Outrageous reason why Qantas booted a 78-year-old man from business class flight
Qantas downgraded a 78-year-old Vietnam veteran from business class to economy to give his fully paid seat to an employee.
Stephen Jones, who was serving in a combat unit in Vietnam, was flying back to Adelaide with his wife after a holiday in New Zealand when he was called to the Qantas counter during a stopover in Melbourne on Sunday.
“We were sitting in the Business Lounge enjoying a coffee and I got a call over the intercom telling Stephen Roy Jones to go to the desk,” Mr Jones told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
“The Qantas employee there said, ‘I have bad news for you, you’ve been bumped.’
“It didn’t register at first. I wasn’t quite sure what bump meant.’
A Vietnam veteran has told a Melbourne radio station that he was kicked out of Qantas business class so the airline could give up his seat to an employee (stock image)
She said, “I need to reissue your ticket for economy class, we have a tech who flies into Adelaide and his contract says he has to fly business class.”
Mr Jones said the Qantas employee sat next to his wife on the flight to Adelaide but they did not talk.
“He didn’t want to look at her,” Mr. Jones said.
When he returned to Adelaide, Mr Jones wrote a letter of complaint.
Qantas replied that they were offering Mr Jones 5,000 aviation points as a ‘goodwill gesture’.
“I was kind of funny,” Mr. Jones said.
“I thank you for your very generous offer, but I don’t think I can handle it.
“I would be a hypocrite because I don’t think anything will change unless there are consequences or costs to Qantas if they upset their customers.”
After Mr Jones’ case was listed on 3AW, he received a call from Qantas ‘Customer Care’ with the airline promising to refund half of his business class fare for the flight from Melbourne to Adelaide.
The airline also wrote to 3AW explaining that it was a pilot, not a tech, who got the seat paid for by Mr Jones.
“As part of their corporate agreement, pilots who fly to another city to operate flights there must be given a seat in business class,” Qantas said.
As the business cabin on the flight to Adelaide was full, this meant Mr Jones had to be downgraded to economy.
“We have apologized to the customer and explained why the downgrade took place,” Qantas said.
Degraded Qantas passenger Stephen Jones, 78, served in one of Australia’s front-line Vietnam War units (stock images)
“When this happens, we offer a partial refund.”
Mr Jones confirmed that the man sitting next to his wife was wearing a uniform.
“I totally understand that pilots have a right to rest comfortably before flying a plane back,” Jones said.
“It was just a little disturbing at the time and it made me a little irritable.”
Lawyer Justin Lawrence told 3AW that Qantas can downgrade passengers because their conditions of carriage allow it.
“This happens so often that they actually have a term for it,” Lawrence said.
“They call this involuntary downgrading. If they oversell in Business or First Class, they have to stop someone, and they do that almost immediately before the flight.
“This is just standard operating procedure from an airline perspective – not just Qantas, they all do it.
“Anytime we buy a seat and we think we’re buying a seat in that particular class, there are no guarantees that when that plane takes off, you’re going to be in that class.”
A lawyer said that due to the conditions of carriage for a normal airline ticket, any passenger can be downgraded at the discretion of the airline
He said airlines typically don’t inform customers until 20 to 30 minutes before a flight that they’ve made a “discretionary decision” to downgrade them.
However, he had a tip for those who wouldn’t accept this.
“Don’t let that leg fly,” Mr. Lawrence said.
He advised passengers to say they were “hanging around” until they could be put on the next business or first class flight.
“The moment you take that (degraded) leg, your claim for compensation is reduced to almost zero,” Mr Lawrence said.
Qantas has been contacted for comment.