What is Qantas playing at?

[Alectoris]

My husband is heading to the UK from Tasmania - booked Hba-Mel-Per-LHR for 7 June and paid extra $180 for exit seat as he is 6’4” tall. Received email confirming his preferred exit row seat. Checking in on 6 June, he is allocated a seat three rows back (non-exit row). Two hours on the phone to the call centre, plus a trip to the Qantas desk at Hobart and he is basically told that someone with a higher status will have been given his seat and he should put in a claim for a refund of the exit seat cost. Not really acceptable as he needs the legroom because of his height. And not morally right either.

During the night, a flight cancellation comes in on his app (no email) rerouting him Hba-Syd-Darwin-LHR. The Hba-Syd flight is delayed and he misses the connection to QF1, so they reroute him again for tomorrow via Bangkok and then onwards to LHR on Thai airlines with an 8-hour layover in Bangkok. He asked to be switched to QF1 tomorrow, to avoid the layover in Bangkok, and was told there was ‘no flight until Friday, and even that was full’. However, it is possible to book online a Flex economy seat for tomorrow on QF1. He is currently stuck in a hotel in Sydney - oh and they have lost his luggage as well. So what are they playing at? Are they bumping lone travellers on cheaper tickets for people paying more? They have been utterly unhelpful on all fronts.

Qantas have completely stuffed up his trip to see family in the UK and he is unwilling to transfer in Bangkok as he is unsure of boarding restrictions/tests and does not want to be stuck outside of UK or Aus. Anyone have any insights?

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to your first post on AFF. Unfortunately there is a lot of this going on at the moment. Sorry, can't help except to say maybe go out to the airport early and see what can be done.

 

[vetrade]

I'd call again and have another go at getting on QF1 tomorrow. A more helpful call centre agent might make all the difference - especially if you can point out that seats are available. The exit row seat may be a lost cause unfortunately, but I guess your husband would be just happy to get to UK at this stage.

The other issue is whether he is wants to get his luggage before continuing his trip.

 

[serfty]

Qantas have completely stuffed up his trip to see family in the UK and he is unwilling to transfer in Bangkok as he is unsure of boarding restrictions/tests and does not want to be stuck outside of UK or Aus. Anyone have any insights?

Welcome to AFF , shame it is such a stuff around by Qantas to bring you to your first post.

One peice of good news, is that an airside Bangkok transfer of 24 hours and under should be test free and fine.

See here:

Visa and Travel Requirements for every destination

apply.joinsherpa.com

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I suspect Qantas already knew your hubby was to change routes, and the new flight’s exit rows were already taken.

Qantas has been known to bump passengers… even with gold status in business class… to make way for someone paying a higher fare. QF’s position is that they want to focus on increasing fares, not necessarily getting more cheap seats, and filling cheap seats. So this isn’t surprising, unfortunately.

 

[Alectoris]

I'd call again and have another go at getting on QF1 tomorrow. A more helpful call centre agent might make all the difference - especially if you can point out that seats are available. The exit row seat may be a lost cause unfortunately, but I guess your husband would be just happy to get to UK at this stage.

The other issue is whether he is wants to get his luggage before continuing his trip.

No joy I’m afraid. They were happy to sell him an economy seat on QF1 today for an additional $3000. This seems ludicrous to me since they changed his routing from QF9 to QF1 in the first place .

 

[Alectoris]

I suspect Qantas already knew your hubby was to change routes, and the new flight’s exit rows were already taken.

Qantas has been known to bump passengers… even with gold status in business class… to make way for someone paying a higher fare. QF’s position is that they want to focus on increasing fares, not necessarily getting more cheap seats, and filling cheap seats. So this isn’t surprising, unfortunately.

That is not ethical behaviour. No other industry would get away with selling a product and then delivering an inferior product to what has been paid for.

 

[RooFlyer]

That is not ethical behaviour. No other industry would get away with selling a product and then delivering an inferior product to what has been paid for.

Agree; unfortunately in the (very) fine print, when you buy a ticket, it says "Notwithstanding what you have booked and paid for, we can do anything we damn well please, including leaving you behind."

 

[MEL_Traveller]

That is not ethical behaviour. No other industry would get away with selling a product and then delivering an inferior product to what has been paid for.

Exactly, which is why the EU, UK, Canada, Israel, and to some extent the USA have consumer protection laws in place to try and discourage this behaviour. Sadly Australia does not.

 

[vetrade]

Exactly, which is why the EU, UK, Canada, Israel, and to some extent the USA have consumer protection laws in place to try and discourage this behaviour. Sadly Australia does not.

Might be a job for whoever the responsible minister is in the new Labor Government. Someone does need to apply a squirrel grip to AJ to teach him that being CEO isn't all just about standing down employees and buying new aircraft

 

[Alectoris]

Exactly, which is why the EU, UK, Canada, Israel, and to some extent the USA have consumer protection laws in place to try and discourage this behaviour. Sadly Australia does not.

Although Easyjet stranded thousands of passengers in Europe this past weekend. But providing no service is probably more ethical than providing you half the service you paid for

 

[Happy Trails]

Exactly, which is why the EU, UK, Canada, Israel, and to some extent the USA have consumer protection laws in place to try and discourage this behaviour. Sadly Australia does not.

But those countries don't have Chairman's Lounges, so it's swings and roundabouts, sort of.

 

[levelnine]

That is appalling treatment, especially the refusal to reroute onto flights where seats are available for sale.

It may be worth calling back several times to see if you can get a helpful reservations agent. Otherwise, you might be out of luck, sadly.

 

[NM]

No joy I’m afraid. They were happy to sell him an economy seat on QF1 today for an additional $3000. This seems ludicrous to me since they changed his routing from QF9 to QF1 in the first place .

@Alectoris, what was the final outcome and was it acceptable to the traveler?

 

[Alectoris]

@Alectoris, what was the final outcome and was it acceptable to the traveler?

Qantas would not do anything, so he ended up on the flight via Bangkok. Having left home on Monday morning at 10am, he is yet to arrive in the UK. He still has no luggage. Acceptable? Well, the only option if he did not pay the extra for QF1 was to take the option they gave him, or cancel his trip and return to Hobart. So no, not acceptable, but no choice.

 

[RooFlyer]

Perhaps there is an 'insider' here who can offer up a reason for all of this.

 

[NM]

Qantas would not do anything, so he ended up on the flight via Bangkok. Having left home on Monday morning at 10am, he is yet to arrive in the UK. He still has no luggage. Acceptable? Well, the only option if he did not pay the extra for QF1 was to take the option they gave him, or cancel his trip and return to Hobart. So no, not acceptable, but no choice.

So sorry to hear about the poor outcome and poor options availabel to him. I would be most unhappy under those circumstances, as I expect he and you are. I hope he and his luggage are reunited in a suite timeframe.

 

[albatross710]

it's also annoying that it's up to the passenger to request the refund of the very original exit row seating payment.

 

[Happy Dude]

Dreadful. Sets a new low bar for "What's the worst that could happen?".

 

[UP4014]

I don't even think it's business behaving badly, just shambolic.