Yet another Qantas Business Class Downgrade

[flyertom]

It seems Qantas are mistreating so many customers...

My colleague on QF21 to Tokyo has been downgraded tonight. He was full fare paying Business, turned up early for the flight. Did all the right things... And finds out at check in he has been downgraded.

The piss-poor response from Qantas was they would pay him the difference to Premium Economy. Hardly useful when he has meeting all day tomorrow in Tokyo.

Seriously this is unbelievable behaviour from Qantas. This is totally an acceptable.

At a minimum, they should have rung him a few hours before and put him on the JAL flight.

 

[Red Roo]

It seems Qantas are mistreating so many customers...

My colleague on QF21 to Tokyo has been downgraded tonight. He was full fare paying Business, turned up early for the flight. Did all the right things... And finds out at check in he has been downgraded.

The piss-poor response from Qantas was they would pay him the difference to Premium Economy. Hardly useful when he has meeting all day tomorrow in Tokyo.

Seriously this is unbelievable behaviour from Qantas. This is totally an acceptable.

At a minimum, they should have rung him a few hours before and put him on the JAL flight.

Should you like me to follow up with your colleague, please send me a private message with their details as reference.

 

[Kendall Roy]

Any bets on how many pages this thread will last?

 

[Austman]

QF21 is scheduled to depart SYD at 22:20. So still at least 1:20 to go ...

JAL772 departed at 09:24 this morning.

 

[GalaxyNexus]

Any bets on how many pages this thread will last?

It can happen to you and it can happen to me. So let's keep it going in sympathy to the OP's colleague until it is resolved amicably. :-|

 

[GalaxyNexus]

JAL772 depated at 09:24 this morning.

At least if they try earlier, the victim can decide if they want to fly earlier (e.g. take a TG at ~3pm which will see them arrive at ~7am in NRT).

 

[Duffa]

You see. A revenue pax gets more sympathy than a lowly redemption pax. And so it should be!
Just don't lie to us about the reason the redemption pax's get bumped

 

[love_the_life]

Looks like another example of QF world class yield management. And as RR commented on the first thread, this is something that happens so so so rarely.

 

[maninblack]

Poor old Qantas. Their business class is so full that they keep having to bump paying passengers. If any airline ever bumps me outside of an actual emergency requirement, they would likely lose my business for a very long time so it would be a costly bump, but at 'Go Get Stuffed' airlines I doubt they would care. 'Feels Like Home', doesn't it?

 

[kpc]

According to EF now, J0 C0 D0 I0 U0 W0 R0 T0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 G0 E0
Seat map of the J cabin shows that every seat in J is occupied!

 

[defurax]

Now I get it! QF has to charge a fee for bulkhead seats in Y to pay the generous J downgrade compensations...

 

[DC3]

Please let it not be booked through Flight Centre.

 

[eminere]

How awful. Sympathies to your colleague.

 

[Himeno]

At least if they try earlier, the victim can decide if they want to fly earlier (e.g. take a TG at ~3pm which will see them arrive at ~7am in NRT).

Or early enough to get one of the QF SIN flights to connect to the QF codeshares on JL. (QF and JL codeshare between AU and NRT/HND via SIN)

 

[ellen10]

IT is a worry especially when people hope to be able to go to meetings straight after landing.
Bu tit is also disappointing for any trip someone is expecting to take in business class.

 

[Princess Fiona]

IT is a worry especially when people hope to be able to go to meetings straight after landing.
Bu tit is also disappointing for any trip someone is expecting to take in business class.

I agree, not good. I'd be very upset at being downgraded and would expect to be re-booked on an alternative route and/or carrier.

I always factor in an extra day at the end of a trip just in case it goes pear shaped, I think I'll add an extra day at the beginning now

 

[maninblack]

IT is a worry especially when people hope to be able to go to meetings straight after landing.
Bu tit is also disappointing for any trip someone is expecting to take in business class.

I wouldn't say disappointing, I would say unacceptable. The notion that an airline can sell you a product and then provide you with a totally inferior product at their discretion simply because they cannot manage their business competently is not acceptable practice.

 

[flyertom]

We have just arrived in Tokyo. As it turned out, at the very last minute my colleague was returned back to Business.

Way to treat your customers so poorly Qantas!

The thing that really annoys people about this behaviour by an airline is that they spend so much time selling people of the value of Business, then the airline just downgrades you with only compensation being the difference to the full fare premium economy on the day (not the discounted fare on the day that the booking was booked) and no other compensation.

I would have have thought this wasn't a very sustainable business model.

 

[ogs70]

We have just arrived in Tokyo. As it turned out, at the very last minute my colleague was returned back to Business.

Good news.

The thing that really annoys people about this behaviour by an airline is that they spend so much time selling people of the value of Business, then the airline just downgrades you with only compensation being the difference to the full fare premium economy on the day (not the discounted fare on the day that the booking was booked) and no other compensation.

The crux of the matter to me, and has been repeated a number of times now in the other thread. I feel this is unacceptable service recovery inline with the sort of LCC 'just deal with' it attitude, not for a premium carrier.

Policy should, at minimum, be to compensate the fare difference between the lowest Y bucket. I don't understand the logic behind the different only being from full-fare Y/Y+ (other than mimimising monetary loss for QF and maximising further annoyance for the pax). The pax derives zero value from a 'flexible' ticket at this stage, and would not logically buy from this fare bucket, they are all ready being flexible enough courtesy of a miscalculation by QF's revenue management.

It's even more illogical as those full-fare paying J pax will often not return.

I'm on QF21 in J early next year and this type of remediation makes me nervous. Luckily as the flight is ex-Aus you have rights which are not limited to those stipulated in QF's one-sided terms and conditions.

 

[amaroo]

The definition of "World Class" must have changed since I was a boy....

World Class - My cough!