Qantas Business Class customers bumped to economy in Tokyo

[Pete98765432]

And to be fair there would be similar horror stories from passengers of most airlines.

True. A member reports the same treatment by VA.

Sorry, missed your reply. Haha year later I'll answer you. Sadly all the refund was, was the difference between my J fare and full price flexible Y which turned out to be about $50 a ticket.

 

[Tropic]

It was interesting to see QF after years of not enforcing PB (even though it being a published benefit of status) suddenly decide to enforce PB following public commentary that it is also an obligation on OW members under the agreement... maybe more public commentary might precipitate change?

 

[Pushka]

The charge back window starts when you were expected to receive the service - i.e. on the day of flight
How can you be expected to know, 7 months in advance, that you won't get the service for which you paid??

I bought a two year membership which folded 14 months in. I received a pro-rata refund

Excellent and makes sense. Which surprises me that it happens.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It was interesting to see QF after years of not enforcing PB (even though it being a published benefit of status) suddenly decide to enforce PB following public commentary that it is also an obligation on OW members under the agreement... maybe more public commentary might precipitate change?

yeah - but while they take a step forward with priority boarding (under OW), they take ten steps back by refusing to honour OW lounge access (no lounge access based on connecting long haul to short haul). PB costs them nothing. Banning lounge access saves them thousands.

 

[Mrmaxwell]

These days it seems to be just try and get away with as much as possible and make the customer do the chasing.

This is the worst part of it.

Sure - things happen when flights are overbooked, technical issues, etc.

But to stuff your customers around, not give them what they paid for and then make them chase up some coughpy compensation at the other end is terrible.

 

[The-Aviator]

In 2016 on a SYD-JNB flight I too was downgraded by Qantas. Your experience was better than mine though OP, the check-in agent at the Business class counter didn't even bother to inform us. I only realised we were in Economy when I looked at our boarding passes. When raised at the customer service desk we were told (by a supervisor who I still vividly remember as appearing to be 'under the influence') that there would be no compensation and our choice was either to fly in Economy or not fly at all.

To make matters worse, on the return leg due to some catering complications they did not load any food. Managed to get one beer from the leftovers still on board from the previous flight and that was it for the twelve hour journey. Thankfully managed to have a meal in the JNB lounge but the promised compensation and meal vouchers on arrival in Sydney failed to materialise.

Safe to say this was my last experience with Qantas, I have shifted my business and become a passionate supporter of Virgin Australia. Currently in the top 10% of their frequent flyers with 20+ trips annually on VA and their partners, never had a bad experience and never looked back. QF's loss. Taking your money elsewhere is the only way they will learn.

 

[Daver6]

In 2016 on a SYD-JNB flight I too was downgraded by Qantas. Your experience was better than mine though OP, the check-in agent at the Business class counter didn't even bother to inform us. I only realised we were in Economy when I looked at our boarding passes. When raised at the customer service desk we were told (by a supervisor who I still vividly remember as appearing to be 'under the influence') that there would be no compensation and our choice was either to fly in Economy or not fly at all.

I've had this experience too where I've been downgraded. Nothing mentioned, just noticed Y instead of J on the boarding pass. I was also told no compensation. Thankfully I knew better than to just accept that rubbish.

 

[Pushka]

In 2016 on a SYD-JNB flight I too was downgraded by Qantas. Your experience was better than mine though OP, the check-in agent at the Business class counter didn't even bother to inform us. I only realised we were in Economy when I looked at our boarding passes. When raised at the customer service desk we were told (by a supervisor who I still vividly remember as appearing to be 'under the influence') that there would be no compensation and our choice was either to fly in Economy or not fly at all.

To make matters worse, on the return leg due to some catering complications they did not load any food. Managed to get one beer from the leftovers still on board from the previous flight and that was it for the twelve hour journey. Thankfully managed to have a meal in the JNB lounge but the promised compensation and meal vouchers on arrival in Sydney failed to materialise.

Safe to say this was my last experience with Qantas, I have shifted my business and become a passionate supporter of Virgin Australia. Currently in the top 10% of their frequent flyers with 20+ trips annually on VA and their partners, never had a bad experience and never looked back. QF's loss. Taking your money elsewhere is the only way they will learn.

I've had this experience too where I've been downgraded. Nothing mentioned, just noticed Y instead of J on the boarding pass. I was also told no compensation. Thankfully I knew better than to just accept that rubbish.

i would have been livid. They didn’t even tell you! And I bet if you had shown any angst they’d get the police force out to arrest you as a combative passenger.

 

[mkng]

May be too late to the thread, but I was on business from Narita to Melbourne last week. Had to be moved from my booked away as electronics not working for that seat. Empty seat all the way next to me.

 

[SOPOOR]

May be too late to the thread, but I was on business from Narita to Melbourne last week. Had to be moved from my booked away as electronics not working for that seat. Empty seat all the way next to me.

my relatives recently flew J Melb to sing, their screen didnt work, so one was moved to a different seat with working screen, full apologies with $200 SGD gift card or voucher,

the difference to qantas is gobsmacking, I will not fly qantas unless i have to

 

[mingseng]

A review of Qantas Cabin "Downgrade" Policy being fair & equitable to both parties is overdue.

We need ACCC to wake up and sort this out. They have had several activities on the airline industry in the last few years, why are they ignoring this airline rort?

 

[gilldo]

Sure - things happen when flights are overbooked, technical issues, etc.

The term 'overbooked' has been used a few times in this thread to describe this incident. It would appear that (if we believe QF) they did have a technical fault with a block of two seats, rendering them unusable, and in QF's view unsafe. They identified two poor pax to be downgraded, and the OP and her travelling companion were sadly the ones selected.

I'm glad on one hand it wasn't a simple case of overbooking, as that would be appalling. But at the same time this is no way to deal with a paying pair of J pax. I think a complaint to the ACCC is in order.

The shocking example of similar behaviour on the SYD-JNB flight was even worse.

In either case I'd have raised hell (and probably been barred from flying that day).

 

[mkng]

The term 'overbooked' has been used a few times in this thread to describe this incident. It would appear that (if we believe QF) they did have a technical fault with a block of two seats, rendering them unusable, and in QF's view unsafe. They identified two poor pax to be downgraded, and the OP and her travelling companion were sadly the ones selected.

I'm glad on one hand it wasn't a simple case of overbooking, as that would be appalling. But at the same time this is no way to deal with a paying pair of J pax. I think a complaint to the ACCC is in order.

The shocking example of similar behaviour on the SYD-JNB flight was even worse.

In either case I'd have raised hell (and probably been barred from flying that day).

Definitely a technical fault on my flight so want to support the notion that this was not an overbooked flight

 

[MEL_Traveller]

In the case of technical difficulties, I think the passenger should be given the choice. IFE not working? The passenger may not care. Why place the paying passenger in economy while a staff member gets the upgrade? Even with a non-reclining seat... they can be manually pushed into the full-flat or upright position. A passenger may be willing to endure that inconvenience rather than spend 10 hours in an economy seat.

 

[The-Aviator]

i would have been livid. They didn’t even tell you! And I bet if you had shown any angst they’d get the police force out to arrest you as a combative passenger.

The shocking example of similar behaviour on the SYD-JNB flight was even worse.

In either case I'd have raised hell (and probably been barred from flying that day).

Exactly why I didn't speak up. For various reasons I needed to be on that flight and made the choice to bite my tongue rather than risk it.

 

[SOPOOR]

Exactly why I didn't speak up. For various reasons I needed to be on that flight and made the choice to bite my tongue rather than risk it.

And this is what gets me annoyed,
Whenevr you speak up, you can be polite, non threatening, calm and use normal words,
And if they dont like being proved wrong or to be put in the too hard basket, they can just say dont be rude or i will call security,

Happens to me all the time.

Ive asked for the staff members name over the phone when they stuff up and they will hangup , and when i follow up later, i get told i was being rude and abusive to that member when al i asked was for that staff members name

Most of the time, when the staff hasnt done anything wrong, they are happy to give, but when they know theyre in thr wrong, they will either refuse or try to get out of it

 

[Pushka]

And this is what gets me annoyed,
Whenevr you speak up, you can be polite, non threatening, calm and use normal words,
And if they dont like being proved wrong or to be put in the too hard basket, they can just say dont be rude or i will call security,

Happens to me all the time.

Ive asked for the staff members name over the phone when they stuff up and they will hangup , and when i follow up later, i get told i was being rude and abusive to that member when al i asked was for that staff members name

Most of the time, when the staff hasnt done anything wrong, they are happy to give, but when they know theyre in thr wrong, they will either refuse or try to get out of it

So really your experience shows that even if you are polite if the person takes exception, not to your tone but doesn’t want or can’t do anything about the issue then you are pretty much screwed.

 

[SOPOOR]

So really your experience shows that even if you are polite if the person takes exception, not to your tone but doesn’t want or can’t do anything about the issue then you are pretty much screwed.

as #gilldo mentioned, they can deem you as being disruptive and a security risk and next minute you are being arrested and questioned
(Like in the movie, meet the parents, or the sequel)

and then you lose, the staff member will have forgotten about you by their next shift

 

[Tropic]

And I think that is QF's main problem....I can put up with late aircraft changes, overbooked flights, average lounges, poorly executed PB, coughpy NP food (including slop in a box in Y), sometimes less than stellar wines, geeze even being downgraded to make room for QF crew..!!! But I cannot stand having to deal with QF staff who are so far up their own fundaments they don't even bother pretending they give two hoots about being customer focused ( of course there are many lovely helpful and genuinely interested QF ground based staff and crew out there, and its always a joy when you happen to get a switched on CSM or crew member) Also I think most call centre staff are genuinely committed to helping the customer (but they are constrained by their scripts and having to deal with "enhanced" QF systems too!). I think one can get a sense of a company's values and culture by its staff, and sadly in QF's case, that's very true.. its not what you do but how you do it

 

[luckyfnq]

I'm fairly lucky I don't have a lot of commitments in my life, but would like to think that even if I did, if an airline ever tried to downgrade me I'd just stand my ground and ask for a hotel and a ticket the next day instead. I realise for some this isn't possible.

Yes agree completely! Happened to me in Manila a few years ago, the law there is Or was you have to be given the option to fly the next day or they must pay you in cash as a penalty before you depart Philippines (this is in addition to your normal rights with the airline.) if you decide to accept the lower class fare than booked, what we need are laws to force these greedy corporates of over booking flights. I don’t believe for one minute there was a problem with the seats I thinks it’s BS as a publicity stunt, they get away with it because they can!