Qantas urged to fix 'unfair' downgrade policy that leaves frequent flyers short changed

Qantas passengers forced from business to economy class face an uphill battle for compensation, despite the airline's recent policy changes.

Other than something as dramatic as a plane crash, being involuntarily downgraded from business to economy is probably the worst thing than can happen to an airline passenger.

Yet it does occur, albeit rarely, but undoubtedly more often than passengers would like and normally for reasons beyond the airline’s control – not because of overbooking.

Qantas says downgrades can occur when a seat in the business cabin breaks or is soiled during the previous flight; when a smaller aircraft is swapped in due to technical issues; or to accommodate pilots whose work agreement requires them to be seated in the highest cabin class available.

It’s still a bitter pill for passengers to swallow and what has made it worse is what the Australian Frequent Flyer group and website says is Qantas’s “opaque and unfair compensation policies surrounding involuntary downgrades”.

AFF editor Matt Graham said the issue had been a bugbear of frequent flyers for a long time, and as recently as 2023 Qantas could not even tell him what its policy was.

That has changed, but not to the extent Mr Graham and fellow frequent flyers might like.

“Previously, someone downgraded from business to economy on a Qantas flight would only be refunded the difference between the business fare and the most expensive fully flexible economy fare, which clearly was not fair,” Mr Graham said.

“They’ve recently made a big improvement, so Qantas customers are entitled to a 75 per cent refund for a cabin downgrade.”

Qantas says involuntary seat downgrades affect just 0.1 per cent of international bookings.

Unfortunately the change only applied to paid airfares, Mr Graham said.

“Customers downgraded on Classic Reward tickets are still only entitled to the difference in points between a business and economy reward ticket, and in recent months multiple frequent flyers have reported major difficulties in actually receiving a partial points refund,” he said.

“One AFF member had to follow up numerous times, eventually resorting to emailing Qantas executives just to get their points back. As far as I’m aware another AFF member is still waiting for a refund.”

The problem served to further highlight the need for a strengthening of consumer protections in Australia’s airline industry, currently being examined by the federal government.

Mr Graham said passengers downgraded on flights out of Europe or the UK would be entitled to compensation for a cabin-class downgrade.

Qantas revealed involuntary downgrades affected just 0.1 per cent of international bookings and were an “industry-wide practice”.

“While involuntary downgrades are rare and only happen for operational reasons, we know they’re frustrating,” a Qantas spokesman said.

“We are currently aligning our policies for commercial and reward bookings, which will be a positive change for frequent flyers who have booked with points.”

Although no timeline was given for the change, Mr Graham hoped it would take effect sooner rather than later.

“When any airline downgrades someone who booked a premium cabin seat in good faith, the least they can do is to proactively give fair compensation,” he said.

“Making a customer waste months chasing a refund for a downgrade they didn’t want in the first place just rubs salt into the wound.”

Originally published as Qantas urged to fix 'unfair' downgrade policy that leaves frequent flyers short changed