QF award flight downgrade

[Syshan]

Hi all,
Long-time reader, 1st-time poster.
In order to celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary in style so in Feb I booked 2 return F class flights to Buenos Aires for July. After successfully made the bookings and paid the relevant fees I proceeded to book internal tour packages in South America.
Received a call from Qantas yesterday saying F class will no longer operate on this route due to operational changes and we are now allocated J class seats. Point difference will be refunded.
I wrote a very mildly-worded email to express my disappointment, a reply came back expressing regret, apology and begging for understanding at this current economic climate.

I guess what's been done has been done and I cannot do anything about it apart having a rant at the situation.
My disappointment lies with the fact that my selection of destination was purely guided by what was available in F class at the time and in doing so I transferred the bulk of my AMEX points to QF, which I intended to use on SQ flights which offer better value. Now I'll be stuck with 200000 QF points which are hard to use even at the best of time.

Cheers

Have a nice day/weekend

 

[aus_flyer]

Looking at the seat map for the flights, it appears that although they are not selling First class, the plane does have First seats (sold as Business).

I would therefore suggest that you call Qantas and request to be seated in the nose, as you were previously booked in First.

Subject to availability, I suspect they will do it.

If you want to PM me your specific date I can check that the plane operating does (physically) have a First cabin.

So it's not entirely bad news!

 

[sr81]

Welcome to AFF!

Sorry to see your first post. I understand the pain of moving points then having a service downgrade.

There is a chance that QF will still be using a plane with First seats but simply allocating them as business class. Give them a call and see if you can't reserve a seat in the forward cabin.

Not First but a bigger seat anyway.

Enjoy South America - remember the flight is only 1 day of your entire trip.

 

[NM]

My disappointment lies with the fact that my selection of destination was purely guided by what was available in F class at the time and in doing so I transferred the bulk of my AMEX points to QF, which I intended to use on SQ flights which offer better value. Now I'll be stuck with 200000 QF points which are hard to use even at the best of time.

Welcome is AFF, Syshan. Indeed your disappointment is warranted. As you have noted, there is little more that Qantas or you can do about it. You may like to check on the seat allocations for the flight. Its quite likely that they will be operating a 3 or 4 class aircraft on the flight with an F cabin, but just not delivering F service. So you may be able to request seating in Zone A (the nose section with F seats) and at least get the F seating with J service. Given the downgrade I think that would be a very valid request to make.

 

[docjames]

Or QF will rotate the current 2 calss fleet via EZE once they get upgraded to 3class (J/Y=/Y)

 

[oz_mark]

Unfortuantely Qantas have suspended F on a couple of routes (AFAIK SYD-SFO and QF29/30 MEL-LHR are also in this boat). I think I would be annoyed if it happened to me as well, and the best thing to do is try and get accomodated in the F section if they are using an aircraft with it in.

 

[v8Statesman]

Something else that maybe worth a shot is ask them to move you to a LAX or JFK flight in F.

Chances are slim, but worth asking.

You would then of course need to fly to Buenos Aires on a seperate ticket.

 

[tgh]

Velly intelesting..

We are off to the frozen south via BA.. and scored some award seats (compliments of Amex..).
Grabbed Y+ as an experiment but currently sweating on J availability for a different date.
Will now try to get seat allocation up the front if we score J ...although management has been slack with the travelling and has just been dumped back into the bronze bin .. so no help there.

 

[dajop]

Hi all,
My disappointment lies with the fact that my selection of destination was purely guided by what was available in F class at the time and in doing so I transferred the bulk of my AMEX points to QF, which I intended to use on SQ flights which offer better value. Now I'll be stuck with 200000 QF points which are hard to use even at the best of time.

This is what I'd be disappointed about more than anything, but I guess it's a risk with any FF seat.

J's still a good service, not as lavish as F, and seats won't be lie flat (unless you can allocated a seat in the nose). BUt the difference between J and F is far far less than the difference between Y and J (or event Y+ and J). Still should be an enjoyable flight.

 

[munitalP]

Hi all,
Long-time reader, 1st-time poster.
In order to celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary in style in Feb I booked 2 return F class flights to Buenos Aires for July. After successfully made the bookings and paid the relevant fees I proceeded to book internal tour packages in South America.
Received a call from Qantas yesterday saying F class will no longer operate on this route due to operational changes and we are now allocated J class seats. Point difference will be refunded.
I wrote a very mildly-worded email to express my disappointment, a reply came back expressing regret, apology and begging for understanding at this current economic climate.

I guess what's been done has been done and I cannot do anything about it apart having a rant at the situation.
My disappointment lies with the fact that my selection of destination was purely guided by what was available in F class at the time and in doing so I transferred the bulk of my AMEX points to QF, which I intended to use on SQ flights which offer better value. Now I'll be stuck with 200000 QF points which are hard to use even at the best of time.

Cheers

Have a nice day/weekend

I'm at a loss....

you paid with AMEX points
you now have an extra 200K points you say you can't use
you are still in J
no one else is in F as it's just not there...
Qantas apologized

my advice - build a bridge, get over it...

unreal....

Mr!

:evil:

 

[aus_flyer]

I'm at a loss....

you paid with AMEX points
you now have an extra 200K points you say you can't use
you are still in J
no one else is in F as it's just not there...
Qantas apologized

my advice - build a bridge, get over it...

The OP did say it was a special occasion, so given that it's not really First, and the fact they will miss out on the Flounge experience (unless WP or OW Em), I can understand the disappointment.

 

[Syshan]

Pleasantly surprised by the responses generated.
I'm getting over it as we speak, after all it's still J class flight compliment of AMEX.

 

[Keith009]

They might still be operating your flight with a 4 class bird with the FCL cabin open to JCL pax.

I would enquire as to whether it's possible to be seated in the FCL cabin. If FCL is open to JCL pax on your flight, it sounds like you've got a good case to make for being seated in the FCL section. It's an FCL seat with JCL service - but hey, better than nought.

PS - To avoid confusing the issue, try asking "can we please have a seat in rows 1-4" rather than "can we please sit in First."

 

[tgh]

qf website is still offering F award seats on the syd . ba service in November..

 

[Mal]

I'm of 2 minds with this... In some ways I'd be happy with the points adjustment, in others I'd be mightily annoyed and want downgrade compensation.

Some suggestions:

Call Qantas, and request a seat in rows 1-4 (as per previous comments).

Reject their offer of a refund of points, and instead request ~$1938 per sector (per person) in compensation from Qantas (This is the current 'refund' from Qantas for an invol downgrade from full fare F-J Australia->South America). As a negotiation tool, you could accept the refund of points difference + that Qantas allows you usage of the First Lounge + whatever else makes you happy that you're missing out on.

I think Qantas has some possibility to help you out...

 

[dajop]

Reject their offer of a refund of points, and instead request ~$1938 per sector (per person) in compensation from Qantas.

Or just ask them to return the excess points to Amex

 

[AnonymousCoward]

I'm at a loss....

you paid with AMEX points
you now have an extra 200K points you say you can't use
you are still in J
no one else is in F as it's just not there...
Qantas apologized

my advice - build a bridge, get over it...

unreal....

I believe OP transferred the points from Amex MR -> QANTAS specifically to redeem this 2 x F award seats.

Due to QF cancelling F availability these points are now stuck in QFF. At least 200K points is a decent amount that could be used for something else (an additional flight somewhere else). But if OP is not in the habit of accumulating QF points normally, then there will end up being some orphan points.

Additionally OP picked this specific flight (and transfered the requisite points) for an "F" class experience for a special occasion.

Whilst J is still great, I'd personally not be impressed about the situation. Though I probably wouldn't make too much of a fuss about it.

Ask for seating in the front of the plane, and the suggestion to also be granted F lounge access as compensation is a good one. The suggestion for monetary compensation probably isn't going to fly - IIRC the QFF terms and conditions state that any credit will be in the form of points (or money only to the extent that you are owed a refund on anything you paid in cash for taxes/fee)

 

[dajop]

I
Due to QF cancelling F availability these points are now stuck in QFF. At least 200K points is a decent amount that could be used for something else (an additional flight somewhere else).

Good point: normally with 200K Amex MR pts one could get a single J saver return to AMS/MAN/FRA/CPH on SQ, and still have 72,500 left on Amex. It takes 256K to get a J return to Europe on QF.

 

[whippet]

I purchased a circle pacific first class fare (2) which had to be paid for by the end of march and qantas also has informed us that they no longer will be offering F class, to Buenos Aires , we have been downgraded to business and no they will not be refunding any money. The only reason we were going to Argentina was to avoid the business class to Lima. This stinks and after this trip Qantas will never ever ever see us as clients again. Stick that on their bottom line!

 

[v8Statesman]

I purchased a circle pacific first class fare (2) which had to be paid for by the end of march and qantas also has informed us that they no longer will be offering F class, to Buenos Aires , we have been downgraded to business and no they will not be refunding any money. The only reason we were going to Argentina was to avoid the business class to Lima. This stinks and after this trip Qantas will never ever ever see us as clients again. Stick that on their bottom line!

I'm pretty sure ACIR22 fares are fully refundable before first flight is taken. Rebook a DCIR22