Involuntarily forced from business to economy

[trippin_the_rift]

The only options I was given was delay travel a day to fly in the class I booked or fly on the flight offered at no time was it discussed that flying would impact compensation levels or waiting a day would entitle me to accommodation as it was my first sector.
Anyway QF did provide compensation but only awarded me the QFFP and SC for Flexible Economy and stated if I wanted the First Class QFFP/SC I would not get the financial compensation offered.

Quick lesson in compensation from the world of common sense (ie: not airline world):

1) Financial or value equivalent of the difference in between what you paid for/agreed to and what is received/offered. This is the bare minimum required.
2) Consideration for the impact on the difference between service levels. Eg. You pay biz and sit in economy. You're now receiving an inferior product than you originally wanted, therefore consideration for having to endure this (after all, who wants to sit in economy class?) This makes you even.
3) Compensation, is the extra, on top of the first two points which sweetens the deal and ensures the company acts in good faith. This makes everything ok.

You should always negotiate in this order; otherwise, compensation can be confused (by the party in a position of weakness) as covering all three points.

 

[jveevers]

This happened to me with Qantas, but with an award flight.. Negotiated a cash payment at the airport of $1000 , a Duty Free onboard credit of $200 , lounge access ,Business meal onboard and refund of FF points back to Economy level. So I guess I gave up my seat for a 5 hour flight but I had $1200 of cash/duty free.