COMike78

Zero Qantas status passenger here - I had recently booked a full fare RT business class ticket on QF from the US to Australia. About 4 hours before my flight, I get a call from Qantas customer service telling me that the seat I had booked was broken and I had two choices: 1) fly the next day on Qantas or 2) fly out roughly the same date/times on another carrier. I had specifically tried to avoid flying the option 2 carrier due to several bad experiences, but as I did not have enough flexibility in my schedule to fly the following day, my hand was forced and I had to go with option 2 carrier. At the end of the day, I ended up arriving within an hour or so of my originally booked Qantas time - so no material delays of any sort.

When I had booked the Qantas flight, the full fare business class price was several thousand $$$ more than any other flight option. I went with Qantas because I wanted to avoid flying the other direct option airline - so my question is whether I would have any recourse with Qantas with regards to the fare difference between my QF flight and the other carrier flight? Qantas did get me to my destination on the date and time I originally booked, but if I had booked the option 2 carrier from the outset, I would have saved quite a few dollars - should I expect some pity flight credits?

Erasmus

Nope. And, indeed one could argue you did get value for booking the QF ticket: efficient handling of IROPS. If the situation had been reversed, i.e., you booked "option 2 carrier" and they had a broken seat, would they have protected you on QF same day? Or would they have asked you to fly the broken seat in return for a pittance, or ... ? (Given your FT details say you're an EXP, I suspect your option 2 carrier was AA, and I'm thinking the chances they proactively put you on QF instead of expecting you to ride in the broken seat or in PE/Y are close to zero.)