Originally Posted by
number_6
What is part of the contract is the Conditions of Carriage
http://www.qantas.com/travel/airline...iage/global/en
Which gives reroute (by route or another date) or a refund as the sole remedy for most irrop conditions. The table is not included as it is "qantas going above and beyond their legal requirement". By law they could fly F pax in Y with zero refund as the ticket is for getting to destination and not class of service (shocking but this is how all airlines have now worded their tickets), except they have to provide the option for pax to not fly and get a refund. For some fares (e.g. RTW tickets) the per sector refund can be computed to be absurdly small.
Obviously prudent business practice is to do far more than is required in the CoC, but that is not contractually required and you are dependent upon airline/agent goodwill. I particularly like clause 2.6
The main issue in these cases is usually the representation by qantas at the time of the IRROPS as to the level of compensation.
At the airport, passengers are told 'you can fly economy, and you'll be able to get a refund'... the levels in the compensation table are rarely (if ever) shown to the passenger to allow them to make an informed decision.
Most reasonable passengers would no doubt expect a refund to be something along the lines of the difference between the fare they paid, and the lowest available economy fare for the flight (at a pre-determined date, not the day of travel).
The table does not reflect that, and for QF to later rely on a table which is not part of the contract is problematic (for the passenger). The conditions of carriage probably need some additional clarity if airlines are going to use the full walk up fare to calculate a refund.