An elderly Vietnam veteran from Adelaide, Australia was demoted from his paid Qantas business class seat on Sunday so a young pilot could take a luxury trip to the South Australian capital.
Stephen Jones, 78, and his wife were in the Qantas lounge enjoying a coffee on their way home from a holiday in Christchurch on Sunday when they got the news – just 30 minutes before the final Melbourne to Adelaide leg departed.
The reason is that a pilot has to go to Adelaide for a flight and can only do business class according to the enterprise agreement.
Speaking to Melbourne’s “3AW”, Mr Jones said he was offered 5000 Frequent Flyer points and an apology after a letter of complaint.
An elderly Vietnam veteran downgraded from his paid Qantas business class seat so the pilot could travel in luxury.Getty Images/ames D. Morga
He claimed that the pilot sitting next to his wife “wouldn’t have seen it.”
Mr Jones, who served in Vietnam in a combat unit in the 1960s, claimed he turned down the 5000 point offer because “I don’t think anything will change so far as there is an impact on Qantas, or a cost to Qantas when they inconvenience their customers”.
According to Qantas, the pilots are under an enterprise agreement that stipulates they must fly business class.
The reason is that a pilot has to go to Adelaide for a flight and can only do business class according to the company’s agreement.Getty Images/James D. Morgan
News.com.au understands flights from Adelaide may have been canceled if they couldn’t get there.
Qantas confirmed it had apologized to Mr Jones, and an offer, including a partial refund, had been made.
Justin Lawrence, a partner at lawyers Henderson Ball, later told 3AW there was little customers could do about such a move by the airline and said it was “standard operating procedure.”
“Unfortunately, their terms of carriage allow them to do this kind of thing – it happens so often they actually have a term for it, buckle up, they call it ‘voluntary downgrade,'” he said.
He claimed the pilot sitting next to his wife “wouldn’t even look at her.” Getty Images
“They’ll overbook business class or first class, they’ll have to get rid of someone, and they’ll do it almost immediately before the flight – not just Qantas, they all do it.
“Whenever you go to a travel agent or online to Qantas to buy a seat, and we think we’re buying a seat in a certain class, there’s no guarantee that when the plane takes off, you’ll be sitting there. class.”
Mr Lawrence said in Europe, there was mandated compensation for such downgrades, but that was not the case in Australia.
Mr Jones said he understood that pilots were entitled to a comfortable rest on their way to another flight, but the ordeal was “unsettling and made me a little bit irritated.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
