QF downgrade voucher

[Dave Noble]

My narration of the story was for a person who in no way volunteered to be downgraded but was told you either wait till tomorrow or you can have a whole economy row to yourself and $1000 in cash. He wanted to be back in Sydney, and as a contractor, to get to work the next day so he took the downgrade and the money.

In my opinion he was right to pocket the money. As far as I am concerned he did not cheat the company as they paid for business class airfares and he slummed it in economy to get back to work. YMMV!

I disagree that he has any right to the money if the "compensation" is just the fare difference between business and economy; that is not compensatiion but a refund and that should go to the company paying for the ticket. If the airline was offering the difference in fare between J and Y plus compensation to the traveller for the inconveniance, then the fare difference should go back to the company and the traveller keep the genuine compensation

For it to be compensation, it has to be over and above that which is entitled to based on the fare difference

It seems no differrent to my company paying for a J to the USA and then my getting the ticket downgraded to Y and pocketing the difference myself

Dave

 

[NM]

And again .... how would you compensate the employee if the company gets the cash? Is it just a case of "bad luck"?

If the employee chooses to take a voluntary bump or downgrade, they are not entitle to any compensation. The company has determined they need to travel in J (or F) for a valiud reason. If the employee then chooses to accept a voluntary bump or downgrade then the employee does not deserve any compensation.

If my company gives me a voucher for dinner that is intended for my wife and I (which it has), and I decide to take the whole family for a more down-market meal that meets the budget (which I might) then what does my company care? They have budgeted for an amount of money to achieve a desired result and got that result. End of story.

a little different situation. The reason most companies choose to pay for business class travel for they staff is because they believe they need the employee to be in optimal condition ready to work upon arrival. And they have determined that economy class travel does not provide an acceptable environment for their staff to travel and be prepared to function as required on arrival. If the employee does not need to travel in J in order to work effectively at the other end, then there is no reason for the company to pay the J fare.

If I was paying the bill and determined that I wanted my staff to travel in J so they are ready to function upon arrival, I expect them to do that. If the airline is unable to accommodate them and bumps them to Y (involuntary by the traveller) then the employee is put out and deserves the compensation. However, if the volunteer for the bump then I would be expecting the compensation to be paid back to the company since they obviously did not require J travel in the first place.

 

[NM]

My narration of the story was for a person who in no way volunteered to be downgraded but was told you either wait till tomorrow or you can have a whole economy row to yourself and $1000 in cash. He wanted to be back in Sydney, and as a contractor, to get to work the next day so he took the downgrade and the money.

In my opinion he was right to pocket the money. As far as I am concerned he did not cheat the company as they paid for business class airfares and he slummed it in economy to get back to work. YMMV!

If an involuntary downgrade, then I see no problems with the compensation going to the employee. I thought that was what I have been posting in this thread? Voluntary bump compensation should not be retained by the employee.