spotwelder

Hi,
I have the misfortune to be stuck on IB longhaul a lot at the moment.

I was travelling on an "I" class ticket and only got economy seating. The points credited as "discount" economy level for status points (incorrect for the airline earning table as there is no discount economy on IB) although mileage was credited at 100% distance, which is correct for the IB Airline Earning Table in "economy".

Anyway, forgetting the fact that I was travelling in economy, this raises two issues. Firstly, I paid for business class, so I should get business mileage and status points, not for what I travelled in. Ts and Cs paragraph 9.5.1 refers.

Secondly, how can the system award discount economy status points when all IB classes appear to be eligible for full economy status anyway?

I have sent the email to QF about the status points and mileage. The Ts and Cs are clear that you get what you pay for. I paid for business but travelled economy, so I should get business points.

I class is non-refundable. I accepted a confirmed V class outbound to MAD as the connecting flight, that was my choice. At check-in, I was told that the agent could not access business class seats for the long haul sector and was given an economy boarding card. I was assured that everything would be sorted out in MAD (yeh, as if). A late arrival, a big transfer queue for rescreening meant a brisk walk to the gate (er, wasn't there some mention of lounge access and showers by the check in agent in London?) and a totally not interested "get on the bus, you are late" attitude by the gate agent, but dump the problem on the cabin crew. They cannot read fare codes. Anyway, that came to no good. There were 11 business class seats going spare.

The fare was 1220 GBP for out economy, back business or 1784 for business both ways. It will be an interesting financial debate with IB coming up as to whether they will refund the difference or not. I was initially booked V/V/I/I but changed to I/I/I/I at the airport as I had only had 2 hours sleep in the previous 36 hours and still had 18 hours before hitting the hotel. What is the betting that they try the Full Y outbound fare trick?

Don't worry about the fare paid and refund, just beware of the discount economy status points which does seem to be very at odds with the AET as well as the class of travel not being representative of the fare paid.

Happy landings and hope to see you at the Harbour Bridge for New Year.

Dave Noble

Spottie....

Your post is a bit confoodling and hard to follow

From what I can understand , you were downgraded and awarded points and SCs based on the downgraded class of travel.

This is not surprising (ime) This is a feature of auto-credit in that it looks at the class at time of travel rather than time of purchase. In this case it worked against you but I have found many more cases where it works in the passengers favour.

If , of course, you do get a refund from IB for the non-provision of business class, then the points earned will be quite correct otherwise I am pretty sure that a points adjustment will be forthcoming when you request it

Dave

og

After 2 Euro IB flights, I can certainly understand the impression that the crew don't give a rats about any passenger problem.

We were booked in D and our planned pre-selected seats were given to us. Points and SCs appeared in a few days to our QF FF Account. No problems, but I shudder to think how we would have fared if there were problems - especially as our Spanish is limited to ordering beer and wine.

Hope you get what you have paid for!

NM

Spottie,

Looks like you have been credited correctly for a V fare. V fare on IB earns full economy FF points (ie 1 point per mile flown). But since this is an international flight (ie not an Australian domestic flight), only a full Y fare would earn full economy SCs. Any economy fare other than full Y (and that includes your original V fare booking) earn discount economy SCs.

Many people have confused the term discount economy and full economy when reading the QF points earn tables and the SC earning tables. The same fare may well earn full economy FF points and discount economy SCs. The terms discount economy has a different meaning for point and SC earning.

Now that does not change the fact that IB took your money for business class and you were made to travel in the economy cabin despite there being spare seats in business class. But was there any availability in the I fare bucket when you purchased that fare on the day of travel at the airport? If there was no I fare availability, and those unused business class seats only available to people paying J or D fares, then you may well been rightly issued an economy cabin boarding pass.

The same thing happens on a OneWorld Explorer fare if there is J available and no D available. Even though there may be spare seats in business class, the D fare purchased ends up with an L class seat and only L class FF points and SCs.

In my opinion, the IB agent at London should not have taken your money to "upgrade" from V/V/I/I to I/I/I/I unless there was I available. It sounds to me like they took your money and waitlisted you for I class and that waitlist did not clear so you were stuck with your confirmed V class seat, and that is what QF has credited you for.

So I believe IB should refund you the extra you paid at the airport at London since they should not have taken that money from you in the first place. It may have been different if you had paid for the difference from V/V/I/I to J/J/I/I.