What is reasonable compensation for a broken Qantas seat?

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wannabe_wp

Junior Member
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Mar 22, 2019
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Hi,

What is a fair amount of compensation for the following?

I flew from Melbourne to Bali via Sydney return on a Airbus A330. I paid full fare for my seat.

Going over had no issues.

On the way back as I was at the gate I was told by a member of staff as they were checking my ticket that the business seat couldn't be reclined automatically, it would have to be manually moved by a staff member. Annoying but if the seat goes flat I don't really care. CSM was helpful but said it was a booked out flight and they couldn't move me to an operating seat.

I am sitting in my fully upright seat and as this is an overnight flight I ask for them to move it into a bed position. After about 5 minutes of pushing and pulling they get the seat into a position no better than premium economy. Nothing can be done about it so I just put up with it for next few hours. Not a wink of sleep.

Breakfast served in this half reclined position and then for landing the seat was placed upright.

I asked the CSM about compensation and they gave me a few cards for 4,000 Qantas Points that would be credited to my account in 8 weeks.

Fast forward a few months the points aren't on my account so I contact Qantas Complaints. After stewing on it for a few months I thought I probably should have a small refund of sort so I asked for a $300 voucher (about 13% of the total fare cost). They denied this and offered 8,000 points instead. I said I would like a more reasonable offer otherwise I would contact the Australian Airline Customer Advocate. Today Qantas have offered 10,000 points.

Am being greedy and should accept 10,000, or push for more?

Thanks
 
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Solution
The main benefits of business over economy class are a seat that goes flat and better food/service. You received half if that. Therefore, I think half the difference between the economy and business class fare would seem reasonable.

Given you've told Qantas you're willing to settle for a $300 voucher, I can't see you getting anything more than that now. I think what you asked for is extremely reasonable. 10k points seems low, but it really is what makes you feel happy with.
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The main benefits of business over economy class are a seat that goes flat and better food/service. You received half if that. Therefore, I think half the difference between the economy and business class fare would seem reasonable.

Given you've told Qantas you're willing to settle for a $300 voucher, I can't see you getting anything more than that now. I think what you asked for is extremely reasonable. 10k points seems low, but it really is what makes you feel happy with.
 
Solution
@wannabe_wp , From Bali?

Its a shame you had the situation.

Did you contact the ACA? If so, and that is the offer after doing so, I'd take the 10k.

No I haven't contacted the ACA. Once they offered me 8,000 points, I said I will contact the ACA unless you can offer me better. That is when they replied and offered 10,000 points.

Thanks for your reply and help.
 
The main benefits of business over economy class are a seat that goes flat and better food/service. You received half if that. Therefore, I think half the difference between the economy and business class fare would seem reasonable.

Given you've told Qantas you're willing to settle for a $300 voucher, I can't see you getting anything more than that now. I think what you asked for is extremely reasonable. 10k points seems low, but it really is what makes you feel happy with.

Thanks for your reply.

I agree re: $300. I thought it was a bit low and I could have probably got more but I asked for $300 thinking it was a low enough amount that I could easily get and wouldn't cause too much drama. The only reason I went business was to get the lie flat bed.
 
Therefore, I think half the difference between the economy and business class fare would seem reasonable.

This is a slippery path to go down. Between which economy and which business class fare? People struggle to get the full difference when actually downgraded to economy (not saying that is right, it's just the way it seems to be with QF). Also ex-MEL, they probably sell the same fare for travel on 738, with cradle seats, so gives them plenty of ammunition when it comes to costing. I think I could write the "spin" myself in their response. IMHO, 10,000 pts is on the low side of acceptable, but probably not worth pushing much further.
 
Considering that Qantas gave me 5,000 points for the IFE not working on a SYD-CBR flight, I don't think that's enough compensation.

That said, I don't think the time and effort you'll probably have to spend getting anything more out of Qantas is worth it.
 
When we are on the topic of compensations from QF :

I recently had my flight out of HKG delayed due to one of the toilets not working in J on B787-9. The flight was delayed by 4 hours and as a consequence we landed in SYD 3 hours delayed and I had to miss work that day. I work as a IT contractor and I lost A LOT OF MONEY that day :(

I emailed QF and as a compensation I was initially offered 4000 QF points. I pressed hard and went up to 7000 QF points. I pressed hard and finally offered 10,000 QF points as compliments from customer care.
 
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