Qantas lies to a full-fare paying J-class pax and downgrades to Y-class

[Vic]

Here are the seat maps for those interested. https://www.qantas.com/au/en/qantas-experience/onboard/seat-maps.html
A bit of self research will show A320, Fokker100, some 717s and Dash 8 (of course) without business. I'm not sure Qantas would be flying a Dash8 MEL-BNE, but there is always the Dash 8 milk run from BNE to CNS. Not that you'd need to go economy MEL-BNE if they put you on the milk run...
E190s have fewer business seats.

So those are all good candidates for the new aircraft type.

A330 to 737 is also a possibility, I guess.

 

[rosep]

What aircraft was listed on your original e-ticket?

Aircraft listed: Boeing 737.
Aircraft flown: Boeing 737

 

[kangarooflyer88]

If I was you I would have researched what alternate QF flights would get me there in J, called QF and simply told them to rebook me on one of those (ideally one with a more direct routing like MEL > PER > CNS). Online rebooking with QF is virtually impossible (I hear they might have something working by 2026 but that might be optimistic). I would also argue that being bumped from J to Y represents a material change to the flight in the same way that a schedule change does and thus avails you of free rebooking. What is surprising though is that a Gold would get bumped like that. Usually us elites receive the opposite treatment (i.e. bumped from Y to J in the case of an OpUp).

 

[encryptededdy]

Aircraft listed: Boeing 737.
Aircraft flown: Boeing 737

Mmm that's interesting then. All Qantas 737s have the same number of seats in Business, so an aircraft downgrade is unlikely to be the cause here.

 

[MrJetset]

Downgrades are performed in order of status and fare class. SG on J, I would have though was pretty high up, but perhaps the other at least one of the other couples were WP?

 

[dajop]

Gold might sound like a high tier, but logically business class cabins are probably more skewed to higher tiers than economy cabins (as obviously paying business class passengers earn more status credits and perhaps higher tiers are more likely to redeem also). So amongst the other Golds, P1s and Platinums travelling you might have been the unlucky one.

 

[justinbrett]

Online rebooking with QF is virtually impossible (I hear they might have something working by 2026 but that might be optimistic).

Is this your personal experience or just conjecture?

The new domestic rebooking tool, when offered, is very good. The issue is your booking has to be triggered in order for this to be offered, it's not automatic if your flight is cancelled.

I used it a couple of times last year and made posts about it at the time, I thought it was excellent. One of the best IT offerings to come out of QF in a long time.

 

[rosep]

Mmm that's interesting then. All Qantas 737s have the same number of seats in Business, so an aircraft downgrade is unlikely to be the cause here.

Exactly my point. Qantas overbooked and lied to the solo travelling full-fare paying J-class Gold FF rather than admit it stuffed up

 

[tdimdad]

Gold might sound like a high tier, but logically business class cabins are probably more skewed to higher tiers than economy cabins (as obviously paying business class passengers earn more status credits and perhaps higher tiers are more likely to redeem also). So amongst the other Golds, P1s and Platinums travelling you might have been the unlucky one.

And would this be where the customer value (PCV) may possibly come in? Perhaps the other J pax on those flights had brought in or had higher value future bookings with QF and their seats were secured first. Then the OP was the unfortunate to drop below the line in a case of overbooking, or similar?

 

[anyonebutqantas]

No surprises to see QF continuing to abuse their loyal customers.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

The new domestic rebooking tool, when offered, is very good. The issue is your booking has to be triggered in order for this to be offered, it's not automatic if your flight is cancelled.

And that's the big rub. When it does pop up, yes it can be a helpful tool, but often times it doesn't and as a result, travellers are forced to call QF and wait on hold for ages, which if you have a flight coming up ain't helpful either.

-RooFlyer88

 

[Danger]

Not to take anything away from the very real possibility rosep was lied to, I think it's also entirely possible that the aircraft was downgraded, only to be upgraded at a later time. It seems there were about four months between the notification in March and the travel in mid-July.

 

[CaptJCool]

Qantas only obligation is to WP

Preferential access to Classic Flight Reward seats​

On selected flights, preferential access for Platinum members may be above the access available to Gold, Silver and Bronze members

Priority Economy seat purchase​

Make priority purchases of up to two Full Economy tickets on eligible Qantas operated flights with a Qantas flight number or QantasLink services. Must be booked before midday on the day before travel and when holding or purchasing a Full Economy ticket for yourself (the Platinum One member)

So what happens if the Y cabin is full ?
Someone misses the flight ?

Or are they confident enough there’s a couple of no shows or they bump staff travel ?

However, say there was an urgent engineering issue in Cairns
Employee gets despatched and under the EBA they must fly J

High value customer calls the WP line and requests 2 seats
Overbooking and everyone shows up

What astounds me here is the fallout from the denial of J
That’s the first thing. No point lying about it because lay down this creates the “new management” expectation
Everyone’s then looking for flaws and faults which in this case happened. It’s normal human behaviour. Like QF thought they could get away with it ? ? ?

The second thing is the Service Recovery
This is just so awful
It’s awfully Qantas
It ought be a lay down misere
Have it pre-planned and just pay it out
Stop blaming the customer for your own faults

Sometimes I think QF have reverted to days of old where they “fly planes” and DO NOT “carry passengers”