MEL-LHR-IAD Premium Economy Question - unwanted downgrade

[Walter Plinge]

Hi experts -- I booked this June 2010 Qantas flight last year using points. The LHR-IAD leg is a BA codeshare. It's an odd way to get to Washington but it was the only way the Qantas booking engine would let me do it PE the whole way in a single booking. (LAX-IAD is a code share with AA - LAX-IAD is two-class, 1st/coach only).

Checking the booking last week I was perturbed to see the LHR-IAD leg is now economy. If I thought there was was a chance this would happen I wouldn't have bothered with the extra time and expense and just gone via LAX. Have I got any options or come-back here?

Signed,
Really Annoyed

 

[harvyk]

I'd be getting onto the phone with QF... You'll probably find that the downgrade is the result of change of equipment (or a temporary fault with the website software), as usually if your booked in a specific class you travel in that class or better...

Stick to your guns on the class of travel (Y+ or better), but be a little flexible withe the route, you may find that you end up with a better routing (eg MEL-LAX in Y+, LAX-IED in J or F), because in any case you have paid for a particular service, which the airline can no longer offer.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Hi experts -- I booked this June 2010 Qantas flight last year using points. The LHR-IED leg is a BA codeshare.

Sorry where is IED???

I know IAD is Dulles, but couldnt find this on the IATA listing?

Thanks

SPRUCE

 

[Walter Plinge]

Hi experts -- I booked this June 2010 Qantas flight last year using points. The LHR-IED leg is a BA codeshare.

Sorry where is IED???

I know IAD is Dulles, but couldnt find this on the IATA listing?

Thanks

SPRUCE

Oops - I meant IAD - Washington/Dulles

 

[Walter Plinge]

I'd be getting onto the phone with QF... You'll probably find that the downgrade is the result of change of equipment (or a temporary fault with the website software), as usually if your booked in a specific class you travel in that class or better...

Stick to your guns on the class of travel (Y+ or better), but be a little flexible withe the route, you may find that you end up with a better routing (eg MEL-LAX in Y+, LAX-IED in J or F), because in any case you have paid for a particular service, which the airline can no longer offer.

Thanks for the response and you're right -- it's a software issue. I rang Qantas and confirmed it's PE the whole way. Problem is BA's mid-range product isn't called Premium Economy (World Traveller or something IIRC) and Qantas' system can't cope with this so it just shows it as 'Economy'. Phew.

 

[jsd]

Have a look at your booking on http://www.checkmytrip.com, it should tell you the classes, its a bit more detailed than the QF site IIRC


Josh

 

[opusman]

Problem is BA's mid-range product isn't called Premium Economy (World Traveller or something IIRC) and Qantas' system can't cope with this so it just shows it as 'Economy'. Phew.

By all accounts the World Traveller Plus product is much closer to economy than the Qantas Y+ product, so this may be an attempt at truth in advertising? :mrgreen:

 

[serfty]

To double check, it may be a good idea to obtain the booking class fare bucket for each segment. If you booked it on Qantas.com thenif you look your booking up online this would show as a letter in brackets beside each segment (ignoring the text beside it).

e.g. on BA, (P) is award "World Traveller +" (AKA, "premium economy.")

For BA, PE/WT+ can be W, E, T or P class (The first three are revenue buckets)