QANTAS canceling A380 F and substituting A330 J

[Le Clair]

Hi wonderful AFF community.
I have never started a thread before so need your help on a couple of fronts.
I wonder if I could ask experienced AFFers for a preferred strategy to deal with an appalling situation which QANTAS have put me in.
At 10am, exactly 350 days out, secured 2 x F reward seats on the A380 LAX to SYD with connecting J seats to BNE. Booked, paid for, confirmed and ticketed in February 2022.
So far so good.
Then, 6 months later, received the normal email, "we've had to make some changes to your flight". As this seems to happen weekly, wasn't concerned, probably a 3 minute change to schedule.
To my horror, when I looked at the email, I found that the "change" to the flight was a complete re-routing. Instead of F on the A380, we had been reassigned J on the A330 LAX to BNE. And it wasn't just F seats, I also had a J seat upstairs (3 of us traveling) on the same A380 which was also sent to the A330 to BNE.
The point is that, apart from having confirmed, paid and ticketed seats (and the originally scheduled flight is operating unchanged) we had also made arrangements to meet a family member in Sydney who we have not seen for 10 years who, by good fortune, was departing Australia on a flight which allowed us to see each other for 30 minutes.
My strategy was to plunge into the lucky dip and see whether the call centre can reconfirm the seats which were originally booked. I have NOT "accepted" the new itinerary.
Do any AFFers have any suggestions which may improve my chances of getting what I paid for and was confirmed and ticketed?
It seems that QANTAS are nickel an diming customers by canceling confirmed and ticketed reward seats if they think they can sell them as revenue seats instead.
This is not how this is supposed to work.
BTW, this is a USA originating ticket. Is there any compensation under US law. I don't want any compensation, just the seats which I secured 6 months ago.
Any help will be gratefully received.

 

[aus_flyer]

When is your travel for?

 

[Le Clair]

February 24 2023

 

[aus_flyer]

Qantas is still operating an A380 on 24 Feb

 

[Le Clair]

Exactly! It looks to me like QANTAS have decided that they can sell those seats as revenue tickets and simply booted our ticketed, confirmed and paid for rewards tickets off that flight. Had the aircraft changed to, say, a 787, fair enough, but the exact same aircraft we have been booted from is still flying the same sector on that date!

 

[encryptededdy]

It looks to me like QANTAS have decided that they can sell those seats as revenue tickets and simply booted our ticketed, confirmed and paid for rewards tickets off that flight.

Of course Qantas shouldn't have done this, but I'm pretty confident that this would not have been an intentional decision by them, it's more their IT system being a bit dumb. The bigger issue is can you get through to the call centre to get this fixed. Do not accept the changes online.

I think it's just the system being a bit dumb - if anything changes (including the time by 1 minute as has happened recently Qantas international flights - adjusted by 1 minute), it will trigger the system to find you alternate flights which tend to include direct flights. I've purposefully booked SYD-MEL-PER flights before (to catch up with someone in Melbourne), but any minor schedule change tends to trigger it to put me on a SYD-PER direct. Usually a call gets this resolved with no issue.

Did your originally booked flights have a <90 minute connecting time in Sydney? I wonder if this is a result of Qantas raising the MCT to 90 minutes.

 

[JW]

Call centre and be FIRM.....may have long wait though..depending on numbers used

 

[aus_flyer]

It's clearly a glitch. Call and they'll put you back on the A380.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Did your originally booked flights have a <90 minute connecting time in Sydney? I wonder if this is a result of Qantas raising the MCT to 90 minutes.

This is *important*. MCT was 60 minutes. Check the BNE-SYD flights. If you now need an earlier flight, look at what's available and ask for it.

 

[aus_flyer]

This is *important*. MCT was 60 minutes. Check the BNE-SYD flights. If you now need an earlier flight, look at what's available and ask for it.

This shouldn't have been the concern. It's LAX-SYD not SYD-LAX.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Qantas is still operating an A380 on 24 Feb

It might be that they’re intending to cancel the a380…QF have been known to do this before… they don’t actually cancel the flight until quite late, giving top tiers the first crack at any good alternatives.

However, probably not the case here, and even if it was, there should be other a380 flights, with F, the OP can ask to be moved to.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Please note that incoming and outgoing passengers do not mix at international airports, in Australia, that can only be done land side.

 

[HarryTheFlyer]

I had a fairly similar thing happen to me recently on a BNE-SYD-LAX-LAS flight and return.
Booked into paid Flex Y, but was re routed BNE-LAX-LAS return on both segments.
Wanted to be on the A380 via SYD for both flights to increase the chances of an upgrade.

Called up and was answered by someone in South Africa. Told them that I needed to transit via Sydney, and they put everything back to what I had originally booked.

Be firm, but polite, and you should be able to get what you're entitled to.

 

[Le Clair]

Please note that incoming and outgoing passengers do not mix at international airports, in Australia, that can only be done land side.

Hi BB
Thanks for that. We were intending to meet up at the SYD J lounge as we were both on connecting domestic flights.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, glad to see that I am not alone in my experience.
I'll make the call centre call today and (as always) politely request that the original ticketed flights be reinstated.
I'll report back...

 

[Le Clair]

OK, not going well.
Fiji call centre, explained that flights were changed. Original LAX departure was 2045, new departure time is now 2230 so the domestic connection needed to be changed from 0905 to 1105. No big deal.
Asked to hold and then the call was promptly disconnected.
Here we go again!
Stand by...

 

[CaptainCurtis]

OK, not going well.
Fiji call centre, explained that flights were changed. Original LAX departure was 2045, new departure time is now 2230 so the domestic connection needed to be changed from 0905 to 1105. No big deal.
Asked to hold and then the call was promptly disconnected.
Here we go again!
Stand by...

[email protected]

Write up a factual email outlining what has happened, and then send it multiple times to attract Stephanie's attention. My experience has been that you'll get a call from Hobart within a day or two.

I simply cannot see Fiji or Cape Town being able to resolve this for you.

 

[Le Clair]

Thanks CC
Onto this now.
I love AFF!

 

[Jke]

OK, not going well.
Fiji call centre, explained that flights were changed. Original LAX departure was 2045, new departure time is now 2230 so the domestic connection needed to be changed from 0905 to 1105. No big deal.
Asked to hold and then the call was promptly disconnected.
Here we go again!
Stand by...

This is when Platinum pays for itself

 

[antycbr]

This is when Platinum pays for itself

You should not need to be platinum to get competent service for something that you have paid for, even if the form of payment is points. This is ridiculous.

 

[Le Clair]

You should not need to be platinum to get competent service for something that you have paid for, even if the form of payment is points. This is ridiculous.

Yes, I agree, especially with all the problems QANTAS is having at the moment. They really shouldn't be scoring own goals which just saps them of the precious resources which should be deployed to solving issues not of their making.
FYI, I have now emailed Stephanie Tully 4 times since 10:38am yesterday morning as suggested by CaptainCurtis above without any success, yet.
Will keep AFFers advised of any developments.
Thanks everyone for your interest.