About Time: Qantas Will Improve Reward Flight Downgrade Compensation

Qantas recently improved its involuntary downgrade refund policy significantly. If you’ve booked a commercial ticket with Qantas in a premium cabin, and Qantas downgrades you, you’re now entitled to a refund of 75% of the ticketed coupon value.

It’s great that Qantas now makes its commercial booking downgrade policy available to the public, and a 75% refund seems reasonably fair in most cases. However, this only applies to paid airfares. If you book a Classic Reward ticket on a Qantas flight using frequent flyer points, and the airline downgrades you, the current process is way worse…

Why airlines occasionally downgrade passengers

Even on airlines that don’t actively choose to overbook flights for commercial reasons, there’s a myriad of reasons why they might still occasionally need to downgrade somebody to a lower cabin than booked.

For example, if your flight gets cancelled at the last minute and the airline needs to rebook you onto another flight, there might not be seats available on new flights in the cabin you booked. Similarly, an airline might need to re-accommodate Business Class passengers from another cancelled flight onto your flight.

A flight could also dispatch with fewer serviceable Business or First Class seats than expected if some seats are broken. And in the case of Qantas, on-duty pilots who are flying as passengers to another airport contractually get priority for Business Class seats over paying customers.

How Qantas compensates for downgrades on Classic Reward bookings

Currently, Qantas has different processes and policies for compensating passengers who are downgraded on commercial bookings, compared to reward seat bookings.

Passengers on commercial bookings are now entitled to a 75% refund of the value of the ticketed coupon. This also applies if your seat in one of Qantas’ premium cabins is inoperable.

But the policy for reward bookings is more opaque and far less generous.

As we understand it, Qantas’ current policy for reward flight downgrades is to refund only the difference between the Qantas Points that it would have cost to fly in the booked cabin, and the points required for a seat in the cabin flown.

This is calculated for the flight sector that was downgraded. So for example, if you booked a Business Classic Reward flight from Sydney to Cairns via Brisbane, and only the Sydney-Brisbane sector got downgraded to Economy, you would be entitled to the difference in points required for a standalone Sydney-Brisbane booking in Business vs Economy Class.

That’s at least something. But this policy doesn’t provide any extra compensation for the inconvenience. And the worst part is that actually receiving the promised compensation can be easier said than done.

For what it’s worth, Qantas customers departing from certain jurisdictions such as Europe or the UK would be entitled to further compensation for a cabin class downgrade. But this isn’t required under Australian law, and Qantas lobbied hard to stop similar laws being introduced in Australia.

AFF members have struggled to get refunds for Qantas reward flight downgrades

There have been many stories over the years on the Australian Frequent Flyer (AFF) forum about Qantas customers being treated unfairly after being involuntarily downgraded. Unfortunately, this is still happening to customers downgraded on Qantas reward tickets.

In July, AFF member Dmac59 had booked with Qantas Points to fly from Melbourne to Cairns in Business Class. The day before the flight, Qantas sent them the following email:

We’re sorry to let you know due to operational requirements we’ve exceeded capacity in the Business class cabin on your flight QF702 to Cairns departing on 14 July 2025.

Qantas promised to refund Dmac59 the difference in points between Business and Economy Class. But no further compensation was offered, and this member ended up having to follow up with Qantas numerous times to actually get the points owed. After getting nowhere with Qantas’ regular customer service channels, this customer eventually escalated the issue to senior Qantas management out of frustration.

All up, it took Dmac59 two months and considerable hassle just to receive what Qantas promised in the first place. This is simply unacceptable, especially when Qantas initiated the downgrade in the first place.

Sadly, this isn’t an isolated incident. A fortnight ago, another AFF member posted this on our forum:

We were due to fly premium economy QF3 during September and it was cancelled. Qantas provided an alternative through LAX (premium economy) and then onwards in American Airlines economy cabin. My fare was a revenue fare and I received a partial refund. Qantas advised my husband (points booking) would receive partial refund as well. Partial refund of taxes received quickly for both of us. 
I have been going round in (never ending) circles with Qantas Customer Care trying to get the partial points refund for the past 5 weeks. Thus far, I have been advised they have been paid, they will be paid within 7 days, they will be paid within 72 hours, the case is closed, that he is not due them because it was a cash fare. All incorrect.

Dieselcanberrra on the AFF forum

Qantas is reviewing its reward flight downgrade policy

We reached out to Qantas for comment on Dmac59‘s experience. The airline acknowledged that its current process needs improving.

“We sincerely apologise that the member wasn’t able to fly in their chosen cabin and for the difficulty getting their refund. We are reviewing our policies and processes to ensure we provide consistent and timely support for members in these situations,” a Qantas spokesperson told us.

Australian Frequent Flyer understands that Qantas is now working to create a single, consistent involuntary downgrade policy for all customers. As the process is currently different for commercial and reward seat bookings, this policy change should be a positive improvement for frequent flyers downgraded on reward bookings.

Let’s hope this new procedure comes into effect sooner rather than later.

When any airline downgrades someone who booked a Premium Economy, Business or First Class seat in good faith, the least they can do is to proactively give fair compensation. Making a customer waste months chasing a refund for a downgrade they never wanted in the first place just rubs salt into the wound.

Chalk and cheese: How Emirates handles involuntary downgrades

In case there was any doubt about how poor Qantas’ current reward flight downgrade policy is, let’s take a moment to compare it to that of Emirates.

Last year, AFF member boffman had redeemed Qantas Points to fly Emirates First Class from Sydney to Glasgow via Dubai. The day before the flight, Emirates downgraded the Dubai-Glasgow sector to Business Class.

This is what happened when this member boarded their flight from Dubai:

I’m pinching myself. As I was boarding the flight to Glasgow an Emirates rep took me to one side, apologised for the change of plane and gave me a voucher for SYD-DXB-GLA return in F!!

boffman on the AFF forum

Emirates made this hassle-free, and boffman has already redeemed the voucher for a new First Class ticket to Glasgow. Now this is how you turn an angry customer into one that will be loyal to your airline for many years to come!