful.
You should apply for a full refund.
Shame it ruined your impressions of an otherwise respectable JetConnect.

 

[BlueAU]

Re: Jetconnect 737-800

i did send qantas an Email, alas no actual reply just eh normal auto-generated one!

You must chase this up by phone. It is totally unacceptable. Ring up and ask for customer care. If they give you the standard rubbish about you can only email and wait upto 30 days, tell them its urgent and need to speak now. They WILL put you through

 

[kamchatsky]

Re: Jetconnect 737-800

I agree. You MUST do what ever you can to get yourself a full refund and any other compensation. Completely unacceptable from Qantas. I have never heard such ridiculous stories about this.

Do you know the name of the FA who did this to you? This would make your case even stronger.

No wonder why I avoid QF at all costs. Stories like this makes TT look good (at least they don't have J, so they couldn't push J people back to Y!).

 

[harvyk]

Re: Jetconnect 737-800

No wonder why I avoid QF at all costs. Stories like this makes TT look good (at least they don't have J, so they couldn't push J people back to Y!).

Um, this is the first time I've heard of this happening, so it's not really a case against QF, just the FA \ CSM that thought it would be appropriate.

I'd suggest calling them to make the complaint in person... Something like that would convience me to move all my travel away from QF, especially if you've paid the heafty premium for a J seat...

 

[serfty]

chrizzz14, how long ago did this happen. I would not have left AKL airport without making a complaint in writing - and following up several times per week.

I would be jumping up and down, 6am departure notwithstanding.

To get my head around this, a few questions, if you do not mind:

• What date did you fly?
  
• Was you aircraft substituted from a 738/734 to a 733 at late notice?
  
• What sort of seating did you have?
  
• How you did you book the J seat?

 

[chrizzz14]

Re: Unilateral Downgrading of PAX from J Trans Tasman by FA

chrizzz14, how long ago did this happen. I would not have left AKL airport without making a complaint in writing - and following up several times per week.

I would be jumping up and down, 6am departure notwithstanding.

was a couple weeks ago (early sept) at the time it happened, it all happened so fast i really didnt give myself the chance to chuck a hissy fit ( i really wish i had of). As you know its a way early flight - i had travelled from Phillip Island (160kms south of MEL airport) that morning, mixed with a head ache from hell and a itchy runny nose from somewhere far worse than hell! I just wanted to sleep.

Im pretty sure the FA knew the couple on a personal level hence her behavor, and as Q call center staff said - i had no proof of what happened so there is supposidly nothing they can do for me! The whole thing really... well sucked!!!

I had work meetings all the during the day i arrived in LAX with a LHR bound flight that eve (which i must say was one of the most pleasent J flights ive ever had - mostly cause i was 'way' high on sleeping pills and slept the whole way from LAX to LHR - after which had to sit on the tarmac for 45 mins why another a departure bay became avail) by the time i got to London i was buggered and had completely forgot about my Jetconnect ordeal. After a few days i wrote to Q only to receive no actual response, and after a few phone calls i got no where so i just gave up ( to which i tihnk is Qantas's hope)

If it were to ever happen again i think id refuse to move, even if i got a tap on the shoulder from a flight marshal! (that'd be interesting!!!)

 

[chrizzz14]

chrizzz14, how long ago did this happen. I would not have left AKL airport without making a complaint in writing - and following up several times per week.

I would be jumping up and down, 6am departure notwithstanding.

To get my head around this, a few questions, if you do not mind:

• What date did you fly?
• Was you aircraft substituted from a 738/734 to a 733 at late notice?
• What sort of seating did you have?
• How you did you book the J seat?

Sept 7th
Had no idea what aircraft was scheduled however it was a 733
On the MEL-AKL i had J seat booked but as said had to sit in Y
As usual J seat was booked via internet on Company CC (am QF SG)

 

[serfty]

...
Im pretty sure the FA knew the couple on a personal level hence her behavor, and as Q call center staff said - i had no proof of what happened so there is supposidly nothing they can do for me! The whole thing really... well sucked!!!
...

Rubbish, your word is as good as theirs - haven't you heard of statutory declarations.

I would not be letting this go away.

FWIW, QF25 on the 7th September was operated by ZK-JTR a 734 with 12 "Millennium" seats in J.

 

[harvyk]

As a SG paying for J I'd be waiving the "I'll take my business elsewhere" card and remind them that AirNZ flys to the exact set of destinations (MEL - AKL - LAX - LHR can all be done on AirNZ metal).

The other thing you could do is write a letter to your local fair trading. You have paid for a service (a flight in J) which was not delivered. Unlike the LCC's you have paid a premium to fly in a specific class.

Yes their T&C's allow them to downgrade for operational reasons, however they are also meant to give you the option of either accepting the downgrade or waiting for another flight in the class you paid for...

I doubt however that their T&C's will protect them giving a person an op-down if at the same time they issue an op-up to someone else.

 

[chrizzz14]

well your right - i could go as far to do up a Statutory Deceleration - when i get back to AUS i think ill try to.

The women i spoke to at Qantas simply said that its my word against their records, of which show i was given a J boarding pass! She also said that the fare is not divided between the MEL-AKL and ALK-LAX trips, and that they would not be able to issue a refund of any kind.
Compensation is all i could hope for.

Which is what i guess i'll aim to get.

But to be frank, im so sick of going to so much effort to complain to Qantas. They make things so difficult and usually without a decent result.

It makes one feel that they are anything but "the spirit of australia" .


* my bad, your right Serfty it was a 734.

 

[docjames]

Certainly it might be easier back in Australia. I'd certainly not be resting on a call centre staffer saying "it's your work against ours". That's not acceptable, and this should be dealt with at a higher level.

Frankly, with that kind of response, my business would be going elsewhere unless the "final chance" response was less than 100% satisfactory. On a similar routing, as pointed out, Air NZ can do all flights, or else move to DJ over the ditch and V Aus / V Atl to LAX/LHR.

 

[dajop]

I can understand perhaps why a call centre might disbelieve this (not saying that I do), as it is almost unheard of. How come you just didn't stay put in your seat, or take it up with the CSM? I would have been extremely p##ed off to even be asked to do such a thing. It's one thing swapping seats within a cabin but across cabins? This sort of behaviour by FA should be grounds for instant dismissal!

If it's their word against yours, they would surely have a record of who you were sitting next to, and if that's person was married and had the same surname as their spouse who was travelling on the same plane in Y it would not be too hard to identify a strong probability of truth in your story. Of course if not sharing the same surname, or not married, it becomes harder.

 

[djfuzz]

Yeah, I'm not sure you've yet hit the best avenue for complaint - it doesn't feel quite right that you're being told that it's a simple case of your word against theirs.

It's actually a pretty serious complaint, compared to most of the ones that we raise and go on about here - you were unilaterally downgraded from a service level you paid a significant premium for (rather than a soft benefit that you may have been entitled to) in favour of someone who did not pay that premium.

So you're actually complaining about on board customer service as a paying J customer, rather than upgrade procedures at the gate, which is something that they have to look at seriously or else people simply won't choose to fly J with them. The fact that you have a J boarding pass is not proof that you were seated in J, but does demonstrate that you were entitled to do so.

Perhaps the FA thought you were on staff travel? I'm sure they should know better since they have the manifest, but that seems to me to be the only explanation for treating you alone in this manner. Was there any suggestion of this?

As for a remedy, after the fact the best they might offer is compensation of some kind, as you said I'm not sure they'd simply stump up for a refund.

[Edit] As an aside, we were on QF25 in J two days before you were - the cabin was empty but for the two of us and another couple. We returned the same day as you left, albeit on a different flight, and were the only ones in the cabin bar one other. Interestingly, halfway through the return flight, the FAs brought another passenger whom them were clearly familiar with into the J cabin. Why this passenger wasn't in J from the getgo, I don't know - if they were staff, they were clearly able to do so given them emptiness of the cabin. If anything, having someone simply come in an sit down next to us in the middle of the flight felt far more like a dilution of the premium product than having someone there from the word go.

 

[hazel]

See below Qantas/Jetconnect conditions of carriage. I would write a letter to QF.[QF seem to respond to letters more than emails] If no joy a complaint to NSW Fair Trading - QF have breached the T&Cs and have not dealt with your complaint about the breach in an appropriate or timely manner. [apologies could not 'un-bold' when wrtiting this]

4.7 Seating Selection and Allocation

Although we will try to accommodate Your seating need or choice, We do not guarantee You any particular seat. We may need ti change your seat at any time, even after You have boarded the aircraft, as We may need to do this for operational, safety or security reasons.


If We need to ask You to downgrade for any reason, We will at Your Option:

• provide You with an appropriate refund of the difference in fares (or an appropriate credit of Qantas Frequent Flyer points in the event that You are travelling on a Qantas Frequent Flyer Award), or
• accommodate You on a reasonable alternative available flight on Our services