QF Offer to Move Flights

[yld200]

I had an interesting call from QF yesterday for a flight I am taking today - MEL-BNE-HKG all in Y.

The QF agent advised me that they had overbooked the flight and were looking for volunteers to give up their seat and take the same flights the following day with an upgrade to J for the HKG leg. Unfortunately I couldn’t take up the opportunity since I had to be in HKG first thing Monday for other commitments it would’ve loved the bump to J

I’m just a NB travelling on a saver flight but these flights will take me to silver so I wasn’t sure why I was called but it made me wonder what the order of such calls would be? Whether they would start with WPs in economy or NB > SGs?

I didn’t ask but also curious if the SCs would be awarded as per original booking class or per the re-routing.

Anyone else experience such offers?

 

[RooFlyer]

I didn’t ask but also curious if the SCs would be awarded as per original booking class or per the re-routing.

Pretty confident that you'd get the SCs etc of your actual booking. This works in reverse - if they bumped you down, you get what you paid for.

Maybe they choose to bump the lower status first - thinking being that the status pax will get where they want, when they want.

Good that they did this a full day out and offered J.

 

[kpc]

Shame you couldn't go the following day!

 

[yld200]

Shame you couldn't go the following day!

Unfortunately I couldn’t get it to work for me.

 

[yld200]

Maybe they choose to bump the lower status first - thinking being that the status pax will get where they want, when they want.

I think that may have been the case too. Start with the low status solo flyers and work up from there. Less disruptive for premium pax.

 

[Toad]

At least they rang you the day before and you never turned up to check in and then find out you have been bumped off the flight due to overbooking which has happened to many people.

 

[Toad]

To give you an example of what QF do. My Partner and I (QF requirement no Longer my wife and I. lol) are booked to travel to Bali in 3 months in J. Has been booked for quite some time. Went in to check the booking as they have a habit of altering things without your knowledge or notification. You guessed it since I last checked our Pre-Selected J seats have been changed. Was in 2D and F going up and same coming back. It has been changed to 3A and C coming back. No notification of changes and would not have know if I did not periodically check my bookings. I know it may not sound much as you are still in J. However due to no curtains on the 737-800 privacy for J class no longer exists especially from the 3 series seats. Just pointing out how fortunate you where that they rang you especially when you had commitments to be in HKG for a specific time.

 

[mviy]

QANTAS has been looking into using Volantio: Qantas taps new tech to avoid overbooking

This system can be mutually beneficial for the airline (avoiding negative publicity of involuntarily bumping a passenger off a flight, earning additional revenue from selling seats on high demand flights) and the customer (e.g. free upgrade to J or other benefit for a flexible passenger).

 

[opusman]

I'm surprised QF feel the need to overbook at all, given the vast majority of their fares have a no-show penalty (unlike in the US where it seems like you can just not turn up and get rebooked for free anyway).

Double-dipping?

 

[mviy]

If they overbook they can send out the plane full whereas if they only sell the number of seats on the plane the plane will likely fly with some empty seats.

Airlines like their planes to fly full.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

QFi BNE J lounge is nice if its the only one you have tried.
REAL pity you couldn't do it.
It was my 2nd ever QFi lounge I ever went into...

 

[yld200]

The call was a nice gesture and it would have absolutely sucked if I got to the airport and they said sorry you’ve been bumped. I hope i never get to experience that.

 

[JohnK]

It's a shame you couldn't make it work but I guess most of us are not flexible in travel plans.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I hope i never get to experience that.

Being bumped is not good to be told, but just saying "I hope i never get to experience that" would not be a good thing to say, as any upgrade to a J/F cabin or even premY from Y is one of the better things of/in flying for work/fun.
You should have said I would hope to get a similar call when my situation or schedule is a bit differently placed.
Mind you, you might be a QP member and already have lounge access, in which case sitting in a J/F cabin or J in this case is the icing in the cake.

 

[dmgale]

I have experienced this although many year ago. I was bumped from a MEL - LAX Y and offered a SYD - LAX in J later on the same day. I gladly accepted!

On the downside I’ve also been bumped and had to fly 24 hours later for a family holiday, still having paid for the hotel we couldn’t stay in and a holiday that was shortened by 24 hours. We couldn’t extend our holiday because of a full hotel and excessive frees from the airline to change our return airfares. And of course nothing covered by my travel insurer.

As much as I’d love a J seat, that alone may not be such a great reward.

Sometimes it is the destination (and holiday) not the journey.

 

[1022]

Just this minute I received an SMS from Qantas offering me a $50 voucher to shift to a 75 minute later CBR-SYD flight one evening next week. First time I've ever seen that. I guess on the Q400s buzzing over the Southern Highlands, offering an upgrade to J isn't an option, and hardly worth it on the odd 717 service given the short flight time (and unsavoury J clientele on CBR flights!!). But it's interesting that almost a week out they are already trying to offload passengers on to other flights. Qantas clearly plays in the overbooking space as actively as others. Plus I guess if I give up my Red-e seat for $50 that has to be re-spent on Qantas services, they could possibly re-sell it at full Y for a few hundred dollars more than I paid...good yield management!

 

[mviy]

A $50 voucher probably wouldn't tempt me but a free upgrade to J would.

 

[Sera]

i got a pretty bad offer - i was flying on points J to JNB and they rang me 24 hours before the flight and asked me to go via Perth on SA a day later. For my efforts they would give $50. I said no, i was flying with my husband (who was on a purchased ticket) and meeting friends who were arriving in JNB from another destination. The caller hung up on me without much of a continuation of the conversation.

 

[opusman]

If they overbook they can send out the plane full whereas if they only sell the number of seats on the plane the plane will likely fly with some empty seats.

But with Qantas most (all) of those seats have been sold already with non-refundable fares. They aren't losing out if the seats go empty.

Overbooking is double-dipping.

 

[Toad]

But with Qantas most (all) of those seats have been sold already with non-refundable fares. They aren't losing out if the seats go empty.

Overbooking is double-dipping.

Exactly