Qantas and paid exit row seats that keep getting removed from booking

[Flying mermaid]

While QF 'says' it won't refund the money until after departure I don't know whether that meets consumer protection requirements. I'm not sure a company can withhold a refund like that. .

Not sure either, but given it is in the terms and conditions that you accept prior to purchase, presumably they can.

 

[Flying mermaid]

I understand the pain that this issue has caused. But I suspect that overall qantas gives you a better deal than almost any other - try them! .

Very small sample so far, but SQ leaves Qantas trailing in the dust ......(In First anyway).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Not sure either, but given it is in the terms and conditions that you accept prior to purchase, presumably they can.

I agree - but I would distinguish a confirmed 'you won't have the seats' as different from someone turning up at the airport and being told they can't have the seats (for a variety of reasons). Here the airline has said 'you won't get them, they've already been sold'.

 

[Moopere]

Not sure either, but given it is in the terms and conditions that you accept prior to purchase, presumably they can.

I'm not sure about that. Lots of words in these types of 'agreements' but no matter what you sign against, consumer protection law is immovable( ie, you can't sign away rights).

The problem with travel plans is that there are usually multiple linked activities following the actual travel, so there is real fear attached to cancelling a ticket if, for example, you were to chargeback the credit card ... something I'd normally do in other consumer situations like this.

 

[juddles]

... Yes 'stuff happens', but 'stuff happens' in all businesses - why should airlines have special dispensation?....

What "special dispensation" do airlines actually get??

 

[MEL_Traveller]

What "special dispensation" do airlines actually get??

Contracts that are heavily in favour of the airlines with little or no right of recourse for passengers (little or no compensation in the event of overbooking, delays, cancellations, downgrades). Liability in the event of an accident restricted to physical injury, ignoring mental injury (although Australia may have found a way around this by determining some types of mental injury as having a physical cause).

Airlines have somehow been able to convince governments that without this special treatment they wouldn't be able to provide a service. Except in the EU (and perhaps in a far more limited way, the USA).

 

[eastwest101]

I have read it now and yes you are right - under the terms and conditions they won't give you the refund until after the plane has departed, so even if they recognised now that they owed the money they wouldn't refund it.

Just amazing how badly passengers are treated by airlines - they can take your seat away from you that you have paid for and you have no right to get the money back for possibly many months! Wish I could have run a business like this! (Well no I don't because I believed in ethical practices!)

Here's a general but hypothetical situation:

Lets say you order a car for $25K and the option for leather seats is an extra $2K so you tick the option box on the form and pay a total of $27K. Delivery is scheduled in a few months time. Then the car dealer says that it can't provide leather seats as it has run out of cows/sold them to other customers or whatever. Then the car dealer say that they will only refund you the $2K once the car arrives without leather seats and only when you accept delivery, the dealer claims that they have "lost" the receipt for the payment you made for leather seats, but reassures you that they will refund you the $2K because they are such trustworthy guys.

What would you do? What would be the finding and consequences of this dispute going to a consumer law body?




Going back to the OP's situation though,if its true that they were told that all the available exit row seats were all "taken" (brought for cash or allocated? irrelevant as they're all factors within QF's control) - maybe go in a do a dummy booking and just see if QF are still selling exit row seats for the flight that you are now booked on? If they are still selling exit row seats then screen-shot that, and you can add misleading and deceptive conduct in addition to refusing to provide a refund for goods and services not provided, if the OP does want to (or may need to in the future) go down that route. That might get their attention.

I guess the OP has a few options and hasn't yet indicated which way they will go, depending on how important the exit row seats were to them and how much of a fuss they want to make, all the way from the "path of least resistance" through to a time consuming personal crusade.

1. Accept it a hope that the refund automatically/magically happens.
2. Accept it and pursue the refund after the flight is taken.
3. Complain and try to get Qantas to fix it using the HUCA method.
4. Complain and try to escalate internally with Qantas now (tried and didn't seem to work for them).
5. Take it up with some external agency or consumer affairs body (airline consumer advocate or Dept of Consumer Affairs in their own state).
6. Do a big social media campaign and hope that it gets "noisy" or enough publicity to prompt Qantas into action i.e. the Facebook/Twitter approach.
7. Try the credit card chargeback for goods and services not provided (risks the original booking, original credit card and may require alternative airline bookings that may be more expensive now).


Any others I have forgotten? I bet that I have.

Complaining about it here on a specialized frequent flyer web site is another option but the whole point of this is to hopefully elicit help or advice about effective ways of getting the problem fixed that the OP may not have known about or considered, but its their choice at the end of the day as its their bum in that seat...

 

[blackcat20]

Just check the seat map on expert flyer to see if the seats are actually occupied?

 

[Jet L]

I'd be pissed off and disappointed in the customers service it would be nice if they gave you an op-up to W or J

 

[juddles]

Here's a general but hypothetical situation:

Lets say you order a car for $25K and the option for leather seats is an extra $2K ....

I'd be pissed off and disappointed in the customers service it would be nice if they gave you an op-up to W or J

Jet L, so using eastwest's example you would expect the car salesman to "throw in" an addition $100,000 Mercedes because you couldn't get your $2000 leather seat covers?

 

[Jet L]

I said it would be nice, I personally wouldn't expect it but I would expect the seats or a refund

 

[juddles]

I agree.

We will eventually find out from the op what the result is