Gold status, got bumped from flight to Bangkok. Colleagues who are Bronze status / not even QFF members are still on flight.

[huge.k]

As the title says. Due to fly QF23 to Bangkok on 24 October. Checked-in online this morning and was sequence number 9 or something. Requested a points upgrade.
This evening I see my booking showing up as cancelled in the app. My colleagues on the same flight who are Bronze / not even QFF members didn't get bumped. I called up the international call centre - originally they told me that the flight was cancelled at that they'd rebooked me on Jetstar.
I called back again thinking something suss was going on and then they told me the flight was full and there was nothing they could do.
Questions:

1. How on earth did I get bumped as Gold and as a high sequence number? Is there any way I can get on that flight?
2. What can I ask for as compensation? Business upgrade on the return flight? Platinum status?

I really don't want to fly Jetstar.

 

[DAC1]

First of all, sorry to hear that you are in this position.

If you have not accepted the Jetstar option, you should be able to push for an alternative routing (most likely QF23 on the following day or you could even ask for a routing via SIN).

In relation to your questions, there are many stories of members with status being bumped on rewards bookings.

In relation to compensation, I suspect at most you might get are some Qantas points. I doubt you will get a business upgrade on the return or an upgrade to platinum.

 

[huge.k]

First of all, sorry to hear that you are in this position.

If you have not accepted the Jetstar option, you should be able to push for an alternative routing (most likely QF23 on the following day or you could even ask for a routing via SIN).

In relation to your questions, there are many stories of members with status being bumped on rewards bookings.

In relation to compensation, I suspect at most you might get are some Qantas points. I doubt you will get a business upgrade on the return or an upgrade to platinum.

Thanks for your response. This was a fully paid and ticketed economy booking. I'd simply requested a points upgrade to Business, not booked the flight with points.

As it is, now I've paid overs for a coughty Jetstar seat somewhere down the back of the plane.

 

[DAC1]

Thanks for your response. This was a fully paid and ticketed economy booking. I'd simply requested a points upgrade to Business, not booked the flight with points.

As it is, now I've paid overs for a coughty Jetstar seat somewhere down the back of the plane.

Did you get a boarding pass for QF23? I assume so if you have referenced your sequence number.

Business is full and there only appears to be 1 seat remaining for sale in economy.

You should be able to push to be rebooked onto an alternative that suits you. Are you given any alternative options when you look up your booking reference online?

Depending on your risk appetite, if you don’t have any success with the call centre, you may consider showing up early for check-in for QF23 and getting the airport staff to attempt rebook you. I have had them rebook me onto a different carrier in the past when I was bumped and they should have greater flexibility than the call centre.

 

[huge.k]

Did you get a boarding pass for QF23? I assume so if you have referenced your sequence number.

Business is full and there only appears to be 1 seat remaining for sale in economy.

You should be able to push to be rebooked onto an alternative that suits you. Are you given any alternative options when you look up your booking reference online?

Depending on your risk appetite, if you don’t have any success with the call centre, you may consider showing up early for check-in for QF23 and getting the airport staff to attempt rebook you. I have had them rebook me onto a different carrier in the past when I was bumped and they should have greater flexibility than the call centre.

Yep, I got a boarding pass in the Qantas app.

Where are you able to see that there's a seat left? My quick search on the Qantas website doesn't show any results for QF23.

The Jetstar flight is probably the best option for me - it will just impact the event I'm going to for work.

I was connecting from Melbourne on QF416. If I were flying straight out of Sydney I'd have no issues going there to see what they could do for me.

Is this common? Any idea what might have happened?

 

[DAC1]

Additionally, are you paying out of your own pocket or is it your employer? I assume employer given you are flying with colleagues.

If could get refund and if you wanted to use up some points and were not opposed to a more roundabout option, there is a CX J award available for SYD-HKG-BKK tomorrow for 90,000 + $418. However, this obviously ignores whatever you need to do on the way home (and cancelling one way might result in the ticket being repriced which would mean you may not get much of a refund for just canceling QF23).

 

[huge.k]

Additionally, are you paying out of your own pocket or is it your employer? I assume employer given you are flying with colleagues.

If could get refund and if you wanted to use up some points and were not opposed to a more roundabout option, there is a CX J award available for SYD-HKG-BKK tomorrow for 90,000 + $418. However, this obviously ignores whatever you need to do on the way home (and cancelling one way might result in the ticket being repriced which would mean you may not get much of a refund for just canceling QF23).

Employer is paying... It's for a training so we have a bit of a tighter budget which limits flexibility.

 

[DAC1]

Yep, I got a boarding pass in the Qantas app.

Where are you able to see that there's a seat left? My quick search on the Qantas website doesn't show any results for QF23.

The Jetstar flight is probably the best option for me - it will just impact the event I'm going to for work.

I was connecting from Melbourne on QF416. If I were flying straight out of Sydney I'd have no issues going there to see what they could do for me.

Is this common? Any idea what might have happened?

Do you still have your QF boarding pass?

If you were rebooked onto JQ29 (the direct flight from MEL), you might still consider rolling the dice and showing up to the domestic check in desk in MEL that deals with international connections and asking what they can do (given that QF416 is obviously earlier than JQ29).

I looked on ExpertFlyer 10 mins ago and it was showing 1 Y left at the time however that has now gone.

No it is definitely not common for this to happen. As for what happened, there could be any number of reasons.

To give you an example of one of those reasons and without speculating the reason leading to you being bumped, I was once told that I was bumped as even though I had status, my PCV (Perceived Customer Value - it’s an internal QF scoring of their perception of your value) was low.

 

[DAC1]

In any case, welcome to AFF. Hope you have a safe journey tomorrow and stick around even after this episode

 

[huge.k]

Do you still have your QF boarding pass?

If you were rebooked onto JQ29 (the direct flight from MEL), you might still consider rolling the dice and showing up to the domestic check in desk in MEL that deals with international connections and asking what they can do (given that QF416 is obviously earlier than JQ29).

I looked on ExpertFlyer 10 mins ago and it was showing 1 Y left at the time however that has now gone.

No it is definitely not common for this to happen. As for what happened, there could be any number of reasons.

To give you an example of one of those reasons and without speculating the reason leading to you being bumped, I was once told that I was bumped as even though I had status, my PCV (Perceived Customer Value - it’s an internal QF scoring of their perception of your value) was low.

I've been flying back and forth to PNG for the last 8 weeks, putting through about $20k of bookings in that time alone so their algorithm for PCV must be cough if that's the case.

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF @huge.k , sorry about the circumstances. Trying to figure out who got bumped from which flight is a bit of a sport here .

I will second the advice given above, especially if you didn’t formally accept the change to the Jetstar flight#. Emphasise that this was an involuntary change (important words to use) of flight for you, and you have the right to choose the flight that you want ( as long as there is availability).

# did you actually get any notification of cancellation via an email or SMS? Or did you just discover it yourself and call??

If the call centre you got to did not have an Australian accent, it was likely one of the offshore ones who are, in general, pretty hopeless. Unless you accepted the Jetstar change by clicking some button or link in an email or SMS, you can perfectly argue at the airport that the call centre accepted the change on your behalf without your permission.

If you end up being stuck with Jetstar, your work colleagues are going to owe you big time!

As for compensation, if you are stuck with Jetstar, I would make an opening call of 50,000 points and be satisfied with 25,000. Always emphasise that it was an involuntary change, which you did not accept - Unless of course you did, in an email or SMS. That your colleagues got the flight and you got bumped is irrelevant in that discussion.

 

[huge.k]

Welcome to AFF @huge.k , sorry about the circumstances. Trying to figure out who got bumped from which flight is a bit of a sport here .

I will second the advice given above, especially if you didn’t formally accept the change to the Jetstar flight#. Emphasise that this was an involuntary change (important words to use) of flight for you, and you have the right to choose the flight that you want ( as long as there is availability).

# did you actually get any notification of cancellation via an email or SMS? Or did you just discover it yourself and call??

If the call centre you got to did not have an Australian accent, it was likely one of the offshore ones who are, in general, pretty hopeless. Unless you accepted the Jetstar change by clicking some button or link in an email or SMS, you can perfectly argue at the airport that the call centre accepted the change on your behalf without your permission.

If you end up being stuck with Jetstar, your work colleagues are going to owe you big time!

As for compensation, if you are stuck with Jetstar, I would make an opening call of 50,000 points and be satisfied with 25,000. Always emphasise that it was an involuntary change, which you did not accept - Unless of course you did, in an email or SMS. That your colleagues got the flight and you got bumped is irrelevant in that discussion.

Thanks for your response.

I just logged into the app and it had the new Jetstar itinerary there. When I called the Phillipines they told me the flight was cancelled (ie no plane) not overbooked and that my only alternative was the Jetstar flight. At this point the rebooked itinerary was already in my app - I just formalised it by checking in because there were no other viable options for me.

The call centre was in Phillipines, I confirmed a few times. They were totally useless.

I’ve already got plenty of points which I’m struggling to use. Could I bargain for status instead?

 

[RooFlyer]

I’ve already got plenty of points which I’m struggling to use. Could I bargain for status instead?

Unlikely to succeed, but others may think differently. You can always try.

As you checked-in, you are probably going to be deemed to have accepted the change and your position in arguing for a new flight is weaker. I know it’s bad to be told that after the event, but just to prepare you for the grounds for when you argue for another flight ( if you do).

Let us know any result.

 

[TheInsider]

Go to the International sales desk tomorrow morning in MEL or in SYD. Speak to them.

To be honest, I reckon there was an a/c swap with fewer seats. Don't know why they chose a gold though. Would've been nothing to do with PCV and purely human intervention. They probably thought they were doing you a favour with the direct flight

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Not knowing the indepth of it, its a possibility that someone of a higher status got put in, either into that empty J seat, or into your seat, OP.
In the past few weeks, someon on here go put back to Y, even tho they had an OLCI BP MEL - ADL, and also, a Vietnam war vet got moved from J to Y.
Ie, its not unknown for QF to do all these sort of how can we put, it mildly, games they play, procedures they might call it, if someone of a high status, or a higher need, has to fly on that date, on that flight.
Yes, and Qantas is sorry, as mentioned on the new take over by VH (the new QF CEO).
===
And yes, QFF SG gets the overseas call center, they are not QF employees, but are employed by external contractors.
===
If you have no choice and have to sit on the JQ 787, keep the JQ BP, so you can claim OCR in the class as paid for, JQ's Y might put you into discY earn, where as your employer might have paid $$$ for flexY earn rate of QFF points and QFF SC.
===
As an aside tho, not having to do the dom T3 to T1 transit with the QF bus in SYD, can be a blessing in disguise.
From when QF416 arr to when QF23 dep, its a very very tight connection.

 

[RooFlyer]

Not knowing the indepth of it, its a possibility that someone of a higher status got put in, either into that empty J seat, or into your seat, OP.

I think one of the issues was that the OP, with status, got dumped, whereas his work colleagues without status remained on the flight - irrespective of who got the seat.

 

[TheInsider]

To give you an example of one of those reasons and without speculating the reason leading to you being bumped, I was once told that I was bumped as even though I had status, my PCV (Perceived Customer Value - it’s an internal QF scoring of their perception of your value) was low.

Nothing to do with PCV (Process Customer Value) in this situation, and all to do with the first connection from MEL I'm assuming. It's easier to book direct and not look at the status.

 

[wenglock.mok]

I second the idea to show up to domestic checkin tomorrow earlier and seeing if either the service desk staff, or the check in staff are able to help. They may have more flexibility to reroute you as when I completely missed my connection in MEL a couple of years back, they were not able to find an acceptable solution on the spot but were happy to accept my subsequent proposal of being rerouted via BNE (on a Star Alliance carrier no-less).

In that instance, I showed them my EF screen, gave them the exact flight numbers and they re-issued the tickets in 10 minutes after faffing about for more than half an hour trying to find alternatives.

That will of course depend on how flexible you are with your time as it is likely that any other option will likely get you there later than JQ29. I would suggest you do your homework and have some options in your mind beforehand to offer as a proposal.

 

[TheInsider]

It's here as well: Reddit - Dive into anything

 

[oz_mark]

Yep, I got a boarding pass in the Qantas app.

Where are you able to see that there's a seat left? My quick search on the Qantas website doesn't show any results for QF23.

The Jetstar flight is probably the best option for me - it will just impact the event I'm going to for work.

I was connecting from Melbourne on QF416. If I were flying straight out of Sydney I'd have no issues going there to see what they could do for me.

Is this common? Any idea what might have happened?

When situations like this happen, airlines often look at people's origins and destinations when factoring in changes. The connecting flight is what has probably sunk you.