Article: Qantas Will Improve Reward Flight Downgrade Compensation

[AFF Editor]

Canonical URL

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/qantas-reward-flight-downgrade-compensation/

Qantas has been working behind the scenes on its policies & procedures relating to involuntary downgrades.

Qantas customers on commercial airfares are now entitled to a refund of 75% of the fare paid. This policy does not yet apply to Classic Reward bookings, but AFF understands that this will change soon. And given the terrible experiences many AFF members have reported over the years, it's not before time.

You can read the details here:

About Time: Qantas Will Improve Reward Flight Downgrade Compensation

Qantas' current policy for compensating passengers downgraded on Classic Reward bookings is unreasonably poor. The airline finally doing something to fix this.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The opening para of the article suggests passengers on a paid fare are entitled to a 75% refund of the ticket value.

It’s actually more nuanced than that… the refund is against the ticket coupon for the flight affected, not the whole ticket.

This could mean that for connecting flights, the value won’t be 75% of the entire ticket, just a portion of that for the affected flight. Connecting LHR-SYD-MEL, a downgrade on the SYD-MEL flight could be minimal.

 

[AFF Editor]

The opening para of the article suggests passengers on a paid fare are entitled to a 75% refund of the ticket value.

It’s actually more nuanced than that… the refund is against the ticket coupon for the flight affected, not the whole ticket.

This could mean that for connecting flights, the value won’t be 75% of the entire ticket, just a portion of that for the affected flight. Connecting LHR-SYD-MEL, a downgrade on the SYD-MEL flight could be minimal.

Thanks for that clarification, I've adjusted the wording in the article.

 

[SYD]

The opening para of the article suggests passengers on a paid fare are entitled to a 75% refund of the ticket value.

It’s actually more nuanced than that… the refund is against the ticket coupon for the flight affected, not the whole ticket.

This could mean that for connecting flights, the value won’t be 75% of the entire ticket, just a portion of that for the affected flight. Connecting LHR-SYD-MEL, a downgrade on the SYD-MEL flight could be minimal.

Probably not so relevant for CR down grades, but on a recent HNL-SYD downgrade (PE to whY due to equipment swap), we received the 75% of that sector AND a $400 “QANTAS Care” voucher AND ORCs (those came through automatically but I did have to chase up DSCs and full credit to my QBR account - all came through).

 

[Mwenenzi]

Qantas customers on commercial airfares are now entitled to a refund of 75% of the fare paid. This policy does not yet apply to Classic Reward bookings, but AFF understands that this will change soon. And given the terrible experiences many AFF members have reported over the years, it's not before time.

With UK-EU261 it makes no difference to how paid:. Cash or ff miles both get 75% (of the effected sector less real taxes)

Good AFF ~ MattG has confirmed with QF the policy

Involuntary Downgrade

These guidelines outline the notification, rebooking, ticket reissue and fare adjustment process for you to follow when your customer has been affected by an operational change resulting in an involuntary downgrade of the cabin.

www.qantas.com

 

[Mr_Tee]

To satisfy my full understanding of this, and perhaps that of others who read this article, a couple of questions:

1. What exactly is a "ticket coupon" and how does that differ to the "price paid" or the "ticket" etc?
2. Does a "ticket coupon" amount included taxes, surcharges and all of the other add-ons?
3. Where do I find what the "ticket coupon" amount is? Is it printed on the e-ticket somewhere or is it hidden away from view of the passenger?

If the amount of the "ticket coupon" is not clearly visible to a passenger and it doesn't include the full grossed-up cost of the ticket cost paid by the passenger then 75% of the "ticket coupon" is going to be substantially less than "75% of the price paid for the ticket by the passenger" and perhaps nothing much has changed at all from the Qantas perspective except that have put words around what they have been already doing in the past.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

To satisfy my full understanding of this, and perhaps that of others who read this article, a couple of questions:

1. What exactly is a "ticket coupon" and how does that differ to the "price paid" or the "ticket" etc?
2. Does a "ticket coupon" amount included taxes, surcharges and all of the other add-ons?
3. Where do I find what the "ticket coupon" amount is? Is it printed on the e-ticket somewhere or is it hidden away from view of the passenger?

If the amount of the "ticket coupon" is not clearly visible to a passenger and it doesn't include the full grossed-up cost of the ticket cost paid by the passenger then 75% of the "ticket coupon" is going to be substantially less than "75% of the price paid for the ticket by the passenger" and perhaps nothing much has changed at all from the Qantas perspective except that have put words around what they have been already doing in the past.

For a straight out A-B ticket, the coupon value is exactly that, the full fare. If it’s $1000, you’d be entitled to $750.

But it becomes more complicated if you have a ticket such as LHR-SYD, connecting with another flight to MEL. The SYD-MEL flight usually has a value. But working that out can be complicated. I think in the EU and UK they calculate it by total distance and cost of the ticket.

I don’t know if there’s any way to find the value of the specific coupon in cases like the above?

This is a marked improvement from the old… not window dressing. Under the old system, if you’d paid $1000 MEL-SYD in business, but were downgraded to economy, they’d price the economy ticket at the full walk up fare… which could be like $800… or more. You might have been lucky to see $200 returned to you, or even less depending on the fare you paid vs the walk-up.

In the EU the ticket coupon calculation I don’t think includes taxes? Not sure how they apply it in Australia.