harley1

I am after some advice regarding a recent trip i had with a Qantas domestic flight in which I used my points to upgrade some 5 months before the flight however Qantas failed to provide a full business class service.

To give you context, i had been travelling internationally with Qantas and there had been a number of issues going there i.e. being bumped from our pre-booked seats and provided a seat without a working entertainment system - This was in economy.
On the return flight we had a connecting flight from Sydney to Adelaide and we had upgraded the class of travel to business class(5 months prior to departure) the domestic flight was delayed by 2.5hours.
Once boarded I was then informed due to the delay there would be no catering in business class as they could not cater it in time otherwise this would cause further delay. The flight is 2.5 hours long and the cabin crew managed to get some food from economy class which consisted of dips.
I wrote a letter of complaint and Qantas have been very dis-missive about the whole situation and as a good will gesture offered half of my points which I used to upgrade for this flight, which included all of the other issues I encountered.
I am just reaching out if anyone has had anything similar happen to them and were you legally stand in this situation, is there an avenue of re-course. I have lodged a complaint with their regulator.

og

Did you spend the delay time in the SYD J lounge? If so, then there would have been food available there - but if you were “saving yourself” for enjoying the food on board, then this doesn’t help.. As for compensation, I think you will be lucky to get more than some points refunded. If you have QF status, then they may take more notice of you. I doubt the regulator (who ?) will even consider your complaint (meal, delay, IFE). You got the business class cabin comfort. IFE is hit and miss - personally I don’t fuss about that. As for catering, yes that sucks, but at least there were some snacks. Was it advertised as a “meal” flight or just refreshments (ie snack)? Were the crew offering wine /beer / spirits etc to the business cabin ? I have been stung with minimal Biz catering on SYD-MEL - no come-back - nothing but tummy rumbling.

harley1

Thanks og, yes was saving myself to the advertised meal unfortunately.
I was advised to lodge a complaint to the airline customer advocate team who is independent to Qantas, they have taken on board so fingers crossed.

I am a silver member and agree it really does sucks when this happens, especially when the complaint is poorly handled from the start hence going via a different avenue.

serfty

The ACA has been effective for me with a different issue - similarity being that Qantas Customer Care seems to be in a complete loop with the same responses (if any) being made after every contact.

One the ACA got involved there was resolution within 3 weeks, contrasting the circuitous effort spanning the 3 months prior.

harley1

Thanks surfy, its the first time I have had to use the ACA, Qantas Customer Care team they have been very difficult to deal with and simply have a computer generated response without any personalisation to the specific issues raised, I have been very disappointed and currently in that loop you mention.
Such a shame as their front of house check-in staff and cabin crew always offer the best customer service, however the customer care team don't seemed to be aligned in that approach.

Offshore171

What are you seeking as remedy?

moa999

I would say getting half your points back for the food and delay is fair.
You still sat in a much bigger seat, and had the other J class benefits.

If you had IFE issues on a different flight I would have raised that in a separate complaint.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

How much was your upgrade? 17500 points for discount economy to biz? If so, the refund of half is about right for compensation for the meal. FWIW you missed nothing on the meal, catering for domestic biz class is nothing special, potentially only a toasted sandwich, or a bowl of soup.

harley1

Agreed Moa99, I placed in a complaint which covered everything which happened to me -:

• Bumped from paid pre-booked emergency seats - International travel.
• IFE system not working on re-allocated seat - International travel.
• Over 2 hr delay in Sydney - Domestic travel.
• No business class catering - Domestic travel.

I waited 2 months for a pre-computer generated response when I pointed this out and asked her to explain why the above occurred I received a very sharp and too the point response which is below the only bits I have missed out is my name and hers.

"Thank you for your response.

Again, we appreciate you highlighting your concerns in regard to seat allocation and the service you received by our Contact Centre team.

I regret that your expectations were not met and please trust that this feedback has been provided to the Centre Managers.

Whilst I cannot change what happened you do have our commitment that we will strive to meet your expectations in the future.

Merry Christmas"

On the two responses she has not addressed the issue of no catering of business class fight, as I struggle to understand what part a centre manager would play in a delayed flight and catering ?

I think Moa99 had I put two complaints in separately then to be honest I would have got my refund back of points I used for my upgrade and in hindsight this would have been a better approach.

To the point of if half is sufficient, this part of the complaint to Qantas is yet to be answered. I don't get to fly business class often, so for me its something special, when things go wrong on a flight its disappointing. I saved up 15,000 points to upgrade from economy, which they where unable to deliver a full business class service due to no fault of my own.

When you receive the above response to your complaint from a "Customer Care" team it really is annoying hence asking the ACA to step in to provide assistance in gaining that explanation and understanding what is "reasonable".

LTN Phobia

Assuming you had to pay for the exit row seat, did you get the cost of it back?

harley1

LTN Phobia, lucky for me I took out a further insurance policy with escape travel called "essentials package" part of that policy they will refund you any monies paid for seating in the event this is changed. So the refund was given by my travel agent not Qantas, so assuming they would chase them for this.

og

That’s good for you that you got the money back, but QF will sit back and think they can screw you and will more than likely get away with it. I suspect your travel insurance will pay you and write it off as too small an amount to chase.

LTN Phobia

OK, so at least that's good and already dealt with.

As for the lack of J meal, I'd settle for half the points that you've been offered if I were in your situation. Have you already received that?

Regarding your second complaint, have you received anything for the lack of IFE?

Offshore171

Ironic given the thread title, but I think the meal complaint is probably the most minor of the bunch.

Its a ten buck meal, on a 2 hour flight, and getting half your points back is a good result.

The 2 hour delay? It happens. And it’s nothing like the delays that air passengers have been copping in Europe and DXB recently. (Some of those blew out to 3 days.)

The broken IFE is a worthy complaint, and can make a long haul flight quite tedious, especially if you didn’t bring an iPad or something.

And the getting gazumped out of paid exit row seats. This is definitely poor and you should be promptly refunded. Was a reason given for this?

Note that there are some restrictions over who can travel in such seats. Essentially you need to be of reasonable fitness and able to help in an emergency. They will not let these seats be occupied by the elderly, obese, or young kids. Sometimes this doesn’t become obvious until the staff physically sight the passenger. Did any of these criteria come into play, or was it totally random?