QFF Bumped off Business.

[jveevers]

So my wife and I decided to use some of our hard-earned points to book a Business Class to Singapore from Perth.
Booked well out, maybe 5 months.
really looking forward to it as our 1st time Business.
Selected seats when booking, did on-line check-in the day before.

So we rocked up at Perth airport, 2.5 hours out, plenty of time to enjoy the Q Lounge.
Checking in, "there is a problem, let me get my Superviser".
Superviser rocks up after 10 minutes.
"Sorry we have overbooked, you have been randomly selected to be moved to Economy, or you can wait for the next flight in 6 hours"
Wife extremely unhappy, me pissed off.
Security is hovering.

"Here are your Economy Boarding passes, you can use our lounge and we will come let you know if anyone cancels Business so you can have your seats back."

Had a dozen freeby drinks, boarded , glared at the d*** who was in "MY" seat, given Champagne "normally for Business only but you can have one", took off, turned on my Entertainment, it didnt work, complained, now really pissed off, given $200- complimentary duty-free and another Champagne. Not feeling good by now (maybe the 14 drinks but I wasnt abnoxious), vomited into bag, fell asleep, woke up in singapore. Probably best flight I have had. Reminder, drink lots before flights and it goes very quickly.

Anyone else been bumped?

 

[juddles]

Sounds like you had a memorable flight!!

That is so bad to be bumped off a J flight. Never suffered that, but I certainly have ¨vomited into bag, fell asleep, woke up in singapore¨ even though that wasnt my destination.

Glad to see you hit their alcohol. Nothing comes close to making bearable the suffering.....

 

[pauly7]

I've never been bumped down only up.

And certainly never drunk 14 drinks in a row before a flight either....

Hopefully neither will ever happen to me.

 

[pshepvic]

I was bumped down on KA once - from F to J due to change in aircraft. They refunded the difference between F and J (which was cash and actually worked out more than the extra we had paid, partly due to a favourable exchange rate, but also due to a miscalculation I think) and also gave us passed to use the F lounge (this was before I was WP).

In the case described here with QF if be demanding at least a refund of 50% of the points, if not a bit more as a gesture of goodwill.


Sent from my iPhone using AustFreqFly app

 

[Austman]

Security is hovering.

Could you expand that?

In any event experienced FFers would know that a service downgrade is an opportunity to get excellent compensation. Some even hope it happens!

I hope your wife enjoyed the flight too.

 

[fbrimfield]

Not really the staffs fault though is it? Seemed like they did everything to look after you as best they could after being delivered the bad outcome.

You were most likely bumped because you were might have been the only non-revenue passengers with the lowest status. Unfortunately, that puts your first in line to get bumped if the cabin is oversold. They're hardly going to tell a full fare paying platinum passenger to shift it, over a classic award booking.

Anyway, I hope you get your points back. I think they'll just refund you the point difference between the economy and business redemption.

 

[samh004]

Security is hovering.

Could you expand that?

Sounds like a Tiger tactic, and certainly not something I’d expect QF to do.

I didn’t think QF overbooked flights, how did it happen?

I’d be firing off an email and asking for some other sort of compensation too, as that’s just not cool.

 

[jveevers]

No not Staff fault and no I didnt blame anyone. Yes we where probably only non-paying Business on board and no idea why they overbook, they said it doesnt happen a lot. To be told "you have been randomly selected" is rubbish, of course they will only select FF redeemers to downgrade.
We did get the difference in points refunded (cost 100000, got 50000 back).
And we did get a nice cash "compensation" which was handed over in cash at the gate.
Was enough to cover our spending money on the 12 day holiday to Singapore and Thailand.
So next time, might book Business and hope for bumping again.

 

[fbrimfield]

Overbooking is an extremely common practice for all airlines. Airlines just don't expect everyone to show up for a flight, so they overbook. It makes more economic sense to deal with an overbooked aircraft than have an aircraft with X amount of spare seats (because of no shows).

 

[amaroo]

BA tried to knock my MIL down to J in Jan BKK-SYD - they rang for her while we were still lounging by the pool some 5 hours before TO. As I booked the ticket the number they called was mine - I stood my ground & had a good dose of the *hit's about it.

Got to the airport ready for a stink however, they gave all in our party F BP's. The check-in agent made out she didn't know anything about one of us being bumped however, once I board the CSD confirmed that another passenger had drawn the short straw.

 

[medhead]

You were most likely bumped because you were might have been the only non-revenue passengers with the lowest status.

Sorry, but points bookings are not non-revenue. QF makes a lot of money from points and there are cross payments associated with such bookings.

 

[fbrimfield]

Sorry, but points bookings are not non-revenue. QF makes a lot of money from points and there are cross payments associated with such bookings.

Okay, but I still think Qantas make more money off a full fare than a award booking, right?

 

[samh004]

Okay, but I still think Qantas make more money off a full fare than a award booking, right?

With their prices, definitely.




 

[medhead]

Okay, but I still think Qantas make more money off a full fare than a award booking, right?

With their prices, definitely.




Which is the most profitable part of qantas?

 

[fbrimfield]

I think the point I was trying to make was clear though, better to upset a person who has a classic award booking than someone who has forked over actual money for the fare. Unless that person is a P1, or CL potentially.

 

[medhead]

I think the point I was trying to make was clear though, better to upset a person who has a classic award booking than someone who has forked over actual money for the fare. Unless that person is a P1, or CL potentially.

Is it really better? How did the person get the points to buy the award? I also highly doubt that they are selling awards at a loss, and hence have set the cost of those award at a level that they are happy with in terms of making money.

 

[JohnK]

If you have that attitude then it is a good thing that you were bumped down.

I certainly would not care if I was bumped down as long as I received the appropriate compensation and I was not out of pocket.

 

[Austman]

Is it really better? How did the person get the points to buy the award? I also highly doubt that they are selling awards at a loss, and hence have set the cost of those award at a level that they are happy with in terms of making money.

Who knows exactly how it's done? I suspect they'd keep all the higher status pax and then bump the 'randomly' selected lower status pax. And many would be happy with the compensation. I can't recall ever that QF asks for volunteers.

 

[fbrimfield]

Is it really better? How did the person get the points to buy the award? I also highly doubt that they are selling awards at a loss, and hence have set the cost of those award at a level that they are happy with in terms of making money.

Perhaps they signed up for a Jetstar mastercard and got 30,000 points instantly. Or maybe from years of supermarket shopping? Who cares how they got the points. If qantas were making a loss on award tickets, they wouldn't offer them, but the profits from a fare-paying pax will always be greater than a pax who has just paid fees/taxes. Some QFF members accrue hundreds of thousands of points and never use them, and some that use them as soon as they have enough for a J award. But Qantas would be far more interested in keeping loyalty in a passenger that has the funds to continually pay for a J or F ticket, as opposed to a pax that always flies Y and redeems points for J when they can.

I feel sorry for the OP because i've been in his shoes when a flight was oversold, it's a very disappointing feeling, but it's not like the OP got a bad deal out of this, he got the option to wait for the next J flight, and in the mean time, he got lounge access (and seemed to have gotten as much piss out of the QP as possible), he got offered champagne in economy, a $200 Duty Free voucher (which I think he said was redeemed for CASH!), and he got 50,000 points back.

Not exactly the worst of scenarios.

 

[jveevers]

If you have that attitude then it is a good thing that you were bumped down.



I certainly would not care if I was bumped down as long as I received the appropriate compensation and I was not out of pocket.

"Attitude", what are you talking about?
I was pissed off because of what was happening, which I think most people would be.